A practical guide to behavioral research : tools and techniques / Robert Sommer, Barbara Sommer.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Sommer, Robert.

Contributor:

Sommer, Barbara Baker, 1938-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Social sciences--Research.

Social sciences.

Social sciences--Methodology.

Psychology--Research.

Psychology.

Psychology--Methodology.

Social sciences--Research--Data processing.

Psychology--Research--Data processing.

Physical Description:

xix, 380 pages ; 25cm

Edition:

Fifth edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Oxford University Press, 2002.

Summary:

This new edition of Robert Sommer and Barbara Sommer's successful book A Practical Guide to Behavioral Research continues to emphasize a handson, multimethod, and interdisciplinary approach to behavioral research in psychology, sociology, and anthropology. It expands the fourth edition's coverage of computer-related research methods and employs an international perspective, presenting general principles and their practical applications. Like previous editions, A Practical Guide to Behavioral Research, 5/e, covers the four major approaches to behavioral research (experimentation, observation, questionnaire, interview) and examines other important methods, including attitude and rating scales, the case study, semantic differential, unobtrusive measures, and the use of personal documents. It provides particularly strong treatment of observational approaches, behavior and cognitive mapping, electronic searches and Internet research, and action research. This revision includes two new chapters stimulated by student interest: Chapter 14, "Action Research," addresses the gap between doing research and having it applied; Chapter 15, "The Big Fuzzies," describes techniques for researching important concepts that are difficult to define and measure.

Written in an accessible, colloquial style, this popular book encourages students to actually do research instead of just learning the concepts and language. Clear descriptions and concrete examples of abstract concepts demystify research and help students think about research procedures in a variety of settings, not just in the laboratory. Ideal for undergraduates in research methods classes, A Practical Guide to Behavioral Research, 5/e, is an invaluable reference for students of communications, education, nursing, design, and business. It is also a useful resource for readers who need reliable information or anyone interested in behavioral studies.

Contents:

1 Multimethod Approach 1

What Is Behavioral Research? 1

Theory and Research 2

Validity and Reliability 3

Why Do Behavioral Research? 4

Specific Methods 5

Multimethod Approach 6

General Laws and Local Conditions 9

Practical Experience 10

2 Ethics in Behavioral Research 13

Protecting the Welfare of Research Participants 15

Issues of Scientific Misconduct 19

Psychologists' Code of Ethics 21

Anthropologists' and Sociologists' Code of Ethics 26

Local Procedures 27

3 Search the Technical Literature 30

Using a College Library 31

Source Credibility 31

What to Look for in a Research Article 35

Finding References 35

How Far to Search? 37

Meta-Analysis 38

Searching the World Wide Web 38

What to Save from the Search 42

Getting Your Hands on the Materials 43

4 Observation 47

Casual Observation 48

Systematic Observation 50

Video Recording 54

Qualitative Approaches 55

Equipment 60

Limitations 60

5 Mapping and Trace Measures 63

6 Experimentation 82

The Special Nature of the Experiment 83

Variables 85

Generating Hypotheses 86

Experimental Control 88

Doing an Experiment 93

Types of Experiments 93

Equipment 98

Using the Internet 99

Limitations 101

7 Simulation 103

Environmental Simulations 104

Games 105

Role-playing Exercises 107

Limitations 108

8 Interview 111

Uses and Types of Interviews 113

How to Interview 116

Analyzing the Results 128

Reporting Interview Results 129

Limitations 129

Focus Groups 131

9 The Questionnaire 135

Questionnaire Construction 136

Pretesting 144

Reproducing the Questionnaire 146

Distributing the Forms 146

Mail Surveys 147

Scoring 151

Interpretation 152

Describing Survey Results 154

Comparison of Interviews and Self-administered Questionnaires 155

Internet Surveys 155

Limitations 156

10 Attitude and Rating Scales 159

Levels of Measurement 160

Attitude Scales 162

Semantic Differential 165

Performance Rating Scales 169

Consumer Rating Scales 170

Sensory Evaluation 172

11 Content Analysis 177

Quantification in Content Analysis 177

Uses 178

Finding Categories 180

Sampling 183

Analyzing Recorded Data 184

Reliability 185

Limitations 185

12 Personal Documents and Archival Measures 188

Life Histories 194

Archival Measures 197

Advantages of a Case Study 203

Choosing a Topic 204

Unusual Individuals 205

Obtaining Cooperation 206

Cross-verification 207

Limitations 209

14 Action Research 211

Trade-offs 212

Self-survey 212

Other Techniques 212

Steps in Action Research 213

Why Action Research Is Different 215

Tower or Swamp? 216

15 The Big Fuzzies: Research on Difficult-To-Define Concepts 218

Positive Psychology 219

A Word on Qualitative Research 220

16 Standardized Tests and Inventories 224

What Is a Test? 224

Test Reliability and Validity 225

Using Tests and Inventories 226

Locating Suitable Tests 228

Obtaining the Tests 229

Constructing a Test 230

Projective Tests 232

Limitations 232

17 Sampling 235

Types of Samples 236

How Large a Sample? 240

Gaining Access 241

Measuring Nonrespondent Bias 241

Describing the Method of Sampling 242

Limitations 242

18 Descriptive Statistics 245

Descriptive Statistics for Categorical Measures 246

Descriptive Statistics for Continuous Measures 247

Statistical Tabulations and Analyses 256

19 Inferential Statistics 261

First, Some Background 262

Statistical Tests for Continuous Data 264

A Statistical Test for Categorical Data: Chi-square 274

Correlation 278

Presenting the Results of Statistical Tests 283

Effect Size 283

Limitations of This Chapter 284

20 Writing and Reviewing a Research Report 290

Article for a Scientific Journal 291

Technical Reports 299

Writing a Critique 301

21 After the Report 305

Feedback to Participants 306

Further Research 306

Publishing the Findings 307

Other Publication Outlets 309

Application 310

News Releases 312

Professional Meetings 312

Table A-1. Critical Values for t Test 321

Table A-2. Critical Values for Chi-square Test 322

Table A-3. Critical Values for Pearson Product-moment Correlation Coefficient (r) 323

Table A-4. Critical Values for Spearman Rank-order Coefficient (r[subscript s]) 324

Table A-5. Abridged Table of Random Numbers 325

Table A-6. Critical Values of F 326

Appendix B Statistical Tests 328

Table B-1. Calculation of a t Test for Matched Scores 328

Table B-2. Calculation of a One-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) 329

Table B-3. Computation of the Pearson Product-moment Coefficient (r) 331

Table B-4. Computation of the Spearman Rank-order Coefficient (r[subscript s]) 333

Appendix C Using Computer Software for Data Analysis 334

List Comparisons, Contrasts, and Correlations 335

Data Entry 335

Data Analysis 337

Avoid Blind Analysis 338.

Notes:

Includes indexes and glossary.

Includes 5 appendices, A-E, p. 321-359.

ISBN:

019514208X

OCLC:

45620789