Abstract: This text acquaints the student with the diverse methods used in the social, psychological and behavioural sciences. The scientific question at hand affects the researcher's choice of methods, and this book helps students develop an appreciation for the sorts of hypotheses and questions that can be most profitably investigated with each method. The text emphasizes that the student needs to be acquainted with a variety of research methods, as there is no single perfect method. Along with the illustrative research in each chapter, the advantages and disadvantages of each method are discussed.

Abstract: Present social psychology as a dynamic, evolving scientific discipline with substantial relevance to people's lives

Abstract: This hands-on guide explores the "why" of research methods and constructs a new framework to help researchers conduct effective studies.

Abstract: The theoretical introductions in empirical journal articles have been analyzed looking for factors determining citation habits. Own-country-biases and English-American predominance in citations were not regularly found. Preferred language of the cited publications and absolute citation frequencies were dependent upon both the disciplines and the countries where the journals are published. However, relative citation frequencies (citations related to the length of the text available) have been found to be rather constant across countries (within psychology and psychiatry, respectively) which indicates no such dependence.

Abstract: The thesis is concerned with organisational consulting, and the 'theories' which guide social and behavioural consultants in what they do. To preserve the 'integrity of the phenomena' the research has utilised an interviewing methodology to obtain accounts which reveal 'personal theories'. The aim has been to achieve an adequate phenomenology of consultants' ideas, rooted in their personal lives and organisational role situations, and not just to treat consultancy as the disembodied application of skills and knowledge. Consultants' ideas and practices can thereby be viewed in relation to their role-contexts, and can be seen as adapted to specific operating situations, particularly in the comparison of internal,commercial and academic consultants. Thus far, the study makes a substantive contribution to the understanding of social consultancy by locating ideas and practices in role circumstances. But such consultants are also ah occupational group, sharing a common role-context. The role is the product of wider organisational and societal processes. Beyond the specific slant given by differences in their immediate work-role, therefore, there appear common features in their working models. Two paradigms, the negotiative and systems, are identified and analysed as projections of consultants' role experiences which were also functional for clients, insofar as they developed the cohesion of managers as a group and their capacity to cope with problems facing organisations in the period 1960-79. Ideas and practices are thus viewed, ideologically, in relation to an historical period and social formation. By considering consultants' ideas, as ideology, in relation to their market situation (expressed in role) we confront a central question in social theory - the relation between ideas and the material structures and processes of society. At this point the study therefore attempts to connect the sociology of knowledge directly with the theory of ideology, and to make a substantive contribution to each.

Abstract: Recent advances in medical experimentation have evoked wide-ranging responses from the medical profession and the wider community. This article argues against the medical profession assessing experimentation issues by reference to a narrow utilitarian model and promotes, by way of a behavioural science perspective, an emphasis on process issues.

Abstract: Summary. A programme of teaching in the behavioural sciences at a new medical school in Ghana is described. Students are introduced to problems in their first year and these are used as a means of working in small groups, for self-directed learning and the collection of data. The course continues for 5 years and leads on to a residential posting at a psychiatric hospital, and embodies a close association between ‘clinical’ medicine and psychological medicine. The programme has only been running for 2 years and so an adequate objective evaluation cannot yet be made, but judged subjectively it is enjoyed by students.

Abstract: This paper presents the case for humane intervention (as opposed to law-based, punitive measures only) as an approach to reduce both alcohol-impaired driving and alcohol-crash losses. Current policies and programs still rely almost solely on deterrence, the traditional cornerstone of the societal response to drinking-driving problems. Recent research calls this overall strategy into question and indicates the need to include social and behavioral approaches as well. Unfortunately, present knowledge in the area of traffic safety offers a weak empirical basis almost devoid of theory to support the development of programs aimed at “changing societal norms” and “decreasing the personal and social acceptability of driving after drinking too much.” There is an important role for social and behavioral sciences in developing—and testing—a technology of social change. The advent of powerful grassroots groups against “drunk drivers” and locally initiated, community-based programs offer opportunities for research along these lines. Active, receptive communities offer a proving ground for ideas related to humane intervention and its effectiveness in reducing alcohol-crash losses. A model that combines and integrates action programs, evaluation, and research suggests a strategic approach to advancing knowledge in the process of “doing something about the problem.”

Abstract: Psychobiology is an area of knowledge that deals with the biological basis of behaviour. Its concretion as a specific area of study originates in the confluence and development of other areas such as physiological psychology, experimental and comparative psychology, ethology, biology and the neurosciences. For some, psychobiology would be that part of the neurosciences that deals with the study of the processes of emotion, motivation, cognition and learning. Others are of the opinion that it covers a much wider area, and that its objective is rooted in the study of all biological mechanisms that govern behaviour — and these, undertaken from a philogenetic and ontogenetic perspective. In the last decade, we have witnessed the creation of psychobiology departments throughout the world. These departments participate in the teaching of faculties of medicine, psychology, biology and zoology. In some universities, these departments even contribute to the teaching imparted by the faculties of philosophy and educ...

Abstract: There is a disabling avalanche of scientific production which has overtaken most students of the behavioral sciences. Though science is advanced by this production, much of it is seen to be of marginal value. This has caused some disenchantment among university students with psychology-based research. To understand the sources of this problem, several phenomena are re-examined: (a) the functional autonomy of research paradigms and their assumptive justifica- tions, (b) the failure to discard them when their dysfunction interferes with inquiry directed to solving pressing social problems, and (c) the intersection of politics, academic policies, and the reward structures woven into publication and research networks. The challenge to university researchers, among others, that these conditions impose, are assessed, and suggestions for countering them are presented.

Abstract: It is nice to be able to come back to Oklahoma City after all these years. As a personal note, I might mention to you that I was born here, was an undergraduate at the University of Oklahoma in Norman, and was a clinical psychology intern in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences here on the Oklahoma City Campus in 1966–67.

Abstract: In his book \"Comparative Animal Behavior,\" Dewsbury [5] writes: \"Increasingly, however, animal behaviorists are recognizing that motivational constructs are unnecessary. The concept of motivation tends to he used as a garbage pail for a variety of factors whose nature is not well understood.\" That is why I shall begin with definitions which, while not claiming to be generally accepted, can at least contribute to further mutual understanding. I shall speak about behavior as a form of vital activity which can change the probability and duration of contact with an external object that can satisfy an organism's immediate need. In the light of this definition, expressions such as \"motivated behavior\" or \"motivational behavior\" become meaningless, for behavior without motivation does not exist in nature. This was well understood already by Sechenov [17], who stated: \"In that case, the desire will be the motive or goal, and movements will be the action or the means of achieving the goal. Without desire as a motive or impulse, movement would be quite meaningless. The vital demands give rise to desires, and these in turn, to actions; in that case desire will be the motive or goal, and movements the action or means of achieving the goal..., Without desires as the motive or impulse, movements would be quite meaningless.\" I regard an actualized need as the starting point for the organization of any kind of behavior, and I shall use the term motivation to describe the physiological mechanism of activation of traces (engrams), stored in the memory, of those external objects which can satisfy the organism's existing need, and those actions which can lead to its satisfaction.

Abstract: This paper provides a summary report of the experiences of a pre-clinical student during visits made to a general practice. The implications of this learning experience for medical education are reviewed.

Abstract: ESSAY ADDRESSES a readership interested in the social sciences. It is written, however, by experimental psychophysiologists whose primary fields of research are in natural science. Our purpose is to theorize about the links which exist between living organisms as natural beings and as social beings, and thereby to lay the foundations for a metatheory of psychology compatible with Marxism. These relations will be analyzed within the context of the problem of objectivity versus subjectivity in psychology. The fact that psychology is a link between the natural and social sciences will be emphasized. By describing psychic activity as the most evolved form of "information exchange," an attempt will be made to modernize Lenin's reflection theory. The specific application of materialism to psychology will be demonstrated, along with the role of realism and radical determinism.