The utility of combining confirmatory factor analysis and second-order methods is illustrated in a study of responses of 487 undergraduate and graduate students to the love instrument of C. Hendrick and S. Hendrick. Second-order confirmatory methods allow the researcher to explore complex realities more thoroughly. (SLD)

Problems with using stepwise analytic methods are discussed, and better alternatives are illustrated. To make the illustrations concrete, an actual data set, involving responses of 91 medical school admissions directors to 30 variables, was used. The 30 variables involved perceptions of barriers to medical school with respect to characteristics of…

This study was conducted to evaluate whether a brief self-description checklist may provide a viable method of quickly obtaining initial personality type information. The Personal Preferences Self-Description Questionnaire (PPSDQ) and the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) were administered to 420 college students, and PPSDQ item-response and MBTI…

Dissertations are the cumulative, tangible "best evidence" of interests of doctoral faculty and students in serious and incisive scholarship. Thus, dissertations are thoroughly studied by the program review teams periodically hired by boards of higher education in most states. The present paper explores seven errors in quantitative…

It is argued that analysis of variance (ANOVA) and related methods should be taught using a general linear model (GLM) approach, rather than a classical ordinary sums of squares approach. The GLM approach emphasizes the linkages among conventional parametric methods, emphasizing that all classical parametric methods are least squares procedures…

Effect sizes have been increasingly emphasized in research as more researchers have recognized that: (1) all parametric analyses (t-tests, analyses of variance, etc.) are correlational; (2) effect sizes have played an important role in meta-analytic work; and (3) statistical significance testing is limited in its capacity to inform scientific…

Dissertations are an important component of the effort to generate knowledge. Thus, dissertation quality may be seen by accreditation and coordinating-board reviewers as a noteworthy reflection on the quality of doctoral programs themselves. The present study reviews methodological errors within Ph.D. dissertations. The illustrative errors are…