Psychological Tests: Creating & Evaluating

The kit that helped thousands of researchers and students do better survey research in the 90's has been completely updated and revised for the issues of the 21st century!

"The Survey Kit is an easy-to-understand, easy-to-follow, comprehensive guide for the novice survey researcher. In addition, it provides useful information about some qualitative research techniques such as interviews, focus groups, observational analysis, and content analysis. Pedagogical features in each volume such as checklists, reasonable resources needed, tips, and decision matrices help students focus on important aspects of the survey process and provide them with a sense of real life application. Detailed discussions of personal interviewing (survey and in-depth), focus group techniques, and risks and odds are welcome additions to the new volumes."
--Juanita M. Firestone, University of Texas, San Antonio

How does one tell if the appropriate design or analysis was used in a research article? Using examples of both good and flawed studies, Ellen R Girden shows how to read qualitative and quantitative research articles critically from start to finish. She explains how to decide whether the conclusions reported in an article are justified, based on the design and analysis of the experiment. By first demonstrating how to analyze an article in each design category - for example, correlational study, factor analysis, narrative analysis - Girden uses targeted questions to assist the reader's critique of each major section of an article.

A method for studying changes in group patterns -- particularly groups based on age -- cohort analysis seeks to isolate changes attributable to alterations in behaviour or attitudes within an age group; as an example of behaviour change, the pattern of consumption of alcohol within a cohort is analyzed.

Qualitative Research Design: An Interactive Approach, Second Edition provides researchers and students a user-friendly, step-by-step guide to planning qualitative research. A bestseller in its first edition, this invaluable book presents an innovative approach to the components of design and how they interact with each other. The text presents a clear strategy for creating coherent and workable relationships among these design components and highlights key design issues. Based on a course the author taught for seven years at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, the work is written in an informal, jargon-free style and incorporates many examples and hands-on exercises.
Qualitative Research Design presents a flexible, systemic model of design, which is perfect for designing studies and research proposals. Experienced researchers will welcome author Joseph A. Maxwell’s refreshing approach and clear, direct style, and professors across the social sciences will find this an invaluable text for graduate research courses.

This book explores the philosophical underpinnings, history and key elements of five qualitative inquiry traditions: biography, phenomenology, grounded theory, ethnography and case study. John W Creswell relates research designs to each of the traditions of inquiry and compares each of the research strategies for theoretical frameworks, writing introduction to studies, collecting data, analyzing data, writing the narrative, and employing standards of quality and verifying results. Five journal articles in the appendix offer fascinating reading as well as examples of the five different qualitative design

The typical survey course in psychology has time for only limited presentation of the research on which our knowledge is based. This book presents, in more depth than textbook treatment permits, the background, conduct, and implications of a selection of classic experiments in psychology. The selection is designed to be diverse, showing that even for research in vastly different areas of study, the logic of research remains the same—as do its traps and pitfalls.

The typical survey course in psychology has time for only limited presentation of the research on which our knowledge is based. As a result, many students come away with a limited understanding of the role of experiments in psychological science. Where do experiments come from and how are they conducted? What are the pitfalls and how can we avoid them? What advantages do they have over intuition, authority, and common sense as guides to knowing and acting? What distinguishes research-based psychology from psychobabble? What have we learned from experimentation in psychology?

This book presents, in more depth than textbook treatment permits, the background, conduct, and implications of a selection of classic experiments in psychology. The selection is designed to be diverse, showing that even for research in vastly different areas of study, the logic of research remains the same—as do its traps and pitfalls. This book will broaden and deepen the understanding of experimental methods in psychological research, examining where the research questions come from, how questions can be turned into experiments, and how researchers have faced the problems presented by research in psychology