Research Methods for the Behavioral Sciences

The fourth edition provides substantive changes that have improved clarity of content, linkage to learning objectives, connections across the text for design and analysis, and scholarship substantially updated throughout. The changes allow for more comprehensive presentation of the material, based on years of feedback from colleagues, instructors, and students, that is more illustrative in nature and meaningful for students. Three major overarching themes to the revisions are apparent. A broad summary of changes in the fourth edition is given briefly here.

The first theme was to connect readers with a more comprehensive introduction to design and analysis for quantitative research by highlighting the assumptions for parametric testing in a new feature, Testing the Assumptions of Parametric Testing. This feature balances the coverage of this final analysis step in quantitative research by (1) making students aware of the assumptions, (2) connecting readers to where in the book they can learn about nonparametric alternatives to this testing, and (3) providing students with a more balanced perspective for choosing appropriate statistical analyses to analyze quantitative data.

Another theme in the writing of the fourth edition was that the figures, tables, and writing were revised to improve clarity throughout. Many revisions were specifically based on feedback from instructors and students, such as updating the example for distinguishing between basic and applied research, adding more examples to clarify between types of validity and reliability, pulling apart the sections on basic and control time series designs, expanding the section on writing valid and reliable survey items, and updating many examples for the experimental designs. Changes included revising figures and tables, in addition to revising and adding new content throughout to build strong writing around the content being presented, as per feedback from students and instructors.

A third theme was to align chapter content and learning objectives more closely throughout the book. Learning objectives have been integrated into the chapters to align them with content in each chapter. Learning checks now also align the section numbering, in that learning checks now follow each A-head level in the book. In all, over 100 learning checks have been added or revised, including new learning checks for the SPSS in Focus sections. Likewise, all end-of-chapter questions have been fully revised to bring them up to date with changes in the fourth edition. Revisions include incorporating more questions that apply the decision tree, aligning questions with learning objectives taught, and strengthening the overall quality, language, and clarity of questions in each chapter. In addition, the structure of questions was revised, often to accommodate a multiple-choice or single value answer format to align with electronic formats for the book, yet still test at all levels of Bloom’s taxonomy for chapter learning objectives.

The fourth theme that arose was updating scholarship throughout, and reflects changes from the 7th edition of the Publication Manual of the APA. As disciplines in the behavioral sciences advance, it is important to link hypothesis methodology to current examples to help students (1) realize the value and real-world application of research design in the behavioral sciences and (2) connect students to examples in research that they can relate to their own experiences and interests. The scholarship was updated throughout with many new references added to reflect updated scholarship and perspectives, while also removing many references that are relatively outdated. The scholarship was updated both in the text and in the end-of-chapter problems to bolster student learning throughout the book.

In addition, many other changes were made to reflect recent advances or changes in the field. For example, SPSS version 29 made updates that changed not only the views but, in some cases, changed the selection options required to analyze data. Those changes are reflected in this fourth edition, both in the chapters and in Appendix C. In addition to highlighting the assumptions for parametric testing with quantitative methodologies, the qualitative sections were likewise revised to incorporate a strong focus on the holistic perspective of these methodologies and the general nature of conducting and interpreting such studies in the social behavioral sciences. Overall, the changes allow for a more comprehensive presentation of the material and scholarship based on years of feedback from colleagues, instructors, and students.