Political-economic sociologists have long investigated the dynamics and consequences of international trade. With few exceptions, this area of inquiry ignores the possible connections between trade and environmental degradation. In contrast, environmental sociologists have made several assumptions about the environmental impacts of international…

This article outlines a theory for understanding the impact of a crisis on individuals and organizations. Crisis in context theory (CCT) is grounded in an ecological model and based on literature in the field of crisis intervention and on personal experiences of the authors. A graphic representation denotes key components and premises of CCT,…

The hypothesis is introduced that 1 source of shift costs is the strengthening of task-related associations occurring whenever an overt response is produced. The authors tested this account by examining shift effects following errors and error compensation processes. The authors predicted that following a specific type of error, called task…

Accurate descriptions of sex differences in the development of childhood conduct problems and adolescent delinquency will inform theories of their causes in fundamentally important ways. Using data on 4,572 offspring of a national sample of women, we tested descriptive hypotheses regarding sex differences. As predicted, the magnitude of sex…

This study explores the potential for using a computer-based scoring procedure for the formulating-hypotheses (F-H) item. This item type presents a situation and asks the examinee to generate explanations for it. Each explanation is judged right or wrong, and the number of creditable explanations is summed to produce an item score. Scores were…

Contingency tables, and their associated statistical tests, are frequently used in educational and social research. Popular statistical tests used in contingency table analyses include the Pearson chi-square test and the likelihood ratio chi-square test. These two tests are chi-square distributed under large sample conditions. However, when a…

The hypothesis is the device scientists use to translate questions, theories, or proposed explanations into a form amenable to empirical research. This edition of W. W. Charter's treatise on clear, conceptual definitions and precise operational hypotheses, which was originally developed to assist students in educational policy and management…

A new method for evaluating model fit that is easy to use and interpret is presented. The new method, which uses a binomial test of the number of hypotheses (paths) in a model that are supported by the data, has heuristic value when considering problems associated with other goodness-of-fit measures. An application of the binomial test as a…

A search of the ERIC database and a review of the literature suggests that meta-analysis is ignored by philosophers, a situation that is regrettable but remediable. Meta-analysis is a method by which one attempts to integrate findings quantitatively from several research studies related to a common general topic. Philosophers should certainly pay…

Describes an attempt to plot the walking speeds of crowds as a Maxwellian velocity distribution in one dimension, analagous to an ideal gas approximation. (CP)

The hypothesis that the normal effects of recreationally used drugs vary across substances, users, and situations as a function of normative content, normative clarity, and situational context was tested. (Author/JC)

Identifies some errors commonly committed when educational research results are reported. (BR)

This unobtrusive study examined whether the accuracy of reference service provided by student reference assistants (SRAs) and full-time paraprofessional department assistants (DAs) at the Brigham Young University library had improved since 1987. The effects of the following factors on accuracy were also considered: (1) whether a question was…

The overwhelming majority of research on environmental influences has concentrated on the social environment, to the relative neglect of the physical environment. This neglect is justified by an unvalidated hypothesis, namely that the physical environment must be mediated by social parameters in order to influence development. Two studies were…

An index that measures the degree of comfort a researcher has relative to statistical inference application is proposed. The index is calculated by selecting and weighting components inherent in the conduct of hypothesis tests and confidence intervals, and its values range from zero to one. To organize the components of the index, inference…