PRI/Social Psychology

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Having just completed my 1st year of Psychology I am eager to find material with relevance to my next year studies being Psychological Research Inquiry and Social Psychology. I have had advice to read around the quantitative/qualitative debate and the reliability and validity of attitude scales. Is there any books out there, which would enhance my knowledge on the above to prepare me for next years studies? Cheers.

-- julie wright (10052914@hope.ac.uk), May 19, 2004

Answers

Have a look at Brent D. Slife and Richard N. Williams, What's Behind the Reserach? Discovering Hidden Assumptions in the Behavioral Sciences. Sage, 1995.

-- Hendrika Vande Kemp (hendrika@cox.net), May 19, 2004.

Thanks very much for that information. The book is a little pricey at £26! But after much searching I have found a copy of it in one of the city libraries. What would we do without computers to search hey? Thanks again.

-- julie wright (10052914@hope.ac.uk), May 20, 2004.

You must be taking courses with Geoff Bunn, a one-time student at York (Toronto)!

If you want to look at specific forms of qualitative research, you might have a look at Linda A. Wood & Rolf O. Kroger's _Doing discourse analysis : methods for studying action in talk and text_ (Sage, 2000), or one of the many books on "grounded theory" (see, e.g., http://www.groundedtheory.com/ or http://www.scu.edu.au/schools/gcm/ar/arp/grounded.html or http://www.analytictech.com/mb870/introtoGT.htm).

As for issues around attitude scales, you might have a look at Tim Rogers' _The Psychological Testing Enterprise: An Introduction_ (Brooks/Cole, 1994)

-- Christopher Green (cgreen@chass.utoronto.ca), May 21, 2004.


Yes, that's right I am studying at Hope University, Liverpool where Geoff Bunn is a member of staff there. Thanks for the tips. I observe this site from time to time and think the forum is great!

-- julie wright (10052914@hope.ac.uk), May 21, 2004.

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