The 78th Annual International Meeting of the Psychometric Society (IMPS) built on the Psychometric Society's mission to share quantitative methods relevant to psychology. The chapters of this volume present cutting-edge work in the field. Topics include studies of item response theory, computerized adaptive testing, cognitive diagnostic modeling and psychological scaling. Additional psychometric topics relate to structural equation modeling, factor analysis, causal modeling, mediation, missing data methods and longitudinal data analysis, among others. The papers in this volume will be especially useful for researchers (graduate students and other quantitative researchers) in the social sciences who use quantitative methods, particularly psychologists. Prior knowledge of statistical methods is recommended for the best use of this volume. The conference took place in Arnhem, The Netherlands between July 22nd and 26th, 2013. This is the second volume to showcase the Psychometric Society Meeting. The first is New Developments in Quantitative Psychology: Presentations from the 77th Annual Psychometric Society Meeting (Springer, 2014).

Enhance the quality of survey results by recognizing and reducing measurement errors.

Margins of Error: A Study of Reliability in Survey Measurement demonstrates how and hwy identifying the presence and extent of measurement errors in survey data is essential for improving the overall collection and analysis of the data. The author outlines the consequences of ignoring survey measurement errors and also discusses ways to detect and estimate the impact of these errors. This book also provides recommendations of improving the quality of survey data.

Logically organized and clearly written, this book: Deconstructs the data gathering process into six main elements of the response process: question adequacy, comprehension, accessibility, retrieval, motivation, and communication Provides an exhaustive review of valuable reliability estimation techniques that can be applied to survey data Identifies the types of questions and interviewer practices that are essential to the collection of reliable data Addresses hypotheses regarding which survey questions, sources of information, and questionnaire formats produce the most reliable data

In conjunction with research data gathered on nearly 500 survey measures and the application of an empirical approach grounded in classical measurement theory, this book discusses the sources of measurement error and provides the tools necessary for improving survey data collection methods.

Margins of Error enables statisticians and researchers in the fields of public opinion and survey research to design studies that can detect, estimate, and reduce measurement errors that may have previously gone undetected. This book also serves as asupplemental textbook for both undergraduate and graduate survey methodology courses.

Regression Analysis in R: A Comprehensive View for the Social Sciences covers the basic applications of multiple linear regression all the way through to more complex regression applications and extensions. Written for graduate level students of social science disciplines this book walks readers through bivariate correlation giving them a solid framework from which to expand into more complicated regression models. Concepts are demonstrated using R software and real data examples. Key Features: Full output examples complete with interpretation Full syntax examples to help teach R code Appendix explaining basic R functions Methods for multilevel data that are often included in basic regression texts End of Chapter Comprehension Exercises

This volume presents state of the art analyses from scholars dealing with a range of demographic topics of current concern, including longevity, mortality and morbidity, migration, and how population composition impacts intergenerational transfer schemes. New approaches are applied to such issues as measuring changes in cohort survivorship in low mortality populations, patterns of mortality improvement at older ages, and the consequences of heterogeneity in the susceptibility to death. Studies examine models of the current status of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, advance present methods for estimating population change in small areas, and strive to disentangle age, period, and cohort effects. In sum, the book addresses key contemporary issues in measuring and modeling dynamic populations, and advances the frontier of dynamic demography.

Selected papers from the International Conference on New Computational Social Science, focusing on the following five aspects: Big data acquisition and analysis, Integration of qualitative research and quantitative research, Sociological Internet experiment research, Application of ABM simulation method in Sociology Research, Research and development of new social computing tools. With the rapid development of information technology, especially sweeping progress in the Internet of things, cloud computing, social networks, social media and big data, social computing, as a data-intensive science, is an emerging field that leverages the capacity to collect and analyze data with an unprecedented breadth, depth and scale. It represents a new computing paradigm and an interdisciplinary field of research and application. A broad comprehension of major topics involved in social computing is important for both scholars and practitioners. This proceedings presents and discusses key concepts and analyzes the state-of-the-art of the field. The conference not only gave insights on social computing, but also affords conduit for future research in the field. Social computing has two distinct trends: One is on the social science issues, such as computational social science, computational sociology, social network analysis, etc; The other is on the use of computational techniques. Finally some new challenges ahead are summarized, including interdisciplinary cooperation and training, big data sharing for scientific data mashups, and privacy protect.

This open access book examines health trajectories and health transitions at different stages of the life course, including childhood, adulthood and later life. It provides findings that assess the role of biological and social transitions on health status over time. The essays examine a wide range of health issues, including the consequences of military service on body mass index, childhood obesity and cardiovascular health, socio-economic inequalities in preventive health care use, depression and anxiety during the child rearing period, health trajectories and transitions in people with cystic fibrosis and oral health over the life course. The book addresses theoretical, empirical and methodological issues as well as examines different national contexts, which help to identify factors of vulnerability and potential resources that support resilience available for specific groups and/or populations. Health reflects the ability of individuals to adapt to their social environment. This book analyzes health as a dynamic experience. It examines how different aspects of individual health unfold over time as a result of aging but also in relation to changing socioeconomic conditions. It also offers readers potential insights into public policies that affect the health status of a population.

The notion of 'silence' in Politics and International Relations has come to imply the absence of voice in political life and, as such, tends to be scholastically prescribed as the antithesis of political power and political agency. However, from Emma Gonzales's three minutes of silence as part of her address at the March for Our Lives, to Trump's attempts to silence the investigation into his campaign's alleged collusion with Russia, along with the continuing revelations articulated by silence-breakers of sexual harassment, it is apparent that there are multiple meanings and functions of political silence - all of which intersect at the nexus of power and agency. Dingli and Cooke present a complex constellation of engagements that challenge the conceptual limitations of established approaches to silence by engaging with diverse, cross-disciplinary analytical perspectives on silence and its political implications in the realms of: environmental politics, diplomacy, digital privacy, radical politics, the politics of piety, commemoration, international organization and international law, among others. Contributors to this edited collection chart their approaches to the relationship between silence, power and agency, thus positing silence as a productive modality of agency. While this collection promotes intellectual and interdisciplinary synergy around critical thinking and research regarding the intersections of silence, power and agency, it is written for scholars in politics, international relations theory, international political theory, critical theory and everything in between.

-Includes simplified statistical contents and step by step guide on how to apply the statistical concepts by perform analysis using SPSS together with interpretation of the statistical analysis output. -Provides a wide range of data sets to be used for examples and illustrations. -Designed to be accessible to readers with varied backgrounds.

This book presents the latest in decision-making tools, techniques, and solutions for policy makers to utilize in overcoming the challenges faced by healthcare systems. With contributions from experts world-wide, an array of healthcare management models, techniques, and integrative solutions are presented, drawing on econometric, system dynamics, and agent-based models as well as state-of-the-art empirical studies. As total healthcare spending (both total expenditures on health as a percentage of GDP and average spending on per capita) increases across most of the world's economies, healthcare systems continue to face challenges in terms of cost, quality, and access, as a result of its fragmented nature. Consequently, healthcare managers and policy makers require innovative integrative approaches and solutions to better manage complex, dynamic healthcare systems. This volume offers researchers and policy makers an insightful and critical review of the state of the art in healthcare modeling, with a particular focus on system dynamics, agent-based models, and modern empirical studies. It will be of interest to those in the fields of health, business management, and information systems.

Explores the development and implementation of the Clay Emboidement Research Method (CERM) in working alongside stigmatised, oppressed, and marginalised groups, emphasising the need for a sensitive, ethical methodology for self-empowerment and opening doors for further research in this area.

This edited volume addresses the vast challenges of adapting Online Social Media (OSM) to developing research methods and applications. The topics cover generating realistic social network topologies, awareness of user activities, topic and trend generation, estimation of user attributes from their social content, behavior detection, mining social content for common trends, identifying and ranking social content sources, building friend-comprehension tools, and many others. Each of the ten chapters tackle one or more of these issues by proposing new analysis methods or new visualization techniques, or both, for famous OSM applications such as Twitter and Facebook. This collection of contributed chapters address these challenges. Online Social Media has become part of the daily lives of hundreds of millions of users generating an immense amount of 'social content'. Addressing the challenges that stem from this wide adaptation of OSM is what makes this book a valuable contribution to the field of social networks.

This book reconsiders statistical methods from the point of view of entropy, and introduces entropy-based approaches for data analysis. Further, it interprets basic statistical methods, such as the chi-square statistic, t-statistic, F-statistic and the maximum likelihood estimation in the context of entropy. In terms of categorical data analysis, the book discusses the entropy correlation coefficient (ECC) and the entropy coefficient of determination (ECD) for measuring association and/or predictive powers in association models, and generalized linear models (GLMs). Through association and GLM frameworks, it also describes ECC and ECD in correlation and regression analyses for continuous random variables. In multivariate statistical analysis, canonical correlation analysis, T2-statistic, and discriminant analysis are discussed in terms of entropy. Moreover, the book explores the efficiency of test procedures in statistical tests of hypotheses using entropy. Lastly, it presents an entropy-based path analysis for structural GLMs, which is applied in factor analysis and latent structure models. Entropy is an important concept for dealing with the uncertainty of systems of random variables and can be applied in statistical methodologies. This book motivates readers, especially young researchers, to address the challenge of new approaches to statistical data analysis and behavior-metric studies.

Shows how performative and creative research can have a real impact on community engagement with academic research Shows the aesthetics and use of arts-based research approaches in practice Expands the rapidly-emerging field of collaborative research

Contributor spotlight interviews: Dr Kim Lopez: https://youtu.be/vEF71NM_jQc Dr Jocelyn Scott: https://youtu.be/qfjcbgExEJ0 Dr Brian Kumm: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kchW0MDfw44&t=158s, Dr Luc Cousineau: https://youtu.be/IjRvRw3WjgY Now in its second edition, Fostering Social Justice through Qualitative Inquiry, addresses the methods of conducting qualitative research using a social justice paradigm. Qualitative researchers increasingly flock to social justice research to move beyond academic discourse and aid marginalized, oppressed, or less-powerful communities and groups. The book addresses the differences that a social justice stance requires from the researcher, then discusses how major theories and qualitative methodologies are employed to create social justice in both the process and products of qualitative research. Snapshot theory chapters introduce the foundations of theories like feminism, critical race theory, queer theory, and many more. Robust methodological chapters cover grounded theory, phenomenology, ethnography, participatory action research, and other key qualitative designs. Chapters are written by experts in the specific theory or methodology, and exemplars of the authors work illustrate this style of research in action. New to this edition: * Expanded attention to the theories most commonly associated with social justice research by authors who have put it to use * Methodological chapters on autoethnography, collective memory work, digital methods and postqualitative inquiry * Chapter Reflection Questions to help students and their supervisors/instructors apply what they've learned * Recommended readings from each author with annotations to encourage additional exploration This established textbook will be suitable for graduate students and scholars in qualitative inquiry in a range of disciplines, including Education and Gender and Sexuality, Communication, Leisure Studies, and across the social sciences.

Approaches and methods in comparative education are of obvious importance, but do not always receive adequate attention. This second edition of a well-received book, containing thoroughly updated and additional material, contributes new insights within the longstanding traditions of the field. A particular feature is the focus on different units of analysis. Individual chapters compare places, systems, times, cultures, values, policies, curricula and other units. These chapters are contextualised within broader analytical frameworks which identify the purposes and strengths of the field. The book includes a focus on intra-national as well as cross-national comparisons, and highlights the value of approaching themes from different angles. As already demonstrated by the first edition of the book, the work will be of great value not only to producers of comparative education research but also to users who wish to understand more thoroughly the parameters and value of the field.

This book emphasizes that artificial or pseudo-populations play an important role in statistical surveys from finite universes in two manners: firstly, the concept of pseudo-populations may substantially improve users' understanding of various aspects in the sampling theory and survey methodology; an example of this scenario is the Horvitz-Thompson estimator. Secondly, statistical procedures exist in which pseudo-populations actually have to be generated. An example of such a scenario can be found in simulation studies in the field of survey sampling, where close-to-reality pseudo-populations are generated from known sample and population data to form the basis for the simulation process. The chapters focus on estimation methods, sampling techniques, nonresponse, questioning designs and statistical disclosure control. This book is a valuable reference in understanding the importance of the pseudo-population concept and applying it in teaching and research.

More-than-Human Sociology is a call for a bolder, more creative sociology. Olli Pyyhtinen argues that to make sociology responsive to life in the 21st century we need a new sociological imagination, one that addresses connectivity, understands the world in which we live as both a human and non-human world, and is sensitive to the multiple scales on which things exist. A fresh and innovative take on the promise of sociology, this book will appeal to scholars and students both within sociology and the social sciences more broadly.

The book addresses major developments both to the academic enterprise internally and to the external environment which are changing the academic profession. The book brings together an international group of scholars who discuss different aspects of the professoriate and their working conditions in contemporary higher education systems.

This is the most authoritative picture to date of what the British people and their politicians really think about the fundamentals of politics. Based on new and revealing survey data, it presents a wide-ranging analysis of British attitudes to civil, political, and social rights. The study uncovers two broad `macro-dimensions' of political principle - liberty and equality - which underlie a large number of more specific principles and shape people's responses to many practical issues. Controversially, it claims that commitments to liberty and equality tend to run together - only the least educated treat them as alternatives; left-wingers support both and right-wingers oppose both. It explores the influence of social background, personal experience, and the institutional setting on attitudes towards political principles, highlighting in particular age and the complex influences of education and religion. And it also shows how arguments and propganda combine with political principles and party loyalties to influence opinion on practical issues. The final chapter presents an overall model and quantifies the relative power of all these different influences. The book will be invaluable reading for all those interested in British politics, political sociology, civil liberties, and public opinion as well as those planning their own social science survey research.

This book describes official statistics as a tool to hold up a mirror to society - but also as an instrument for those who can manipulate this mirror. It addresses the precarious interaction of politics, official statistics, and ethical principles. Three sets of themes can be derived from this relationship, which are the focus of this book: Political systems and guiding principles, official statistics as a science of the state, and ethical issues arising from them. Ultimately, the determining factor is the political system that exists in each case. The book contains eleven chapters. The first three focus on the key concepts of the book: power and morality, official statistics and policy making, and ethical principles for statistical work. Three further chapters focus on episodes that illustrate, as "drastic" examples, the misuse of official statistics over the past hundred years, covering the situation in the Soviet Union, the Third Reich and Greece. The remaining five chapters take up current topics that pose particular challenges to official statistics. These are the phenomena paraphrased by digitalisation, globalisation, happiness research, overpopulation, migration, the Covid-19 pandemic and climate change. The book is primarily aimed at statisticians working in national and international statistical institutions, but also at readers interested in statistics, national accounts, economic and statistics history, and ethical issues.

Social problems are endemic to all societies. The UK is no exception and is grappling with a plethora of issues including poverty, family breakdown, domestic violence, teenage pregnancy, child abuse and neglect, youth offending, alcohol and drug misuse, mental health issues, homelessness, and ethnic and religious discrimination. These problems have huge implications for the individual, the family unit and society at large and take their toll on health, wellbeing, and community resources. They place an enormous amount of strain on government finances and the welfare state, and add to the burden on social institutions, such as the National Health Service and the social work and criminal justice systems. Contemporary Social Problems in the UK explores a wide range of social problems in the UK. Each social problem has been explored using a range of psychosocial theories to generate an understanding of various causal factors and to examine the linkages between different social problems. Government policy and legislation, remedial measures, preventive approaches, and strategies of intervention are also considered for each social problem that has been dealt with. Each chapter deals with a particular social problem and has been penned by an expert in that topic. The endeavour has been to provide a multi-dimensional overview of the social problem in a manner that is engaging and easy to read. The end-of-chapter content includes supplementary reading, useful topic related websites besides a quiz and individual / group activities to generate discussion and stimulate learning. This informative yet accessible textbook will be an invaluable resource for instructors and students in the social sciences as well as professionals who work with people who experience some of these problems.

In this book, senior scholars and a new generation of analysts present different applications of recent advances linking beliefs and decision-making, in the area of foreign policy analysis with strategic interactions in world politics. Divided into five parts, Part 1 identifies how the beliefs in the cognitive operational codes of individual leaders explain the political decisions of states. In Part 2, five chapters illustrate progress in comparing the operational codes of individual leaders, including Vladimir Putin of Russia, three US presidents, Bolivian president Evo Morales, Sri Lanka's President Chandrika Kumaratunga, and various leaders of terrorist organizations operating in the Middle East and North Africa. Part 3 introduces a new Psychological Characteristics of Leaders (PsyCL) data set containing the operational codes of US presidents from the early 1800s to the present. In Part 4, the focus is on strategic interactions among dyads and evolutionary patterns among states in different regional and world systems. Part 5 revisits whether the contents of the preceding chapters support the claims about the links between beliefs and foreign policy roles in world politics. Richly illustrated and with comprehensive analysis Operational Code Analysis and Foreign Policy Roles will be of interest to specialists in foreign policy analysis, international relations theorists, graduate students, and national security analysts in the policy-making and intelligence communities.

This book discusses the Belt and Road Initiative at the provincial level in China. It analyses the evolution of the role of local governments in Chinese foreign policy since the opening of China's economy in 1978, showing how the provinces initially competed with each other, and how the central government was forced to react, developing more centralised policies. Unlike other books on the Belt and Road Initiative, which focus on the international aspects of the initiative, this book demonstrates the importance of the Belt and Road in reinforcing China's unitary status and for managing and coordinating development at the local level as well as centre-province relations and province to province relations inside China.

This book presents a duoethnographic exploration and narrative account of what it means to be a teacher educator today. Adopting a narrative approach, the book presents different personal, political and institutional perspectives to interrogate common challenges facing teacher education and teacher educators today. In addition, the book compares and contrasts the teacher education landscapes in Australia and the UK and addresses a broad range of topics, including the autobiographical nature of teacher educators' work, the value of learning from experience, the importance of collegiality and collaboration in learning to become a teacher educator, and the intersection of the personal, professional and political in the development of teacher educator pedagogies and research agendas. Each chapter combines personal narratives and research-based perspectives on the key dimensions of teacher educators' work that can be found in the literature, including self-study research. Readers will gain a better understanding of the processes, influences and relationships that make being a teacher educator both a challenging and rewarding career. Accordingly, the book offers a valuable asset for university leaders, experienced and beginning teacher educators, and researchers interested in the professional learning and development of teacher educators.