Beginning Behavioral Research: A Conceptual Primer: United States Edition

For classes involving introductory Research or Experimental Methods.   This successful introduction to behavioral research methods provides step-by-step guidance through the processes of planning an empirical study, analyzing and interpreting data, and reporting findings and conclusions.   When Beginning Behavioral Research was created, it was conceived as an undergraduate text for students, who, as part of a course in research methods, are required to plan an empirical study, to analyze and interpret the data, and to present their findings and conclusions in a written report. With this in mind, however, through their years in the field the authors found that all research methods are limited in some ways, and therefore it is essential not to foreclose on the use of tools and techniques that enable the study of phenomena from more than one vantage point. By examining different scientific methods, theories, and units of analysis - rather than any single one - the authors are able to give students a broad base of scientific thinking that will, they believe, encourage the idea that each generation of researchers builds on the important findings of previous researchers in a chain of discovery and understanding. 

Table of Contents:
PREFACE   PART I     Getting Started   CHAPTER 1     Behavioral Research and the Scientific Method Preview Questions Why Study Research Methods and Data Analysis? What Rival Alternatives Are There to the Scientific Method? What Is Empirical Reasoning? How Is Empirical Reasoning Used in Psychological Science? How Do Extra-Empirical Factors Play a Role? What Does Behavioral Science Encompass? What Do Methodological Pluralism and Theoretical Ecumenism Connote? How Does Research Go From Descriptive to Relational to Experimental? What Are the Characteristics of Good Researchers? Summary of Ideas Key Terms Multiple-Choice Questions for Review Discussion Questions for Review Answers to Review Questions   CHAPTER 2     Creative Ideas and Working Hypotheses Preview Questions What Is the "Discovery Phase" of Scientific Inquiry? What Are Hypothesis-Generating Heuristics? What Belongs in My Research Proposal? How Can I Do a Literature Search? How Should I Go About Defining Variables? What Identifies "Good" Theories and Working Hypotheses? What Is Meant by Independent Variable and Dependent Variable? Summary of Ideas Key Terms Multiple-Choice Questions for Review Discussion Questions for Review Answers to Review Questions   CHAPTER 3     Ethical Considerations and Guidelines Preview Questions How Do Ethical Guidelines in Research Function? What Is Informed Consent, and When Is It Used? How Are Ethics Reviews Done and Acted Upon? What Are Obstacles to the Rendering of "Full Justice"? How Can a "Relationship of Trust" Be Established? How Do Scientific Quality and Ethical Quality Intertwine? Is Deception Ever Justified? What Is the Purpose of Debriefing, and How Do I Do It? How Is Animal Research Governed By Ethical Rules? What Are My Ethical Responsibilities When Writing Up My Research? Summary of Ideas Key Terms Multiple-Choice Questions for Review Discussion Questions for Review Answers to Review Questions   PART II     Observation and Measurement   CHAPTER 4     Strategies of Systematic Observational Research Preview Questions What Is Meant By Systematic Observational Research? How Do Researchers Simultaneously Participate and Observe? What Can Be Learned By Quantifying Observations? How Is a Content Analysis Done? How Are Raters or Coders Chosen For a Judgment Study? How Are Situations Simulated in Experimental Research? How Do I Identify Rival Interpretations and Rival Hypotheses? What Is the Distinction Between Reactive and Nonreactive Observation? Summary of Ideas Key Terms Multiple-Choice Questions for Review Discussion Questions for Review Answers to Review Questions   CHAPTER 5     Methods for Looking Within Ourselves Preview Questions What Are Uses and Limitations of Self-Report Measures? What Are Open-Ended and Fixed-Choice Items? How Are Personality and Projective Tests Used? What Are Numerical, Forced-Choice, and Graphic Ratings? What Are Rating Errors, and How Do I Control Them? What Are Semantic Differentials, Likert Scales, and Thurstone Scales? How Do I Prepare Items For a Questionnaire or an Interview? How Are Face-to-Face and Telephone Interviews Done? How Are Behavioral Diaries Used in Research? Summary of Ideas Key Terms Multiple-Choice Questions for Review Discussion Questions for Review Answers to Review Questions   CHAPTER 6     Reliability and Validity in Measurement and Research Preview Questions What Is the Difference Between Validity and Reliability? What Are Random and Systematic Errors? What Is the Purpose of Retest and Alternate-Form Reliability? What Is Internal-Consistency Reliability, and How Is It Increased? What Is Acceptable Test-Retest and Internal-Consistency Reliability? How Do I Measure the Reliability of Judges? How Is Reliability Related To Replication and External Validity? How Are Content and Criterion Validity Defined? How Is Construct Validity Assessed in Test Development? What Are Four Types of Validity in Experimental Design? Summary of Ideas Key Terms Multiple-Choice Questions for Review Discussion Questions for Review Answers to Review Questions   PART III     Design and Implementation   CHAPTER 7     Randomized Experiments and Causal Inference Preview Questions What Is the Purpose of Doing Randomized Experiments? How Is Random Assignment Accomplished? What Are Between-Subjects and Within-Subjects Designs? What Are Factorial Designs and Latin Square Designs? Why Is Causality Said To Be "Shrouded in Mystery"? On What Grounds Do Scientists Infer Causality? What Is the Formative Logic of Experimental Control? What Are "Preexperimental Designs"? What Circumstances Jeopardize Internal Validity? How Can I Control For Demand Characteristics and Expectancy Effects? Summary of Ideas Key Terms Multiple-Choice Questions for Review Discussion Questions for Review Answers to Review Questions   CHAPTER 8     Nonrandomized Research and Causal Reasoning Preview Questions How Is Causal Reasoning Attempted in the Absence of Randomization? What Is the "Third Variable" Problem? How Can Causal Effects Be Studied in Nonequivalent Groups? What Are Time-Series Designs and "Found Experiments"? What Within-Subjects Designs Are Used in Single-Case Experiments? How Are Correlations Interpreted in Cross-Lagged Panel Designs? What Is the Purpose of Longitudinal Research Using Cohorts? Summary of Ideas Key Terms Multiple-Choice Questions for Review Discussion Questions for Review Answers to Review Questions   CHAPTER 9     Survey Research and Subject Recruitment Preview Questions What Are Opportunity and Probability Samples? What Is Meant By Bias and Instability in Survey Research? Why Is "Bias" in Sampling Such an Elusive Concept? How Can I Do Simple Random Sampling? What Are Stratified Random Sampling and Area Probability Sampling? What Did the Literary Digest Case Teach Pollsters? What Are Point Estimates and Interval Estimates? What Are the Benefits of Stratification? How Is Nonresponse Bias Handled in Survey Research? What Are Typical Characteristics of Volunteer Subjects? How Is Volunteer Bias in Opportunity Samples Managed? Summary of Ideas Key Terms Multiple-Choice Questions for Review Discussion Questions for Review Answers to Review Questions   PART IV     Describing Data and Making Inferences   CHAPTER 10     Summarizing the Data Preview Questions How Is Visual Integrity Ensured When Graphing Results? How Are Frequencies Displayed in Tables, Bar Graphs, and Line Graphs? How Do Stem-and-Leaf Charts Work? How Are Percentiles Used to Summarize Part of a Batch? How Might an Exploratory Data Analysis Be Done? How Does Asymmetry Affect Measures of Central Tendency? How Do I Measure How "Spread Out" a Set of Scores Is? What Are Descriptive and Inferential Measures? How Do I Compute a Confidence Interval Around a Population Mean? What Is Distinctive About the Normal Distribution? Why Are z Scores Called Standard Scores, and How Are They Used? Summary of Ideas Key Terms Multiple-Choice Questions for Review Discussion Questions for Review Answers to Review Questions   CHAPTER 11     Correlating Variables Preview Questions What Are Different Forms of Correlations? How Are Correlations Visualized in Scatter Plots? How Is the Product-Moment r Calculated? How Is the Spearman Rank Correlation Computed? How Is "Dummy Coding" Used in Correlation? When is the Phi Coefficient Used? Summary of Ideas Key Terms Multiple-Choice Questions for Review Discussion Questions for Review Answers to Review Questions   CHAPTER 12     Statistical Significance, Effect Size, and Power Analysis Preview Questions Why Is It Important to Focus Not Just on p Values? What is the Reasoning Behind Null Hypothesis Significance Testing? What Do Type I and Type II Errors Imply in Practical Terms? How Do I Determine, Interpret, and Report the Statistical Significance of r? What Is the Purpose of the Binomial Effect-Size Display? How Can I Do a Power Analysis? How Do I Compute a Confidence Interval for an Effect Size r? What Would Computing Killeen's prep tell me? Summary of Ideas Key Terms Multiple-Choice Questions for Review Discussion Questions for Review Answers to Review Questions   PART V     Statistical Tests   CHAPTER 13     The Comparison of Two Conditions Preview Questions What Do "Signal-to-Noise" Ratios Have to Do With t Tests? How Do I Compute an Independent Sample t Test? What Can a Table of p Values for t Teach Me? How Can I Estimate reffect size From an Independent Sample t? How Can I Estimate Cohen's d From an Independent Sample t? How Do I Interpret Cohen's d for Independent Groups? How Can I Maximize the Independent Sample t? How Does a Paired t Test Differ From an Independent Sample t Test? What Are Statistical Assumptions of the t Test? Summary of Ideas Key Terms Multiple-Choice Questions for Review Discussion Questions for Review Answers to Review Questions   CHAPTER 14     Comparisons On More Than Two Conditions Preview Questions What Is Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), and How Are F and t Related? How Is Variability Apportioned in a One-Way ANOVA? How Are ANOVA Summary Tables Set Up and Interpreted? How Can I Test for Simple Effects After an Omnibus F? How Is Variability Apportioned in a Two-Way ANOVA? How Do I Interpret Main and Interaction Effects? How Is a Two-Way ANOVA Computed and a Summary Table Set Up? How Do I Compute a Focused t or F On More Than Two Groups? What Do reffect size, ralerting, and rcontrast tell us? How Are Contrasts On Repeated Measures Computed? How Are Latin Square Designs Analyzed by Contrasts? Summary of Ideas Key Terms Multiple-Choice Questions for Review Discussion Questions for Review Answers to Review Questions   CHAPTER 15     The Analysis of Frequency Tables Preview Questions What Is the Purpose of Chi-Square (c2)? How Do I compute 1-df Chi-Squares? How Do I Obtain the p Value, Effect Size, and Confidence Interval? What Is the Relationship Between 1-df c2 and Phi? How Do I Deal With Tables Larger Than 2 ' 2? How Does "Taking the Margins Into Account" Work? A Journey Begun Summary of Ideas Key Terms Multiple-Choice Questions for Review Discussion Questions for Review Answers to Review Questions   APPENDIX A     Communicating Your Research Findings Research Reports and Poster Presentations Getting Organized Sample Research Report Title Page Abstract Introduction Method Results Discussion References End Material Writing and Revising Layout and Printing Creating a Poster   APPENDIX B     Statistical Tables B.1.  z Values and Their Associated One-Tailed p Values B.2.  t Values and Their Associated One-Tailed and Two-Tailed p Values B.3.  F Values and Their Associated p Values B.4  c2 Values and Their Associated p Values B.5.  r Values and Their Associated p Values B.6.  Transformations of r to Fisher zr B.7.  Transformations of Fisher zr to r   APPENDIX C     Introduction to Meta-Analysis The Purpose of Meta-Analysis Comparing Two Effect Sizes Combining Two Effect Sizes Obtaining an Overall Significance Level Detective-Like Probing of Reported Data The File Drawer Problem The Counternull Statistic   GLOSSARY REFERENCES NAME INDEX SUBJECT INDEX