Text Measurement and Research Methods in Behavioural Science

Contents: Preface. 1. Introduction to Behavioural sciences. 2. Meaning, purpose and principles of research design. 3. Randomized groups: research design and applications. 4. Research design and applications: Correlated groups. 5. Research in Ex Post Facto. 6. Laboratory experiments, field experiments and field studies. 7. Survey research. 8. Foundations of Measurement. 9. Reliability. 10. Validity. 11. Interviews and interview schedules. 12. Objective tests and scales. 13. Projective methods, available materials and content analysis. 14. Observations of behaviour. 15. Sociometry. 16. Q Methodology. Bibliography.

The term Behavioural Science encompasses all the disciplines that explore the activities of and interactions among organisms in the natural world. Behavioural sciences abstract empirical data to investigate the decision processes and communication strategies within and between organisms in a social system. This involves fields like psychology and social neuroscience, among others. Research objectives encourage applications in four general areas of methodology and measurement research in the social and behavioral sciences include the processes that underlie research design, data collection techniques, measurement and data analysis techniques. Methodology and measurement issues in developing innovative multidisciplinary, multimethod, and multilevel research designs for use in behavioral and social science research, with special emphasis on both the development of new technologies, and the analytical complexities associated with the integration of behavioral, social, genetic and biomedical data.