This special issue features papers that offer deeply felt, valuable perspectives on diverse aspects of theory construction in social-personality psychology. The goal is to furnish a basis for starting a discussion about the considerable challenges of theorizing, the ways of meeting those challenges, and the great rewards that successful theorizing offers to the discipline as a whole.
Providing conceptual and practical foundations in scale construction and psychometrics for producers and consumers of social/personality research, this guide covers basic principles, practices, and processes in scale construction, scale evaluation, scale use, and interpretation of research results in the context of psychological measurement. It explains fundamental concepts and methods related to dimensionality, reliability, and validity. In addition, it provides relatively non-technical introductions to special topics and advanced psychometric perspectives such as Confirmatory Factor Analysis, Generalizability Theory, and Item Response Theory. The SAGE Library in Social and Personality Psychology Methods provides students and researchers with an understanding of the methods and techniques essential to conducting cutting-edge research. Each volume within the Library explains a specific topic and has been written by an active scholar (or scholars) with expertise in that particular methodological domain. Assuming no prior knowledge of the topic, the volumes are clear and accessible for all readers. In each volume, a topic is introduced, applications are discussed, and readers are led step by step through worked examples. In addition, advice about how to interpret and prepare results for publication are presented.
This volume provides the first authoritative explication of metatheoretical principles in the construction and evaluation of social-psychological theories. Leading international authorities review the conceptual foundations of the field's most influential approaches, scrutinizing the range and limits of theories in various areas of inquiry. The chapters describe basic principles of logical inference, illustrate common fallacies in theoretical interpretations of empirical findings, and outline the unique contributions of different levels of analysis. An in-depth look at the philosophical foundations of theorizing in social psychology, the book will be of interest to any scholar or student interested in scientific explanations of social behavior.
This indispensible sourcebook covers conceptual and practical issues in research design in the field of social and personality psychology. Key experts address specific methods and areas of research, contributing to a comprehensive overview of contemporary practice. This updated and expanded second edition offers current commentary on social and personality psychology, reflecting the rapid development of this dynamic area of research over the past decade. With the help of this up-to-date text, both seasoned and beginning social psychologists will be able to explore the various tools and methods available to them in their research as they craft experiments and imagine new methodological possibilities.
Originally published in 1988, this second edition of The Construction of Personality has been substantially revised and updated. The author provides an introduction to current theory and research in the psychology of personality at the time and examines this work from the perspective of constructivism. As a consequence of this constructivist approach, the book covers topics from social psychology (e.g. person perception, impression formation) as well as more conventional areas of personality. In this new edition the constructivist perspective is emphasized by the addition of a new chapter in which the constructivist approach to personality is presented, and the chapters on the lay and self perspectives have been extensively re-written. All the other chapters have been revised to include recent material.
Within the field of psychology there is a proliferation of paradigms, theories, models, and dimensions without an underlying conceptual framework or theory. This conclusion has been reached by representatives of many different psychological specialties. In response to this inconsistency this book presents a hierarchical framework about important theoretical issues that are present in psychological thinking. These issues concern definitions of three major theoretical concepts in theory and practice: (a) paradigms, (b) theories, and (c) models. It focuses on defining, comparing, and contrasting these three conceptual terms. This framework clarifies differences among paradigms, theories, and models, terms which have become increasingly confused in the psychological literature. Paradigms are usually confused with theories or with models while theories are confused with models. Examples of misuses of these terms suggest the need for a hierarchical structure that views paradigms as conceptual constructions overseeing a variety of psychological theories and verifiable models.
Your Graduate Training in Psychology takes current and upcoming graduate students beyond the typical concerns of enrolling into graduate school and guides them on how to complete graduate school successfully. Unlike other books that focus on how to get into graduate school, this book directly addresses the major issues that students confront during their graduate training in psychology. A carefully selected cadre of expert authors in their respective areas illuminate the broad range of processes, practices, and procedural issues that face graduate students in both masters and doctoral programs. Ordered chronologically, from the first year of graduate school (Settling In) to what students need to know as they finish (Winding Down and Gearing Up), students will learn the key skills needed to succeed in all aspects of their academic and professional careers while in school and after beginning a professional career.
This book provides a comprehensive overview of research methods in the behavioral sciences, focusing primarily on the conceptual issues inherent in conducting research. It covers topics that are often omitted from other texts, including measurement issues, correlational research, qualitative research, and integrative literature reviews. The book also includes discussions of diversity issues as they related to behavioral science research. New to this edition are chapter boxes that focus on applied issues related to each chapter topic. Throughout the book, readable examples and informative tables and figures are provided. The authors also take a contemporary approach to topics such as research ethics, replication research, and data collection (including internet research).
This book offers a comprehensive overview of the purpose of history for psychology. Its purpose is to ask why history should be of concern to psychologists in teaching and research, and in theory and in practice. The future position of humanities subjects is currently highly debated on all fronts. Chapters focus on the arguments from psychologists, upgrade the precision and quality of discussion, and thus, provide a base for affirming the place of history of psychology in the broad field of psychological activity. A fundamental question dominates the discussion. Is the purpose of the history of psychology to serve current psychology, rather than to contribute to historical knowledge – and to enter large debates about what historical knowledge means for being human? If the answer is yes, as most psychologists who come to the issues will presume, in what ways? Are these ways philosophically grounded, or do the social and political conditions of power and funding in universities dominate the arguments? In this volume, the contributors demonstrate the relation between historical investigations and current practice. Featured topics include: The history of psychology and its relation to feminism. The history of psychology and its relation to current research assessment and curriculum. The history of science and its relation to psychology. The metalanguage for psychology. Case studies of history in theory construction. Centrality of History for Theory Construction in Psychology will be of interest to psychologists, professors, graduate psychology students, and scholars in the human sciences.
