Table of Contents

1. The Role and Importance of Research 

2. The Research Process: Coming to Terms 

3A. Selecting a Problem and Reviewing the Research 

3B. The Importance of Practicing Ethics in Research 

4. Sampling and Generalizability 

5. Measurement, Reliability, and Validity 

6. Methods of Measuring Behavior 

7. Data Collection and Descriptive Statistics 

8. Introducing Inferential Statistics 

9. Nonexperimental Research: Descriptive and Correlational Methods 

10. Nonexperimental Research: Qualitative Methods 

11. Pre- and True Experimental Research Methods 

12. Quasi-Experimental Research: A Close Cousin to Experimental Research 

13. Writing a Research Proposal 

14. Writing a Research Manuscript 

Appendix A 

Appendix B 

Appendix C 

Appendix D 

Bibliography 

Glossary 

Index 

About the Author

Neil J. Salkind received his Ph.D. from the University of Maryland in Human Development. After teaching for 35 years at the University of Kansas, he remains as a Professor Emeritus in the Department of Psychology and Research in Education, where he continues to collaborate with colleagues and work with students. His early interests were in the area of children's cognitive development. After researching in the areas of cognitive style, he became a postdoctoral fellow at the University of North Carolina's Bush Center for Child and Family Policy. He is the author of Statistics for People Who Think They Hate Statistics (Sage), Theories of Human Development (Sage), and Exploring Research (Pearson). He has edited several encyclopedias including the Encyclopedia of Human Development, the Encyclopedia of Measurement and Statistics, and the recently published Encyclopedia of Research Design. He was the editor of Child Development Abstracts and Bibliography and lives in Lawrence, Kansas, where he likes to read, swim with the River City Sharks, bake brownies, and poke around old Volvos and old houses.