I. PROMISE AND PROBLEMS
1. Introduction 3
Not Ready for Prime Time / 4
What Students Say They Need / 7
Plan of the Book / 7
Career Paths for Behavioral Scientists / 10
Summary / 12
Recommended Readings / 13
2. The Good, the Bad, and the (Really) Ugly 15
of Behavioral Science Research
The Good / 16
The Bad / 21
The (Really) Ugly / 27
Why? / 30
Summary / 34
Recommended Readings / 34

II. CONCEPTS
3. The Research Trinity 39
Trinity Overview / 39
Design / 41

Measurement / 46
Analysis / 47
Internal Validity / 54
Construct Validity / 62
Conclusion Validity / 64
External Validity and Sampling / 67
Summary / 70
Recommended Readings / 71
Exercises / 71
4. Design and Analysis 73
Chapter Overview / 74
From Question to Design / 74
Experimental Designs / 76
Controlled Quasi-Experimental Designs / 92
Nonequivalent-Group Designs / 94
Regression-Discontinuity Designs / 103
Other Quasi-Experimental Designs / 107
Nonexperimental Designs / 111
Resources for Learning More / 112
Summary / 112
Recommended Readings / 114
Exercises / 114
5. The Truth about Statistics 117
Study Strategy / 117
A Dozen Truths about Statistics / 118
What Statistical Significance Really Means / 121
Misinterpretations of Statistical Significance / 124
Why Are There So Many Myths? / 130
Other Drawbacks of Statistical Tests / 132
In Defense of Statistical Tests / 135
Recommendations for Changing Times / 136
Summary / 138
Recommended Readings / 138
Exercises / 139
Appendix 5.1. Review of Statistics Fundamentals / 140
6. Effect Size Estimation 153
Contexts for Estimating Effect Size / 154
Families of Parametric Effect Sizes / 155
Estimating Effect Size When Comparing Two Samples / 158
Measures of Association for More Complex Designs / 166
Effect Sizes for Dichotomous Outcomes / 169
T-Shirt Effect Sizes, Importance, and Cautions / 172

Approximate Confidence Intervals / 175
Research Examples / 178
Summary / 184
Recommended Readings / 184
Exercises / 185
Appendix 6.1. Noncentrality Interval Estimation for Effect Sizes / 186
7. Measurement 191
Chapter Scope / 191
The Critical Yet Underappreciated Role of Measurement / 193
Measurement Process Overview / 194
Resources for Finding Measures / 200
Adapting or Translating Tests / 204
Evaluation of Score Reliability and Validity / 205
Checklist for Evaluating Measures / 216
Recent Developments in Test Theory / 217
Summary / 220
Recommended Readings / 221
Exercises / 221
III. SKILLS
8. Practical Data Analysis 225
Vision First, Then Simplicity / 225
Managing Complex Analyses (Batch to the Future) / 229
Data Screening / 233
Summary / 249
Recommended Readings / 249
Exercises / 250
9. Writing 253
Plagiarism and Academic Integrity / 253
Writing as Learning / 254
Getting Started / 254
The Role of Style Guides / 255
General Principles of Good Writing / 256
Principles of Good Scientific Writing / 261
Writing Sections of Empirical Studies / 263
Effective Graphical Displays / 273
Ready for the Big Time / 276
Summary / 278
Recommended Readings / 279
Appendix 9.1. Example Results Section / 280

10. Presentations 283
Challenges of Oral Presentations / 283
Problems with PowerPoint Presentations / 286
Principles for Creating Effective PowerPoint Presentations / 289
Lessons from Multimedia Learning / 299
Other PowerPoint Issues / 300
Poster Presentations /302
Summary / 305
Recommended Readings / 305
Exercises / 306
Appendix 10.1. Example Slides, Handout, and Poster / 307
Suggested Answers to Exercises 313
References 333
Author Index 347
Subject Index 353
About the Author 367