Frontiers in Social Science features new research in the flagship journals of the Social Science Research Council’s founding disciplinary associations. Every month we publish a new selection of articles from the most recent issues of these journals, marking the rapid advance of the frontiers of social and behavioral science.

Historical data collection in Mexico

Agricultural data collected for Mexico’s pavilion at the 1900 Paris Exposition reveals the influence of local enumerators on the construction of administrative datasets. 

Author(s)
Casey Marina Lurtz
Journal
The American Historical Review
Citation
Casey Marina Lurtz, Challenging Abstraction: Unruly Statistics and the State in Progress, The American Historical Review, Volume 130, Issue 1, March 2025, Pages 80–111, https://doi.org/10.1093/ahr/rhae476 Copy
Abstract

Working with never-published agricultural data collected for Mexico’s pavilion at the 1900 Paris Exposition, this article argues that manuscript and published statistics represent a space to see state making as a multisided, ongoing process. Whereas historians have largely looked at statistics from the perspective of the state, highlighting bureaucrats’ projections of desired realities and political projects, here I show how local enumerators’ investment in statistical undertakings asserted space for conversations and arguments about the nature and composition of the political or economic whole being represented. I present a methodology for working with historical statistics that takes aberrations, anomalies, and unruly data as signposts to be followed rather than errors to be corrected. In doing so, I argue for seeing not only the frustrated yet durable aspirations of statesmen but also the ways those beyond the central state reforged, reinforced, and remade representations of their homes through engagement with and investment in statistical practices.

Randomized controlled trials of psychotherapy

A systematic review of 562 randomized controlled trials of psychotherapies for depression treatment finds that a majority of trials do not meet basic quality criteria, even in recent years.

Author(s)
Pim Cuijpers, Mathias Harrer, Clara Miguel, Marketa Ciharova, Eirini Karyotaki
Journal
American Psychologist
Citation
Cuijpers, P., Harrer, M., Miguel, C., Ciharova, M., & Karyotaki, E. (2025). Five decades of research on psychological treatments of depression: A historical and meta-analytic overview. American Psychologist, 80(3), 297–310. https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0001250 Copy
Abstract

Since the 1970s, hundreds of randomized trials have examined the effects of psychotherapies for depression, and this number is increasing every year. In this study, we report outcomes from a living systematic review of these studies. We use Poisson regression analyses to examine if the proportions of studies have changed over time across the characteristics of the participants, therapies, and studies. We also present a meta-analysis of the effects across the major types, formats, targets, and age groups. We included 562 randomized controlled trials (669 comparisons; 66,361 patients). Most trials are conducted in adults and the relative proportion of trials in children and adolescents, as well as in older patients is significantly decreasing. The effects in children and adolescents are also significantly smaller than in adults (p = .007). Cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) is by far the best examined type of therapy (52%), but not necessarily more effective than other therapies. Over time, the proportion of studies examining several other types of therapy is significantly decreased compared to CBT. The quality of trials has increased over time, but still, a majority do not meet basic quality criteria, not even in recent years. The effects found in studies with low risk of bias are significantly smaller than in other studies (b = −0.21; SE = 0.05; p < .001). Most trials are conducted in the United States, but the proportion of studies in other parts of the world is rapidly increasing. The evidence that psychotherapies are effective is strong and growing every year.

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