Questioned Straus and Gelles' (1986) conclusion that child and wife abuse were substantially lower in 1985 than in 1975. Refined cohort analysis to apply to data, demonstrating that changes in age structures of adult and child population explained most of reported reduction. Much remaining change may have resulted when respondents' reactions to…

Through a layered analysis that reinterprets previous research experience with middle-schoolers, considers how being positioned researchers changes the interpretations or texts inscribed on their research interactions. Researchers create texts that unintentionally conceal the direction and nature of their "invasiveness." Conundrums abound in…

Research within a constructivist approach often relies on interview data, which are used to reveal beliefs held by the interviewee or to expose conceptions or conceptual structures that are supposed to reside within the interviewee. From a sociocultural perspective, severe criticism has been leveled against the neglect of the problems of inferring…

Psacharopoulos has found a declining rate-of-return to education pattern across levels of per capita income, using international data. A reexamination of Psacharopoulos's cross-country data refutes his declining rate-of-return hypothesis and points to diversity of cross-country experience as a possibly significant factor in interpreting the data.…

This articles explores authoritive problems in interpreting art education in research, namely authorization and authorship. Authorization rites and rights are now under institutional surveillance. A researcher should proceed with ethical fairness. The process of authorship is one of the negotiation of conflicting meanings, and at times subject to…

The high incidence of reported posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among Vietnam veterans has prompted researchers to search for reliable assessment and treatment procedures for this disorder. Although some encouraging preliminary data on the use of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) have been obtained, it is uncertain if this…

The results of Seaver's (1973) quasi-experimental study of the effects of teacher expectancies on student achievement based on older sibling performance are reinterpreted as a regression artifact. That this rival explanation has not been recognized in the literature is probably due to the effects of researcher expectancies. (Author/BS)

Using the split-middle methods of trend estimation, evaluates the accuracy of interpretation of single subject data by comparing raters' visual analysis of behavior change with statistical determination of behavior change. Results indicate visual analysis accuracy was less than chance. Rater and student characteristics largely did not affect the…

In a study of the relationship between moral reasoning and teenage drug use, problems arose in an attempt to reduce qualitative data to a quantitative format: (1) making analytic sense of singular and universal responses; (2) the mistaken logical inference that each pattern of judgment should have behavioral indicators; and (3) construction and…

Bias due to attrition of respondents poses a threat to the internal and external validity of research findings. Discusses methods of detecting attrition bias in longitudinal family research, and presents Heckman's procedure to correct attrition bias. Data from the University of California Longitudinal Study of Generations are used to illustrate…

Education statistics are rarely neutral; those who collect and analyze them have different purposes. In this article, Bracey discusses several principles of data interpretation to help educators avoid falling into statistical traps. For example, because such reports as A Nation At Risk contain many "selected, spun, distorted, and even manufactured…

This paper examines the problems caused by relying solely on statistical significance tests to interpret results in contemporary social science. The place of significance testing in educational research has often been debated. Among the problems in reporting statistical significance are questions of definition and terminology. Problems are also…

When comparing the DACUM (Developing a Curriculum) and curriculum conference methods of curriculum development, one finds that the product goals of the two methods differ but the process goals are similar. Both seek to generate information from a select group on which to base curriculum development, but the end product of DACUM is a chart that…

Relativism is an inevitable consequence of our interpretive mode of being in the world. This is so for both our daily lives and our professional lives. What does not overly concern us at the former level should likewise not concern us at the latter level. (Author/BJV)

Examined factor structure of Career Decision Scale (CDS), comparing findings of seven factor analytic studies. Conducted new factor analytic study of CDS designed to avoid methodological problems of earlier studies, using 698 secondary school students as subjects. Results suggest "Simple" model of CDS factor structure could be derived…