Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
|
Your cart is empty |
|||
Books > Social sciences > Psychology > Psychological methodology
If you find yourself called on to judge people on a regular basis, you need all the tools at your disposal to do your job right. Handwriting psychology offers one practical method for helping you learn what you need to learn about your subject quickly. Whether you are a teacher, psychologist or manager, you can benefit from the guidance of Dr. Helmut Ploog, a handwriting expert. Learn what the size and width of handwriting can reveal about a person, as well as what more muted features-such as slant, spacing, and direction of lines-can make clear. Written in plain English, this guidebook presents pithy explanations of handwriting movements, which may be angular or round, long or short, heavy or light, high or deep below the base line. It also offers analyses of the handwriting of many well-known people, including Charles Darwin, Anne Frank, Paul Getty, Allen Ginsberg, Ernest Hemingway, Frida Kahlo, Somerset Maugham, Pablo Picasso, Pope Benedict, Vladimir Putin, Maurice Ravel, Carl Rogers, and Susan Sontag. "Handwriting Psychology" should never be used by itself to judge someone, but it can serve as an essential tool to make and confirm observations that could change your life, your career, and your approach to life.
From its foundation in the 1950s by George Kelly, Personal Construct Psychology continued to grow, both as a movement among psychologists and then in industry, education, government and commerce. Originally published in 1985 this title offers a compendium of elaborations and new conversational uses for Kelly's repertory grid technique. The authors have dramatically transformed the grid from a static measuring instrument to a dynamic tool for a personal exploration of the learning process itself. This grid-based Reflective Learning Technology enables individuals, pairs, groups and organisations to develop their learning in environments of work, family, education and society. As the originators and best-known practitioners of interactive grids, the authors give the reader an A-Z of these techniques. Case studies include management training, quality control, staff appraisal, job selection, team building, manufacturing, marketing and production as well as learning at a distance, learning to learn in schools, youth training, reading to learn and other learning skills, staff development, social work, counselling and therapy. Their development of a theory of learning conversation and conversational grid software opens up an imaginative, exciting and more humane approach to the use of microcomputers in all forms of education, while at the same time demonstrating the essentially autonomous nature of human learning. Available again after many years out of print, this book is of even greater value today than when first published.
* A new approach that breaks new ground using psychophysics and mathematics in order to investigate human interaction * Identifies the critical direction of change, and the means to achieve it, in order to maintain a stable social environment that is going to require testable and provable theories that apply to our social space and the various cultures and groups that exist within it * An important text for graduate and advanced undergraduate students or classes, along with private and government analysts all operating within the areas of political theory, detection theory, social psychology, organizational behavior, psychophysics, and applied mathematics in the social and information sciences
The Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children: Fourth Edition
(WISC-IV) is one of the most often used measures to assess
intelligence and cognitive functions in children, ages 6-16 years.
The second edition of the "WISC-IV Clinical Assessment and
Intervention" will include new information obtained from the
clinical use of the WISC-IV in practice. Information on the basic
use of the assessment tool is condensed from three chapters into
one, with four new chapters discussing how to use and interpret
WISC-IV with additional clinical populations. These new populations
include pervasive Developmental Disorders including autism, Social
and emotional disorders, psychiatric disorders, and medical
disorders that may affect intelligence. An additional new chapter
discusses intervention planning across patient populations. Each of
the chapters (revised original chapters and new chapters) will
additionally include case studies including diagnosis and
intervention.
The world of Research Methods is always changing and becoming ever more complex. Now completely up to date with the latest innovations, this book engages with recent controversies to give you the best start with your research. In each chapter you will find: * Key concept boxes to help you stay on track and focus on what's most important * Real life examples which make the theory easier to understand * Exercises to check you've understood the chapter * Questions to help you develop your critical thinking. Also available online are: * Multiple choice questions to test your understanding * Datasets to allow you to practice your skills * A flashcard glossary to help with revision. Offering a complete package to anyone taking a research methods course as part of their degree.
STATISTICAL METHODS FOR PSYCHOLOGY surveys the statistical techniques commonly used in the behavioral and social sciences, especially psychology and education. To help students gain a better understanding of the specific statistical hypothesis tests that are covered throughout the text, author David Howell emphasize conceptual understanding. Along with significantly updated discussions of effect size and meta-analysis, this Eighth Edition continues to focus on two key themes that are the cornerstones of this book's success: the importance of looking at the data before beginning a hypothesis test, and the importance of knowing the relationship between the statistical test in use and the theoretical questions being asked by the experiment.
This book critically examines the historical and philosophical foundations of construct validity theory (CVT), and how these have and continue to inform and constrain the conceptualization of validity and its application in research. CVT has had an immense impact on how researchers in the behavioural sciences conceptualize and approach their subject matter. Yet, there is equivocation regarding the foundations of the CVT framework as well as ambiguities concerning the nature of the "constructs" that are its raison d'etre. The book is organized in terms of three major parts that speak, respectively, to the historical, philosophical, and pragmatic dimensions of CVT. The primary objective is to provide researchers and students with a critical lens through which a deeper understanding may be gained of both the utility and limitations of CVT and the validation practices to which it has given rise.
Practitioners seeking the most current advances in the field of
ADHD and LD must often bridge the gap between research and
practice. The Therapist's Guide to Learning and Attention Disorders
provides that bridge through the authors, who are both researchers
and practitioners with extensive experience in providing direct
services to children and adults with ADHD and LD.
Originally published in 1964, the aim of this book was to analyse the psychological processes involved in understanding personality, and to consider how the psychologist could help in making more accurate assessments. Professor Vernon discusses in detail the scientific status of psychoanalytic and other 'depth' theories of motivation, the value of different types of psychotherapeutic treatment and counselling, the influence of upbringing on the development of personality, and the effectiveness of projective techniques. He also examines the reasons for the highly variable results obtained with personality tests and questionnaires. As well as providing a balanced review of theories of personality and of various types of test, this work made a fresh contribution to developing improved techniques of assessment.
Originally published in 1953 this book provided the first comprehensive account of methods of personality assessment by a British author. It starts with a short survey of personality theory, pointing out the difficulties in any method of testing or assessment. Next it describes the weaknesses of the common interview method. (Throughout the emphasis is on methods which are usable in educational or vocational guidance and selection, not on methods which are mainly of scientific interest.) Thereafter it takes up each main type of technique - tests based on physique or psychological measures, on expressive movement such as gestures and handwriting, tests of behaviour (including War Office Selection Board 'house party' methods), ratings and rating scales, questionnaires, and so-called projective techniques. The evidence for or against each test or method is surveyed and numerous references provided for relevant literature. Illustrative excerpts are given of many of the more promising tests, and some pictorial illustrations. British work in this field at the time is covered completely, and an attempt is made to provide a fair summary of the main contributions of American and other psychologists of the day.
First published in 1950, this revised edition of The Structure of Human Abilities was published in 1961, but remained largely unchanged from the original save for an additional supplement on the developments in factorial work on human abilities from 1950-1959. Much research had been carried out during the years leading up to publication, in England and America, into mental abilities; and modern methods of statistical treatment, especially factor analysis, had been increasingly used. It was felt that the mass of diverse material was apt to confuse the student of psychology of the time, especially as the results of such research were often apparently conflicting. Professor Vernon, one of the leading experts in this branch of psychology, sifted the material and attempted to provide a consistent picture of our mental structure.
The chapters in this new volume describe original research concerned with both theory and practice in measurement. The material originated in presentations made at a conference that brings together practicing professionals and theoreticians in diverse areas of measurement and related fields. The first group of papers embody the most important aspect of objective measurement - its application to diverse contexts and purposes. The examples included concentrate on two types of situations: performance assessment and criterion-referenced testing. The specific contexts range from writing assessment, to assessment of the professional development of teachers, to high school physics. The second group of papers are focused on an area of great importance in assessment today: the modeling of raters and judges in an assessment context. The volume concludes with papers that explore the domain of theory in measurement, characterized by an innovative approach to model-building. Even though they are categorized as theory papers, most are based on the complicated and interesting problems that arise in quite specific contexts. As such, they represent some of the most original and exciting developments in the field of measurement today ranging from multidimensional measurement to graph theory and clustering techniques. This volume presents original research concerned with the practice of measurement, and the theory of measurement. The words in the title, objective measurement indicate that the chapters are all related to a particular approach to the philosophy and practice of measurement. By objective measurement, we mean that, in a situation where a certain class of stimuli (for example, items) are used to measure certain individuals. The chapters in this book originated in presentations made at the International Objective Measurement Workshop (IOMW) devoted to exploring the interface between theory and practice in measurement. Based on the complicated and interesting problems that arise in quite specific contexts, they represent some of the most original and exciting developments in the field of measurement today.
The crux of the debate between proponents of behavioral psychology and cognitive psychology focuses on the issue of accessibility. Cognitivists believe that mental mechanisms and processes are accessible, and that their inner workings can be inferred from experimental observations of behavior. Behaviorists, on the contrary, believe that mental processes and mechanisms are inaccessible, and that nothing important about them can be inferred from even the most cleverly designed empirical studies. One argument that is repeatedly raised by cognitivists is that even though mental processes are not directly accessible, this should not be a barrier to unravelling the nature of the inner mental processes and mechanisms. Inference works for other sciences, such as physics, so why not psychology? If physics can work so successfully with their kind of inaccessibility to make enormous theoretical progress, then why not psychology? As with most previous psychological debates, there is no "killer argument" that can provide an unambiguous resolution. In its absence, author William Uttal explores the differing properties of physical and psychological time, space, and mathematics before coming to the conclusion that there are major discrepancies between the properties of the respective subject matters that make the analogy of comparable inaccessibilities a false one. This title was first published in 2008.
Provides a logical framework for considering and evaluating standard setting procedures Covers formal development of a psychometric theory for standard setting Develops logical argument for evaluation procedures for standard setting processes Contains detailed analyses of several standard setting methods Includes problem sets at the ends of chapters that focus on common problems with standard setting methods
-Includes several real-life examples from health and clinical studies -Introduces statistical concepts of longitudinal data analysis strategies through visualization -Provides datasets and exercises online
This edited volume offers useful resources for researchers conducting fieldwork in various global conflict contexts, bringing together a range of international voices to relay important methodological challenges and opportunities from their experiences. The book provides an extensive account of how people do conflict research in difficult contexts, critically evaluating what it means to do research in the field and what the role of the researcher is in that context. Among the topics discussed: Conceptualizing the interpreter in field interviews in post-conflict settings Data collection with indigenous people Challenges to implementation of social psychological interventions Researching children and young people's identity and social attitudes Insider and outsider dynamics when doing research in difficult contexts Working with practitioners and local organizations Researching Peace, Conflict, and Power in the Field is a valuable guide for students and scholars interested in conflict research, social psychologists, and peace psychologists engaged in conflict-related fieldwork.
Preface.- 1 Questions that Can Be Answered with CFA.- 2 Elements of CFA.- 3 Models of CFA.- 4 Models of Longitudinal CFA.- 5 Designs for CFA.- 6 Special Variables in CFA.- 7 The CFA Treasure Chest.- 8 CFA Software.- Index.
The goal of this book is to emphasize the formal statistical features of the practice of equating, linking, and scaling. The book encourages the view and discusses the quality of the equating results from the statistical perspective (new models, robustness, fit, testing hypotheses, statistical monitoring) as opposed to placing the focus on the policy and the implications, which although very important, represent a different side of the equating practice. The book contributes to establishing "equating" as a theoretical field, a view that has not been offered often before. The tradition in the practice of equating has been to present the knowledge and skills needed as a craft, which implies that only with years of experience under the guidance of a knowledgeable practitioner could one acquire the required skills. This book challenges this view by indicating how a good equating framework, a sound understanding of the assumptions that underlie the psychometric models, and the use of statistical tests and statistical process control tools can help the practitioner navigate the difficult decisions in choosing the final equating function. This book provides a valuable reference for several groups: (a) statisticians and psychometricians interested in the theory behind equating methods, in the use of model-based statistical methods for data smoothing, and in the evaluation of the equating results in applied work; (b) practitioners who need to equate tests, including those with these responsibilities in testing companies, state testing agencies, and school districts; and (c) instructors in psychometric, measurement, and psychology programs.
* Features/Benefits o Provides a hands-on methodological guide and overview for understanding the data/results of longitudinal research in SLA/applied linguistics and for conducting one's own such studies, illustrating these methods with exemplary studies of language learning outcomes over a long term. o Original reportings of unique large-scale research studies offer the best one-stop shop for reading and understanding current quantitative longitudinal studies in language learning. o Appendices with data and pedagogical features make it useful for course use by instructors and students. * Demand/Audience o Meets the need for methodological clarity in collecting, managing/organizing, and analyzing quantitative longitudinal data on language learning by offering students and researchers of applied linguistics, testing, and education a practical guide to conducting this research along with unique exemplar studies. * Competition o The only book to focus on quantitative longitudinal data analysis specifically for an SLA/applied linguistics readership. One older book focuses on qualitative and other methods with a narrower focus, and no other book comes very close to doing what this book does.
Models of Society and Complex Systems introduces readers to a variety of different mathematical tools used for modelling human behaviour and interactions, and the complex social dynamics that drive institutions, conflict, and coordination. What laws govern human affairs? How can we make sense of the complexity of societies and how do individual actions, characteristics, and beliefs interact? Social systems follow regularities which allow us to answer these questions using different mathematical approaches. This book emphasises both theory and application. It systematically introduces mathematical approaches, such as evolutionary and spatial game theory, social network analysis, agent-based modelling, and chaos theory. It provides readers with the necessary theoretical background of each toolset as well as the underlying intuition, while each chapter includes exercises and applications to real-world phenomena. By looking behind the surface of various social occurrences, the reader uncovers the reasons why social systems exhibit both cultural universals and at the same time a diversity of practices and norms to a degree that even surpasses biological variety, or why some riots turn into revolutions while others do not even make it into the news. This book is written for any scholar in the social sciences interested in studying and understanding human behaviour, social dynamics, and the complex systems of society. It does not expect readers to have a particular background apart from some elementary knowledge and affinity for mathematics.
From its foundation in the 1950s by George Kelly, Personal Construct Psychology continued to grow, both as a movement among psychologists and then in industry, education, government and commerce. Originally published in 1985 this title offers a compendium of elaborations and new conversational uses for Kelly's repertory grid technique. The authors have dramatically transformed the grid from a static measuring instrument to a dynamic tool for a personal exploration of the learning process itself. This grid-based Reflective Learning Technology enables individuals, pairs, groups and organisations to develop their learning in environments of work, family, education and society. As the originators and best-known practitioners of interactive grids, the authors give the reader an A-Z of these techniques. Case studies include management training, quality control, staff appraisal, job selection, team building, manufacturing, marketing and production as well as learning at a distance, learning to learn in schools, youth training, reading to learn and other learning skills, staff development, social work, counselling and therapy. Their development of a theory of learning conversation and conversational grid software opens up an imaginative, exciting and more humane approach to the use of microcomputers in all forms of education, while at the same time demonstrating the essentially autonomous nature of human learning. Available again after many years out of print, this book is of even greater value today than when first published.
Explores the entire range of research methodologies in psychology. This comprehensive text uses a carefully constructed programmatic approach to introduce topics and systematically build on earlier presentations. Research Methods emphasizes research concepts, as well as specific, technical research strategies, to help students develop an understanding of the underlying rational-empirical processes of science and gain specific research skills. The authors provide clearly written explanations of concepts and numerous examples drawn from all areas of psychology to enable students to develop a sophisticated understanding of the research process. The 8th edition includes an extensive integrated Web site (http: //www.mikeraulin.com/graziano8e/) with a variety of resources for students. Learning Goals Upon completing this book readers will be able to: * Understand the concepts of research design * Develop research skills based on a knowledge of appropriate research design * Develop a sensitivity to ethical issues in research and the skills necessary to address these issues * Understand basic statistical concept
First published in 1950, this revised edition of The Structure of Human Abilities was published in 1961, but remained largely unchanged from the original save for an additional supplement on the developments in factorial work on human abilities from 1950-1959. Much research had been carried out during the years leading up to publication, in England and America, into mental abilities; and modern methods of statistical treatment, especially factor analysis, had been increasingly used. It was felt that the mass of diverse material was apt to confuse the student of psychology of the time, especially as the results of such research were often apparently conflicting. Professor Vernon, one of the leading experts in this branch of psychology, sifted the material and attempted to provide a consistent picture of our mental structure.
Item response theory has become an essential component in the toolkit of every researcher in the behavioral sciences. It provides a powerful means to study individual responses to a variety of stimuli, and the methodology has been extended and developed to cover many different models of interaction. This volume presents a wide-ranging handbook to item response theory - and its applications to educational and psychological testing. It will serve as both an introduction to the subject and also as a comprehensive reference volume for practitioners and researchers. It is organized into six major sections: the nominal categories model, models for response time or multiple attempts on items, models for multiple abilities or cognitive components, nonparametric models, models for nonmonotone items, and models with special assumptions. Each chapter in the book has been written by an expert of that particular topic, and the chapters have been carefully edited to ensure that a uniform style of notation and presentation is used throughout. As a result, all researchers whose work uses item response theory will find this an indispensable companion to their work and it will be the subject's reference volume for many years to come. |
You may like...
Psychological Assessment in South Africa…
Sumaya Laher, Kate Cockcroft, …
Paperback
Measures for Clinical Practice and…
Kevin Corcoran, Joel Fischer
Hardcover
R3,192
Discovery Miles 31 920
Introduction to Psychological Assessment…
C. Foxcroft, G. Roodt
Paperback
(1)
|