Notes that finding appropriate, statistically sound means of collecting data is important step in developing research. Presents goal attainment scaling and semantic differential as two flexible, reliable, and valid data-collection methodologies useful for practitioners. Provides procedural instructions and examples for constructing each…

Proposes client self-instruction during counseling as an appropriate focus for ethogenic research. Summarizes philosophical and historical background; proposes research questions, methods, and designs. Suggests adoption of theoretical and methodological perspectives might lead to a closer dialogue between scientists and practitioners in counseling…

Defines co-operative inquiry as a radically participative form of inquiry in which all involved are both co-researchers and co-subjects. Introduces methodology in a layperson's guide. Reflects on the learning process of an inquiry group, especially the process of research cycling, importance of peer group, and the paradoxical self-reflexive…

Outlines origins and evolution of family interaction research and argues that such research suffered from insufficient integration of implications of clinical viewpoint of family systems theory into research procedure. Describes experimental method for evaluating public verifiability of complex clinical notions. (Author/NB)

Proposes and illustrates criteria for the conduct of cognitive-mediational therapeutic research as part of larger proposal for multifaceted inquiry into therapeutic events and effects. Explores implications of proposal for relationship between scientific theory and professional practice in counseling psychology. (Author/NB)

Demonstrates the use of Rasch models to assess the dimensionality of an item set across cohorts in longitudinal studies. Presents data from a study on adolescents' deductive reasoning ability showing that the same test items can be measuring qualitatively different latent traits in different subsamples or at different time points. (JPB)

Demonstrates how Rasch models can be used to study differences in item salience within and across time points, and that even if a test does not fulfill assumptions of the Rasch model, it can be used to obtain information on item functioning across participants and over time. Illustrates method using longitudinal data from Baltimore Prevention…

Explores reasons for the tenuous relationship between educational research and educational practice. Suggests changes in research and policy to bring educational research directly to bear on educational problems. The major problem is that researchers are searching for variables that relate to improved outcomes, whereas educational innovators are…