The purpose of this study is to illustrate how the combined use of qualitative and quantitative methods were necessary in obtaining within this society a clearer understanding of incest. The paper opens with a report of studies carried out on natural father and stepfather incestuous families, and this opens up the issue of the appropriateness of…

Two order theoretic techniques were presented and compared. Ordering theory of Krus and Bart (1974) and an extended Takeya's item relational structure analysis (IRS) by Tatsuoka and Tatsuoka (1981) were used to extract the hierarchical item structure from three datasets. Directed graphs were constructed and both methods were assessed as to how…

Three separate papers are included in this report. The first describes a two-stage procedure for choosing from among several instructional programs the one which maximizes the probability of passing the test. The second gives the exact sample sizes required to determine whether a squared multiple correlation coefficient is above or below a known…

When analysis of variance is used, statistically significant differences may or may not be of practical significance to educators. A large part of the problem is due to the fact that a "zero difference" null hypothesis can always be rejected statistically if the sample size is large enough. If, however, a method based on the noncentral F…

Some of the requirements and consequences of rigorous and valid educational evaluation research are explored in terms of problems in achieving two types of external validity, population and ecological. The former refers to the generalizability of inferences to subjects not included in a study, while the latter is concerned with the…

This report presents the problem and a solution to the treatment of students by age interactions. It considers the plight of an educational researcher who wishes to demonstrate that a particular treatment effect changes from age to age. In analysis of variance language, he is seeking a treatment by age interaction. The report presents a rationale…

Discusses the problem of choosing the proper unit (e.g., class or individual student) for the statistical analysis of educational research. Describes a study that was statistically analyzed eight different ways and discusses the various results and implications. Suggests that the problem of selecting the proper experimental unit may be less…

Demonstrates that in research about prison sentencing different definitions and alternate techniques yield different results. Offers two conceptualizations of the sentencing decision and then applies either discriminate or multivariate analysis accordingly. Concludes that such definitions shape the research question, direct the focus of inquiry,…

If social scientists are to offer useful insights into schooling, the nature of schools as sociological environments needs to be examined. Statistical effects are not the same as social causality and explaining statistical variance is not sociological explanation. (Author/AM)

Kaufman and Sweet's article on the regression analysis of unbalanced factorial designs (EJ 111 767) is reviewed. A number of errors are noted, and relevant literature is cited. (GDC)

Discusses recent protest concerning the conduct of survey research. (SL)

Research hypotheses versus statistical hypotheses, null hypotheses and alternative hypotheses, and statistical significance versus practical significance are described and illustrated. (CP)

The mnemonic keyword study of Johnson, Adams, and Bruning (1985) on effectiveness of the keyword method for second-language vocabulary acquisition is critiqued. Of particular concern are literature currency vis-a-vis the authors' stated rationale for conducting the study, and methodological issues associated with the study's implementation.…

Examines difficulties associated with the use of conversational features in the analysis of mother-infant vocalization episodes. Observations of six mother-infant dyads revealed difficulties involving (1) pooling of data; (2) the unit of analysis; and (3) selection of appropriate "expected" values for dyadic parameters used in tests of…