Researchers are urged to guard against presumption, and to focus on the issues gradually, as they emerge under observation. Naturalistic evaluation studies represent an interaction between a research viewpoint and a field activity. There is uniqueness to the research team's predilection, and uniqueness to the site. Progressive focusing requires…

Fourteen hundred faculty members in 50 departments were questioned to determine the amount of formal research done each year in the nine Wisconsin State Universities. Responses revealing research productivity by department, amount of research done in teaching-learning (educational), percentage of faculty that do not engage in research because of…

An equation, introduced by Goodman and Kruskal for obtaining a reliability measure of one item was expanded. This formula determines inter-rater reliability for a series of items across many subjects. The statistic that results is easily interpreted and in many ways is analogous to the conventional reliability for quantitative data. (Author/BJG)

To reduce confusion and controversy about the nature of self-care and its consequences for children, this commentary defines the self-care child as one between the ages of approximately six and 13 years who spends time at home alone or with a younger sibling on a periodic basis. (RH)

Advances arguments against defining self-care children exclusively in terms of elementary school students who are home alone or with a younger sibling after school. (RH)

Humorously suggests the discipline of adult education suffers from four ills: (1) Gogymania, (2) Mapomania, (3) Defnimania, and (4) Lexicophilia. Offers possible cures. (CH)

Praises the writing persona of syndicated columnist Mike Royko and speculates on how he might comment on the research related to reading. (HTH)

Indicates that Kemler raises a number of important issues needing resolution before the understanding of infant categorization is complete, but claims Kemler misunderstands both the goals of the Husaim and Cohen experiment and the extent to which the goals were met. (Author/RH)

This paper presents formulas that can be used to approach the problem of nonresponse in survey research. (Author/AL)

Survey research of high quality never ignores the problem of nonresponse. The most reputable professional journals are those that reject for publication survey research that ignores the problem of nonresponse, which makes nonrepresentativeness of returns, and, therefore, credibility of findings, uncertain at best and highly unlikely at worst.…

Describes hypothesis validity as extent to which research results reflect theoretically derived predictions about relations between or among constructs. Discusses role of hypotheses in theory testing. Presents four threats to hypothesis validity: (1) inconsequential research hypotheses; (2) ambiguous research hypotheses; (3) noncongruence of…

Responds to Gordon's critique (in this issue) of Bohannon and Stanowicz (1988) by pointing out relevant and irrelevant aspects of discussions of learnability. Rates of feedback found in Bohannon and Stanowicz are shown to be sufficient to spur learning in many species. Evidence against the universality of negative evidence is discounted. (RH)

Notes that, when planning research, obvious strategy is to assess likely flaws and develop approaches to overcome them. Introduces set of concepts that researchers can use to evaluate quality of their designs. Presents 32 threats to validity organized according to 4 types of validity (internal, external, statistical conclusion, and construct…

Notes that studies in psychology often have low power because of inadequate sample size and that prevalent psychometric distributions are sometimes radically nonnormal. Demonstrates robustness of independent samples t-test with respect to Type I error. Shows that researchers may use power tables based on population normality without modification…

Comments on Robinson and Gross's article on perceptions of ethics among mental health counselors. Argues researcher needs to discuss findings, regardless of what path it may lead down. Three explanations are given as possible reasons for their findings, two avoiding gender stereotypes in whole or in part. (Author/ABL)