This article introduces Q methodology, an idea-sorting activity that can help Extension improve outreach and education on new and contentious issues. Q methodology is a helpful tool when Extension professionals are confronted with controversial or complex resource management challenges. Through the analysis of a simple card-sorting exercise,…

The "Handbook of Research Methods in Early Childhood Education" brings together in one source research techniques that researchers can use to collect data for studies that contribute to the knowledge in early childhood education. To conduct valid and reliable studies, researchers need to be knowledgeable about numerous research…

As evidence-based reform becomes increasingly important in educational policy, it is becoming essential to understand how research design might contribute to reported effect sizes in experiments evaluating educational programs. The purpose of this study was to examine how methodological features such as types of publication, sample sizes, and…

There has been much literature on the effectiveness of program evaluation. Many feel evaluation has lost its justification; others are more optimistic and feel evaluation can make a difference if the use levels are viewed realistically. Administrators must not regard program evaluation as merely complying with various agency requirements or…

This study asked participants to rate models of computer-generated text on the perceived ease with which it could be read and studied. These ratings were submitted to a Q-mode factor analysis to identify the underlying criteria used when the reader/perceiver formed a judgment related to the "study-ability" of the text model. Subjects…

Reviews the debate between job enrichment and social-information-processing perspectives in organizational research. Posits a dispositional approach emphasizing the individual's role. Presents longitudinal study results showing that personality measures significantly predicted job attitudes over a 50-year period and that job and life satisfaction…

Conventional research strategies typically emphasize behavior-determining tendencies so strongly that the person as a whole is ignored. Research strategies for studying whole persons focus on symbolic structures, formulate specific questions in advance, study persons one at a time, use individualized measures, and regard participants as expert…

Discussion of the online information industry emphasizes the effects of non-price competition on its structure and the firms involved. Q-analysis is applied to data on medical databases and hosts, changes over a three-year period are identified, and an optimum structure for the industry based on economic theory is considered. (Author/LRW)

Examined parents' responses to emotional distress in their preschool children and assessed the relation of these responses to children's competence. Data on parent-child interactions was collected for 30 families by means of home observations, parent self-reports, observer ratings, and child interviews. Preschool competence was assessed by teacher…

Twenty-five rural educators completed a 12-item Q-sort on stress factors. Resolving parent/school conflicts was the most stressful, followed by handling student discipline, and completing reports on time. The stressors varied somewhat from stressors listed by urban teachers, but only slightly. (BRR)

Bulimia is an eating disorder prevalent among young women, characterized by binge eating episodes followed by purging with subsequent depressive moods and self-deprecating thoughts. To determine whether bulimic women exhibit a greater discrepancy between their perceived and ideal selves than do nonbulimics, three samples of women were assessed.…

This study examined the perceptions of international students regarding their use and the effectiveness of services provided to them at one particular institution of higher education. Specifically, Q-methodology was used to determine whether a set of statements regarding student services could be used to identify clusters of these students in…

Previous research on intelligence and aging has relied on tests developed for younger adults, which often incorporate many factors that could impede optimal performance in elderly populations. To investigate short-term longitudinal changes in memory, intelligence, and perceived competence in everyday situations among older adults, 227 adults were…

This study aims to explore leadership characteristics and contribute evidence to the validity of Jungian personality typology by investigating the relationship between principals' personality types and their reported problem-solving strategies. To test the hypothesis that the manner in which the principals report that they would solve a problem…

Efforts to foster mental health care in society have always been hampered by the stigma attached to mental illness. To identify differential patterns of attitude hierarchies among people who live in or provide mental health services in a typical urban area, 54 adults participated in a Q methodology study of their attitudes toward mental illness.…