A survey of 656 social workers, pediatricians, psychiatrists, and psychologists rated the credibility of vignettes alleging child sexual abuse. Seven case factors affected credibility: perpetrator's race, relationship to victim, and history of substance abuse; and victims' race, affect, age, and behavioral changes. Several clinician factors were…

The law enforcement perspective concerning the credibility and truthfulness of allegations of ritual child sexual abuse is discussed. The differences in levels of proof needed by parents, therapists, social workers, and police are described. (BRM)

Presents an attempt to cross-validate a widely used set of standard credibility scales. Finds that the Meyer modification of the Gaziano-McGrath scales appears to validly and reliably measure credibility per se but that a second set of scales posited to measure community affiliation is not sufficiently reliable in its current form for use without…

Details an instructional approach (used at a college newspaper serving a medium-sized midwestern city) designed to teach student journalists how to gather, critically assess, and verify information on the World Wide Web. Discusses data concerning the use of the Web site developed at the newspaper as part of the project. Offers guidelines developed…

Chelimsky, former head of the Program Evaluation and Methodology Division of the General Accounting Office, suggested that advocacy by evaluators destroys their credibility. Evaluators should, this author argues, be advocates for democracy and the public interest, with the question being how explicitly and how defensibly. (SLD)

Presents a review of selected relational communication studies that indicates the relevance of humility, wisdom, industry, faithfulness, and self-control. Indicates that self-control is related to believability, trustworthiness, and marital satisfaction. Argues that the inclusion of personal virtue and vice as communicator characteristics would…

Considers whether African-American children can be educated in a system that ignores their cultural capital. Examines the effects of educational history and tradition, the importance of teacher reflection on attitudes and practices, and the need to culturally responsive rather than color blind. (Contains 43 references.) (SK)

Examines argument from the televised impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton concerning the similarity of the Clinton case to the Linda Battalino case and asks if the argument does or does not represents an "ad hominem" argument. Provides an introduction to the viewpoint of informal logic and a summary of the various forms of…

A former university president and a trustee (who are also father and daughter) apply the rules of good business partnerships to communication between boards and presidents and provide the president and trustee viewpoints on these rules: communicate, be a team, be honest, and be trustworthy. (EV)

Investigates the effect that timing of suspicion and outcome involvement has on biased message processing by undergraduate students. Indicates that timing of suspicion has little effect on biased processing, but perceived suspicion did influence biased processing. Notes that the timing of suspicion did influence the strength of the truth-bias but…

Extends the recent work on the veracity effect in deception detection. Explains the probabilistic nature of a receiver's accuracy in detecting deception and analyzes a receiver's detection of deception in terms of set theory and conditional probability. Finds that accuracy is shown to be a function of the relevant conditional probability and the…

This article examines concepts of the trustworthiness, or credibility, of qualitative research. Following a "researcher-as-instrument," or self-reflective, statement, the paradigmatic underpinnings of various criteria for judging the quality of qualitative research are explored, setting the stage for a discussion of more transcendent standards…

The credibility of an instructional simulation is the most important issue in distance education, where it may replace hands-on activities. This credibility is based in large part upon verisimilitude, a perception strongly influenced by the simulation's realism. This paper presents a case study encompassing the design process of a simulation-based…

In conducting research, the identified problem in the field will determine the research strategies chosen to address the problem. When a qualitative research strategy is deemed as the most appropriate strategy to get answers to research questions, the researcher should be aware of obstacles that can be encountered in the research process. If the…

Evidence-based practice (EBP), a framework that originated in clinical medicine, offers a principled means of addressing longstanding questions about clinical practice in communication disorders. However, in several respects EBP represents a radical departure from traditional thinking in speech-language pathology and audiology. In this paper, I…