Becoming a behavioral science researcher: a guide to producing research that matters

Part 1. Promise and Problems. Introduction. Not Ready for Prime Time. What Students Say They Need. Plan of the Book. Career Paths for Behavioral Scientists. Summary. Recommended Readings. The Good, the Bad, and (the Really) Ugly of Behavioral Science Research. The Good. The Bad. The (Really) Ugly. Why? Summary. Recommended Readings. Part 2. Concepts. The Research Trinity. Trinity Overview. Design. Measurement. Analysis. Internal Validity. Construct Validity. Conclusion Validity. External Validity and Sampling. Summary. Recommended Readings. Exercises. Design and Analysis. Chapter Overview. From Question to Design. Experimental Designs. Controlled Quasi-Experimental Designs. Nonequivalent-Group Designs. Regression-Discontinuity Designs. Other Quasi-Experimental Designs. Nonexperimental Designs. Resources for Learning More. Summary. Recommended Readings. Exercises. The Truth about Statistics. Study Strategy. A Dozen Truths about Statistics. What Statistical Significance Really Means. Misinterpretations of Statistical Significance. Why Are There So Many Myths? Other Drawbacks of Statistical Tests. In Defense of Statistical Tests. Recommendations for Changing Times. Summary. Recommended Readings. Exercises. Appendix 5.1. Review of Statistics Fundamentals. Effect Size Estimation. Contexts for Estimating Effect Size. Families of Parametric Effect Sizes. Estimating Effect Size When Comparing Two Samples. Measures of Association for More Complex Designs. Effect Sizes for Dichotomous Outcomes. T-Shirt Effect Sizes, Importance, and Cautions. Approximate Confidence Intervals. Research Examples. Summary. Recommended Readings. Exercises. Appendix 6.1. Noncentrality Interval Estimation for Effect Sizes. Measurement. Chapter Scope. The Critical Yet Underappreciated Role of Measurement. Measurement Process Overview. Resources for Finding Measures. Adapting or Translating Tests. Evaluation of Score Reliability and Validity. Checklist for Evaluating Measures. Recent Developments in Test Theory. Summary. Recommended Readings. Exercises. Part 3. Skills. Practical Data Analysis. Vision First, Then Simplicity. Managing Complex Analyses (Batch to the Future). Data Screening. Summary. Recommended Readings. Exercises. Writing. Plagiarism and Academic Integrity. Writing as Learning. Getting Started. The Role of Style Guides. General Principles of Good Writing. Principles of Good Scientific Writing. Writing Sections of Empirical Studies. Effective Graphical Displays. Ready for the Big Time. Summary. Recommended Readings. Appendix 9.1. Example Results Section. Presentations. Challenges of Oral Presentations. Problems with PowerPoint Presentations. Principles for Creating Effective PowerPoint Presentations. Lessons from Multimedia Learning. Other PowerPoint Issues. Poster Presentations. Summary. Recommended Readings. Exercises. Appendix 10.1. Example Slides, Handout, and Poster. Suggested Answers to Exercises.