Book picks similar to
Qualitative Data Analysis: A Methods Sourcebook by Matthew B. Miles
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Statistical Methods for Psychology
David C. Howell - 2001
This book has two underlying themes that are more or less independent of the statistical hypothesis tests that are the main content of the book. The first theme is the importance of looking at the data before formulating a hypothesis. With this in mind, the author discusses, in detail, plotting data, looking for outliers, and checking assumptions (Graphical displays are used extensively). The second theme is the importance of the relationship between the statistical test to be employed and the theoretical questions being posed by the experiment. To emphasize this relationship, the author uses real examples to help the student understand the purpose behind the experiment and the predictions made by the theory. Although this book is designed for students at the intermediate level or above, it does not assume that students have had either a previous course in statistics or a course in math beyond high-school algebra.
The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail—But Some Don't
Nate Silver - 2012
He solidified his standing as the nation's foremost political forecaster with his near perfect prediction of the 2012 election. Silver is the founder and editor in chief of FiveThirtyEight.com. Drawing on his own groundbreaking work, Silver examines the world of prediction, investigating how we can distinguish a true signal from a universe of noisy data. Most predictions fail, often at great cost to society, because most of us have a poor understanding of probability and uncertainty. Both experts and laypeople mistake more confident predictions for more accurate ones. But overconfidence is often the reason for failure. If our appreciation of uncertainty improves, our predictions can get better too. This is the "prediction paradox": The more humility we have about our ability to make predictions, the more successful we can be in planning for the future.In keeping with his own aim to seek truth from data, Silver visits the most successful forecasters in a range of areas, from hurricanes to baseball, from the poker table to the stock market, from Capitol Hill to the NBA. He explains and evaluates how these forecasters think and what bonds they share. What lies behind their success? Are they good-or just lucky? What patterns have they unraveled? And are their forecasts really right? He explores unanticipated commonalities and exposes unexpected juxtapositions. And sometimes, it is not so much how good a prediction is in an absolute sense that matters but how good it is relative to the competition. In other cases, prediction is still a very rudimentary-and dangerous-science.Silver observes that the most accurate forecasters tend to have a superior command of probability, and they tend to be both humble and hardworking. They distinguish the predictable from the unpredictable, and they notice a thousand little details that lead them closer to the truth. Because of their appreciation of probability, they can distinguish the signal from the noise.
The Literature Review: A Step-By-Step Guide for Students
Diana Ridley - 2008
Diana Ridley describes how to carry out a literature review in a systematic, methodical way, providing useful strategies for efficient reading, conducting searches, organizing information, and writing the review itself.
After Method: Mess in Social Science Research
John Law - 2004
The implications of this argument are highly significant. If this is the case, methods are always political, and it raises the question of what kinds of social realities we want to create.Most current methods look for clarity and precision. It is usually said that only poor research produces messy findings, and the idea that things in the world might be fluid, elusive, or multiple is unthinkable. Law's startling argument is that this is wrong and it is time for a new approach. Many realities, he says, are vague and ephemeral. If methods want to know and help to shape the world, then they need to reinvent themselves and their politics to deal with mess. That is the challenge. Nothing less will do.
The Cartoon Guide to Statistics
Larry Gonick - 1993
Never again will you order the Poisson Distribution in a French restaurant!This updated version features all new material.
Research Is Ceremony: Indigenous Research Methods
Shawn Wilson - 2009
Portraying indigenous researchers as knowledge seekers who work to progress indigenous ways of being, knowing, and doing in a constantly evolving context, this examination shows how relationships both shape indigenous reality and are vital to reality itself. These same knowledge seekers develop relationships with ideas in order to achieve enlightenment in the ceremony of maintaining accountability. Envisioning researchers as accountable to all relations, this overview proves that careful choices should be made regarding selection of topics, methods of data collection, forms of analysis, and the way in which information is presented.
Psychology of Learning for Instruction
Marcy P. Driscoll - 1993
Psychology of Learning for Instruction, Third Edition, focuses on the applications and implications of the learning theories. Using excellent examples ranging from primary school instruction to corporate training, this text combines the latest thinking and research to give readers the opportunity to explore the individual theories as viewed by the experts. Readers are encouraged to apply "reflective practice," which is designed to foster a critical and reflective mode of thinking when considering any particular approach to learning and instruction. Provides readers with the practical knowledge needed to apply learning theories to instruction. KEY TOPICS: This text addresses learning as it relates to behavior, cognition, development, biology, motivation and instruction. MARKET: Pre-service and in-service teachers, and educational psychologists.
A PhD Is Not Enough: A Guide To Survival In Science
Peter J. Feibelman - 1993
Permanent positions are scarce, science survival is rarely part of formal graduate training, and a good mentor is hard to find. This exceptional volume explains what stands between you and fulfilling long-term research career. Bringing the key survival skills into focus, A Ph.D. Is Not Enough! proposes a rational approach to establishing yourself as a scientist. It offers sound advice of selecting a thesis or postdoctoral adviser, choosing among research jobs in academia, government laboratories, and industry, preparing for an employment interview, and defining a research program. This book will help you make your oral presentations effective, your journal articles compelling, and your grant proposals successful. A Ph.D. Is Not Enough should be required reading for anyone on the threshold of a career in science.
Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word
Walter J. Ong - 1982
Ong offers fascinating insights into oral genres across the globe and through time, and examines the rise of abstract philosophical and scientific thinking. He considers the impact of orality-literacy studies not only on literary criticism and theory but on our very understanding of what it is to be a human being, conscious of self and other.This is a book no reader, writer or speaker should be without.
Becoming Qualitative Researchers: An Introduction
Corrine Glesne - 1998
Ideal for introducing the novice researcher to the theory and practice of qualitative research, this text opens students to the diverse possibilities within this inquiry approach, while helping them understand how to design and implement specific research methods. The author's accessible writing style, the wealth of examples, and the numerous exercises provide opportunities for practicing and refining the skills of becoming a qualitative researcher. The new edition focuses on the development of research proposals (Ch. 2); the history and concerns of institutional review boards (IRBs) and issues qualitative researchers sometimes confront when submitting proposals (Ch. 6); greater information and examples on coding and thematic analysis, while also introducing other approaches to data analysis (Ch. 7); and arts based research through a chapter that encourages consideration of creative ways to approach and represent inquiry (Ch. 9). Chapter 10 looks at sharing research results through participation at conferences and in publications.
A Framework for Understanding Poverty
Ruby K. Payne - 1995
The reality of being poor brings out a survival mentality, and turns attention away from opportunities taken for granted by everyone else. If you work with people from poverty, some understanding of how different their world is from yours will be invaluable. Whether you're an educator--or a social, health, or legal services professional--this breakthrough book gives you practical, real-world support and guidance to improve your effectiveness in working with people from all socioeconomic backgrounds. Since 1995 A Framework for Understanding Poverty has guided hundreds of thousands of educators and other professionals through the pitfalls and barriers faced by all classes, especially the poor. Carefully researched and packed with charts, tables, and questionnaires, Framework not only documents the facts of poverty, it provides practical yet compassionate strategies for addressing its impact on people's lives.
The Social Life of Information
John Seely Brown - 2000
John Seely Brown and Paul Duguid argue that the gap between digerati hype and end-user gloom is largely due to the "tunnel vision" that information-driven technologies breed. We've become so focused on where we think we ought to be--a place where technology empowers individuals and obliterates social organizations--that we often fail to see where we're really going.The Social Life of Information shows us how to look beyond our obsession with information and individuals to include the critical social networks of which these are always a part.
Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind
Geert Hofstede - 1993
Professor Geert Hofstede's 30 years of field research on cultural differences and the software of the mind helps us look at how we think - and how we fail to think - as members of groups. This newly revised and expanded edition is based on the latest data from Professor Hofstede ongoing field research, and provides detailed comparisons of cross-cultural differences among 70 nations. business, family, schools and political organizations. Professor Hofstede explains phenomena such as culture shock, ethnocentrism, stereotyping, differences in language and humor. Most importantly, he discusses the practical implications of the culture differences described in the book and how understanding these cultural differences can enable people from different cultures to work together more productively. parents. Melding powerful intellectual analysis and hard social, cultural, and organizational research, Hofstede gives a sobering picture of a world perilously lacking in self-knowledge - unaware of serious difference between the businesses, organizations, cultures, and nations that populate our planet despite the fact of globalization. But culture shock - whether between an individual and a new country, between organizations, between the sexes, or between opposing diplomats - can be turned to our advantage, Hofstede says-if we understand it. Cultures and Organizations helps to explain the differences in the way leaders and their followers think, offering practical solutions for those in business and politics to help solve conflict between different groups.
Research Methods in Anthropology: Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches
H. Russell Bernard - 1988
This fourth edition contains all the useful methodological advice of previous editions and more: additional material on text analysis, an expanded section on sampling in field settings, and dozens of new examples.