This paper argues that if education practitioners, policy-makers and researchers are to gain insights from new forms of online self-representations, there is a need to take stock of research involving homepages in order to identify important methodological issues and lessons that need to be addressed in future research. Home page authorship…

Warns that researchers should be wary of student writers' accounts of their writing processes. Suggests that reasonable, coherent, even captivating accounts are limited by problems of attendance, memory, and reporting and may not be based on recall but on other cognitive processes. (FL)

Observer's paradox, the basic problem facing any analyst interested in understanding how people talk to each other within naturally occurring contexts, is discussed. In observer's paradox, by recording or observing everyday interaction, one is contaminating interaction by process of observation. An extension to sociolinguistic method is suggested…

Addresses problems associated with conducting research on difficult family topics. Issues examined are personal issues that play a role in research topic selections, problems obtaining Review Board permission to do certain research, emotional problems experienced by researchers and interviewers doing work on loss, and emotional problems of…

This paper discusses the problems of conducting research on a low-base rate sensitive family problem, parental child snatching, and proposes that telephone interviewing is a cost efficient and methodologically appropriate solution to these problems. The paper reviews the scant literature on parental child snatching by presenting what are…

Points out that variability in focus, method, and conceptual level of case studies causes difficulties in validating such studies. Notes method variations raise questions about validity. Claims the validity of case studies lies in their usefulness as projective models. States teachers can generate their own theories where practical educational…

Reviews and evaluates existing self-report and interview measures of childhood and adolescent depression in terms of their characteristics, advantages, and limitations. (MP)

Two basic ethical questions--informed-consent and the risk-benefit equation--are examined as they apply to the data collection, analysis, and publication strategies of qualitative family research. Suggests the distinctive features of family life warrant a special discussion of the ethical dilemmas inherent in the qualitative study of families.…

This paper reviews the methods and findings of published research on the validity of police selection procedures. As a preface to the review, the typical police officer selection process is briefly described. Several common methodological deficiencies of the validation research are identified and discussed in detail: (1) use of past-selection…

This document consists of four symposium papers each providing a critical examination of a particular data collection technique in vocational education research. Texts of the following presentations are provided: "Mail Survey Research," by Betty Heath-Camp; "The Telephone Interview as a Data Collection Technique," by James P. Key; "The Personal…

A review of the literature pertaining to organizational interviewing reveals a number of issues that have hindered research in that area in recent years. An analysis of these issues suggests that researchers should adopt an integrative approach to theory development--one that recognizes the situational differences of various organizational…

The disparity between interview and self-report data on East Asian mental health has been attributed to the following explanations: (1) incomparability of item content; and (2) cultural differences in the social desirability of questionnaire items. Examination of groups of elderly Korean, Japanese, and European-American subjects undermine these…