In this article, Roy Howell, and Einar Breivik, congratulate Aguirre-Urreta, M. I., Rönkkö, M., & Marakas, G. M., for their work (2016) "Omission of Causal Indicators: Consequences and Implications for Measurement," Measurement: Interdisciplinary Research and Perspectives, 14(3), 75-97. doi:10.1080/15366367.2016.1205935. They call it…

The authors begin this brief rejoinder by thanking all the authors who took time to provide comments on their work, which appeared in "Measurement: Interdisciplinary Research and Perspectives" v14 n3 2016. All commentaries appear to suggest that causal indicators cannot be used for measurement but differ in how strongly this conclusion…

This paper responds to the commentary provided by Hitchcock et al. "(Journal of Behavioral Education," 2015) which provides updated information on the procedures for considering the generality of an intervention using the "What Works Clearinghouse" (WWC) single-case guidelines. The new information provided by Hitchcock et al.…

Maxwell, Cole, and Mitchell (2011) extended the work of Maxwell and Cole (2007), which raised important questions about whether mediation analyses based on cross-sectional data can shed light on longitudinal mediation process. The latest article considers longitudinal processes that can only be partially explained by an intervening variable, and…

In Shadish (2010) and West and Thoemmes (2010), the authors contrasted 2 approaches to causality. The first originated in the psychology literature and is associated with work by Campbell (e.g., Shadish, Cook, & Campbell, 2002), and the second has its roots in the statistics literature and is associated with work by Rubin (e.g., Rubin, 2006). In…

The focus of this paper is causal inference in social and educational research. A concern with causality has had a profound impact on the kinds of questions that may be addressed in research, on how they must be formulated, and on the methodology that must be applied. In the social sciences the prevailing experimental paradigm is used to address…

In this article, the author presents his views on Michael's (1975) and Baron and Galizio's (2005) arguments on eliminating the distinction between positive and negative reinforcement. He first discusses Michael's concept of these two types of operations and contrasts it with the notions of Baron and Galizio. The author provides the readers his own…

Baron and Galizio (2005) reviewed and updated Michael's (1975) observations concerning the problems surrounding the distinction between positive and negative reinforcement. In the end they concluded that the valence is unjustified. However, despite the fact that the logical and empirical underpinnings of the distinction have been questioned for…

This chapter introduces the key economic concepts, models, and methods that can help inform institutional research in higher education. (Contains 1 table and 9 figures.)