Achievement goal theory is one of the most popular theories of achievement motivation. Techniques researchers have used to assess goals include standardized questionnaires and interviews. One curious finding is that participants whose self-report questionnaire responses strongly indicate they operate with a performance goal do not make performance…

Describing the state of the science of ABA, this comprehensive handbook provides detailed information about theory, research, and intervention. The contributors are leading ABA authorities who present current best practices in behavioral assessment and demonstrate evidence-based strategies for supporting positive behaviors and reducing problem…

Confidence intervals are beginning to play an increasing role in the reporting of research findings within the social and behavioral sciences and, consequently, are becoming more prevalent in beginning classes in statistics and research methods. Confidence intervals are an attractive means of conveying experimental results, as they contain a…

Discusses the basic character of qualitative, humanistic research, identifying its philosophical and theoretical commitments. Provides a taxonomy of investigative strategies employed, including naturalistic inquiry, contextualization, maximized comparisons, sensitizing concepts, and analytic induction. Classifies methods employed as participant…

Motivational interviewing (MI) is a brief intervention that has been shown to reduce heavy drinking among college students. Because all college studies of MI to date have included a personalized feedback report, it remains unclear which of the components is necessary to produce behavior change. This study evaluated the separate and collective…

A study of 60 adults, ages 23-38, was done to assess the fit of life-stages (periods during which adults of similar age face common problems, events, pressures, situations) identified by writers in adult development for these ages. Focus was on (1) creating a structured interview schedule to obtain data which should be age-related and (2) creating…

Three methods used in applied behavioral analysis research and appropriate for conducting a functional assessment of problem behavior in persons with mental retardation are described. They are informant assessment (e.g., behavioral interviews, rating scales, and questionnaires), direct observation assessment, and experimental analysis. (Author/DB)

Human communication research has identified and tested numerous aspects of interpersonal transactions, but at present there exists no empirically verifiable data as to how people end these transactions. This study is concerned with the rhetoric of goodbye--determining and assessing the peculiar behaviors, both verbal and non-verbal, with which…

This paper reports on a project designed to examine how typical students of business and engineering went about choosing and being chosen by the organization for which they were going to work. (Author)

This report presents some results from various empirical research projects within nursing education carried out during the late 1960's and the early 1970's at Malmo School of Education, University of Lund (Sweden). It is noted that a wide range of methods has been used in dealing with the following issues: curriculum analysis; construction of…

The specific aims of the investigation reported in this book were: (1) to determine the consistency or change in personality and adjustment of older adults over time and to learn what factors are related to consistency or changes; (2) to study the problem of survivorship by analyzing differences between survivors in regard to socio-psychological…