Leading social research methodologists and evaluators address the issues of validity, research design and social experimentation in this first of two volumes inspired by the work of Donald Campbell and sponsored by the American Evaluation Association. Each chapter is designed to offer readers insight into such issues as validity applied to meta-analysis, subject selection problems in randomized experiments, time-series designs and quasi-experiments, and the logic of ruling out rival hypotheses. Anyone engaged in social research will find this book a thought-provoking and inspiring read for their work.
Focuses on Donald Campbell's contributions to the concept of validity and the more activist side of his thinking, social experimentation.
PART ONE: VALIDITY ISSUESTowards a Practical Theory of External Validity - Thomas D CookPaul Wortman, Elvira Elek-Fisk and Lanette RaymondValidity Applied to Meta-Analyses and Research SynthesesDiscriminative Validity - Norman Miller, William C Pedersen and Vicki E PollockStatistical Conclusion Validity for Intervention Research - Mark Lipsey A Significant (p 05) ProblemEffect Sizes in Behavioral and Biomedical Research - Robert Rosenthal Estimation and InterpretatioRealism, Validity and the Experimenting Society - Melvin MarkPART TWO: SOCIAL EXPERIMENTSToward the Dream of the Experimenting Society - Robert G St Pierre and Michael J PumaThe Honestly Experimenting Society - Robert Boruch and Ellen Foley Sites and Other Entities as the Unit of Allocation and AnalysisRival Explanations as an Alternative to Reforms as ¿Experiments¿ - Robert K YinDonald T Campbell¿s Contributions to Practical ¿In the Trenches¿ Program Evaluation - Burt PerrinThe Experimenting Society in a Political World - Carol H Weiss