This comprehensive Handbook is the first to provide a practical, interdisciplinary review of ethical issues as they relate to quantitative methodology including how to present evidence for reliability and validity, what comprises an adequate tested population, and what constitutes scientific knowledge for eliminating biases. The book uses an ethical framework that emphasizes the human cost of quantitative decision making to help researchers understand the specific implications of their choices. The order of the Handbook chapters parallels the chronology of the research process: determining the research design and data collection; data analysis; and communicating findings. Each chapter: Explores the ethics of a particular topic Identifies prevailing methodological issues Reviews strategies and approaches for handling such issues and their ethical implications Provides one or more case examples Outlines plausible approaches to the issue including best-practice solutions. Part 1 presents ethical frameworks that cross-cut design, analysis, and modeling in the behavioral sciences. Part 2 focuses on ideas for disseminating ethical training in statistics courses. Part 3 considers the ethical aspects of selecting measurement instruments and sample size planning and explores issues related to high stakes testing, the defensibility of experimental vs. quasi-experimental research designs, and ethics in program evaluation. Decision points that shape a researchers' approach to data analysis are examined in Part 4 - when and why analysts need to account for how the sample was selected, how to evaluate tradeoffs of hypothesis-testing vs. estimation, and how to handle missing data. Ethical issues that arise when using techniques such as factor analysis or multilevel modeling and when making causal inferences are also explored. The book concludes with ethical aspects of reporting meta-analyses, of cross-disciplinary statistical reform, and of the publication process. This Handbook appeals to researchers and practitioners in psychology, human development, family studies, health, education, sociology, social work, political science, and business/marketing. This book is also a valuable supplement for quantitative methods courses required of all graduate students in these fields.

Create effective community-based programs for substance abusers with HIV/AIDS Substance abusers are the fastest-growing population of people with HIV/AIDS in the US--and one of the hardest to reach and treat. Evaluating HIV/AIDS Treatment Programs offers new strategies for providing care for this vulnerable population. The programs evaluated and discussed in this volume were funded as part of the DHHS Health Resources and Services Administration through its Special Projects of National Significance Program. Collectively known as the SPNS Cooperative Agreement, these 27 projects represent a diverse group of organizations with a common goal: to improve the health, quality of life, and access to health care for traditionally underserved populations living with HIV/AIDS. Evaluating HIV/AIDS Treatment Programs reports in detail the efforts of several community-based HIV/AIDS organizations in the SPNS program. You will learn how these organizations provide high-quality care for persons with HIV who are unlikely to obtain it in the traditional hospital-based service system.This volume offers specific, proven strategies designed to overcome the linguistic, cultural, racial, and economic barriers that make it difficult for some sick people to get the health care they need. It also offers specialized medical care models that work within the context of a continuum of services in a medical clinic. Evaluating HIV/AIDS Treatment Programs also highlights other aspects of the Cooperative Agreement projects, including: a study of end-stage AIDS care an overview of the HRSA HIV/AIDS Bureau SPNS Cooperative Agreement grant initiative a study of conceptual issues in implementing program evaluation in real-world community organizations discussion of the online Knowledge Base that summarizes and disseminates information from the Cooperative Agreement projects studies of ways to reach and care for specific populations with HIV/AIDS, including women, Latinos, Haitians, adolescents, and rural people This valuable volume offers solid data on treating people who are all too often neglected by the medical community even before they contract HIV/AIDS.The programs and ideas presented in Evaluating HIV/AIDS Treatment Programs can be applied to other community-based health initiatives and clinics offering medical care to underserved and vulnerable populations. This essential resource deserves a permanent place on their bookshelf of any physician, administrator, or policymaker working in the fields of HIBV/AIDS, epidemiology, public health, or substance abuse. Visit the book's website at http: //www.TheMeasurementGroup.com/drugs_and_society.ht

This comprehensive Handbook is the first to provide a practical, interdisciplinary review of ethical issues as they relate to quantitative methodology including how to present evidence for reliability and validity, what comprises an adequate tested population, and what constitutes scientific knowledge for eliminating biases. The book uses an ethical framework that emphasizes the human cost of quantitative decision making to help researchers understand the specific implications of their choices. The order of the Handbook chapters parallels the chronology of the research process: determining the research design and data collection; data analysis; and communicating findings. Each chapter: Explores the ethics of a particular topic Identifies prevailing methodological issues Reviews strategies and approaches for handling such issues and their ethical implications Provides one or more case examples Outlines plausible approaches to the issue including best-practice solutions. Part 1 presents ethical frameworks that cross-cut design, analysis, and modeling in the behavioral sciences. Part 2 focuses on ideas for disseminating ethical training in statistics courses. Part 3 considers the ethical aspects of selecting measurement instruments and sample size planning and explores issues related to high stakes testing, the defensibility of experimental vs. quasi-experimental research designs, and ethics in program evaluation. Decision points that shape a researchers' approach to data analysis are examined in Part 4 - when and why analysts need to account for how the sample was selected, how to evaluate tradeoffs of hypothesis-testing vs. estimation, and how to handle missing data. Ethical issues that arise when using techniques such as factor analysis or multilevel modeling and when making causal inferences are also explored. The book concludes with ethical aspects of reporting meta-analyses, of cross-disciplinary statistical reform, and of the publication process. This Handbook appeals to researchers and practitioners in psychology, human development, family studies, health, education, sociology, social work, political science, and business/marketing. This book is also a valuable supplement for quantitative methods courses required of all graduate students in these fields.

"I like the premise and the resulting organizing theme. The organizational structure fits the described theme well and promises to provide a valuable resource both for educating researchers and for helping them through the myriad types of research methods that are available today...Achieves a nice balance, running the gamut of issues from the conceptual to the practical to the statistical....This book could easily become a classic."

--Donal Carlston, Purdue University

--John Edwards, Oregon State University

"The handbook will contribute greatly to the training of graduate students and will also be used as reference by social psychologists working in multiple domains?.It could be adopted for most advanced methods courses."

--Dolores Albarracin, University of Florida

The genius of social psychology as a field has been its ability to investigate the seemingly complicated behaviors that characterize humans as social creatures. The SAGE Handbook of Methods in Social Psychology simplifies this complexity by providing researchers and students with an overview of the rich history of methodological innovation in both basic and applied research within social psychology.

Editors Carol Sansone, Carolyn C. Morf, and A.T. Panter have chosen a particular methodological approach that is essential for optimal consideration of the "big picture" concept of a program of research. In this approach, research questions guide the methods rather than the reverse. Based on this "top-down" perspective, chapters in this unique volume emphasize the conceptual basis of the methodology, with an explicit focus on the meaning of data when obtained via a particular methodology.

• "Big Picture" Understanding. This volume focuses on the decision-making process, highlighting how methodological decisions are inextricably tied to what the researcher ultimately wants to know.
• "Top-down" Perspective. Beginning chapters explore issues of selecting and identifying research questions and populations; middle chapters address design and analysis; and later chapters expand social psychological questions to other disciplines within and outside of psychology.
• Straightforward Statistical Analysis. Statistical analysis is considered only to the extent that it helps to illuminate the meaning of data obtained through a particular methodological approach or design decision.
• Interdisciplinary Approach. Innovative chapters explore such issues as ethics, diversity, individual differences, and how social psychology is moving into new areas that cross disciplinary bounds such as social neuroscience, social development, program evaluation, health, and education.

This Handbook is a vital resource for behavioral scientists in the academic and research settings who are interested in learning about modern perspectives on classic and innovative methodological approaches in social psychology. Also recommended for undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in social psychology methods courses.