Abstract: This paper seeks to facilitate research on the processes of innovation and change in higher education, an area of scholarly endeavor which is attracting much interest of late. To meet this goal, a conceptual distinction is first drawn between the broad process of organizational change and the more specific processes of purposive change and innovation. Then, a typology of four research frameworks relevant to innovation and change is presented and illustrated through exemplary studies in the field of higher education. Using techniques of causal modeling, a prototypic flowgraph is constructed to capture the major features of each framework. Flowgraphs are cast in terms of posited relationships between generic variables which can be operationalized to suit the particular needs and setting of a given study. The authors further suggest that the most productive research on change and innovation in higher education will be based on sound theoretical reasoning employing combinations of the four frameworks. They ar...

Abstract: The behavior-analytic approach to clinical phenomena is presented. An operationalized framework for conducting behavioral analysis with clinical cases is provided. Idiographic analysis and treatment innovation are conceptualized and conducted within the framework of the experimental method. Differences between technological and behavior-analytic approaches are illustrated.

Abstract: Investigators have questioned the utility of survey methodology for assessing organizational change. A theory of change types is examined and its operationalization clarified. Psychometric principles and a contrived data set are used to explore these issues. Evidence is presented to demonstrate that the theory's implications have been substantially overstated.

Abstract: Research has demonstrated that the original operationalization of psychological androgyny using the t-ratio procedure accurately represents four of its five fundamental theoretical components. A new operationalization of androgyny, the median split technique, has recently been adopted, and this procedure also adequately denotes the same four theoretical components. However, the two procedures differ in the distribution of scores produced and in the results obtained in two recent studies. The implications of these differences are discussed and future directions for the measurement of psychological androgyny are investigated.

Abstract: This article is a discussion of the methodological problems of testing causal propositions relating variables that are characteristics of the world-system as a whole. A short summary of the world-system perspective on international relations suggests a number of hypotheses regarding processes that operate at the level of the whole system. The feasibility of testing these propositions with the time-series method of analysis of a single case is discussed, and problems arising from the use of this research design are considered. There are eight anticipated problems regarding operationalization and measurement: (1) bounding and mapping the system and its constituent zones; (2) validity and reliability of measures over time; (3) limitations of aggregating data on nation-states to create contextual world-system variables; (4) transformation of nation-state data to make it more suitable for world-system research; (5) combining data from different sources in the same indicator; (6) noncontinuous data series; (7) the width of a time point and measurement error in time; and (8) the small number of instances of long-run processes over the 500-year history of the world-system. It is suggested that, although this approach to research is fraught with difficulties, it holds promise for helping to take the world-system perspective beyond its present status as a fruitful paradigm for interpreting history toward a causal understanding of the developmental logic of the system.

Abstract: Nursing programmes in the United States of America are based on a conceptual framework. Not only do faculty and students ascribe to the necessity of such programmes but the national accreditation agency also provides its accreditation approval for the institution only after all criteria are met, including the requirement of a well-defined, operationalized and implemented framework. Can a nursing programme be developed in other nations utilizing the esoteric, American-based idea of the necessity for a conceptually based curriculum? The author answers this question. The manuscript presents both the process utilized in selecting a conceptual framwork for a new junior college programme in Kuwait and discusses the selected framework. The idea of a conceptual framework to guide the curriculum was as foreign in Kuwait as it was to nursing curricula in the United States 15 years ago. Though initially rejected by the faculty in Kuwait, the idea of a conceptual framework was reintroduced after much faculty discussion and questions related to nursing knowledge vis-a-vis medical knowledge, and what should be included in and excluded from the programme. By the end of the second year, a definite framework had been operationalized into courses and content. The selection of the framework evolved from faculty participation in the operationalization of the framework. This point is quite significant particularly in an international assignment, as it is the faculty who are left with the monumental task of supporting and continuing the work which has been done. Strategies used to develop and implement a conceptual framework included confrontation of faculty of the existing situation, lectures, seminars, workshops, and the identification of a critical review board.

Abstract: Previous research on the evaluation of simulation games as teaching tools has suffered from evaluators' treating all simulation games more or less identically, regardless of differences in format. This study attempts to alleviate that problem by creating a new typology, based on the extent to which the roles assigned to simulation participants correspond to specific real-world equivalents. The application of this typology associates differing simulation formats with characteristic teaching goats, learning processes, and administrative pitfalls. A second typology is also suggested that may prove useful if problems of operationalization can be overcome.

Abstract: To date, efforts to comply with the Protection in Evaluation Procedures Provisions of Public Law 94-142 have been characterized by attempts to identify the fair test for use with specific groups of minority children. Based on a revit. of similar efforts in the history of.psychology, the authors conclude that such activities will not result linproved efforts to eliminate bias in assessment. Instead, they emphasize the fact that bias can and does occur throughout the process of making decisions for and about handicapped students. D. \ming assessment as',the process of collecting data for the 4 'purpose of making decisions about pupils, the authOrs conceptualize a model in which instructional decisions are made using data on the history of intervention effectiveness with individual students. Operationalization of an instructional cascade, and systematic documentation of pupil progress throughout levels of the cascade are proposed as alternatives to current norm-referenced decision-making practices.

Abstract: Evaluation studies have been plagued by major problems including compromised methodological rigor, discovery of unanticipated consequences, and nonutilization of findings. Many of these problems occur because basic research methods are not designed to take account of the organizational context within which eualuation research, as applied research, is conducted. The authors propose and outline steps in an interactive strategy for designing, mounting, carrying out, and reporting evaluation studies. The steps include identifying evaluation audiences, grounding and negotiating evaluation designs, involving practitioners in operationalizing variables and developing data collection instruments, and providing oral feedback of results to evaluation audiences. Recognizing the added costs required in implementing the proposed strategy, the authors call for a comparative cost-benefit study to assess the relative costs and benefits of mounting evaluation studies with and without the interactive strategy.

Abstract: The need for and adoption of certain social policies for the nation are frequently rationalized by their advocates as being in the public interest. Often, though, the interest of the many merely disguises the special interests and wants of the few. It is obvious that the social choices made in the policy process only rarely benefit the interests of all without being adversely consequential to some. This paper argues that the problem of social choice in the conflictual process of policy making is as much a conceptual dilemma as a practical political or economic one. A major source of this confusion derives from the lack of a consensually valid conceptualization of the public interest-how it is defined, measured, advanced and operationalized in public policy. An analytical framework is used to define and assess the nature of the public interest and the conditions which must prevail if any social policy can be said to be in the public interest. According to Kenneth Arrow (1951), as articulated in his "impossible theorem," it appears impossible to translate the will (or opinion) of the public (masses) into a coherent public policy which is consistent with the expressed preferences of all individuals constituting a social aggregate. The technical difficulty in welfare economics is one of developing a formula for aggregating individual utility functions with regard to alternative states of society into corresponding collective (social) preferences such that the application of this formula always yields "determinate" (transitive) social preferences that satisfy "minimal" and "reasonable" requirements of democracy. Arrow began his historic work by elucidating his assumptions regarding individual behavior in decision-making. It becomes eminently

Abstract: Research on post-decisional changes in beliefs has been criticized for its inconsistent and sometimes inappropriate choice of dependent measures (Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975). An experiment was conducted utilizing Fishbein's (1963) operationalization of beliefs; in accord with dissonance theory, subjects who were committed to one of two choice alternatives reported more positive beliefs about the chosen alternative and more negative beliefs about the nonchosen alternative than did subjects not yet committed.