Evaluates 98 secondary reading strategy studies for internal and external validity. Addresses experimental design, data collection, and statistical analysis. Discuses specific strengths and weaknesses of the research. Offers suggestions for improvement of intervention research in the areas of design, data collection, and statistical analysis. (RS)

An analysis of 41 recently published articles in the "American Journal on Mental Retardation" and the "Journal of Mental Deficiency Research" found a higher than expected probability of Type I research errors, suggesting that approximately 20 percent of the statistically significant results may be erroneous. (DB)

R. T. Ogawa and B. Malen's article does not meet its own recommended standards for rigorous testing and presentation of its own conclusions. Use of the exploratory case study to analyze multivocal literatures is not supported, and the claim of grounded theory to analyze multivocal literatures may be stronger. (SLD)

Six papers explore applications/implications of the unity thesis in discrete areas of educational research. The unity thesis argues that knowledge is all of a piece and allows for methodological diversity in educational research. Topics include a coherentist validity theory; policy analysis; hermeneutics; meta-analysis; and coherentist empiricism…

Current practices of reporting a single mean intercoder agreement in meta-analysis leads to systematic bias and overestimates reliability. An alternative is recommended in which average intercoder agreement statistics are calculated within clusters of coded variables. Two studies of intercoder agreement illustrate the model. (SLD)

Meta-analysis of 28 controlled studies on rational-emotive therapy (RET) showed RET superior to placebo and no treatment, but equally effective in comparison with treatments such as combination therapies and systematic desensitization. No support was found for view that RET with main or balanced emphasis on behavioral techniques is more…

Reports a secondary data analysis of eight separate studies of cognitive editing, with regard to the question of whether males and females edit their persuasive messages differently. Finds that gender has modest direct effects on endorse-or-suppress decisions. Suggests that gender by situation interactions may have more influence. (SR)

A distribution theory is derived for a G. V. Glass-type (1976) estimator of effect size from studies involving paired comparisons. The possibility of combining effect sizes from studies involving a mixture of related and unrelated samples is also explored. Resulting estimates are illustrated using data from previous psychiatric research. (SLD)

Reviews null hypothesis statistical significance testing (NHST) in its historical context and concludes that workable alternatives to NHST are available. Among suggested alternatives, effect magnitude measures, replication techniques, and meta-analytic techniques are discussed. (SLD)

Health education, health promotion, and prevention are defined. The use of planning models in health education, meta-analysis, the quality of the intervention as a determinant of effectiveness, and the relevance of systematic implementation to the target population are discussed. Recommendations to increase the effectiveness of interventions are…

Review of clinical studies providing empirical data on stress management programs in medical education found that student participants in such programs demonstrated improved immunologic functioning, decreased depression and anxiety, increased spirituality and empathy, enhanced knowledge of alternative therapies, improved knowledge of stress…

The bias and relative efficiency of two alternative estimators of optimal weights in meta-analysis were assessed through Monte Carlo simulation, defining the standardized mean differences as the effect-size index. The estimator proposed by L. Hedges and I. Olkin (1985) was more efficient than that of J. Hunter and F. Schmidt (1990). (SLD)

Compares the persuasiveness of using statistical versus narrative evidence (case studies or examples) across 15 investigations. Indicates that when comparing messages, statistical evidence is more persuasive than narrative evidence. (PA)

Assessed five procedures for estimating a common risk difference in a set of independent 2 x 2 tables through Monte Carlo simulation in terms of bias, efficiency, confidence level adjustment, and statistical power. The maximum likelihood estimator showed best performance, followed closely by the Cochran (W. Cochran, 1954) and Mantel-Haenszel (N.…

Compares and assesses research published in the 1980s-1990s in four consumer sciences journals in terms of specialization; institutional affiliation of the researcher; source of data, sample size, topical classification, and research methodology; and statistical analysis. Appendices contain 16 summary tables and lists of articles from each…