Introduction to Behavioral Research on the Internet
Michael H. Birnbaum, California State University, Fullerton

ISBN-10: 0130853623
ISBN-13: 9780130853622

Publisher: Prentice Hall
Copyright: 2001
Format: Paper Bound w/CD-ROM; 267 pp
Status: Out of Print

Suggested retail price: $38.00
This item is out of print and is no longer available for purchase.

For undergraduate courses in Research Methods and graduate courses in Experimental Design and Statistics.

This text explains how to conduct psychological research via the WWW, and outlines everything needed to get started—including HTML, data analysis with SPSS and Excel, and research design. It contains many examples ready to use on the Web, with brief discussions of the psychological theories being tested.

  • Key directives for setting up Web experiments.

    • Shows instructors how to conduct their research on the Web, enabling them to get more done in less time. Teaches students research skills that are a primary criterion for acceptance to graduate schools and/or very good entry-level jobs. Ex.___

  • Numerous examples—Illustrates principles of psychology; computer techniques; research design; and statistical analysis.

    • Allows students to participate in an experiment before the instructor tries to teach its theory or discuss data analysis, so that they can learn an idea in a concrete way to enhance understanding. Ex.___

  • Data sets—Illustrates analysis.

    • Enables students to participate as subjects (to experience the study), and analyze meaningful sets of data whose properties are already known, in order to develop new ideas that can be implemented in a new project. Ex.___

  • Presentation of basic HTML.

    • Offers students a valuable and fun-to-learn skill that is needed to make personal Web pages, and useful for getting a job. Ex.___

  • Coverage of both Excel and SPSS—Integrates the statistical analysis and the experiments in the text.

    • Provides students with a single resource tool that relates two techniques—the design of a study to the method of analysis. Ex.___

  • Decision making research and data analysis—Makes a historical area of psychological research accessible.

    • Prepares students to read current work in the field, and design their own Web studies in the field. Ex.___

  • Use of SurveyWiz software.

    • Demonstrates for students with minimal background how to quickly make a simple survey, questionnaire, or personality test that will run on the Web. Ex.___

  • Use of FactorWiz software.

    • Illustrates how to use the program by constructing a factorial design of all pairs of adjectives from two sets, to test a theory of impression formation. Ex.___

  • Coverage of impression formation—And methods for the graphical and statistical analysis of interactions.

    • Shows students how to analyze the data from a factorial design to determine if the whole is equal to the sum of its parts—or if there is an interaction between two factors. Ex.___

  • Heider's theory of balance in social relations.

    • Helps students explore a very powerful type of interaction that is compatible with a simple model, and shows them how to use Excel to fit a model to the data and evaluate the fit of the model. Ex.___

  • An introduction to advanced techniques—Includes JavaScript.

    • Provides instructors with many ideas for advanced projects (for graduate students), and material that can be assigned or suggested for extra credit/honors projects (for undergraduates). Ex.___

I. BASIC COMPONENTS OF WEB EXPERIMENTS.

 1. Introduction to Behavioral Research on the Internet.

 2. Your First Web Page.

 3. Putting the Hyper in Hypertext.

 4. Additional Tricks in HTML.

 5. Surveys and Experiments Using Forms.

 6. Data Analysis with Excel and SPSS.

 7. Images and Logical Thinking.

 8. A Study of Decision Making.

II. MAKING SURVEYS, TESTS, AND EXPERIMENTS.

 9. Making Surveys with SurveyWiz.

10. Personality Testing.

11. Using FactorWiz for Factorial Designs.

III. APPLICATIONS WITH DATA.

12. Analysis of Impression Formation.

13. Analysis of Social Balance.

14. Presenting Psychophysical Stimuli.

15. Psychological Scaling with “Ratios” and “Differences.”

16. Bayesian Inference and Human Inference.

IV. PROGRAMMING TECHNIQUES.

17. Introduction to JavaScript.

18. Interactive Web Pages with JavaScript.

19. JavaScript and Forms.

V. METHODS AND METHODOLOGY.

20. Advanced Techniques for Experimentation on the Web.

21. Methodology, Ethics, and Publicizing Your Study.

Appendix A: Creating and Using Scripts.

References.

Glossary of Web Terms.

Index.

For Research Methods / Experimental Methods


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