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Friday, October 19, 2007

The Essence of Multivariate Thinking: Basic Themes and Methods


Lisa L. Harlow,
Lawrence Erlbaum Ass.|ISBN 0805837299|
2005|264 Pages| MB| Amazon

The Essence of Multivariate Thinking is intended to make multivariate statistics more accessible to a wide audience. To encourage a more thorough understanding of multivariate methods, author Lisa Harlow suggests basic themes that run through most statistical methodology. The most pervasive theme is multiplicity. The author argues that the use of multivariate methods encourages multiple ways of investigating phenomena. She explains that widening our lens to identify multiple theories, constructs, measures, samples, methods, and time points provide greater reliability and validity in our research. Dr. Harlow then shows how these themes are applied to several multivariate methods, with the hope that this will ease understanding in the basic concepts of multivariate thinking. Formulas are kept at a minimum.

The first three chapters review the core themes that run through multivariate methods. Seven different multivariate methods are then described using 10 questions that illuminate the main features, uses, multiplicity, themes, interpretations, and applications. The seven methods covered are multiple regression, analysis of covariance, multivariate analysis of variance, discriminant function analysis, logistic regression, canonical correlation, and principal components/factor analysis. The final chapter pulls together the principal themes and features charts that list common themes and how they pertain to each of the methods discussed.

The Essence of Multivariate Thinking, features:
*A unique focus on the underlying themes that run through most multivariate methods.
*A dual focus on significance tests and effect sizes to encourage readers to adopt a thorough approach to assessing the significance and magnitude of their findings.
*A detailed example for each method to delineate how the multivariate themes apply.
*Tabular results from statistical analysis programs that mirror sections of the output files.
*A common dataset throughout the chapters to provide continuity with the variables and research questions.
*A CD with data, SAS program setup and output, homework exercises, and chapter lectures.

This book is useful to advanced students, professionals, and researchers interested in applying multivariate methods in such fields as behavioral medicine, social, health, personality, developmental, cognitive, and industrial-organizational psychology, as well as in education and evaluation. A preliminary knowledge of basic statistics, research methods, basic algebra, and finite mathematics is recommended.

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The Critique of Psychology: From Kant to Postcolonial Theory


Thomas Teo,
Springer | ISBN 0387253556| 2005|
PDF| 239 Pages| 2.61 MB|


Closely paralleling the history of psychology is the history of its critics, their theories, and their contributions. The Critique of Psychology is the first book to trace this alternate history, from a unique perspective that complements the many existing empirical, theoretical, and social histories of the field. Thomas Teo cogently synthesizes major historical and theoretical narratives to describe two centuries of challenges to—and the reactions of—the mainstream. Some of these critiques of content, methodology, relevance, and philosophical worldview have actually influenced and become integrated into the canon; others pose moral questions still under debate. All are accessibly presented so that readers may judge their value for themselves:
- Kant’s critique of rational and empirical psychology at the end of the 18th century
- The natural-scientific critique of philosophical psychology in the 19th century
- The human-scientific critique of natural-scientific psychology
- The Marxist traditions of critique
- Feminist and postmodern critiques and the contemporary mainstream
- Postcolonial critiques and the shift from cross-cultural to multicultural psychology
This is not a book of critique for critique’s sake: Teo defines the field as a work in progress with goals that are evolving yet constant. In emphasizing ethical and political questions faced by psychology as a discipline, this visionary book points students, academics, and practitioners toward new possibilities for their shared future.


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Qualitative Research in Psychology: Expanding Perspectives in Methodology and Design


P. Camic, J. E. Rhodes, L. Yardley
APA | ISBN 1557989796| 2003|
PDF|315 Pages| 19.5 MB|
Qualitative Research in Psychology brings together a diverse group of scholars who share valuable qualitative research techniques and rich case examples. Qualitative methodologies and the different paradigms which guide them can be seen as both an alternative and complementary approach to quantification and positivism in social, personality, developmental, health, clinical, counseling, community and school psychology. Qualitative methodology seen as an alternative approach seeks to answer questions that cannot be answered through quantification, random sampling, probability testing and other measures, which seek to control the environment of the participant. Viewed as a complementary approach to research, qualitative methodology can be utilized alongside quantitative methods, bringing a new depth and richness to data analysis. The wide variety of innovative techniques and theoretical perspectives offered in this volume will challenge readers to think about and expand on their understanding of qualitative research and its continually emerging applications.

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Adapting Educational and Psychological Tests for Cross-Cultural Assessment


R. Hambleton, P. Merenda, Ch. Spielberger
Lawrence Erlbaum Ass.|ISBN 0805830251|
2005|PDF|392 pages |21.93 MB|Amazon


Adapting Educational and Psychological Tests for Cross-Cultural Assessment critically examines and advances new methods and practices for adapting tests for cross-cultural assessment and research. The International Test Commission (ITC) guidelines for test adaptation and conceptual and methodological issues in test adaptation are described in detail, and questions of ethics and concern for validity of test scores in cross-cultural contexts are carefully examined. Advances in test translation and adaptation methodology, including statistical identification of flawed test items, establishing equivalence of different language versions of a test, and methodologies for comparing tests in multiple languages, are reviewed and evaluated. The book also focuses on adapting ability, achievement, and personality tests for cross-cultural assessment in educational, industrial, and clinical settings.
This book furthers the ITC's mission of stimulating research on timely topics associated with assessment. It provides an excellent resource for courses in psychometric methods, test construction, and educational and/or psychological assessment, testing, and measurement. Written by internationally known scholars in psychometric methods and cross-cultural psychology, the collection of chapters should also provide essential information for educators and psychologists involved in cross-cultural assessment, as well as students aspiring to such careers.


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Flowgraph Models for Multistate Time-to-Event Data


Aparna V. Huzurbazar,
Wiley-Interscience | ISBN 0471265144| 2004|
PDF| 270 Pages| 4,4 MB|Amazon

A unique introduction to the innovative methodology of statistical flowgraphs.
This book offers a practical, application-based approach to flowgraph models for time-to-event data. It clearly shows how this innovative new methodology can be used to analyze data from semi-Markov processes without prior knowledge of stochastic processes––opening the door to interesting applications in survival analysis and reliability as well as stochastic processes.
Unlike other books on multistate time-to-event data, this work emphasizes reliability and not just biostatistics, illustrating each method with medical and engineering examples. It demonstrates how flowgraphs bring together applied probability techniques and combine them with data analysis and statistical methods to answer questions of practical interest. Bayesian methods of data analysis are emphasized. Coverage includes:
* Clear instructions on how to model multistate time-to-event data using flowgraph models
* An emphasis on computation, real data, and Bayesian methods for problem solving
* Real-world examples for analyzing data from stochastic processes
* The use of flowgraph models to analyze complex stochastic networks
* Exercise sets to reinforce the practical approach of this volume
Flowgraph Models for Multistate Time-to-Event Data is an invaluable resource/reference for researchers in biostatistics/survival analysis, systems engineering, and in fields that use stochastic processes, including anthropology, biology, psychology, computer science, and engineering.


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How the Body Shapes the Way We Think: A New View of Intelligence(Bradford Books)


Rolf Pfeifer, Josh C. Bongard
The MIT Press| ISBN 0262162393|
PDF| 394 Pages | 4 MB|Amazon


How could the body influence our thinking when it seems obvious that the brain controls the body? In How the Body Shapes the Way We Think, Rolf Pfeifer and Josh Bongard demonstrate that thought is not independent of the body but is tightly constrained, and at the same time enabled, by it. They argue that the kinds of thoughts we are capable of have their foundation in our embodiment--in our morphology and the material properties of our bodies. This crucial notion of embodiment underlies fundamental changes in the field of artificial intelligence over the past two decades, and Pfeifer and Bongard use the basic methodology of artificial intelligence--"understanding by building"--to describe their insights. If we understand how to design and build intelligent systems, they reason, we will better understand intelligence in general. In accessible, nontechnical language, and using many examples, they introduce the basic concepts by building on recent developments in robotics, biology, neuroscience, and psychology to outline a possible theory of intelligence. They illustrate applications of such a theory in ubiquitous computing, business and management, and the psychology of human memory. Embodied intelligence, as described by Pfeifer and Bongard, has important implications for our understanding of both natural and artificial intelligence.

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From Molecule to Metaphor: A Neural Theory of Language


Jerome A. Feldman,
The MIT Press | ISBN 0262062534| 2006|
PDF| 379 Pages| 1 MB|Amazon


In From Molecule to Metaphor, Jerome Feldman proposes a theory of language and thought that treats language not as an abstract symbol system but as a human biological ability that can be studied as a function of the brain, as vision and motor control are studied. This theory, he writes, is a "bridging theory" that works from extensive knowledge at two ends of a causal chain to explicate the links between. Although the cognitive sciences are revealing much about how our brains produce language and thought, we do not yet know exactly how words are understood or have any methodology for finding out.
Feldman develops his theory in computer simulations--formal models that suggest ways that language and thought may be realized in the brain. Combining key findings and theories from biology, computer science, linguistics, and psychology, Feldman synthesizes a theory by exhibiting programs that demonstrate the required behavior while remaining consistent with the findings from all disciplines.


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The Concise Dictionary of Psychology, 3rd edition


David Statt,
Routledge Publishing| ISBN 0415179408| 1998|PDF|149 Pages|5.23 MB|Amazon


With more than 1,300 entries, this edition of The Concise Dictionary of Psychology is comprehensive, clear, concise and user-friendly. With extensive cross-referencing to related entries, it includes many additional entries as well as entries from peripheral fields, such as Bibinski reflex, Doppler effect, Little Albert and Murphy's Law. Updated to take account of recent developments in psychology, it is a lean and efficient source of information, written in a straightforward and readable manner.

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Handbook of Psychology in Legal Contexts, 2nd edition


David Carson, Ray Bull,
John Wiley & Sons| ISBN 0471498742| 2003|
PDF| 688 Pages| 2,38 MB|Amazon

The second edition of this popular international handbook highlights the developing relationship between psychology and the law. Consisting of all-new material and drawing on the work of practitioners and academics from the UK, Europe, North America and elsewhere, this volume looks not only at the more traditional elements of psychology and the law - the provision of psychological assessments about individuals to the courts - but also many of the recent developments, such as the interaction between psychologists and other professionals, decision-making by judges and juries, and the shaping of social policy and political debate.

Contemporary and authoritative in its scope, the second edition of The Handbook of Psychology in Legal Contexts will again prove to be a valuable resource for scholars and students, as well as being a vital tool for all professionals working in the field.

Well known editors and an international list of authors, most of whom are leaders in their field Focus on psychological concepts and knowledge that will enlighten best practice and research The focus on process and issues ensures that the book is not limited in interest by specific legal codes or legislation, it is international More than an updating of the old chapters, really a rethinking of the field and what is now important and emerging

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Organizational Psychology: A Scientist Practitioner Approach


Steve M. Jex,
John Wiley & Sons |ISBN 0471374202 | PDF| 540 Pages| 1.9 MB|Amazon

A comprehensive treatment of the science and practice of organizational psychology.Following a scientist-practitioner model, Organizational Psychology explores the practical implications of the current research in the field, expertly integrating multicultural and international issues. Beginning with a foundation of research methodology, author Steve Jex examines the behavior of individuals in organizational settings. Drawing on his experiences as a consultant and educator, he uses actual cases to illustrate workplace issues, offering balanced coverage of such key topics as occupational stress, motivation, and corporate culture. Also presented is unique information on research methods and the use of statistics in understanding organizations. With an emphasis on applying theory and research in practice, Jex explores the mechanisms that organizations use to influence employees’ behavior, addressing the major motivation theories in organizational psychology. Readers will discover how psychological models can be used to improve employee morale, productivity, and quality of service. The focus then shifts from the individual to the group level–an important distinction given the increased reliance on teams in many organizations. Jex identifies the factors that have the greatest impact on group effectiveness and examines the dynamics underlying intergroup behavior. Finally, he moves to the organization ("macro") level, revealing a variety of ways in which organizations engage in planned change with the assistance of behavioral science knowledge.

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Monday, October 15, 2007

Encyclopedia of School Psychology


Steven W. Lee,
Sage Publications| 2005|PDF|683 Pages| ISBN 0761930809|3,2 MB|Amazon

This encyclopedia comes at a time when the topics it addresses--among them Bullying and victimization, Cooperative learning, Learning styles, No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, and Reading interventions and strategies-- are at the forefront of American educational thought. Arranged A-Z, it contains more than 250 articles by 175 of the more influential school psychology scholars at all levels, from elementary school through university. A "Readers Guide" organizes the entries into categories such as "Demographic Variables," "Family and Parenting," "Multicultural Issues," and "Technology." The volume is extensively indexed, and the index is accurate, with well-placed cross-referencing. Each entry includes a list of cross-references to other entries along with references and other readings related to the topic.
The entries include some of the latest research on learning, motivation, and educational assessment. Some entries have a "Point Versus Counterpoint" feature that looks at both sides of a topic, such as the DARE program for drug prevention. Numerous tables help illustrate various concepts.
Although it shares some of the same contributors, this volume is not to be confused with Encyclopedia of School Psychology (Kluwer Academic, 2004). The Kluwer title is not indexed, making comparison difficult, but, based on a side-by-side look at entries covering the same topics, the Sage encyclopedia is the preferred choice because of its expanded content, layout, and added features, not to mention its indexing and lower cost. It is recommended for schools and academic and public libraries, especially those not owning the Kluwer volume.


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>Handbook of Categorization in Cognitive Science


Henri Cohen,
Elsevier Ltd. | ISBN 0080446124 | 2005 | PDF | 1136 Pages| 5.8 MB |Amazon

Categorization, the basic cognitive process of arranging objects into categories, is a fundamental process in human and machine intelligence and is central to investigations and research in cognitive science. Until now, categorization has been approached from singular disciplinary perspectives with little overlap or communication between the disciplines involved (Linguistics, Psychology, Philosophy, Neuroscience, Computer Science, Cognitive Anthropology). Henri Cohen and Claire Lefebvre have gathered together a stellar collection of contributors in this unique, ambitious attempt to bring together converging disciplinary and conceptual perspectives on this topic.
"Categorization is a key concept across the range of cognitive sciences, including linguistics and philosophy, yet hitherto it has been hard to find accounts that go beyond the concerns of one or two individual disciplines. The Handbook of Categorization in Cognitive Science provides just the sort of interdisciplinary approach that is necessary to synthesize knowledge from the different fields and provide the basis for future innovation." Professor Bernard Comrie, Department of Linguistics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Germany "Anyone concerned with language, semantics, or categorization will want to have this encyclopedic collection." Professor Eleanor Rosch, Dept of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley, USA


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