Download or read book Laboratory Experiments in the Social Sciences written by Murray Webster and published by Elsevier. This book was released on 2007-07-03 with total page 576 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Laboratory Experiments in the Social Sciences is the only book providing core information for researchers about the ways and means to conduct experiments. Its comprehensive regard for laboratory experiments encompasses “how-to explanations, investigations of philosophies and ethics, explorations of experiments in specific social science disciplines, and summaries of both the history and future of social science laboratories. No other book offers such a direct avenue to enlarging our knowledge in the social sciences. This collection of original chapters combines instructions and advice about the design of laboratory experiments in the social sciences with the array of other issues. While there are books on experimental design and chapters in more general methods books on design, theory, and ethical issues, no other book attempts to discuss the fundamental ideas of the philosophy of science or lays out the methods comprehensively or in such detail. Experimentation has recently prospered because of increasing interest in cross-disciplinary syntheses, and this book of advice, guidelines, and observations underline its potential and increasing importance. · Provides a comprehensive summary of issues in social science experimentation, from ethics to design, management, and financing · Offers "how-to" explanations of the problems and challenges faced by everyone involved in social science experiments · Pays attention to both practical problems and to theoretical and philosophical arguments · Defines commonalities and distinctions within and among experimental situations across the social sciences

Download or read book The Digest of Social Experiments written by David H. Greenberg and published by The Urban Insitute. This book was released on 2004 with total page 524 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Contains brief summaries of 240 known completed social experiments. Each summary outlines the cost and time frame of the demonstration, the treatments tested, outcomes of interest, sample sizes and target population, research components, major findings, important methodological limitations and design issues encountered, and other relevant topics. In addition, very brief outlines of 21 experiments and one quasi experiment still in progress [as of April 2003] are also provided"--p. 3.

Download or read book Natural Experiments in the Social Sciences written by Thad Dunning and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2012-09-06 with total page 379 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first comprehensive guide to natural experiments, providing an ideal introduction for scholars and students.

Download or read book Social Experiments written by Larry L. Orr and published by SAGE. This book was released on 1999 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Intended to provide a basic understanding not only of how to design and implement social experiments, but also of how to interpret their results once they are completed, author Larry L. Orr's Social Experiments is written in a friendly, how-to manner. Through the use of illustrative examples, how-to exhibits and cases, and boldface key words, Orr provides readers with a grounding in the experimental method, including the rational and ethical issues of random assignment; designs that best address alternative policy questions; maximizing the precision of the estimates; implementing the experiment in the field; data collection; estimating and interpreting program impacts, costs, and benefits; dealing with potential biases; and the use and misuse of experimental results in the policy process. This book will be useful not only to those who plan to conduct experiments, but also to the much larger group who will, at one time or another, want to understand the results of experimental evaluations.

Download or read book Medical Proofs Social Experiments written by Tiago Moreira and published by Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.. This book was released on 2012-12-28 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Clinical trials have become key technologies for decision making in the contemporary world. Their results shape medical practice and determine priorities across health care systems, but the work that goes into producing credible data is often hidden. Medical Proofs, Social Experiments draws upon detailed case studies to argue that to understand their value, we need to pay more attention to the contexts for these modern medical experiments, recovering the diverse ways in which they involve doctors, patients and the public, the local practices that contribute to their completion, and the complex negotiation of their results in professional and statutory institutions. Presenting research from the UK, USA, Sweden and The Netherlands, the ethnographic perspective adopted by the authors provides a space to explore the investments of different state, market, professional and other actors in particular forms of evaluation, and the ways in which trial methodologies may be re-designed or re-imagined to satisfy social and political expectations. As such, this volume will be of interest to those working in the fields of science and technology studies, the sociology and anthropology of medicine and researchers of policy and organisation in health care.

Download or read book Learning More from Social Experiments written by Howard S. Bloom and published by Russell Sage Foundation. This book was released on 2005-06-10 with total page 259 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Policy analysis has grown increasingly reliant on the random assignment experiment—a research method whereby participants are sorted by chance into either a program group that is subject to a government policy or program, or a control group that is not. Because the groups are randomly selected, they do not differ from one another systematically. Therefore any differences between the groups at the end of the study can be attributed solely to the influence of the program or policy. But there are many questions that randomized experiments have not been able to address. What component of a social policy made it successful? Did a given program fail because it was designed poorly or because it suffered from low participation rates? In Learning More from Social Experiments, editor Howard Bloom and a team of innovative social researchers profile advancements in the scientific underpinnings of social policy research that can improve randomized experimental studies. Using evaluations of actual social programs as examples, Learning More from Social Experiments makes the case that many of the limitations of random assignment studies can be overcome by combining data from these studies with statistical methods from other research designs. Carolyn Hill, James Riccio, and Bloom profile a new statistical model that allows researchers to pool data from multiple randomized-experiments in order to determine what characteristics of a program made it successful. Lisa Gennetian, Pamela Morris, Johannes Bos, and Bloom discuss how a statistical estimation procedure can be used with experimental data to single out the effects of a program's intermediate outcomes (e.g., how closely patients in a drug study adhere to the prescribed dosage) on its ultimate outcomes (the health effects of the drug). Sometimes, a social policy has its true effect on communities and not individuals, such as in neighborhood watch programs or public health initiatives. In these cases, researchers must randomly assign treatment to groups or clusters of individuals, but this technique raises different issues than do experiments that randomly assign individuals. Bloom evaluates the properties of cluster randomization, its relevance to different kinds of social programs, and the complications that arise from its use. He pays particular attention to the way in which the movement of individuals into and out of clusters over time complicates the design, execution, and interpretation of a study. Learning More from Social Experiments represents a substantial leap forward in the analysis of social policies. By supplementing theory with applied research examples, this important new book makes the case for enhancing the scope and relevance of social research by combining randomized experiments with non-experimental statistical methods, and it serves as a useful guide for researchers who wish to do so.

Download or read book Medical Proofs Social Experiments written by Catherine Will and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-04-22 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Clinical trials have become key technologies for decision making in the contemporary world. Their results shape medical practice and determine priorities across health care systems, but the work that goes into producing credible data is often hidden. Medical Proofs, Social Experiments draws upon detailed case studies to argue that to understand their value, we need to pay more attention to the contexts for these modern medical experiments, recovering the diverse ways in which they involve doctors, patients and the public, the local practices that contribute to their completion, and the complex negotiation of their results in professional and statutory institutions. Presenting research from the UK, USA, Sweden and The Netherlands, the ethnographic perspective adopted by the authors provides a space to explore the investments of different state, market, professional and other actors in particular forms of evaluation, and the ways in which trial methodologies may be re-designed or re-imagined to satisfy social and political expectations. As such, this volume will be of interest to those working in the fields of science and technology studies, the sociology and anthropology of medicine and researchers of policy and organisation in health care.

Download or read book Social Experiments with Information Technology and the Challenges of Innovation written by Lars Qvortrup and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 1987-04-30 with total page 342 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Selection of Papers from the EEC Conference on Social Experiments with Information Technology in Odense, Denmark, January 13-15, 1986

Download or read book John Holtz Social Experiments written by Dale McMillan and published by Xlibris Corporation. This book was released on 2019-10-08 with total page 646 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the third and last book in the John Holtz Trilogy. John finally grows up in more than wealth, wit and wisdom. He tries two social experiments pretending to be broken down on his motorcycle in ice and snow storms pretending to be without funds to fix his bike to see who will take him in. His ultimate goal is to attain some idea of what it is like to be homeless. He is taken in first by and Amish family that he lives with for six weeks. His second adventure is with a struggling Black family in Northern Arkansas. There he discovers a corrupt town he must tame before he moves on. Follow John as he lives out his Christian faith as a young Catholic with a Pentecostal mentor and influenced by two giants of the faith, Billy Graham and Mother Teresa.

Download or read book Experiments With People written by Robert P. Abelson and published by Psychology Press. This book was released on 2014-04-04 with total page 365 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Experiments With People showcases 28 intriguing studies that have significantly advanced our understanding of human thought and social behavior. These studies, mostly laboratory experiments, shed light on the irrationality of everyday thinking, the cruelty and indifference of 'ordinary' people, the operation of the unconscious mind, and the intimate bond between the self and others. This book tells the inside story of how social psychological research gets done and why it matters. Each chapter focuses on the details and implications of a single study, but cites related research and real-life examples. All chapters are self-contained, allowing them to be read in any order. Each chapter is divided into: *Background--provides the rationale for the study; *What They Did--outlines the design and procedure used; *What They Found--summarizes the results obtained; *So What?--articulates the significance of those results; *Afterthoughts--explores the broader issues raised by the study; and *Revelation--encapsulates the 'take-home message' of each chapter. This paperback is ideal as a main or supplementary text for courses in social psychology, introductory psychology, or research design.

Download or read book Experimental Thinking written by James N. Druckman and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2022-05-12 with total page 229 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Experiments are a central methodology in the social sciences. Scholars from every discipline regularly turn to experiments. Practitioners rely on experimental evidence in evaluating social programs, policies, and institutions. This book is about how to “think” about experiments. It argues that designing a good experiment is a slow moving process (given the host of considerations) which is counter to the current fast moving temptations available in the social sciences. The book includes discussion of the place of experiments in the social science process, the assumptions underlying different types of experiments, the validity of experiments, the application of different designs, how to arrive at experimental questions, the role of replications in experimental research, and the steps involved in designing and conducting “good” experiments. The goal is to ensure social science research remains driven by important substantive questions and fully exploits the potential of experiments in a thoughtful manner.

Download or read book Experiments With People written by Kurt P. Frey and published by Psychology Press. This book was released on 2017-08-29 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book showcases 28 intriguing social psychological experiments that have significantly advanced our understanding of human social thinking and behavior. Each chapter focuses on the details and implications of a single study, while citing related research and real-life examples along the way. All the chapters are fully self-contained, allowing them to be read in any order without loss of coherence. This 2nd Edition contains a number of new studies and, together with its lively, conversational tone, it makes an ideal text for courses in social psychology, introductory psychology, or research design.

Download or read book Designing Experiments for the Social Sciences written by Renita Coleman and published by SAGE Publications. This book was released on 2018-08-27 with total page 441 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This book is a must for learning about the experimental design–from forming a research question to interpreting the results this text covers it all." –Sarah El Sayed, University of Texas at Arlington Designing Experiments for the Social Sciences: How to Plan, Create, and Execute Research Using Experiments is a practical, applied text for courses in experimental design. The text assumes that students have just a basic knowledge of the scientific method, and no statistics background is required. With its focus on how to effectively design experiments, rather than how to analyze them, the book concentrates on the stage where researchers are making decisions about procedural aspects of the experiment before interventions and treatments are given. Renita Coleman walks readers step-by-step on how to plan and execute experiments from the beginning by discussing choosing and collecting a sample, creating the stimuli and questionnaire, doing a manipulation check or pre-test, analyzing the data, and understanding and interpreting the results. Guidelines for deciding which elements are best used in the creation of a particular kind of experiment are also given. This title offers rich pedagogy, ethical considerations, and examples pertinent to all social science disciplines.

Download or read book The Individual in a Social World written by Stanley Milgram and published by Pinter & Martin Publishers. This book was released on 2010 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This third expanded and definitive collection of essays by Stanley Milgram, the creator of the iconoclastic 'obedience experiments' and the originator of the concept of 'six degrees of separation'. Original, thought provoking and fascinating. Milgram was years ahead of his time, and this book should be read by every social scientist who is interested in behaviour beyond the laboratory. Richard Wiseman, author of Quirkology

Download or read book Field Experiments and Their Critics written by Dawn Langan Teele and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2014-01-28 with total page 279 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In recent years, social scientists have engaged in a deep debate over the methods appropriate to their research. Their long reliance on passive observational collection of information has been challenged by proponents of experimental methods designed to precisely infer causal effects through active intervention in the social world. Some scholars claim that field experiments represent a new gold standard and the best way forward, while others insist that these methods carry inherent inconsistencies, limitations, or ethical dilemmas that observational approaches do not. This unique collection of essays by the most influential figures on every side of this debate reveals its most important stakes and will provide useful guidance to students and scholars in many disciplines.

Download or read book The Robbers Cave Experiment written by Muzafer Sherif and published by Wesleyan University Press. This book was released on 2012-01-01 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Originally issued in 1954 and updated in 1961 and 1987, this pioneering study of "small group" conflict and cooperation has long been out-of-print. It is now available, in cloth and paper, with a new introduction by Donald Campbell, and a new postscript by O.J. Harvey. In this famous experiment, one of the earliest in inter-group relationships, two dozen twelve-year-old boys in summer camp were formed into two groups, the Rattlers and the Eagles, and induced first to become militantly ethnocentric, then intensely cooperative. Friction and stereotyping were stimulated by a tug-of-war, by frustrations perceived to be caused by the "out" group, and by separation from the others. Harmony was stimulated by close contact between previously hostile groups and by the introduction of goals that neither group could meet alone. The experiment demonstrated that conflict and enmity between groups can be transformed into cooperation and vice versa and that circumstances, goals, and external manipulation can alter behavior. Some have seen the findings of the experiment as having implications for reduction of hostility among racial and ethnic groups and among nations, while recognizing the difficulty of control of larger groups.

Download or read book Ethics and Experiments written by Scott Desposato and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-12-22 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For most of political science's history, discussions about professional ethics had nothing to do with human subjects. Professional ethics involved integrity in the classroom, fair tenure and promotion rule, and the careful avoidance of plagiarism. As most research was observational, there was little need for attention to how scholarly activities might directly affect the subjects of our work. Times have changed. The dramatic growth in the use of experiments in social science, especially overseas, is generating unexpected ethical controversies. The purpose of this volume is to identify, debate, and propose practical solutions to the most critical of these new ethical issues. A leading team of internationally distinguished political science scholars presents the first examination of the practical and ethical challenges of research with human subjects in social science and policy studies. Part 1 examines contextual challenges provided by experiments conducted overseas - questions of culture, religion, security, and poverty. Part 2 examines questions of legal constraints on research, focusing on questions of foreign review of international experiments. Part 3 tackles the critical issues in field experiments, including deception and consent, impact on elections and careers, the boundaries of the public officials' exemption, and the use of partner organizations to avoid Institutional Review Body (IRB) review. Part 4 considers strategies for the future, including training and education, IRB reform, institutional changes, and norm development.