Jeffrey R. Harring - Böcker

A hands-on guide to using R to carry out key statistical practices in educational and behavioral sciences research Computing has become an essential part of the day-to-day practice of statistical work, broadening the types of questions that can now be addressed by research scientists applying newly derived data analytic techniques. Comparing Groups: Randomization and Bootstrap Methods Using R emphasizes the direct link between scientific research questions and data analysis. Rather than relying on mathematical calculations, this book focus on conceptual explanations and the use of statistical computing in an effort to guide readers through the integration of design, statistical methodology, and computation to answer specific research questions regarding group differences.Utilizing the widely-used, freely accessible R software, the authors introduce a modern approach to promote methods that provide a more complete understanding of statistical concepts. Following an introduction to R, each chapter is driven by a research question, and empirical data analysis is used to provide answers to that question. These examples are data-driven inquiries that promote interaction between statistical methods and ideas and computer application. Computer code and output are interwoven in the book to illustrate exactly how each analysis is carried out and how output is interpreted. Additional topical coverage includes: Data exploration of one variable and multivariate dataComparing two groups and many groupsPermutation tests, randomization tests, and the independent samples t-TestBootstrap tests and bootstrap intervalsInterval estimates and effect sizesThroughout the book, the authors incorporate data from real-world research studies as well aschapter problems that provide a platform to perform data analyses. A related Web site features a complete collection of the book's datasets along with the accompanying codebooks and the R script files and commands, allowing readers to reproduce the presented output and plots.Comparing Groups: Randomization and Bootstrap Methods Using R is an excellent book for upper-undergraduate and graduate level courses on statistical methods, particularlyin the educational and behavioral sciences. The book also serves as a valuable resource for researchers who need a practical guide to modern data analytic and computational methods.

The importance that practitioners are placing on longitudinal designs and analyses signals a critical shift toward methods that enable a better understanding of developmental processes thought to underlie many human attributes and behaviors. A simple scan of one’s own applied literature reveals evidence of this trend through the increasing number of articles adopting longitudinal methods as their primary analytic tools.Advances in Longitudinal Methods in the Social and Behavioral Sciences is a resource intended for advanced graduate students, faculty, and applied researchers interested in longitudinal data analysis, especially in the social and behavioral sciences. The chapters are written by established methodological researchers from diverse research domains such as psychology, biostatistics, educational statistics, psychometrics, and family sciences. Each chapter exposes the reader to some of the latest methodological developments and perspectives in the analysis of longitudinal data, and is written in a didactic tone that makes the content accessible to the broader research community.This volume will be particularly appealing to researchers in domains including, but not limited to: human development, clinical psychology, educational psychology, school psychology, special education, epidemiology, family science, kinesiology, communication disorders, and education policy and administration. The book will also be attractive to members of several professional organizations such as the American Educational Research Association (AERA), the American Psychological Association (APA), the American Psychological Society (APS), the Society for Research on Adolescence (SRA), the Society of Research in Child Development (SRCD), Society for Research in Adult Development (SRAD), British Psychological Society (BPS), Canadian Psychological Association (CPA), and other related organizations.

The importance that practitioners are placing on longitudinal designs and analyses signals a critical shift toward methods that enable a better understanding of developmental processes thought to underlie many human attributes and behaviors. A simple scan of one’s own applied literature reveals evidence of this trend through the increasing number of articles adopting longitudinal methods as their primary analytic tools.Advances in Longitudinal Methods in the Social and Behavioral Sciences is a resource intended for advanced graduate students, faculty, and applied researchers interested in longitudinal data analysis, especially in the social and behavioral sciences. The chapters are written by established methodological researchers from diverse research domains such as psychology, biostatistics, educational statistics, psychometrics, and family sciences. Each chapter exposes the reader to some of the latest methodological developments and perspectives in the analysis of longitudinal data, and is written in a didactic tone that makes the content accessible to the broader research community.This volume will be particularly appealing to researchers in domains including, but not limited to: human development, clinical psychology, educational psychology, school psychology, special education, epidemiology, family science, kinesiology, communication disorders, and education policy and administration. The book will also be attractive to members of several professional organizations such as the American Educational Research Association (AERA), the American Psychological Association (APA), the American Psychological Society (APS), the Society for Research on Adolescence (SRA), the Society of Research in Child Development (SRCD), Society for Research in Adult Development (SRAD), British Psychological Society (BPS), Canadian Psychological Association (CPA), and other related organizations.

What is latent class analysis? If you asked that question thirty or forty years ago you would have gotten a different answer than you would today. Closer to its time of inception, latent class analysis was viewed primarily as a categorical data analysis technique, often framed as a factor analysis model where both the measured variable indicators and underlying latent variables are categorical. Today, however, it rests within much broader mixture and diagnostic modeling framework, integrating measured and latent variables that may be categorical and/or continuous, and where latent classes serve to define the subpopulations for whom many aspects of the focal measured and latent variable model may differ.For latent class analysis to take these developmental leaps required contributions that were methodological, certainly, as well as didactic. Among the leaders on both fronts was C. Mitchell “Chan” Dayton, at the University of Maryland, whose work in latent class analysis spanning several decades helped the method to expand and reach its current potential. The current volume in the Center for Integrated Latent Variable Research (CILVR) series reflects the diversity that is latent class analysis today, celebrating work related to, made possible by, and inspired by Chan’s noted contributions, and signaling the even more exciting future yet to come.

What is latent class analysis? If you asked that question thirty or forty years ago you would have gotten a different answer than you would today. Closer to its time of inception, latent class analysis was viewed primarily as a categorical data analysis technique, often framed as a factor analysis model where both the measured variable indicators and underlying latent variables are categorical. Today, however, it rests within much broader mixture and diagnostic modeling framework, integrating measured and latent variables that may be categorical and/or continuous, and where latent classes serve to define the subpopulations for whom many aspects of the focal measured and latent variable model may differ.For latent class analysis to take these developmental leaps required contributions that were methodological, certainly, as well as didactic. Among the leaders on both fronts was C. Mitchell “Chan” Dayton, at the University of Maryland, whose work in latent class analysis spanning several decades helped the method to expand and reach its current potential. The current volume in the Center for Integrated Latent Variable Research (CILVR) series reflects the diversity that is latent class analysis today, celebrating work related to, made possible by, and inspired by Chan’s noted contributions, and signaling the even more exciting future yet to come.

The significance that practitioners are placing on the use of multilevel models is undeniable as researchers want to both accurately partition variance stemming from complex sampling designs and understand relations within and between variables describing the hierarchical levels of these nested data structures. Simply scan the applied literature and one can see evidence of this trend by noticing the number of articles adopting multilevel models as their primary modeling framework. Helping to drive the popularity of their use, governmental funding agencies continue to advocate the use of multilevel models as part of a comprehensive analytic strategy for conducting rigorous and relevant research to improve our nation’s education system.Advances in Multilevel Modeling for Educational Research: Addressing Practical Issues Found in Real-World Applications is a resource intended for advanced graduate students, faculty and/or researchers interested in multilevel data analysis, especially in education, social and behavioral sciences. The chapters are written by prominent methodological researchers across diverse research domains such as educational statistics, quantitative psychology, and psychometrics. Each chapter exposes the reader to some of the latest methodological innovations, refinements and state-of-the-art developments and perspectives in the analysis of multilevel data including current best practices of standard techniques.We believe this volume will be particularly appealing to researchers in domains including but not limited to: educational policy and administration, educational psychology including school psychology and special education, and clinical psychology. In fact, we believe this volume will be a desirable resource for any research area that uses hierarchically nested data. The book will likely be attractive to applied and methodological researchers in several professional organizations such as the American Educational Research Association (AERA), the American Psychological Association (APA), the American Psychological Society (APS), the Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness (SREE), and other related organizations.