"I like the premise and the resulting organizing theme. The organizational structure fits the described theme well and promises to provide a valuable resource both for educating researchers and for helping them through the myriad types of research methods that are available today...Achieves a nice balance, running the gamut of issues from the conceptual to the practical to the statistical....This book could easily become a classic."
--Donal Carlston, Purdue University
"The book′s emphasis on the conceptual decisions that have to be made in doing research is enticing….I believe that this book has a niche as an advanced undergraduate or graduate-level text. I would certainly consider this book for my advanced undergraduate social psychology research methods class; in fact, I′m desperately in need of such a book."
--John Edwards, Oregon State University
"The handbook will contribute greatly to the training of graduate students and will also be used as reference by social psychologists working in multiple domains….It could be adopted for most advanced methods courses."
--Dolores Albarracin, University of Florida
"All chapters are solid contributions, a few are gems, and every author wrote with an eye to having the work used. This is a handbook to take off the shelf and dog-ear in the classroom, lab, or field. Highly recommended."
-CHOICE
The genius of social psychology as a field has been its ability to investigate the seemingly complicated behaviors that characterize humans as social creatures. The SAGE Handbook of Methods in Social Psychology simplifies this complexity by providing researchers and students with an overview of the rich history of methodological innovation in both basic and applied research within social psychology.
Editors Carol Sansone, Carolyn C. Morf, and A.T. Panter have chosen a particular methodological approach that is essential for optimal consideration of the "big picture" concept of a program of research. In this approach, research questions guide the methods rather than the reverse. Based on this "top-down" perspective, chapters in this unique volume emphasize the conceptual basis of the methodology, with an explicit focus on the meaning of data when obtained via a particular methodology.
Features and Benefits:
- "Big Picture" Understanding. This volume focuses on the decision-making process, highlighting how methodological decisions are inextricably tied to what the researcher ultimately wants to know.
- "Top-down" Perspective. Beginning chapters explore issues of selecting and identifying research questions and populations; middle chapters address design and analysis; and later chapters expand social psychological questions to other disciplines within and outside of psychology.
- Straightforward Statistical Analysis. Statistical analysis is considered only to the extent that it helps to illuminate the meaning of data obtained through a particular methodological approach or design decision.
- Interdisciplinary Approach. Innovative chapters explore such issues as ethics, diversity, individual differences, and how social psychology is moving into new areas that cross disciplinary bounds such as social neuroscience, social development, program evaluation, health, and education.
This Handbook is a vital resource for behavioral scientists in the academic and research settings who are interested in learning about modern perspectives on classic and innovative methodological approaches in social psychology. Also recommended for undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in social psychology methods courses.
Carol Sansone, Ph.D. (1984, Columbia University) is Professor of Psychology at the University of Utah. Her research examines the process through which people regulate their interest and motivation in day-to-day life, using social and non-social means. She is interested in how this process might differ as a function of person characteristics (such as gender) and across the life span, and in the applications of this work to selection of and persistence in math and science careers and to online learning. She is a Fellow of the Society of Personality and Social Psychology, and has served on the editorial boards of a number of journals in social psychology and personality (e.g., Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Journal of Experimental Social Psychology), and as a consultant for several granting agencies. She previously edited a special issue of the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology on "New Directions in Intrinsic Motivation and Creativity" (1999), and a book (with J.M. Harackiewicz as co-editor) published by Academic Press entitled, "Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation: The Search for Optimal Motivation and Performance" (2000). Other recent publications have appeared in the journals Developmental Psychology, Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, Journal of Personality, Psychological Inquiry, and Sex Roles.
Carolyn C. Morf, PhD (University of Utah, 1994), is on the faculty of the Institute of Psychology at the University of Bern, Switzerland. Her research focuses on understanding self-regulatory processes―both intrapersonal and interpersonal―through which individuals construct and maintain their desired psychological identities and conceptions of themselves. Her work is at the interface of self and personality research, in that she has been studying these processes in individuals who are high in narcissism. Recent publications include a target article on a self-regulatory model of narcissism in Psychological Inquiry (2001, with Frederick Rhodewalt) and a keynote chapter on the self in the Handbook of Self and Identity (2003, with Walter Mischel). Dr. Morf’s previous appointment was at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), where she was in charge of the Personality and Social Cognition Program in the Division of Neuroscience and Basic Behavioral Science. In this role, she worked with researchers in developing their grant application ideas, made funding decisions, and promoted understudied and/or newly emerging areas of research through a variety of initiatives. She also has a long history of teaching beginning and advanced statistics and methods courses for graduate and undergraduate students at both the University of Utah and the University of Toronto (where she was on the faculty prior to joining NIMH), and has served on several editorial boards of psychological journals (including Psychological Review and the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology). In addition, she has worked on a regular basis as a methodological and statistical consultant for a range of governmental and private organizations.
A. T. Panter, Ph.D. (1989, New York University) is an associate professor of psychology and a member of the L. L. Thurstone Psychometric Laboratory at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. She also serves as a senior technical consultant at The Measurement Group. Her work involves developing research designs and data analytic strategies for applied health problems, such HIV/AIDS and nicotine dependence in adolescence. Her publications are in measurement and test theory, multivariate data modeling, program evaluation design, and individual differences (especially personality). Dr. Panter has received several university-wide awards for her innovative approaches to teaching statistics and quantitative methodology to undergraduate and graduate students. She regularly consults with federal agencies on grant review, serves on national committees and editorial boards in social/personality psychology and quantitative methods, and is a fellow of the American Psychological Association (Division 5: Evaluation, Measurement, and Statistics). Dr. Panter is a co-editor on three volumes on program evaluation and measuring outcomes for HIV/AIDS multisite projects (Haywood), is a co-author of an online Knowledge Base for HIV/AIDS care, and is currently co-editing a compendium of innovative methods for teaching statistics in the behavioral sciences.
