The purpose of this case study is to highlight the importance and limitations of methodology and research design in the exploration of highly subjective behavioural research. People are social creatures, and as such, their 'reality' is what they perceive to be true, which can be very difficult to 'prove' (by them or others). Two people can observe…

Over the past few years, the focus group method has assumed a very important role as a method for collecting qualitative data in social and behavioural science research. This article elucidates theoretical and practical problems and prospects associated with the use of focus groups as a qualitative research method in social and behavioural science…

"JEAB"'s first decade featured control of individual behavior by operant contingencies, where the experimenter could interact with a subject in real time and obtain fairly immediate evidence of control, with the possibility of direct extension to applied settings. In subsequent decades, emphasis shifted toward long-term parametric studies with…

Despite having drawn from empirical evidence and cumulative prior expertise in the formulation of research questions as well as study design, each study is treated as a stand-alone product rather than positioned within a sequence of cumulative evidence. While results of prior studies are typically cited within the body of prior literature review,…

Study results indicate that sex of experimenter appears to be an important factor in conservation assessment at the lower elementary level. (DP)

Classical methods for detecting outliers deal with continuous variables. These methods are not readily applicable to categorical data, such as incorrect/correct scores (0/1) and ordered rating scale scores (e.g., 0,..., 4) typical of multi-item tests and questionnaires. This study proposes two definitions of outlier scores suited for categorical…

Psychology texts, dating from 1940, are examined to assess the impact of Raymond B. Cattell's work on the fields of social psychology and group dynamics. Factors contributing to his surprising lack of influence, including difficulties with the complexity, terminology, and independent nature of his work and personality, are discussed. (BS)

Subjects (N=48) attempted 24 trials of a psychomotor task to avoid aversive stimulus. Subject-experimenters, with solution expectancies instilled, offered information to subjects. Found that subject-experimenter expectancies were communicated to subjects via periodic comments. Expectancies affected subjects' task performance. Previous similar task…

Discusses new research which suggests a need for a model integrating all the various approaches to the study of nonverbal cues. (MH)

The five types of reasons researchers gave for or against choosing a particular sex for research subjects were: (1) subject availability; (2) presumed subject trait, characteristic, or response; (3) a favorable experimental condition; (4) wish to limit subject by experimenter interaction; (5) desire for comparability with previous research.…

Does the name of the special interest group, "The Experimental Analysis of Human Behavior," imply that those who analyze the behavior of human animals must organize themselves apart from those who analyze the behavior of nonhuman animals? Is the use of nonhumans in experiments really not relevant to the analysis of the behavior of humans? If so,…

In its original formulation, dissonance reduction was postulated as a mode for resolving behavior-attitude discrepancies. One mode of resolution has been demonstrated in the forced compliance paradigm, whereby a subject rectifies a counterattitudinal behavior with an actual belief, resulting in moderating beliefs. A forced compliance situation was…

In two experiments involving a two-choice marble dropping game children responded more to social control than to the magnitude of the reward. (ST)