Interpreting Statistics for Beginners teaches readers to correctly read and interpret results of basic statistical procedures as they are presented in scientific literature, and to understand what they can and cannot infer from such results.

The first of its kind, this book explains key elements of scientific paradigms and philosophical concepts that the use of statistics is based on and introduces readers to basic statistical concepts, descriptive statistics and basic elements and procedures of inferential statistics. Explanations are accompanied with detailed examples from scientific publications to demonstrate how the procedures are used and correctly interpreted. Additionally, Interpreting Statistics for Beginners shows readers how to recognize pseudoscientific claims that use statistics or statements not based on the presented data, which is an important skill for every professional relying on statistics in their work.

Written in an easy-to-read style and focusing on explaining concepts behind statistical calculations, the book is most helpful for readers with no previous training in statistics, and also those wishing to bridge the conceptual gap between doing the statistical calculations and interpreting the results.

Unexpected events during an evaluation all too often send evaluators into crisis mode. This insightful book provides a systematic framework for diagnosing, anticipating, accommodating, and reining in costs of evaluation surprises. The result is evaluation that is better from a methodological point of view, and more responsive to stakeholders. Jonathan A. Morell identifies the types of surprises that arise at different stages of a program's life cycle and that may affect different aspects of the evaluation, from stakeholder relationships to data quality, methodology, funding, deadlines, information use, and program outcomes. His analysis draws on 18 concise cases from well-known researchers in a variety of evaluation settings. Morell offers guidelines for responding effectively to surprises and for determining the risks and benefits of potential solutions.

The leading text that covers both the theory and practice of evaluation in one engaging volume has now been revised and updated with additional evaluation approaches (such as mixed methods and principles-focused evaluation) and new methods (such as technologically based strategies). The book features examples of small- and large-scale evaluations from a range of fields, many with reflective commentary from the evaluators; helpful checklists; and carefully crafted learning activities. Major theoretical paradigms in evaluation--and the ways they inform methodological choices--are explained. Readers learn effective strategies for clarifying their own theoretical assumptions; working with stakeholders; developing questions; using quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods designs; selecting data collection and sampling strategies; analyzing data; and communicating and utilizing findings. The new companion website provides extensive recommended online resources and tools, organized by chapter. New to This Edition *Additional evaluation approaches: collaborative evaluation, principles-focused evaluation, and desk reviews. *Coverage of new data collection technologies and methods of qualitative coding. *Expanded discussions of logic models, cost-benefit analysis, and mixed methods designs. *Many new and updated sample studies. Pedagogical Features *Reflection questions that prepare students to read each chapter. *"Extending Your Thinking" questions and practical activities. *Boxes delving into key concepts and example studies. *End-of-book Glossary, and highlighted key terms throughout. *Companion website with links to helpful resources on all aspects of evaluation.

In 2010, the International Cyberbullying Think Tank was held in order to discuss questions of definition, measurement, and methodologies related to cyberbullying research. The attendees goal was to develop a set of guidelines that current and future researchers could use to improve the quality of their research and advance our understanding of cyberbullying and related issues. This book is the product of their meetings, and is the first volume to provide researchers with a clear set of principles to inform their work on cyberbullying. The contributing authors, all participants in the Think Tank, review the existing research and theoretical frameworks of cyberbullying before exploring topics such as questions of methodology, sampling issues, methods employed so far, psychometric issues that must be considered, ethical considerations, and implications for prevention and intervention efforts. Researchers as well as practitioners seeking information to inform their prevention and intervention programs will find this to be a timely and essential resource.

* It offers an original answer to this question: evaluation spreads because we want to be evaluated. * Developing a critical reflection from a psychoanalytic perspective, it argues that workers are not mere victims of evaluation systems but are complicit in them. * Benedicte Vidaillet focuses on the aspects of our subjectivity that come into play in evaluation at work -our expectations, desires, need for recognition, our conceptions of ourselves at work, as well as our relationship with others such as colleagues, managers or clients - to explore how evaluation affects us, where it gets its evocative power, and what it stirs within us to make us want it, despite its detrimental effects in its currently practiced form. * Chapters draw on real-life examples, case studies from a variety of organizations, and observations from clinical practice, to provide insight into the many mechanisms that have enabled evaluation to spread unimpeded through our subjective complicity in the process, revealing how they came to seem so innocuous. * This book will be of interest to scholars studying the topic of evaluation at work from a critical perspective as well as professionals who use evaluation systems or are under the pressure of evaluation in all sectors and organizations. * By exposing the psychological mechanisms that evaluation uses to appeal to us, it gives each of us the tools we need to break free of its grasp.

Polls are conducted every day all around the world for almost everything (especially during elections). But not every poll is a good one. A lot depends on the type of questions asked, how they are asked and whether the sample used is truly representative. And these are not the only aspects of a poll that should be checked. So how does one separate the chaff from the wheat? That's where Understanding Public Opinion Polls comes in. Written by a well-known author with over thirty years of experience, the book is built around a checklist for polls that describes the various aspects of polls to pay attention to if one intends to use its results. By comprehensively answering the questions in the checklist, a good idea of the quality of the poll is obtained. Features: Provides readers with a deeper understanding of practical and theoretical aspects of opinion polls while assuming no background in mathematics or statistics Shows how to determine if a poll is good or bad Provides a historical perspective and includes examples from real polls Gives special attention to online and election polls The book gives an overview of many aspects of polls - questionnaire design, sample selection, estimation, margins of error, nonresponse and weighting. It is essential reading for those who want to gain a better understanding of the ins and outs of polling including those who are confronted with polls in their daily life or work or those who need to learn how to conduct their own polls.

The new edition of An Introduction to Statistical Concepts is designed to help students really understand statistical concepts, the situations in which they can be used, and how to apply them to data. Hahs-Vaughn and Lomax discuss the most popular, along with many of the lesser-known, procedures and models, whilst also exploring nonparametric procedures used when standard assumptions are violated. They provide in-depth coverage of testing assumptions and highlight several online tools for computing statistics (e.g., effect sizes and their confidence intervals and power). This comprehensive, flexible, and accessible text includes a new chapter on mediation and moderation; expanded coverage of effect sizes; and discussions of sensitivity, specificity, false positive, and false negative, along with using the receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curve. In addition to instructions and screen shots for using SPSS, new to this edition is annotated script for using R. This book, noted for its crystal-clear explanations, and its inclusion of only the most crucial equations, is an invaluable resource for students undertaking a course in statistics in any number of social science and behavioral disciplines-from education, business, communication, exercise science, psychology, sociology and more.

This book examines and explores Jacques Lacan's controversial topologisation of psychoanalysis, and seeks to persuade the reader that this enterprise was necessary and important. In providing both an introduction to a fundamental component of Lacan's theories, as well as readings of texts that have been largely ignored, it provides a thorough critical interpretation of his work. Will Greenshields argues that Lacan achieved his most pedagogically clear and successful presentations of his most essential and notoriously complex concepts - such as structure, the subject and the real - through the deployment of topology. The book will help readers to better understand Lacan, and also those concepts that have become prevalent in various intellectual discourses such as contemporary continental philosophy, politics and the study of ideology, and literary or cultural criticism.

Dieser Buchtitel ist Teil des Digitalisierungsprojekts Springer Book Archives mit Publikationen, die seit den Anfangen des Verlags von 1842 erschienen sind. Der Verlag stellt mit diesem Archiv Quellen fur die historische wie auch die disziplingeschichtliche Forschung zur Verfugung, die jeweils im historischen Kontext betrachtet werden mussen. Dieser Titel erschien in der Zeit vor 1945 und wird daher in seiner zeittypischen politisch-ideologischen Ausrichtung vom Verlag nicht beworben.

Now in its fifth, expanded edition, Using Sources Effectively, Fifth Edition targets the two most prominent problems in current research-paper writing: the increase in unintentional plagiarism and the ineffective use of research source material. Designed as a supplementary textbook for both undergraduate and graduate courses, this book will help every student who uses research in writing. Included in this edition are coverage of research strategies and source selection (Chapter 2), a chapter on quoting sources effectively (Chapter 4), and a chapter on sentence patterns (Chapter 10). APA and MLA citation styles have been updated throughout the text. To the student: This book was written to give you the knowledge and tools you can use to make your research-based writing more powerful and effective. Here are some examples: Mini-Research Projects at the end of each chapter to sharpen your research and evaluation skills A set of practical, useful rhetorical devices to help improve the clarity and impact of your writing Increased emphasis on synthesis writing-weaving source use into your own thinking-to give your writing more interest and persuasive power Instruction in close reading to help you better grasp what an author is discussing or arguing Strategies for organizing and positioning your sources to strengthen your central argument.

A new take on therapeutic mindfulness with specific applications to troubled and delinquent youth is the focus of this innovative text. It introduces Family Mode Deactivation Therapy (FMDT) and its core concepts and methodologies, differentiating it from other cognitive and mindfulness therapies for adolescents with problem behaviors and comorbid conditions. Step by step applications of FMDT from case conceptualization to assessment and treatment are featured, with detailed case studies demonstrating its effectiveness in treating mood disorders, aggressive behavior and trauma and guidelines for its use with abusive families and other complex cases. The book's depth of clinical detail and appendix of therapist tools make it especially practical. Included in the coverage: A comparison of MDT with other cognitive approaches. The empirical status of MDT. Mindfulness in MDT process, and in the treatment room. FMDT and sexual offender youth. MDT and mindfulness in the context of trauma. Treating the "untreatable": FMDT and challenging populations. While Treating Adolescents with Family-Based Mindfulness is immediately useful to practicing psychotherapists, it should also be of interest to other professionals with a role in adolescent health care, such as policymakers, social workers, supervisors, juvenile corrections and youth center personnel and students and researchers.

Case study research is a versatile approach that allows for different data sources to be combined, with its main purpose being theory development. This book goes a step further by combining different case study research designs, informed by the authors' extensive teaching and research experience. It provides an accessible introduction to case study research, familiarizes readers with different archetypical and sequenced designs, and describes these designs and their components using both real and fictional examples. It provides thought-provoking exercises, and in doing so, prepares the reader to design their own case study in a way that suits the research objective. Written for an academic audience, this book is useful for students, their supervisors and professors, and ultimately any researcher who intends to use, or is already using, the case study approach.

Psychic Retreats are states of mind to which patients can withdraw to evade anxiety and mental pain. The patient who does so excessively gets drawn into a tight knit web of relationships which become organised into a complex structure called a pathological organisation of the personality. This leads to the patient being "stuck" in their life and in their analysis. Using current Kleinian theory, John Steiner examines how Psychic Retreats are constructed and how analysts can treat them.

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Studying Complex Interactions and Outcomes Through Qualitative Comparative Analysis: A Practical Guide to Comparative Case Studies and Ethnographic Data Analysis offers practical, methodological, and theoretically robust guidelines to systematically study the causalities, dynamics, and outcomes of complex social interactions in multiple source data sets. It demonstrates how to convert data from multisited ethnography of investment politics, mobilizations, and citizen struggles into a Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA). In this book, Markus Kroeger focuses on how data collected primarily via multisited political ethnography, supplemented by other materials and verified by multiple forms of triangulation, can be systematically analyzed through QCA. The results of this QCA offer insight on how to study the political and economic outcomes in natural resource conflicts, across different contexts and political systems. This book applies the method in practice using examples from the author's own research. With a focus on social movement studies, it shows how QCA can be used to analyze a multiple data source database, that includes results from multiple case studies. This book is a practical guide for researchers and students in social movement studies and other disciplines that produce ethnographic data from multiple sources on how to analyze complex databases through the QCA.

Cases and Stories of Transformative Action Research builds on its companion book, Principles and Methods of Transformative Action Research, by describing and analyzing dozens of examples of successful action research efforts pursued in the past five decades by students and faculty of the Western Institute for Social Research. Some projects are large-scale, and some are modest interventions in the everyday lives of those participating. Some are formal organizational efforts; others are the results of individual or small group initiatives. Included are chapters on community needs assessments and innovative grassroots approaches to program evaluation; the challenges of improving our decision-making during the crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic; strategies of intellectual activism in addressing the growing problem of workplace bullying; action research to preserve and share the history of the Omaha tribe; and plans for an innovative school-based project based on collaborative action-and-inquiry between students and Artificial Intelligence. In addition, there are a number of detailed stories about the use of transformative action research in such areas as somatic and trauma counseling, ethnic studies, health disparities, gender differences, grassroots popular education, and the improvement of statewide steps for preventing child abuse, among many others. This book can serve as an undergraduate or graduate social sciences text on research methods. It is also a guidebook for action-oriented research by academics, professionals, and lay people alike.

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.

Scientometrics for the Humanities and Social Sciences is the first ever book on scientometrics that deals with the historical development of both quantitative and qualitative data analysis in scientometric studies. It focuses on its applicability in new and emerging areas of inquiry. This important book presents the inherent potential for data mining and analysis of qualitative data in scientometrics. The author provides select cases of scientometric studies in the humanities and social sciences, explaining their research objectives, sources of data and methodologies. It illustrates how data can be gathered not only from prominent online databases and repositories, but also from journals that are not stored in these databases. With the support of specific examples, the book shows how data on demographic variables can be collected to supplement scientometric data. The book deals with a research methodology which has an increasing applicability not only to the study of science, but also to the study of the disciplines in the humanities and social sciences.

Paranoia is the suspicion that other intend to cause you harm. It is a common experience in the general population, though often overlooked. In its most severe form, paranoia occurs as persecutory delusions. Paranoia, written by leading researchers in this field, is the first cognitive psychology book to have persecutory delusions as its focus. Scholarly, comprehensive and illustrated by clinical examples throughout, this study defines the phenomena in detail and analyses the content of persecutory delusions. It reviews previous psychological writings, explores the relationship between psychosis and neurosis, reports on innovative empirical studies with patients, and highlights future essential research directions. Paranoia outlines a new theoretical model of the formation and maintenance of persecutory delusions, providing an excellent guide to this important clinical topic. It will be of great interest and use to all psychiatrists and clinical psychologists who work in this field.

Meta-analysis is the application of statistics to combine results from multiple studies and draw appropriate inferences. Its use and importance have exploded over the last 25 years as the need for a robust evidence base has become clear in many scientific areas, including medicine and health, social sciences, education, psychology, ecology, and economics. Recent years have seen an explosion of methods for handling complexities in meta-analysis, including explained and unexplained heterogeneity between studies, publication bias, and sparse data. At the same time, meta-analysis has been extended beyond simple two-group comparisons of continuous and binary outcomes to comparing and ranking the outcomes from multiple groups, to complex observational studies, to assessing heterogeneity of effects, and to survival and multivariate outcomes. Many of these methods are statistically complex and are tailored to specific types of data. Key features Rigorous coverage of the full range of current statistical methodology used in meta-analysis Comprehensive, coherent, and unified overview of the statistical foundations behind meta-analysis Detailed description of the primary methods for both univariate and multivariate data Computer code to reproduce examples in chapters Thorough review of the literature with thousands of references Applications to specific types of biomedical and social science data Supplementary website with code, data, sample chapters, and errata This book is for a broad audience of graduate students, researchers, and practitioners interested in the theory and application of statistical methods for meta-analysis. It is written at the level of graduate courses in statistics, but will be of interest to and readable for quantitative scientists from a range of disciplines. The book can be used as a graduate level textbook, as a general reference for methods, or as an introduction to specialized topics using state-of-the art methods.

This book offers a refreshing new approach to mental health by showing how 'mental health' behaviours, lived experiences, and our interventions arise from our social worlds and not from our neurophysiology gone wrong. It is part of a trilogy which offers a new way of doing psychology focusing on people's social and societal environments as determining their behaviour, rather than internal and individualistic attributions. 'Mental health' behaviours are carefully analysed as ordinary behaviours which have become exaggerated and chronic because of the bad life situations people are forced to endure, especially as children. This shifts mental health treatments away from the dominance of psychology and psychiatry to show that social action is needed because many of these bad life situations are produced by our modern society itself. By providing new ways for readers to rethink everything they thought they knew about mental health issues and how to change them, Bernard Guerin also explores how by changing our environmental contexts (our local, societal, and discursive worlds), we can improve mental health interventions. This book reframes 'mental health' into a much wider social context to show how societal structures restrict our opportunities and pathways to produce bad life situations, and how we can also learn from those who manage to deal with the very same bad life situations through crime, bullying, exploitation, and dropping out of mainstream society, rather than through the 'mental health' behaviours. By merging psychology and psychiatry into the social sciences, Guerin seeks to better understand how humans operate in their social, cultural, economic, patriarchal, discursive, and societal worlds, rather than being isolated inside their heads with a 'faulty brain', and this will provide fascinating reading for academics and students in psychology and the social sciences, and for counsellors and therapists.

Second Edition offers a comprehensive presentation of scientific sampling principles and shows how to design a sample survey and analyze the resulting data. Demonstrates the validity of theorems and statements without resorting to detailed proofs.

Collecting and analyzing data on unemployment, inflation, and inequality help describe the complex world around us. When published by the government, such data are called official statistics. They are reported by the media, used by politicians to lend weight to their arguments, and by economic commentators to opine about the state of society. Despite such widescale use, explanations about how these measures are constructed are seldom provided for a non-technical reader. This Measuring Society book is a short, accessible guide to six topics: jobs, house prices, inequality, prices for goods and services, poverty, and deprivation. Each relates to concepts we use on a personal level to form an understanding of the society in which we live: We need a job, a place to live, and food to eat. Using data from the United States, we answer three basic questions: why, how, and for whom these statistics have been constructed. We add some context and flavor by discussing the historical background. This book provides the reader with a good grasp of these measures. Chaitra H. Nagaraja is an Associate Professor of Statistics at the Gabelli School of Business at Fordham University in New York. Her research interests include house price indices and inequality measurement. Prior to Fordham, Dr. Nagaraja was a researcher at the U.S. Census Bureau. While there, she worked on projects relating to the American Community Survey.

Statistical Concepts-A Second Course presents the last 10 chapters from An Introduction to Statistical Concepts, Fourth Edition. Designed for second and upper-level statistics courses, this book highlights how statistics work and how best to utilize them to aid students in the analysis of their own data and the interpretation of research results. In this new edition, Hahs-Vaughn and Lomax discuss sensitivity, specificity, false positive and false negative errors. Coverage of effect sizes has been expanded upon and more organizational features (to summarize key concepts) have been included. A final chapter on mediation and moderation has been added for a more complete presentation of regression models. In addition to instructions and screen shots for using SPSS, new to this edition is annotated script for using R. This book acts as a clear and accessible instructional tool to help readers fully understand statistical concepts and how to apply them to data. It is an invaluable resource for students undertaking a course in statistics in any number of social science and behavioral science disciplines.

Designing a research project is possibly the most difficult task a dissertation writer faces. It is fraught with uncertainty: what is the best subject? What is the best method? For every answer found, there are often multiple subsequent questions, so it's easy to get lost in theoretical debates and buried under a mountain of literature. This book looks at literature review in the process of research design, and how to develop a research practice that will build skills in reading and writing about research literature-skills that remain valuable in both academic and professional careers. Literature review is approached as a process of engaging with the discourse of scholarly communities that will help graduate researchers refine, define, and express their own scholarly vision and voice. This orientation on research as an exploratory practice, rather than merely a series of predetermined steps in a systematic method, allows the researcher to deal with the uncertainties and changes that come with learning new ideas and new perspectives. The focus on the practical elements of research design makes this book an invaluable resource for graduate students writing dissertations. Practicing research allows room for experiment, error, and learning, ultimately helping graduate researchers use the literature effectively to build a solid scholarly foundation for their dissertation research project.