Schooling matters. The authors' professional pursuits for over twenty-five years have been focused on measuring one key aspect of schooling: the curriculum - what students are expected to study and what they spend their time studying. This documents their conviction that schools and schooling play a vital and defining role in what students know and are able to do with respect to mathematics and science. This research examines seventeen international studies of mathematics and science to provide a nuanced comparative education study. Whilst including multiple measures of students' family and home backgrounds, these studies measure the substance of the curriculum students study which has been shown to have a strong relationship with student performance. Such studies have demonstrated the interrelatedness of student background and curriculum. Student background influences their opportunities to learn and their achievements, yet their schooling can have even greater significance.

This timely collection explores how children display social competence in talking about their mental health and wellbeing. The authors analyse recorded conversations of young people's interactions with professionals in which they disclose particular mental health concerns and their ways of coping, drawing on insights from ethnomethodology, conversation analysis and discursive psychology. Across a diverse range of institutional and international settings, chapters examine how children and young people employ interactional strategies to demonstrate their competence. The research reveals how young people resist or protect claims that they lack competence, especially in contexts where they might be seen as seeking or asking for support, or when their (dis)abilities and mental health is explicitly up for discussion. Each chapter concludes with a reflection on the methodological, professional and practical implications of the findings, highlighting areas where future research is necessary and addressing the empirical findings from the authors professional vision, facilitating innovative dialogue between conversation analytic research and professional vision. This book will be of great value to academics and professionals interested in how children express themselves, particularly in relation to their mental wellbeing.

This second edition of Design of Observational Studies is both an introduction to statistical inference in observational studies and a detailed discussion of the principles that guide the design of observational studies. An observational study is an empiric investigation of effects caused by treatments when randomized experimentation is unethical or infeasible. Observational studies are common in most fields that study the effects of treatments on people, including medicine, economics, epidemiology, education, psychology, political science and sociology. The quality and strength of evidence provided by an observational study is determined largely by its design. Design of Observational Studies is organized into five parts. Chapters 2, 3, and 5 of Part I cover concisely many of the ideas discussed in Rosenbaum's Observational Studies (also published by Springer) but in a less technical fashion. Part II discusses the practical aspects of using propensity scores and other tools to create a matched comparison that balances many covariates, and includes an updated chapter on matching in R. In Part III, the concept of design sensitivity is used to appraise the relative ability of competing designs to distinguish treatment effects from biases due to unmeasured covariates. Part IV is new to this edition; it discusses evidence factors and the computerized construction of more than one comparison group. Part V discusses planning the analysis of an observational study, with particular reference to Sir Ronald Fisher's striking advice for observational studies: "make your theories elaborate." This new edition features updated exploration of causal influence, with four new chapters, a new R package DOS2 designed as a companion for the book, and discussion of several of the latest matching packages for R. In particular, DOS2 allows readers to reproduce many analyses from Design of Observational Studies.

"This new book by Carla Willig closes a gap in qualitative research in psychology and beyond. It focuses on the process of understanding in qualitative data analysis by taking the perspective of interpretation: What links our understanding with social and psychological phenomena in qualitative research? With its broad coverage of the literature and its clear style of writing it will be most helpful for anyone applying qualitative research to psychological phenomena." Uwe Flick, Alice Salomon University, Berlin and Vienna Universities"In this work Carla Willig takes on one of the most pressing challenges in qualitative inquiry: how are we to confront multiplicity in interpretation? I began reading with great curiosity; I came away feeling that this is the best treatment of this complex subject I have yet encountered. Combining conceptual sophistication, the skill of clarity, and a welcome sense of balance, Willig illuminates and enriches. Her discussion on the ethics of interpretation sets the book apart. Now I clamor to join the discussions demanded by this fascinating work." Kenneth Gergen, Senior Research Professor, Swarthmore College, USA "Carla Willig's balanced and insightful text goes to the heart of what is stake in debates over qualitative analysis: the act of interpretation itself. Beginning with the idea that the researcher must recognise both the responsibility and privilege of research, Willig clearly demonstrates how interpretation is actually performed and how to negotiate the epistemological and practical issues that are involved. Opposing the tendency for the researcher to disappear in the act of 'doing analysis', this book offers a distinctively human and affective vision of interpretative work. There is much here for both dedicated qualitative researchers and curious empiricists of every stripe. Students of psychology, read on: you have nothing to lose but your prejudices." Steven Brown, Professor of Social and Organisational Psychology, University of Leicester, UK"At last! This is the book that qualitative researchers in psychology have required for some time, and it fills a significant gap for the field. Willig provides a brilliantly written comprehensive account of the importance and value of interpretation in qualitative research, covering theory, ethics and debate around interpretation, and including detailed practical applications that reveal the complexities and complications involved in interpretative analytic work. This text exposes the necessity of reaching for interpretation in qualitative data analysis, and is essential reading for qualitative researchers, whatever their level of expertise, both within and beyond psychology." Kerry Chamberlain, Professor of Social and Health Psychology, Massey University, New ZealandInterpretation is an integral part of all qualitative research, yet relatively little has been written about its process. In her new book, Carla Willig, author of international bestseller Introducing Qualitative Research Methods in Psychology, sheds light on the role of interpretation in qualitative research in psychology and describes the different approaches for practice.Packed with case studies, two full interview transcripts and worked examples from psychology, health sciences and the arts, Willig skilfully guides you to conduct qualitative research which is interpretative and based upon a clear rationale and interpretative position. You will also learn how to evaluate interpretative research and to acquire an understanding of what constitutes best ethical practice. Carla's transcribed conversations with Stephen Frosh, Christine Griffin and Jonathan Smith about the meaning and practice of interpretation provide a fascinating insight into the ways in which highly experienced researchers engage with the challenge of interpreting qualitative data. This book will be valuable reading for all psychology students, researchers and practitioners and a useful reference for students across the social sciences and related health disciplines.

This textbook provides a guide to the development of a rigorous and creative research-supported practice for students, practitioners, and researchers in counselling and psychotherapy. With an emphasis on critical thinking and "research mindedness", it introduces practical research skills and links them to self-awareness and critical reflection. Learning how to creatively and effectively use oneself in the treatment process is an essential component in therapy training and this level of self-awareness has long been a neglected area in research - until now. With examples ranging from private therapeutic practice to psychiatric related research, each chapter combines 'how-to-do-it' advice with illustrative real-life examples. The authors outline the use of a broad range of research methods, embracing Arts- as well as RCT-based research, and covering qualitative, quantitative, pluralistic and mixed methods approaches. Whether you are engaging with research for the first time or already developing your own research projects, if you are a student at diploma level or taking a Postgraduate research course for counsellors, psychotherapists and counselling psychotherapists, this is essential reading for anyone looking for a book that combines self-awareness with analytical and practical skills.

The second edition of this textbook provides expanded and updated guidance on the process of psychoeducational assessment and report writing for children in grades K-12. It casts the entire process within a newly proposed evidence-based psychoeducational assessment and report writing framework, and explains how to convey results through detailed, well-written reports. The new edition guides readers, step by step, through the assessment process - collecting data, writing reports, and communicating conclusions - for students with conditions spanning the range of IDEA classifications. Chapters offer a broad understanding of assessment and communication skills as well as the ethical, legal, cultural, and professional considerations that come with psychoeducational evaluation. In addition, chapters significantly expand on the coverage of learning disabilities, autism spectrum, intellectual disabilities, gifted, and other health-impaired and emotional disturbance assessment. The text updates sample reports from the previous edition, offering annotated commentary in the report explaining salient points and major decisions, and incorporates additional report samples to demonstrate fully the assessment and report writing process. Key topics addressed in the revised and expanded edition include: Psychoeducational assessment and report writing in school and clinic settings. Interview formats from various perspectives, including caregivers/parents, teachers, and students. Assessment of culturally and linguistically diverse youth. Assessment of social, emotional, behavioral and mental health difficulties that may affect students' educational functioning. Common academic difficulties, including reading, writing and mathematics. Common recommendations and accommodations for behavioral, social, emotional, and learning needs. Incorporation of response-to-intervention/curriculum based assessment data into the psychoeducational report. Psychoeducational Assessment and Report Writing, 2nd Edition, is an essential textbook for graduate students as well as researchers, professors, and professionals in child and school psychology, educational assessment, testing, and evaluation, social work, and related disciplines.

The latest volume in this multidisciplinary series on key topics in evolutionary studies, Evolutionary Perspectives on Death provides an evolutionary analysis of mortality and the consideration of death. Bringing together noted experts from a variety of fields, the books emanate from conferences held at Oakland University, and are dedicated to providing wide ranging and occasionally provocative views of human evolution. The volume on death covers topics from biology, anthropology, psychology, sociology and philosophy, with contributors addressing how evolution informs the process of comprehending, grieving, depicting, celebrating, and accepting death. Among the topics covered: Evolutionary perspectives on the loss of a twin Nonhuman primate responses to death Death in literature Witnessing and representing the death of pets The role of human decomposition facilities in shaping American perspectives on death This insightful volume showcases groundbreaking empirical and theoretical research addressing death and mortality from an evolutionary perspective, demonstrating the intellectual value of an interdisciplinary approach to understanding psychological processes and behavior. Chapter 6 of this book is available open access under a CC BY 4.0 license at link.springer.com.

Dynamic risk factors add a key element to the activities of practitioners seeking to reduce recidivism in criminal populations.This book focuses on the usefulness of dynamic risk factors and their ability to provide reliable information about the likelihood of reoffending. Practitioners increasingly depend on such assessments for more accurate prediction of recidivism as well as for improving the design of intervention programs.

This book provides the first comparative analysis of the three major streams of contemporary narrative psychology as they have been developed in North America, Europe, and Australia and New Zealand. Interrogating the historical and cultural conditions in which this important movement in psychology has emerged, the book presents clear, well-structured comparisons and critique of the key theories of narrative psychology pioneered across the globe. Examples include Dan McAdams in the US and his followers, who have developed a distinctive approach to self and identity as a life story over the past two decades; in the Netherlands by Hubert Hermans, whose research on the 'dialogical self' has made the University of Nijmegen a centre of narrative psychological research in Europe; and in Australia and New Zealand, where the collaborative efforts of Michael White and David Epston helped to launch the narrative movement in psychotherapy in the late 1980s.

This book reconstructs the rise and fall of Wilhelm Wundt's fortunes, focusing for the first time on the role of Richard Avenarius as catalyst for the so-called "positivist repudiation of Wundt." Krauss specifically looks at the progressive disavowal of Wundtian ideas in the world of scientific psychology, and especially by his former pupils. This book provides important historical context and a critical discussion of the current state of research, in addition to a detailed consideration of Wundt's and Avenarius' systems of thought, as well as on their personal relationship. The author outlines the reception of Avenarius' conceptions among Wundt's pupils, such as Kulpe, Munsterberg and Titchener, and among other psychologists of the time, such as Ward, James and Ebbinghaus. Finally, this book presents Wundt's two-fold attempt to respond to the new trend through a criticism of the "materialistic" psychology, and a reformulation of his own ideas.

Why psychology is in peril as a scientific discipline-and how to save it Psychological science has made extraordinary discoveries about the human mind, but can we trust everything its practitioners are telling us? In recent years, it has become increasingly apparent that a lot of research in psychology is based on weak evidence, questionable practices, and sometimes even fraud. The Seven Deadly Sins of Psychology diagnoses the ills besetting the discipline today and proposes sensible, practical solutions to ensure that it remains a legitimate and reliable science in the years ahead. In this unflinchingly candid manifesto, Chris Chambers shows how practitioners are vulnerable to powerful biases that undercut the scientific method, how they routinely torture data until it produces outcomes that can be published in prestigious journals, and how studies are much less reliable than advertised. Left unchecked, these and other problems threaten the very future of psychology as a science-but help is here.

This open access book outlines the intersections between social work and the methods of sociometry and psychodrama. Different sections offer essential practice wisdom for both trauma-focused and trauma-informed experiential work for individuals, groups, organizations, and communities. This text enriches the understanding of various action-based approaches and highlights how to enliven social work practice. The chapters include clinical vignettes and examples of structured sociometric prompts with diverse populations, topics, and social work settings to enhance the understanding of group practice, individual practice, and community practice. It provides social workers and other professionals with dynamic tools to improve assessment, intervention, activism, and leadership. Strength-based practical tools are offered to readers, along with guidance for theoretical conceptualizations. This integrative book is an essential read for students, practitioners, leaders, and scholars within the fields of social work, psychodrama, the creative art therapies, group therapy, community organizing, and social activism.

What is it that drives people to undertake music research? Such interest frequently grows from on-the-ground experiences as learners, performers, facilitators, composers, arts administrators, and educators. It can emerge, for example, from music teachers trying out new teaching methods, performers wishing to know more about how to improvise effectively, educators pursuing the most effective ways to structure music curricula, musicians aiming to explain why their music enhances wellbeing among different groups of people, and orchestral managers seeking to promote and protect the health of their players. At the heart of all of these enquiries lies a question of some sort, and it is these research questions that determine the direction of the research to be undertaken. Performing Music Research is a comprehensive guide to planning, conducting, analyzing, and communicating research in music performance. The book examines the approaches and strategies that underpin research in music education, psychology, and performance science. It reviews the knowledge and skills needed to critique existing studies in these fields and to design and carry out new investigations. Perspectives on qualitative, quantitative, and multistrategy methodologies are highlighted across the book in ways that help aspiring researchers bring precision to their research questions, select methods that are appropriate for addressing their questions, and apply those methods systematically and rigorously. Each chapter contains a study guide, comprising a chapter summary, a list of keywords, and suggestions for further discussion, and the book concludes with a resources section, including a glossary and supplementary material to support advanced statistical analysis. The book''s companion website provides information designed to facilitate access to original research and to test knowledge and understanding.

This book brings together into one edited volume the most compelling rationales for literary reading and health, the best current practices in this area and state of the art research methodologies. It consolidates the findings and insights of this burgeoning field of enquiry across diverse disciplines and groups: psychologists, neurologists, and social scientists; literary scholars, writers and philosophers; medical researchers and practitioners; reading charities and arts organisations. Following introductory chapters on the literary-historical background to reading and health, the book is divided into four key sections. The first part focuses on Practices, showcasing reading interventions and cultures in clinical and community mental health care and in secure settings. This is followed by Research Methodologies, featuring innovative qualitative and quantitative approaches, and by a section covering Theory, with chapters from eminent thinkers in psychiatry, psychology and psychoanalysis. The final part is concerned with Implementation, incorporating perspectives from health professionals, commissioners and reading practitioners. This innovate work explains why reading matters in health and wellbeing, and offers a foundational text to future scholars in the field and to health professionals and policy-makers in relation to the embedding of reading practices in professional health care.

This book proposes a novel method of combining the current approaches to counselling and psychotherapy into one coherent framework. The authors argue that the cognitive behavioural tradition (largely focused on thought patterns) and the psychodynamic approach (centred on the client's experience and relationships), can be successfully integrated with insights from cognitive neuroscience, to form a fruitful synthesis. In doing so they provide a perspective that will enable practitioners to more fully appreciate each client's unique inner world, based on their individual history and environment. The authors point towards the brain's innate ability to understand and learn from experience so as to direct the growth of that inner world. This book elaborates a method of tapping into this innate growth potential, so as to help clients move forward when they have become trapped in non-productive patterns or mental stalemates. It will provide fresh insights and a valuable resource for counselling psychologists, counsellors and psychotherapists, as well as for academics and students in these fields.

Discovering Structural Equation Modeling Using Stata, Revised Edition is devoted to Stata's sem command and all it can do. Learn about its capabilities in the context of confirmatory factor analysis, path analysis, structural equation modeling, longitudinal models, and multiple-group analysis. Each model is presented along with the necessary Stata code, which is parsimonious, powerful, and can be modified to fit a wide variety of models. The datasets used are downloadable, offering a hands-on approach to learning. A particularly exciting feature of Stata is the SEM Builder. This graphical interface for structural equation modeling allows you to draw publication-quality path diagrams and fit the models without writing any programming code. When you fit a model with the SEM Builder, Stata automatically generates the complete code that you can save for future use. Use of this unique tool is extensively covered in an appendix and brief examples appear throughout the text.

This volume offers insights into contemporary trends and perspectives in psychobiographical research. It applys new theoretical and methodological frameworks and presents discourses on psychobiography from transdisciplinary backgrounds and various socio-cultural contexts, displaying the new state-of-the-art, new trends and themes in psychobiography. The book outlines psychobiography's outstanding contribution to psychology from 36 internationally reputable authors. It also presents the ideas of five outstanding psychobiographers through interview excerpts. This book is a must for researchers, lecturers and practitioners in the field of psychology and social sciences interested in the use of new psychological theories and methodologies in life-span research.

This book explores how philosophical realisms relate to psychoanalytical conceptions of the Real, and in turn how the Lacanian framework challenges basic philosophical notions of object and reality. The author examines how contemporary psychoanalysis might respond to the question of ontology by taking advantage of the recent revitalization of realism in its speculative form. While the philosophical side of the debate makes a plea for an independent ontological consistency of the Real, this book proposes a Lacanian reassessment of the definition of the Real as 'what is foreign to subjectivity itself'. In doing so, it reframes the question of the Real in terms of what is already there beneath the supposedly linguistic constitution of subjectivity. The book then goes on to engage the problem of cognition in the realm of Nature qua materiality, focusing on the centrality of the body as a linguistic-material hybrid. It argues that it is possible to re-establish the theoretical dignity of Ricoeur's notion of 'suspicion', by building a dialogue between Lacanian psychoanalysis and three main domains of inquiry: desire, objects and bodily enjoyment. Borrowing from Piera Aulagnier's theory of the Other as a word-bearer, it considers the genesis of desire and sense of reality both explainable through a hybrid framework which comprises psychoanalytical insights and material dynamics in a comprehensive account. This created theoretical space is an opportunity for both philosophers and psychoanalysts to rethink key Lacanian insights in light of the problem of the Real.

This edited volume seeks to critically engage with the diversity of feminist and post-colonial theory to counter hegemonic Western knowledge in mainstream community psychology. In doing so, it situates paradigms of thought and representation that capture the lived experiences of those in the global South. Specifically, the book takes an intersectional approach towards its reshaping of community psychology, centering African, black, postcolonial, and decolonial feminist critiques in its 1) critique of existing hegemonic Euro-American community psychology concepts, theories, and practice, 2) proposal of new feminist, indigenous, and decolonial methodological approaches, and 3) real-life examples of engagement, research, dialogue, and reflexive qualitative psychology practice. The book concludes with an agenda for theorization and research for future practice in postcolonial contexts. The volume is relevant to researchers, practitioners, and students in psychology, anthropology, sociology, public health, development studies, social work, urban studies, and women's and gender studies across global contexts.

This book provides a detailed examination of argumentative interactions in families with young children during mealtimes. It explores both the restrictions and the opportunities family mealtimes present and the types of issues addressed through argumentative discussions. Antonio Bova puts forward an in depth analysis of how both parents and children contribute to the inception and development of an argumentative discussion, and the categories of argument adopted most often by the two groups. Drawing upon a wealth of qualitative data from the recorded mealtime conversations of Italian and Swiss-Italian middle-class families, the author examines the crucial importance of argumentative interactions between parents and children during mealtimes. This book builds on recent advances in the study of the psychology of social interaction and sheds new light on the importance of argumentation at all stages of life.

This timely and applied textbook brings together leading scientists to illustrate how key theories and concepts in social psychology help to predict and explain behavior, and can be successfully applied to benefit social and practical problems. It focuses on robust theories and models known for their successful applications and covers a diverse range of settings-spanning classroom interventions, health behavior, financial decision making, climate change and much more. Each chapter comprises of a theoretical section to define the key concepts and summarize the theory, providing evidence for its reliability and limitations from basic research, as well as an application section that summarizes research in an applied context and provides details about a particular study including the respective application setting. The textbook expertly shows how theory can make meaningful predictions for real world contexts, and isn't afraid to explain the potential hurdles and pitfalls when applying a theory and its underlying set of concepts in a certain context. Crucially, this format moves towards theory testing in applied contexts, enabling a closer examination of why and under what circumstances interventions may be successful in obtaining a desired behavioral or psychological end-state. Among the topics explored: Mindset theory of action phases and if-then planning Quality of motivation in self-determination theory The focus theory of normative conduct Social identity theory and intergroup contact theory Intergroup forgiveness Social Psychology in Action is a critical resource for advanced undergraduate and graduate students in social and cultural psychology, as well as students of behavioral economics seeking to develop a deeper understanding of major theories and applications of the fields. Practitioners working in the areas of organizational behavior and management, health communication, social work, and educational science and pedagogy will also find the volume pertinent to their work.

This posthumous publication attempts to answer the question of what moral code is the most reasonable. Philosophers often turn to consequentialism or deontological ethics to address this issue. As the author points out, each has valid arguments but each is unable to get the other side to agree. To rectify this, he proposes a third way. Inside, readers will discover a theory that tries to do justice to both sides. The author first details consequentialism and deontological ethics. He also explains their fundamental conflict. One holds the view that you should do what has the best consequences. The other believes that there are actions which are wrong to do even if they have the best consequences. Next, the volume considers various ways to solve this conflict. Would rejecting one theory work? Or, is it possible to somehow reconcile them. The author shows why these solutions fail. He then goes on to present his own. The resulting contractual theory brings together the two opposing ethical convictions. It proposes that what is right and wrong depends on what norms people would agree to. Throughout, coverage explores the psychological, sociological, and historical background of the moral theories discussed. The reason is that moral theories are embedded in social and psychological contexts. They are better understood when the contexts are explicit. This key feature distinguishes the volume from other works in moral philosophy. At the time of his death in July 2011, Jan OEsterberg was close to completing this manuscript. It was taken up and fully completed by Erik Carlson and Ryszard Sliwinski, both of Uppsala University.

Items with ordered response categories are common in survey research, such as when respondents are asked how much they agree with certain statements. But how large are the differences between categories of response, and how well do they distinguish between respondents? This volume is the first to introduce the evaluation of rating scales to an audience of survey researchers. Evaluating Rating Scale Functioning for Survey Research provides researchers with an overview of rating scale analysis along with practical guidance on how to conduct such analyses with their own survey data. Author Stefanie A. Wind presents three categories of methods: Rasch models; non-Rasch Item Response Theory (IRT) models; and non-parametric models, together with practical examples. Tutorials, datasets, and software code (R and Facets) to accompany the book are available on the book's website.

This brief presents the case study of a hill in Czech Republic (Rip) and its region, and contributes to theorization in sociocultural psychology on three points, along three current debates. First, it contributes to the exploration of the mutual constitution of the lifecourse and of history, uses a distinction between socio-, micro- and ontogenesis, and argues that a focus on a delimited geographical space enables to better observe the processes by which history, daily situated interactions and courses of life shape each other. Second, in doing so, it sketches an understanding of the role of the material, spatial and semiotic specificities of landscapes in human development. Especially, it identifies some of the processes by which redundant dynamic patterns present in the environment may participate to the guidance of human experience. Third, it expands the reflection on case study construction and generalization. On the one side, it participates to a current debate in cultural psychology on the dynamics of generalization from single cases; on the other, it also dialogues with a more general reflection in the social sciences on social dynamics at the scale of small regions. Altogether, this brief is a first attempt to examine jointly these questions at the scale of a small region, a unique natural laboratory of social and psychological change. It will be of interest to researchers as well as graduate students in the fields of cultural and sociocultural psychology, cognitive psychology, and the social sciences.

Psychosocial studies in the UK is a diverse area of work characterised by innovation in theory and empirical research. Its extraordinary liveliness is demonstrated in this book, which showcases research undertaken at the Department of Psychosocial Studies at Birkbeck, University of London, UK, highlighting three domains central to the discipline - psychoanalysis, ethics and reflexivity, and resistance. The book engages psychosocially with a wide variety of topics, from social critiques of psychoanalysis through postcolonial and queer theory to studies of mental health and resistance to discrimination. These 'New Voices in Psychosocial Studies' offer a coherent yet wide-ranging account of research that has taken place in one 'dialect' of the new terrain of psychosocial studies and an agenda-setting manifesto for some of the kinds of work that might ensure the continued creativity of psychosocial studies into the next generation. This book demonstrates the ongoing development of psychosocial studies as an innovative, critical force and will inspire both new and established researchers from across the fields that influence its transdisciplinary approach, including: critical psychology and radical sociology, feminist, queer and postcolonial theory, critical anthropology and ethnography and phenomenology.