Background: Educational research has been conducted mainly by using behavioural approaches. Whilst such methods provide invaluable insights into the field, several important questions such as 'how do we learn?' and 'what mechanisms cause individual differences?' cannot be answered thoroughly by using only behavioural approaches. In the last three…

Evaluations that combine social science and law have tremendous potential to illuminate the effects of governmental policies and yield insights into how effectively policy makers' efforts achieve their aims. This potential is infrequently achieved, however, because such interdisciplinary research contains often overlooked substantive and…

What are the common pitfalls experienced by school researchers and how can they be avoided? Edited by Lisa M. Dinella of Monmouth University, "Conducting Science-Based Psychology Research in Schools" includes the collective knowledge of both established and emerging names in the field, providing an unparalleled resource for those interested in…

A guide to survey research is presented for both novice and experienced researchers. Steps of the survey research process are covered: (1) planning the survey to determine the purpose of the study, collecting background information, designing the sample, and making a time line for completing the project; (2) questionnaire design, including the…

Investigators interested in conducting school health research face many challenges. This article focuses on an analysis of research designs and measurement issues that most frequently confront school health researchers. (Author/DF)

Social scientists tend to adopt either a qualitative or a quantitative perspective in research on social support. As single methods, each perspective has unique distinctions, limitations, and trade-offs. These approaches are based on differing epistemological assumptions. Qualitative research attempts to understand human behavior from the…

This study comparing momentary time sampling against the real time obtained with handheld computers confirmed laboratory findings that short-elementary time sampling estimates percentage time accurately for a wide range of behavior frequencies and durations, and suggested that observers using momentary time sampling in a natural setting are able…

Since meta-analysis was described in 1976 (Glass) as the application of familiar experimental methods to the integration of available research, at least five coherent approaches to meta-analysis have appeared in common use. These approaches can be divided into two broad groups. In the first group (including procedures by Robert Rosenthal, Larry…

Practicality is the hallmark of this physical education research manual. It focuses on applications with which investigators in this field typically are concerned; numerous examples clarify these points. All phases of research are covered, beginning with writing mechanics and style and a blueprint of the chapters that comprise the creditable…

Discusses reliability and validity of continual response measurement (CRM), a computer-based measurement technique, and its use in social science research. Highlights include the importance of criterion-referencing the data, guidelines for designing studies using CRM, examples typifying their deductive and inductive functions, and a discussion of…

In behavior research using cognitive and affective measures, there is often incongruity between the statistical analysis employed and the intended inference. This paper argues that incorporating items as levels of a random facet via generalizability theory allows the statistical examination of the inferential question in the desired universe of…

Sampling distributions for ten tests for comparing population variances in a two group design were generated for several combinations of equal and unequal sample sizes, population means, and group variances when distributional forms differed. The ten procedures included: (1) O'Brien's (OB); (2) O'Brien's with adjusted degrees of freedom; (3)…

The purpose of this paper is to discuss ways in which developmental psychology suffers from the lack of an appropriate technology of measurement and statistical analysis. The paper begins by noting that developmental psychology is the study of change; that individuals develop through a succession of "stages" which are separated by…

The nine-volume Survey Kit is designed to help readers prepare and conduct surveys and become better users of survey results. All the books in the series contain instructional objectives, exercises and answers, examples of surveys in use, illustrations of survey questions, guidelines for action, checklists of "dos and don'ts," and…

Generalizability theory, which subsumes classical measurement theory as a special case, provides a general model for estimating the reliability of observational rating data by estimating the variance components of the measurement design. Research data from the "Heart Smart" health intervention program were analyzed as a heuristic tool.…