Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
|
Your cart is empty |
|||
Books > Social sciences > Psychology > Psychological methodology
Pain is an unfortunate daily experience for many individuals. Chronic pain -- lasting six or more months -- is suffered by approximately 30% of the population in the United States. These individuals wake up, function during the day and go to sleep, trying to keep pain at a minimum while, at the same time, maintaining some quality of life. They may make frequent visits to the doctor and the pharmacy. When they find relief, it is usually short-lived and comes at a cost such as dependence on narcotic medications or complete limitation of activity. Pain often becomes the central point of their existence. This practice guide describes an approach to psychological evaluation of the chronic pain patient who is being considered for surgery. A large body of research is accumulating which demonstrates that the outcome of surgical procedures aimed at chronic pain relief can be strongly influenced by psychological and emotional factors. This approach, termed "presurgical psychological screening" (PPS) uses interview and testing techniques to identify emotional, behavioral, and psychosocial difficulties which have been demonstrated to negatively impact surgical outcome. Studies show that even patients with clearly identifiable pathophysiology may respond poorly to surgery, due to issues such as pain sensitivity, medication dependence, rewards for pain behavior and personality style. Thus, some insurance carriers, rehabilitation nurses and state worker's compensation systems are encouraging, or even requiring, presurgical psychological screening in cases of surgery designed to relieve chronic pain. The first to present a comprehensive, unified approach to PPS in chronic pain syndromes, this text is designed to provide the behavioral health practitioner, as well as the trainee, with all the tools and information necessary to conduct PPS evaluations. It identifies a multitude of risk factors for poor surgical outcome and reviews research associated with each risk factor. Hands-on techniques for eliciting information from the patient about risk factors is also detailed. Toward this end, the practice guide also contains a number of forms and session outlines which can be directly utilized, or which can be altered to fit readers' needs. Models for weighing and combining surgical outcome risk factors are also provided. Thus, practitioners are able to reach valid and reliable predictions of surgical results. Finally, the text provides outlines of psychological interventions which can facilitate surgical outcome as well as surgical treatment alternatives. Upon completion of this practice guide, readers should be able to begin providing PPS evaluations which are scientifically valid, clinically sound, and which result in significant overall improvement in the treatment of chronic pain syndromes.
Signal detection theory--as developed in electrical engineering and
based on statistical decision theory--was first applied to human
sensory discrimination 40 years ago. The theoretical intent was to
provide a valid model of the discrimination process; the
methodological intent was to provide reliable measures of
discrimination acuity in specific sensory tasks. An analytic method
of detection theory, called the relative operating characteristic
(ROC), can isolate the effect of the placement of the decision
criterion, which may be variable and idiosyncratic, so that a pure
measure of intrinsic discrimination acuity is obtained. For the
past 20 years, ROC analysis has also been used to measure the
discrimination acuity or inherent accuracy of a broad range of
practical diagnostic systems. It was widely adopted by
methodologists in the field of information retrieval, is
increasingly used in weather forecasting, and is the generally
preferred method in clinical medicine, primarily in radiology. This
book attends to both themes, ROC analysis in the psychology
laboratory and in practical diagnostic settings, and to their
essential unity.
The topic of ego development developed when psychoanalysis did not
fulfill all the initial hopes during its early period of
prominence. Clinicians--psychiatrists, psychologists, social
workers, and counselors--realized that they needed to know more
than their patients' or clients' psychopathology or normalcy and
their psychosexual behavior and drives.
This pioneering monograph examines how culture informs popular understandings and experiences of mental health in East Asia, as well as providing resolutions for the future. Questions about mental health problems have gained new urgency as their consequences are growing more visible in East Asia. Yet, our understanding, funding, and evidence has not kept pace. Anson Au explores the social and psychological concepts, and network structures that make up the blueprint of East Asian cultures and untangles their myriad of influences on how people think, feel, and trust with respect to mental health experiences. Chapters explore themes such as cultural beliefs about mental health, the role of social support and social media, and mental health stigma. Drawing on the latest quantitative evidence, network science, and novel qualitative data, this book paints a portrait of mental health in the region and articulates culturally sensitive policies and practices tailored for East Asian cultures that improve mental health experiences.
In the eleventh edition of Understanding Research Methods: An Overview of the Essentials, Newhart and Patten leverage the principles of learning and content design to present the fundamentals students need to get started in research. Basics of quantitative and qualitative research are covered in short, independent topics and grouped into meaningful sections. A perennial bestseller for over ten editions, Understanding Research Methods focuses concisely on key concepts, and lessons in topics that are "chunked" to suit today's students. Each topic ends with suggestions for planning a research project by answering topic-specific prompts in a research planning journal. Topic Review exercises encourage active learning. Finally, Topics for Discussion suggest open-ended prompts that could serve as conversation starters in the classroom or online. The final Part of the book offers guidance and activities specific to writing a research report. This section can be used to support the development of project-based assignments for courses, or it can be used independently to support senior thesis projects, master's theses, dissertations, or articles for publication. Instructors, will appreciate the organization of Understanding Research Methods because it allows a great deal of customization and choice in which topics to cover and in what order to cover them, making it suitable for methodological training in a variety of courses and fields of study. Online digital materials support course development. New to this edition: Part introductions now include a part table of contents and list of keywords Newly expanded coverage of qualitative research New coverage on designing quantitative research Expanded material on sampling More simple graphs, charts, and illustrations emphasize and visualize Topic key points
Written for social science scholars who want to learn more about
the qualitative way of thinking, this book addresses the full
continuum of issues about the qualitative methodologies. At one end
of that continuum are the deeply philosophical concerns of ontology
and epistemology. At the other -- concrete -- end of that continuum
are the practical issues of what is considered evidence: How does
one go about gathering evidence? Where, when, and how does one
analyze evidence? What are the alternative ways of dealing with
tone and voice in writing qualitative research? The attention to
practical, concrete issues makes this book useful as a handbook
providing a great deal of vital information to scholars who want a
guide to making decisions as they navigate their research questions
through the qualitative realm.
Many technological, socio-economic, environmental, biomedical phenomena exhibit an underlying graph structure. Valued graph allows one to incorporate the connections or links among the population units in addition. The links may provide effectively access to the part of population that is the primary target, which is the case for many unconventional sampling methods, such as indirect, network, line-intercept or adaptive cluster sampling. Or, one may be interested in the structure of the connections, in terms of the corresponding graph properties or parameters, such as when various breadth- or depth-first non-exhaustive search algorithms are applied to obtain compressed views of large often dynamic graphs. Graph sampling provides a statistical approach to study real graphs from either of these perspectives. It is based on exploring the variation over all possible sample graphs (or subgraphs) which can be taken from the given population graph, by means of the relevant known sampling probabilities. The resulting design-based inference is valid whatever the unknown properties of the given real graphs. One-of-a-kind treatise of multidisciplinary topics relevant to statistics, mathematics and data science. Probabilistic treatment of breadth-first and depth-first non-exhaustive search algorithms in graphs. Presenting cutting-edge theory and methods based on latest research. Pathfinding for future research on sampling from real graphs. Graph Sampling can primarily be used as a resource for researchers working with sampling or graph problems, and as the basis of an advanced course for post-graduate students in statistics, mathematics and data science.
The "Advances in Personality Assessment Series" began in the early
1980s to facilitate the rapid dissemination of important new
developments in theory and research on all aspects of personality
assessment. Impressed with the extensive research on test
development and validation that was going on at that time, the
editors were concerned with the limited publication resources
devoted to personality assessment. With this series, they hoped to
provide a publication opportunity and resource for reports of
personality assessment research and/or clinical practice that might
not conveniently fit in journal format because of length, focus, or
content.
Advanced and Multivariate Statistical Methods, Seventh Edition provides conceptual and practical information regarding multivariate statistical techniques to students who do not necessarily need technical and/or mathematical expertise in these methods. This text has three main purposes. The first purpose is to facilitate conceptual understanding of multivariate statistical methods by limiting the technical nature of the discussion of those concepts and focusing on their practical applications. The second purpose is to provide students with the skills necessary to interpret research articles that have employed multivariate statistical techniques. Finally, the third purpose of AMSM is to prepare graduate students to apply multivariate statistical methods to the analysis of their own quantitative data or that of their institutions. New to the Seventh Edition All references to SPSS have been updated to Version 27.0 of the software. A brief discussion of practical significance has been added to Chapter 1. New data sets have now been incorporated into the book and are used extensively in the SPSS examples. All the SPSS data sets utilized in this edition are available for download via the companion website. Additional resources on this site include several video tutorials/walk-throughs of the SPSS procedures. These "how-to" videos run approximately 5-10 minutes in length. Advanced and Multivariate Statistical Methods was written for use by students taking a multivariate statistics course as part of a graduate degree program, for example in psychology, education, sociology, criminal justice, social work, mass communication, and nursing.
During the past two or three decades, research in cognitive science
and psychology has yielded an improved understanding of the
fundamental psychological nature of knowledge and cognitive skills
that psychological testing attempts to measure. These theories have
reached sufficient maturity, making it reasonable to look upon them
to provide a sound theoretical foundation for assessment,
particulary for the content of assessments. This fact, combined
with much discontentedness over current testing practices, has
inspired efforts to bring testing and cognitive theory together to
create a new theoretical framework for psychological testing -- a
framework developed for diagnosing learners' differences rather
than for ranking learners based on their differences.
With an emphasis on social science applications, Event History Analysis with R, Second Edition, presents an introduction to survival and event history analysis using real-life examples. Since publication of the first edition, focus in the field has gradually shifted towards the analysis of large and complex datasets. This has led to new ways of tabulating and analysing tabulated data with the same precision and power as that of an analysis of the full data set. Tabulation also makes it possible to share sensitive data with others without violating integrity. The new edition extends on the content of the first by both improving on already given methods and introducing new methods. There are two new chapters, Explanatory Variables and Regression, and Register- Based Survival Data Models. The book has been restructured to improve the flow, and there are significant updates to the computing in the supporting R package. Features * Introduction to survival and event history analysis and how to solve problems with incomplete data using Cox regression. * Parametric proportional hazards models, including the Weibull, Exponential, Extreme Value, and Gompertz distributions. * Parametric accelerated failure time models with the Lognormal, Loglogistic, Gompertz, Exponential, Extreme Value, and Weibull distributions. * Proportional hazards models for occurrence/exposure data, useful with tabular and register based data, often with a huge amount of observed events. * Special treatments of external communal covariates, selections from the Lexis diagram, and creating period as well as cohort statistics. * "Weird bootstrap" sampling suitable for Cox regression with small to medium-sized data sets. * Supported by an R package (https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=eha), including code and data for most examples in the book. * A dedicated home page for the book at http://ehar.se/r/ehar2 This substantial update to this popular book remains an excellent resource for researchers and practitioners of applied event history analysis and survival analysis. It can be used as a text for a course for graduate students or for self-study.
Statistical Analysis of Contingency Tables is an invaluable tool for statistical inference in contingency tables. It covers effect size estimation, confidence intervals, and hypothesis tests for the binomial and the multinomial distributions, unpaired and paired 2x2 tables, rxc tables, ordered rx2 and 2xc tables, paired cxc tables, and stratified tables. For each type of table, key concepts are introduced, and a wide range of intervals and tests, including recent and unpublished methods and developments, are presented and evaluated. Topics such as diagnostic accuracy, inter-rater reliability, and missing data are also covered. The presentation is concise and easily accessible for readers with diverse professional backgrounds, with the mathematical details kept to a minimum. For more information, including a sample chapter and software, please visit the authors' website.
Characterized by its multi-level interdisciplinary character,
communication has become a variable field -- one in which the level
of analysis varies. This has had important ramifications for the
study of communication because, to some extent, the questions one
asks are determined by the methods one has available to answer
them. As a result, communication research is characterized by the
plethora of both qualitative and quantitative approaches used by
its practitioners. These include survey and experimental methods,
and content, historical, and rhetorical analyses.
Designed for professionals and graduate students in the
personality/social, military, and educational psychology, and
assessment/evaluation communities, this volume explores the state
of the art in motivational research for individuals and teams from
multiple theoretical viewpoints as well as their effects in both
schools and training environments.
Tackles a topic in a concise and accessible way that most believe too advanced to pick up easily. Author has over 40 years teaching and industry experience which they utilize in this book. Contains an appendix with extended code and examples of topics discussed in text.
This book brings together psychometric, cognitive science, policy,
and content domain perspectives on new approaches to educational
assessment -- in particular, constructed response, performance
testing, and portfolio assessment. These new assessment approaches
-- a full range of alternatives to traditional multiple-choice
tests -- are useful in all types of large-scale testing programs,
including educational admissions, school accountability, and
placement. This book's multi-disciplinary perspective identifies
the potential advantages and pitfalls of these new assessment
forms, as well as the critical research questions that must be
addressed if these assessment methods are to benefit
education.
This text focuses on the experimental methods and the associated
terminology encountered in the research literature of psychology.
Initially, the content is kept simple, so as not to distract from
the information on research technique and philosophy. Interesting
psychological questions from well researched areas are then
examined in detail, permitting a fuller discussion of the problems
encountered in specific paradigms. It is in this fashion that the
book offers both methods and content.
A useful handbook, this text presents guidelines frequently followed by writers of reports of empirical research designed for publication in scientific business journals. The guidelines describe the types of information that should be included, how this information should be expressed, and where various types of information should be placed within a report. Excerpts from journal articles are used to illustrate most of the guidelines. At the end of each chapter, there are questions for classroom discussion.
This book presents state-of-the-art information on both the
scientific and clinical aspects of the Millon Clinical Multiaxial
Inventory, a test that uniquely assesses both personality pathology
and psychopathology. The book presents original contributions from
major researchers/clinicians who have published seminal papers on
the MCMI and who are recognized authorities in their specific
areas. Clinical examples of the MCMI with a variety of clinical
populations are provided, and many chapters summarize the research
in that area as well as present clinical illustrations of the MCMI
with actual cases.
In keeping with the goals of this series, which are to facilitate
the rapid dissemination of important new developments in theory and
research on all aspects of personality assessment, the eight
chapters in this volume examine a wide range of topics. These
include research investigations and clinical applications involving
traditional assessment techniques -- such as the Rorschach and the
MMPI-2 -- and promising but less known procedures. Specific topics
examined in the individual chapters range from the assessment of
appreciation of humor to assessment of marital distress. A review
of the contents of this volume once again demonstrates the
diversity in assessment philosophy, theoretical orientation, and
research methodology that characterizes the field of personality
assessment.
This book offers different theoretical approaches about what clinical research is. Clinical Research in Psychoanalysis is a unique contribution to the attempts to bridge the gap between clinicians and researchers and to create a culture of a more rigorous and systematic inquiry. It provides an innovative experience because for the first time different methods and perspectives were used to analyse one same clinical material. This was done by analysts from different working parties of the International Psychoanalytical Association (IPA), from a range of different schools of psychoanalytic thought. This allows the reader to have a vision of the different methods that are currently being used by some working parties of the IPA and to learn about the strengths of each one for certain situations and types of research. This book revaluates clinical research, intending to make links between the analysts working through the working parties and the different ways of thinking in clinical research. By covering key topics, such as how working parties can facilitate different types of research; the place of metaphor in psychoanalytic research and practice; and the future for psychoanalytic research, this text is a fruitful dialogue between different theoretical conceptions and between clinicians and researchers, that will expand our perspectives on the evidence we find in clinical material and will broaden our views on the patient. This book offers a unique and invaluable experience to psychologists and psychoanalysts who are trying to improve their clinical practice and bring research evidence into their psychoanalytic practice. It is an invaluable contribution to psychoanalytic training of candidates, teachers, and students.
"Automated scoring engines [...] require a careful balancing of the contributions of technology, NLP, psychometrics, artificial intelligence, and the learning sciences. The present handbook is evidence that the theories, methodologies, and underlying technology that surround automated scoring have reached maturity, and that there is a growing acceptance of these technologies among experts and the public." From the Foreword by Alina von Davier, ACTNext Senior Vice President Handbook of Automated Scoring: Theory into Practice provides a scientifically grounded overview of the key research efforts required to move automated scoring systems into operational practice. It examines the field of automated scoring from the viewpoint of related scientific fields serving as its foundation, the latest developments of computational methodologies utilized in automated scoring, and several large-scale real-world applications of automated scoring for complex learning and assessment systems. The book is organized into three parts that cover (1) theoretical foundations, (2) operational methodologies, and (3) practical illustrations, each with a commentary. In addition, the handbook includes an introduction and synthesis chapter as well as a cross-chapter glossary.
The Generic Qualitative Approach to a Dissertation in the Social Sciences: A Step by Step Guide is a practical guide for the graduate students and faculty planning and executing a generic qualitative dissertation in the social sciences. Generic qualitative research is a methodology that seeks to understand human experience by taking a qualitative stance and using qualitative procedures. Based on Sandra Kostere and Kim Kostere's experiences of serving on dissertation committees, this book aims to demystify both the nuances and the procedures of qualitative research, with the aim of empowering students to conduct meaningful dissertation research and present findings that are rigorous, credible, and trustworthy. It examines the fundamental principles and assumptions underlying the generic qualitative method, then covers each stage of the research process including creation of research questions, interviews, and then offers three ways of analyzing the data gathered and presenting the results. With examples of the generic qualitative method in practice to show students how to conduct their research confidently, and chapters designed to walk the researcher through each step of the dissertation process, this book is specifically tailored for the accessible generic method, and will be useful for graduate students and faculty developing dissertations in Psychology, Education, Nursing and the social sciences.
Modelling Spatial and Spatial-Temporal Data: A Bayesian Approach is aimed at statisticians and quantitative social, economic and public health students and researchers who work with small-area spatial and spatial-temporal data. It assumes a grounding in statistical theory up to the standard linear regression model. The book compares both hierarchical and spatial econometric modelling, providing both a reference and a teaching text with exercises in each chapter. The book provides a fully Bayesian, self-contained, treatment of the underlying statistical theory, with chapters dedicated to substantive applications. The book includes WinBUGS code and R code and all datasets are available online. Part I covers fundamental issues arising when modelling spatial and spatial-temporal data. Part II focuses on modelling cross-sectional spatial data and begins by describing exploratory methods that help guide the modelling process. There are then two theoretical chapters on Bayesian models and a chapter of applications. Two chapters follow on spatial econometric modelling, one describing different models, the other substantive applications. Part III discusses modelling spatial-temporal data, first introducing models for time series data. Exploratory methods for detecting different types of space-time interaction are presented, followed by two chapters on the theory of space-time separable (without space-time interaction) and inseparable (with space-time interaction) models. An applications chapter includes: the evaluation of a policy intervention; analysing the temporal dynamics of crime hotspots; chronic disease surveillance; and testing for evidence of spatial spillovers in the spread of an infectious disease. A final chapter suggests some future directions and challenges. Robert Haining is Emeritus Professor in Human Geography, University of Cambridge, England. He is the author of Spatial Data Analysis in the Social and Environmental Sciences (1990) and Spatial Data Analysis: Theory and Practice (2003). He is a Fellow of the RGS-IBG and of the Academy of Social Sciences. Guangquan Li is Senior Lecturer in Statistics in the Department of Mathematics, Physics and Electrical Engineering, Northumbria University, Newcastle, England. His research includes the development and application of Bayesian methods in the social and health sciences. He is a Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society. |
You may like...
Introduction to Psychological Assessment…
C. Foxcroft, G. Roodt
Paperback
(1)
Differential Item Functioning
Paul W. Holland, Howard Wainer
Paperback
R1,430
Discovery Miles 14 300
Research Design - Qualitative…
John W. Creswell, J David Creswell
Paperback
R2,394
Discovery Miles 23 940
Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis…
Jonathan A. Smith, Paul Flowers, …
Paperback
R968
Discovery Miles 9 680
The 10-Step Depression Relief Workbook…
Simon Rego, Sarah Fader
Paperback
Burnout - A Guide to Identifying Burnout…
Gordon Parker, Gabriela Tavella, …
Paperback
R634
Discovery Miles 6 340
|