ESSENTIALS OF STATISTICS FOR THE BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES, 10th Edition delivers straightforward instruction, hands-on learning tools and real-world examples to help you go beyond memorizing formulas to truly understanding the hows and whys of statistics.

Giving extra focus to the topics students typically struggle with most, the authors take time to fully explain statistical concepts. Integrated applications reinforce concepts, offering further support to ensure that even those with a weak background in mathematics can fully grasp statistics.

The authors also illustrate how an understanding of statistical procedures will help you comprehend published findings -- ultimately leading you to become a savvy consumer of information.

Research today demands the application of sophisticated and powerful research tools. Fulfilling this need, The Oxford Handbook of Quantitative Methods in Psychology is the complete tool box to deliver the most valid and generalizable answers to today's complex research questions. It is a one-stop source for learning and reviewing current best-practices in quantitative methods as practiced in the social, behavioral, and educational sciences. Comprising two volumes, this handbook covers a wealth of topics related to quantitative research methods. It begins with essential philosophical and ethical issues related to science and quantitative research. It then addresses core measurement topics before delving into the design of studies. Principal issues related to modern estimation and mathematical modeling are also detailed. Topics in the handbook then segway into the realm of statistical inference and modeling with chapters dedicated to classical approaches as well as modern latent variable approaches. Numerous chapters associated with longitudinal data and more specialized techniques round out this broad selection of topics. Comprehensive, authoritative, and user-friendly, this two-volume set will be an indispensable resource for serious researchers across the social, behavioral, and educational sciences.

Evidence-based practice has become the benchmark for quality in healthcare and builds on rules of evidence that have been developed in psychology and other health-care disciplines over many decades. This volume aims to provide clinical neuropsychologists with a practical and approachable reference for skills in evidence-based practice to improve the scientific status of patient care. The core skills involve techniques in critical appraisal of published diagnostic-validity or treatment studies. Critical appraisal skills assist any clinician to evaluate the scientific status of any published study, to identify the patient-relevance of studies with good scientific status, and to calculate individual patient-probability estimates of diagnosis or treatment outcome to guide practice. Initial chapters in this volume review fundamental concepts of construct validity relevant to the assessment of psychopathology and cognitive abilities in neuropsychological populations. These chapters also summarize exciting contemporary development in the theories of personality and psychopathology, and cognitive ability, showing a convergence of theoretical and clinical research to guide clinical practice. Conceptual skills in interpreting construct validity of neuropsychological tests are described in detail in this volume. In addition, a non-mathematical description of the concepts of test score reliability and the neglected topic of interval estimation for individual assessment is provided. As an extension of the concepts of reliability, reliable change indexes are reviewed and the implication of impact on evidence-based practice of test scores reliability and reliable change are described to guide clinicians in their interpretation of test results on single or repeated assessments. Written by some of the foremost experts in the field of clinical neuropsychology and with practical and concrete examples throughout, this volume shows how evidence-based practice is enhanced by reference to good theory, strong construct validity, and better test score reliability.

Qualitative interviewing is among the most widely used methods in the social sciences, but it is arguably the least understood. In The Science and Art of Interviewing, Kathleen Gerson and Sarah Damaske offer clear, theoretically informed and empirically rich strategies for conducting interview studies. They present both a rationale and guide to the science-and art-of in-depth interviewing to take readers through all the steps in the research process, from the initial stage of formulating a question to the final one of presenting the results. Gerson and Damaske show readers how to develop a research design for interviewing, decide on and find an appropriate sample, construct a questionnaire, conduct probing interviews, and analyze the data they collect. At each stage, they also provide practical tips about how to address the ever-present, but rarely discussed challenges that qualitative researchers routinely encounter, particularly emphasizing the relationship between conducting well-crafted research and building powerful social theories. With an engaging, accessible style, The Science and Art of Interviewing targets a wide range of audiences, from upper-level undergraduates and graduate methods courses to students embarking on their dissertations to seasoned researchers at all stages of their careers.

This core textbook offers an introduction to the basics of statistics that is uniquely suited to behavioural science students. The book offers coverage anchored to real-world stories, a highly visual approach, helpful mathematical support, and useful step-by-step examples. The book focuses on emerging trends that are redefining contemporary behavioural statistics.This textbook helps you get to grips with a challenging subject in an enjoyable and engaging way. The book can also be purchased with the breakthrough online resource, LaunchPad, which offers innovative media content, curated and organised for easy assignability. LaunchPad's intuitive interface presents quizzing, flashcards, animations and much more to make learning actively engaging.

Ideal for experienced students and researchers in the social sciences who wish to refresh or extend their understanding of statistics, and to apply advanced statistical procedures using SPSS or R. Key theory is reviewed and illustrated with examples of how to apply these concepts using real data. The proposed book will bridge the gap between the undergraduate and postgraduate levels, providing readers with a refresher of the skills they have learnt previously and then progressing to more advanced statistical methods. Wide coverage of methods in one single book, which will appeal to a range of researchers.

This book presents procedures and research techniques that are based on critical perspectives of Psychology and Education. The content is characterized by innovations on the relationship between the researcher and the investigated context, and it problematizes different perspectives and approaches to the psychological phenomenon proposing new understandings of the subject, the world, the social and the field of investigation itself as a permanent dialectical movement. The book reports to Marxist-based perspectives - especially to Vygotsky's ideas and concepts. Therefore, it assumes the comprehension that in order to understand the phenomenon in its historical dimension it is necessary to put it into motion seeking to access the genesis of the manifestations evidenced at the moment of the investigation. That is, the historicity that characterizes the process of constitution of the human psyche can only be apprehended in its movement, thus, what matters is the process and not the product of its development. Nevertheless, apprehending phenomena in movement is a challenge for researchers interested in human processes within the scope of relationships or practices of professionals and/or subjects of various scenarios, which leads to the need to problematize the different moments of research and their dimension in the theoretical and practical fields. Which methodological techniques or procedures allow the apprehension of the meaning movement produced by the subjects in the investigated scenarios? To what extent does dialectical materialism derived from Marxism support the apprehension and analysis of research information of this nature? What other theoretical-methodological perspectives, related to Cultural-Historical Psychology, offer subsidies to these investigations? The theoretical perspectives based on the Social and Cultural analysis focus on the understandings of collective contexts precisely because of the subject view constituted in the inter-subjective relations that it undertakes - which adds even more complexity to the investigative processes. From this perspective, both the subject and other participants transform themselves during the investigation, such transformation needs to be permanently reflected and included in the research objectives and purposes, in order to follow the movement of the meanings in the expressed phenomenon.

Interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) is a qualitative research approach committed to the examination of how people make sense of their major life experiences. This text provides a detailed guide to conducting IPA research, presenting the theoretical underpinnings of the approach, a comprehensive overview of the stages of an IPA research project, and examples of high-quality IPA studies. Extended worked examples from the authors' own studies in health, psychological distress, and identity illustrate the breadth and depth of IPA research, making this book the definitive guide to IPA for students and researchers alike. New to this edition: - A thoroughly updated chapter dedicated to analysis - An exemplary mini-study - Improved and updated terminology - A chapter discussing innovations in design, data collection, and collaboration 'It is not often I can use "accessible" and "phenomenology" in the same sentence, but reading the new book, Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis...certainly provides me the occasion to do so. I can say this because these authors provide an engaging and clear introduction to a relatively new analytical approach' - The Weekly Qualitative Report

Mastering the Semi-Structured Interview and Beyondoffers an in-depth and captivating step-by-step guide to the use of semi-structured interviews in qualitative research. By tracing the life of an actual research project-an exploration of a school district's effort over 40 years to address racial equality-as a consistent example threaded across the volume, Anne Galletta shows in concrete terms how readers can approach the planning and execution of their own new research endeavor, and illuminates unexpected real-life challenges they may confront and how to address them.The volume offers a close look at the inductive nature of qualitative research, the use of researcher reflexivity, and the systematic and iterative steps involved in data collection, analysis, and interpretation. It offers guidance on how to develop an interview protocol, including the arrangement of questions and ways to evoke analytically rich data.Particularly useful for those who may be familiar with qualitative research but have not yet conducted a qualitative study, Mastering the Semi-Structured Interview and Beyondwill serve both undergraduate and graduate students as well as more advanced scholars seeking to incorporate this key methodological approach into their repertoire.Anne Gallettais Associate Professor at the College of Education and Human Services at Cleveland State University.William E. Cross, Jr.is the author of Shades of Black: Diversity in African-American Identity.In theQualitative Studies in Psychologyseries

The advancement of new technologies has greatly increased the impact of information systems on daily human life. As technology continues to rapidly progress, human-computer interaction is quickly becoming a topic of interest. Human Behavior, Psychology, and Social Interaction in the Digital Era combines best practices and empirical research on social networking and other related technologies. Emphasizing creative and innovative implementation across various disciplines, this publication is a critical reference source for researchers, educators, students, IT managers, and government healthcare agencies concerned with the latest research in the fields of information systems and networks, mobile technology, cybercrime, and multitasking.

Social (psychological and sociological) systems present considerable difficulties for modellers due to their complexity, multidimensionality, uncertainty and irreducibility. The book proposes that response functions (MRF) be used as a method of constructing purposeful, credible and integrated social systems' models from data and prior knowledge or information. For case studies the authors have selected the problems usually studied by psychologists and sociologists with statistical procedures, such as investigation of variance and discriminant analysis based on the general linear model or one of its multivariate generalisations (structural equation models, etc.); disordered eating and obesity; subjective well-being and alexithymia. An accompanying CD-ROM contains the demonstration versions of three models that are discussed in the various chapters. The Method of Response Functions in Psychology and Sociology is aimed at Mathematical Psychologists; Mathematical Sociologists; Applied Psychologists; Sociologists and Social Practitioners. It will also be suitable for use on undergraduate as well as graduate and postgraduate courses specializing in these areas.

The concept of the Self has a long history that dates back from the ancient Greeks such as Aristotle to more contemporary thinkers such as Wundt, James, Mead, Cooley, Freud, Rogers, and Erikson (Tesser & Felson, 2000). Research on the Self relates to a range of phenomena including self-esteem, self-concept, self-protection, self-verification, self-awareness, identity, self-efficacy, self-determination etc. that could be sharply different or very similar. Despite this long tradition of thinkers and the numerous studies conducted on the Self, this concept is still not very well defined. More precisely, it is not a precise object of study, but rather a collection of loosely related subtopics (Baumesiter, 1998). Also, in the philosophical literature, the legitimacy of the concept of "self" has been brought into question. Some authors have argued that the self is not a psychological entity per se, but rather an illusion created by the complex interplay between cognitive and neurological subsystems (Zahavi, 2005). Although no definitive consensus has been reached regarding the Self, we emphasis in this volume that the Self and its related phenomena including self-concept, motivation, and identity are crucial for understanding consciousness and therefore important to understand human behavior. Self-Concept, Motivation and Identity: Underpinning Success with Research and Practice provides thus a unique insight into self-concept and its relationship to motivation and identity from varied theoretical and empirical perspectives. This volume is intended to develop both theoretical and methodological ideas and to present empirical evidence demonstrating the importance of theory and research to effective practice.

Assessment is an important part of any psychologist's role and the outcome can have consequences, positive and negative, for the person being assessed. The principles and practice of psychological assessment is a guide to drawing up, administering and interpreting assessment procedures, and judging whether the techniques used are theoretically and procedurally sound. It also takes a special look at assessment from an organisational perspective, because although many of the technical and scientific issues with respect to psychological assessment are common to all areas of applied psychology, there are numerous issues and applications that are unique to the organisational context. The principles and practice of psychological assessment is more of a "how to" than a critical text, but includes some background information and in-depth theorising for more problematic issues. A glossary of terms and a unique cognitive map of psychological tests are provided. Changes in this second edition include two new chapters, one on Assessing integrity (which previously formed part of the chapter on personality) and a new chapter on Assessment in cross-cultural contexts, where the theoretical and practical problems associated with assessing people in their non-native language are described and ways of addressing these are put forward. Throughout the text, references and examples have been updated and issues raised in recent texts have been addressed. Contents include the following: Properties of a good measuring technique; ways of categorising the observation process; techniques used in measurement; errors inherent in the assessment process; combining and interpreting results; fairness, bias and discrimination; assessing cross-culturally; designing and locating appropriate assessment centre exercises; assessing integrity. The principles and practice of psychological assessment is aimed at undergraduate and honours students of psychology and industrial psychology, as well as at practitioners.

Developed and adapted by the authors of this book, thematic analysis (TA) is one of the most popular qualitative data analytic techniques in psychology and the social and health sciences. Building on the success of Braun & Clarke's 2006 paper first outlining their approach - which has over 100,000 citations on Google Scholar - this book is the definitive guide to TA, covering: - Contextualisation of TA - Developing themes - Writing TA reports - Reflexive TA It addresses the common questions surrounding TA as well as developments in the field, offering a highly accessible and practical discussion of doing TA situated within a clear understanding of the wider terrain of qualitative research. Virginia Braun is a Professor in the School of Psychology at The University of Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand. Victoria Clarke is an Associate Professor in Qualitative and Critical Psychology in the Department of Social Sciences at the University of the West of England (UWE), Bristol.

Advances in Motivation Science, Volume Five, is the latest release in this serial on the topic of motivation science. Users will find comprehensive chapters on a variety of topics, including The functional architecture of personality, Parsing the role of mesolimbic dopamine in specific aspects of motivation: Behavioral activation, invigoration, and effort-based decision making, The allostatic brain: Prediction, affect and motivation, the Egosystem and Ecosystem: Motivational Systems for the Self, The Role of Flow in Optimal Development, PSI Theory, Self-Efficacy's Odd Role in Unifying Self-Regulation Theories, Children's Expectancies and Values: Developmental Trajectories and Impact on Performance and Choice, amongst other topics. The advent of the cognitive revolution in the 1960 and 70s eclipsed the emphasis on motivation to a large extent, but in the past two decades motivation has returned en force. Today, motivational analyses of affect, cognition and behavior are ubiquitous across psychological literatures and disciplines. This series brings together internationally recognized experts who focus on cutting-edge theoretical and empirical contributions in this important area of psychology.

Paying attention is something we are all familiar with and often take for granted, yet the nature of the operations involved in paying attention is one of the most profound mysteries of the brain. This book contains a rich, interdisciplinary collection of articles by some of the pioneers of contemporary research on attention. Central themes include how attention is moved within the visual field; attention's role during visual search, and the inhibition of these search processes; how attentional processing changes as continued practice leads to automatic performance; how visual and auditory attentional processing may be linked; and recent advances in functional neuro-imaging and how they have been used to study the brain's attentional network

People often try to figure out why they acted the way they did or why others close to them acted in a certain way. The thoughts we have about why things happened are known as attributions. People have these thoughts about communication behavior, and they communicate the thoughts that they have. This book brings together scholars from a variety of disciplines whose work focuses on the interplay of attribution processes and communication behavior in close relationships.

Smoking and tobacco have received much attention in the literature throughout this century, particularly in the last 30 years. The causal role of smoking in a large number of fatal diseases has been established. Concern about the ill effects of smoking has led to anti-smoking campaigns revolving around primary prevention and smoking cessation. This book focuses on the literature directed to those who cannot or will not quit smoking and offers an informed risk reduction approach aimed directly at the chronic smoker. A large number of smoking interventions are represented as well as the characteristics of smokers and the outcome of the respective interventions. The importance of continued research on controlled or reduced smoking as opposed to that of smoking cessation is outlined and methodological flaws are offered to alert future researchers. This literature will be an invaluable resource to health professionals, therapists, and others involved in the issue of health and the hazards of continued smoking.