Originally published in 1972, there were many 'classics' dealing with assessment and testing on the market at the time, but most of these left the inexperienced reader bewildered in the early stages, because of their size and insufficient explanation of the many technical terms used. There were a distinct lack of books which gave students in Colleges of Education dealing with psychology for the first time a simple explanation of basic terms in assessment and testing, and which introduced them briefly to the different types of tests available. Assessment and Testing aimed to fill this large gap. It looks at such key psychological terms as 'sample', 'objectivity', 'subjectivity', and such basic statistical terms such as 'mean', 'standard deviation', and 'normal curve of distribution'. Because it assumes that the reader has no knowledge of such terms, it gives careful and simply illustrated explanations of each. In the same way, in simple language, with any technical terms explained and illustrated, it explains intelligence and personality tests, questionnaires, sociometric measures, projection techniques, and other areas of assessment and testing which every practising teacher will meet. The book aims to be essentially practical. It is appreciated all the time that the readers are those who will teach children. It is designed to provide a solid foundation upon which the reader can build later to augment his own experience of identifying children's particular needs.

Significantly revised, the fifth edition of the most complete, accessible text now covers all three approaches to structural equation modeling (SEM)--covariance-based SEM, nonparametric SEM (Pearl's structural causal model), and composite SEM (partial least squares path modeling). With increased emphasis on freely available software tools such as the R lavaan package, the text uses data examples from multiple disciplines to provide a comprehensive understanding of all phases of SEM--what to know, best practices, and pitfalls to avoid. It includes exercises with answers, rules to remember, topic boxes, and a new self-test on significance testing, regression, and psychometrics. The companion website supplies helpful primers on these topics as well as data, syntax, and output for the book's examples, in files that can be opened with any basic text editor. New to This Edition *Chapters on composite SEM, also called partial least squares path modeling or variance-based SEM; conducting SEM analyses in small samples; and recent developments in mediation analysis. *Coverage of new reporting standards for SEM analyses; piecewise SEM, also called confirmatory path analysis; comparing alternative models fitted to the same data; and issues in multiple-group SEM. *Extended tutorials on techniques for dealing with missing data in SEM and instrumental variable methods to deal with confounding of target causal effects. Pedagogical Features *New self-test of knowledge about background topics (significance testing, regression, and psychometrics) with scoring key and online primers. *End-of-chapter suggestions for further reading and exercises with answers. *Troublesome examples from real data, with guidance for handling typical problems in analyses. *Topic boxes on special issues and boxed rules to remember. *Website promoting a learn-by-doing approach, including data, extensively annotated syntax, and output files for all the book's detailed examples.

'This book represents an excellent, practical and supportive guide for those who should be engaged in mental health. It will be an invaluable tool as we work towards promoting, protecting and improving mental health in poor countries, and the incorporation of mental health issues into broader health sector and poverty reduction processes.' - Julian Lob Levyt

'This book is a major achievement, and fulfils an important need in many countries of the world.' - David Goldberg

Since the mid-80s several laboratories around the world have been developing techniques for the operational use of tests derived from item-generation. According to the experts, the major thrust of test development in the next decade will be the harnessing of item generation technology to the production of computer developed tests. This is expected to revolutionize the way in which tests are constructed and delivered.
This book is a compilation of the papers presented at a symposium held at ETS in Princeton, attended by the world's foremost experts in item-generation theory and practice. Its goal is to present the major applications of cognitive principles in the construction of ability, aptitude, and achievement tests. It is an intellectual contribution to test development that is unique, with great potential for changing the ways tests are generated. The intended market includes professional educators and psychologists interested in test generation.

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.

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.

As new techniques and approaches to supervision attract interest within therapy-related professions, the contributors to this informative book consider the nature of a supervision and examine the ways in which it can be further defined and developed. Drawing together practical and theoretical perspectives, Integrative Approaches to Supervision examines the contribution that supervision can make within both organisational and individual settings. The book covers frameworks and models for supervision, supervision in clinical practice and issues within integrative supervision. Topics include: different models of the supervision practice; anti-oppressive practice; spirituality and supervision; counselling supervision in health care; supervision of organisations; self-protection for supervisors from complaints and litigation. Wide in scope but rich in detail, this book is essential reading for psychotherapists, counsellors, consultants and students involved in the supervision process.

Contents:
Introduction. Chapter 1. Reinventing the Sociology of Tourism Yiorgos Apostolopoulos Section I - Towards a Sociological Understanding of Contemporary Tourism Chapter 2. Representations of International Tourism in the Social Sciences: Sun, Sex, Sights, Savings, and Servility Malcolm Crick Chapter 3. The Sociology of Tourism: Approaches, Issues, and Findings Erik Cohen Section II - The Tourism System and the Individual Chapter 4. Motivation and Anticipation in Post-Industrial Tourism Giuli Liebman Parrinello Chapter 5. A Phenomenology of Tourist Experiences Erik Cohen Section III - Structures of Social Inequality in the Tourism System Chapter 6. Tourism, Culture, and Social Inequality John Urry Chapter 7. Gender and Class Relations in Tourism Employment Michael Ireland Section IV - Tourism, Underdevelopment, and Dependency Chapter 8. Tourism, Dependency, and Development: A Mode of Analysis Stephen Britton Chapter 9. Close Encounters of the Third World Cecilia A. Karch and Graham H.S. Dann Section V - Tourism and Social Institutions Chapter 10. The Changing Economics of the Tourist Industry John Urry Chapter 11. Tourism and the Family in a Rural Cretan Community Maria Kousis Chapter 12. The Philippines: The Politicization of Tourism Linda K. Richter Section VI - Tourism and Social Change Chapter 13. Gender and Economic Interests in Tourism Prostitution: The Nature, Development, and Implications of Sex Tourism in South-East Asia C. Michael Hall Chapter 14. Interpretations of Tourism as Commodity G. Llewellyn Watson and Joseph P. Kopachevsky Section VII - Towards a 'New' Sociology of Tourism Chapter 15. Sociology and Tourism Graham Dann and Erik Cohen Chapter 16. Mega-Events and Micro-Modernization: On the Sociology of the New Urban Tourism Maurice Roche

Contributors to the volume represent an international "who's who" of research scientists from the fields of psychology and measurement. It offers the insights of these leading authorities regarding cognition and personality. In particular, they address the roles of constructs and values in clarifying the theoretical and empirical work in these fields, as well as their relation to educational assessment. It is intended for professionals and students in psychology and assessment, and almost anyone doing research in cognition and personality.

The Family System Test (FAST), developed by Thomas M. Gehring, is an important new tool for investigating family relations. Based on the structural-systemic theory of families, it is a figural technique for representing emotional bonds (cohesion) and hierarchical structures in the family or similar social systems. In this unique volume, the editors draw on current theory and research in family or similar social systems together with a variety of empirical studies that have used the FAST, to provide a comprehensive overview and assessment of the test and its use in various clinical research contexts.
The book is divided into four sections, each focusing on a different aspect of the FAST. Part 1 describes the concepts and psychometric properties of the FAST within the context of theoretically and empirically relevant aspects of the field of family psychology as a whole. Special emphasis is given to systematic-structural approaches to assessing individual and family functioning. Part II focuses on the use of the FAST in developmental research. For example, the the FAST has been used to show how family constructs are influenced by age, type of family and situation. Part III deals with cross-cultural issues and compares the interpersonal constructs of Japanese and Chinese families to Western families. Finally, Part IV addresses the applications of the FAST in clinical setting - in diagnosis of biopsychosocial problems and planning and evaluation of clinical interventions.
The result is a book that helps to bridge the gap between theory, practice and research. It will be essential reading for users of the FAST and all clinicians and researchers who work in family relations and development.

Related link: Free Email Alerting

How does mindfulness promote psychological well-being? What are its core mechanisms? What value do contemplative practices add to approaches that are already effective? From leading meditation teacher Christina Feldman and distinguished psychologist Willem Kuyken, this book provides a uniquely integrative perspective on mindfulness and its applications. The authors explore mindfulness from its roots in Buddhist psychology to its role in contemporary psychological science. In-depth case examples illustrate how and why mindfulness training can help people move from distress and suffering to resilience and flourishing. Readers are guided to consider mindfulness not only conceptually, but also experientially, through their own journey of mindfulness practice.

Built around a problem solving theme, this book extends the intermediate and advanced student's expertise to more challenging situations that involve applying statistical methods to real-world problems. Data relevant to these problems are collected and analyzed to provide useful answers.
Building on its central problem-solving theme, a large number of data sets arising from real problems are contained in the text and in the exercises provided at the end of each chapter. Answers, or hints to providing answers, are provided in an appendix.
Concentrating largely on the established SPSS and the newer S-Plus statistical packages, the author provides a short, end-of-chapter section entitled "Computer Hints" that helps the student undertake the analyses reported in the chapter using these statistical packages.

This volume in the Springer Series in Evolutionary Psychology presents a state of the art view of the topic of sexuality and sexual behavior drawing on theoretical constructs and research of noted individuals in the field. Comprehensive and multi-disciplinary, this book seeks to provide a broad overview without sacrificing the complexity of a multi-faceted approach. The book is framed by introductory and closing sections that provide a context for the range of ideas contained within. Ample space is provided in designated sections that focus on key areas of sexuality from both male and female perspectives and that include information from primate studies. This volume can serve as a graduate text in sexual behavior in evolutionary terms and as a guide for further research.

Originally published in 1976, the authors of six of the most widely quoted works in behavioural science related to education, at the time, here describe in detail their research work, including its origins, planning and implementation. The accounts are unusual, not only for their technical detail but for their candour. The brief was to put the heart and brains back into accounts of research so the authors comment not only on the research design, but on the personal and professional problems they had to overcome. They also reflect on the reception of their work, and the way in which it has been adapted, misunderstood or deliberately distorted to support arguments of widely differing ideological pressure groups. The book shows how ingenuity and persistence as well as technical competence lie at the heart of the research process. The authors do not give the normal depersonalised, streamlined account which gives a false, mechanical picture of research as an occupation, but show it to be a profound personal and professional experience as they comment on the thought that lay behind their work and the way it was finally produced for publication. Dr Shipman has written a short introduction to each chapter, and contributed a concluding chapter relating the six research experiences to conventional views on the research process and to the part played by research evidence in policy making.

Selection for secondary education at 11-plus still arouses widespread controversy; and the psychological techniques which are employed, such as intelligence and attainments tests, are often criticised. Originally published in 1957, under the auspices of the British Psychological Society, a group of psychologists, experienced in this field, tried to present a balanced survey of the situation at the time. They show that the real problems of secondary schooling cannot be solved by simple administrative changes; they arise from historical causes, from the class structure of English society and the educational and vocational ambitions of parents. Psychology has studied the development and differentiation of children's abilities and interests with age, and thus throws light on the need for, and the consequences of, streaming children in different classes or schools, and the value of alternative systems such as the comprehensive school. Selection at 11-plus, it is admitted, does have harmful effects on teaching in the junior school and produces much emotional strain, though these effects are often exaggerated. It was, in fact, accurate for some ninety per cent of children; yet the implications of its inevitable inaccuracy for some pupils cannot be ignored. The functions, and the value, of intelligence and attainments tests and the essay are examined, and full consideration given to the use of teachers' estimates of suitability and other techniques. The Report is addressed primarily to teachers, educational administrator, and psychologists - that is people with some background knowledge of the problems involved; but it should also be intelligible and helpful to the educated layman, since the more technical details are confined to Appendices.

Stanley Milgram's experiments on obedience to authority are among the most important psychological studies of this century. Perhaps because of the enduring significance of the findings--the surprising ease with which ordinary persons can be commanded to act destructively against an innocent individual by a legitimate authority--it continues to claim the attention of psychologists and other social scientists, as well as the general public. The study continues to inspire valuable research and analysis. The goal of this book is to present current work inspired by the obedience paradigm.
This book demonstrates the vibrancy of the obedience paradigm by presenting some of its most important and stimulating contemporary uses and applications. Paralleling Milgram's own eclecticism in the content and style of his research and writing, the contributions comprise a potpourri of styles of research and presentation--ranging from personal narratives, through conceptual analyses, to randomized experiments.

Horrified by the Holocaust, social psychologist Stanley Milgram wondered if he could recreate the Holocaust in the laboratory setting. Unabated for more than half a century, his (in)famous results have continued to intrigue scholars. Based on unpublished archival data from Milgram's personal collection, volume one of this two-volume set introduces readers to a behind the scenes account showing how during Milgram's unpublished pilot studies he step-by-step invented his official experimental procedure-how he gradually learnt to transform most ordinary people into willing inflictors of harm. The open access volume two then illustrates how certain innovators within the Nazi regime used the very same Milgram-like learning techniques that with increasing effectiveness gradually enabled them to also transform most ordinary people into increasingly capable executioners of other men, women, and children. Volume two effectively attempts to capture how step-by-step these Nazi innovators attempted to transform the Fuhrer's wish of a Jewish-free Europe into a frightening reality. By the books' end the reader will gain an insight into how the seemingly undoable can become increasingly doable.

This book offers a comprehensive introduction to the latest developments in the theory and practice of CAT. It can be used both as a basic reference and a valuable resource on test theory. It covers such topics as item selection and ability estimation, item pool development and maintenance, item calibration and model fit, and testlet-based adaptive testing, as well as the operational aspects of existing large-scale CAT programs.

Passionate, political, informed and engaging, Bitter Harvest is filled with cautionary facts and statistics that every consumer should know, such as:
* nearly 80% of commercially processed chicken is infected with salmonella
* in ten years, 95% of our groceries may be consumed within 20 minutes of getting them home
* researchers believe that over a third of future cancers will be diet-related - roughly the same now attributable to smoking.
Throughout, Cooper argues persuasively why we must begin to change everything from the way food is shipped to the basic components of our diets and offers a comprehensive analysis of the issue of sustainability. In Bitter Harvest, this knowledgeable chef emerges as a political voice to be reckoned with and her manifesto is a must-read for anyone concerned with health, nutrition and the future of our food.

Cognitive task analysis is a broad area consisting of tools and techniques for describing the knowledge and strategies required for task performance. Cognitive task analysis has implications for the development of expert systems, training and instructional design, expert decision making and policymaking. It has been applied in a wide range of settings, with different purposes, for instance: specifying user requirements in system design or specifying training requirements in training needs analysis. The topics to be covered by this work include: general approaches to cognitive task analysis, system design, instruction, and cognitive task analysis for teams. The work settings to which the tools and techniques described in this work have been applied include: 911 dispatching, faultfinding on board naval ships, design aircraft, and various support systems.
The editors' goal in this book is to present in a single source a comprehensive, in-depth introduction to the field of cognitive task analysis. They have attempted to include as many examples as possible in the book, making it highly suitable for those wishing to undertake a cognitive task analysis themselves. The book also contains a historical introduction to the field and an annotated bibliography, making it an excellent guide to additional resources.

This volume collects recent studies conducted within the area of medical education that investigate two of the critical components of problem-based curricula--the group meeting and self-directed learning--and demonstrates that understanding these complex phenomena is critical to the operation of this innovative curriculum. It is the editors' contention that it is these components of problem-based learning that connect the initiating "problem" with the process of effective "learning." Revealing how this occurs is the task taken on by researchers contributing to this volume. The studies include use of self-reports, interviews, observations, verbal protocols, and micro-analysis to find ways into the psychological processes and sociological contexts that constitute the world of problem-based learning.

MATLAB Blues is an accessible, comprehensive introduction to the MATLAB computer programming language-a powerful and increasingly popular tool for students and researchers. Rosenbaum identifies many of the common mistakes and pitfalls associated with using MATLAB, and shows users how they can learn from these mistakes to be better, happier programmers. Each chapter systematically addresses one of the basic principles of the programming language, like matrices, calculations, contingencies, plotting, input-output, and graphics, and then identifies areas that are problematic, as well as potential errors that can occur. This not only provides the reader with the fundamental "scales and chords" that a MATLAB programmer needs to know, but also with a series of examples and explanations of how to avoid and remedy common mistakes. Accompanied by an array of sample code that can be used and manipulated in conjunction with the textbook, this book is a practical, insightful introduction to MATLAB which provides motivation and encouragement to those with little or no background in programming as well as to those with more advanced concerns. It is an invaluable resource for researchers and students undertaking courses in research methods, statistics, and programming.

Many psychological factors are little more than statistical descriptions of particular sets of data and have no real significance. Paul Kline uses his long and extensive knowledge of psychological measurement to argue that truly scientific forms of measurement could be developed to create a new psychometrics. This would transform the basis of psychology and change it from a social science to a pure science.

Related link: Free Email Alerting

Stanley Milgram's experiments on obedience to authority are among the most important psychological studies of this century. Perhaps because of the enduring significance of the findings--the surprising ease with which ordinary persons can be commanded to act destructively against an innocent individual by a legitimate authority--it continues to claim the attention of psychologists and other social scientists, as well as the general public. The study continues to inspire valuable research and analysis. The goal of this book is to present current work inspired by the obedience paradigm.
This book demonstrates the vibrancy of the obedience paradigm by presenting some of its most important and stimulating contemporary uses and applications. Paralleling Milgram's own eclecticism in the content and style of his research and writing, the contributions comprise a potpourri of styles of research and presentation--ranging from personal narratives, through conceptual analyses, to randomized experiments.

MATLAB Blues is an accessible, comprehensive introduction to the MATLAB computer programming language-a powerful and increasingly popular tool for students and researchers. Rosenbaum identifies many of the common mistakes and pitfalls associated with using MATLAB, and shows users how they can learn from these mistakes to be better, happier programmers. Each chapter systematically addresses one of the basic principles of the programming language, like matrices, calculations, contingencies, plotting, input-output, and graphics, and then identifies areas that are problematic, as well as potential errors that can occur. This not only provides the reader with the fundamental "scales and chords" that a MATLAB programmer needs to know, but also with a series of examples and explanations of how to avoid and remedy common mistakes. Accompanied by an array of sample code that can be used and manipulated in conjunction with the textbook, this book is a practical, insightful introduction to MATLAB which provides motivation and encouragement to those with little or no background in programming as well as to those with more advanced concerns. It is an invaluable resource for researchers and students undertaking courses in research methods, statistics, and programming.