Experimental Philosophy: A Methodological Critique

This article offers a critique of research practices typical of experimental philosophy. To that end, it presents a review of methodological issues that have proved crucial to the quality of research in the biobehavioral sciences. It discusses various shortcomings in the experimental philosophy literature related to (1) the credibility of self‐report questionnaires, (2) the validity and reliability of measurement, (3) the adherence to appropriate procedures for sampling, random assignment, and handling of participants, and (4) the meticulousness of study reporting. It argues that the future standing of experimental philosophy will hinge upon improvements in research methods.     

Women in the Middle Years: A Critique of Research and Theory

Research and theory on women in the middle years reflect assumptions and biases that limit our understanding and impair our ability to resolve conflicting findings about women's well-being. Such theorists as Erikson and Levinson focus on chronological age and assume an inappropriate sequence of stages and events. In most research, the centrality of women's reproductive role is assumed and the importance of their work role pattern is ignored. Thus menopause and the "empty nest" receive disproportionate attention. Too little attention is given to stage of the family life cycle and the conditions and status of work. Two active research areas that appear promising for understanding adult women are also discussed: locus of control and attributions; and social networks and support systems.     

Multicultural and Gender Influences in Women's Career Development: An Ecological Perspective

Any framework used to conceptualize the career development of women and of racial and ethnic minorities must accommodate multiple influences shaping their experiences concurrently and over time. An ecological model of counseling is proposed to expand conceptualizations and interventions of counseling practice with diverse groups of individuals. Cualquier armazón utilizado para conceptualizar el desarrollo de la carrera de mujeres y de minorías raciales y étnicas debe acomodar múltiples influencias que forman sus experiencias concurrentemente y con el tiempo. Un modelo ecológico de aconsejar se propone ensanchar las conceptualizaciones y las intervenciones de aconsejar la práctica con grupos diversos de individuos.     

Fifteen Years of the Journal of Multicultural Counseling and Development: A Content Analysis

The authors present the results of a content analysis of articles that were published in the Journal of Multicultural Counseling and Development (JMCD) during the last 15 years. The analysis identified the leading contributors (i.e., authors, institutions) to JMCD, evaluated the content of the articles, examined the type of articles, and highlighted the particular cultural groups that were studied most frequently. Los autores presentan los resultados de un análisis de el contenido de la Revista de Consejeria y Desarrollo Multicultural (JMCD), durante los ultimos 15 años. El análisis identificó los contribuyentes más destacados (en otras palabras, los autores, las instituciones) a JMCD; examinó el tipo del articulos y subrayó los grupos culturales que se estudiaron más frecuentemente.     

Mathematics in Economics: An Austrian Methodological Critique

Even the briefest and most superficial perusal of leading mainstream economics journals will attest to the degree that mathematical formalism has captured the economics profession. Whereas up to the early 20th century virtually all of the output of the dismal scientists was in the literary format, by the early 21st century this is not at all any longer the case. Mathematical formalism is supposed to serve economics, and yet now true economic insight has been crowded out by the math. If mainstream neoclassical economics is to come back to its proper path, a far less central role for mathematical economics, statistics and econometrics will have to be fashioned.     

Ten Years of Career Development: A Nationwide Study of High School Students

The authors summarize trends for several indicators of student career development collected in 1973 (when career education and career planning programs began to receive renewed emphasis) and again in 1983. The indicators, obtained for nationally representative samples of junior and senior high school students (N = 18,129 in 1973 and 15,432 in 1983), included career-related concerns, career planning involvement, and reactions to career planning services. Among the major trends was a 32% increase in the proportion of 11th graders who reported receiving “some” or “a lot” of career planning help from their schools. Moreover, the proportion of students involved in typical career exploration activities increased significantly over the 10 years of the study. In general, the 10-year trends indicate that schools are having a greater impact on student career development than they were in 1973.     

Institutional and Individual Research Productivity in Five Nominated Multicultural Psychology Journals

Research productivity was examined across 5 highly nominated multicultural psychology journals. This yielded a ranking of 40 highly productive institutions and individuals between 1994 and 2007. The results are potentially useful in beginning to track trends in the publication of multicultural psychology studies in research journals. Methodological and interpretational limitations are discussed. Se examinó la productividad de las investigaciones publicadas en 5 renombradas revistas de psicología multicultural. Esto dio como resultado un ranking de 40 instituciones e individuos altamente productivos entre 1994 y 2007. Los resultados son potencialmente útiles para empezar a rastrear tendencias en la publicación de estudios de psicología multicultural en revistas de investigación. También se discuten las limitaciones metodológicas y de interpretación.     

近五年西方心理学重要期刊发表论文简评

摘要：以《心理学公报》、《心理学评论》和《心理学年度评论》三种心理学国际权威学术期刊从2005年到2009年发表的论文为基础,从研究领域、研究主题、引用率等方面对国际心理学的研究进行了文献计量分析。探讨了心理学发展趋势,指出基础/实验心理、社会心理和健康心理领域的研究仍然是心理学研究的主流,但研究方法、技术发生了根本改变;认知、学习与记忆、决策与判断、情绪健康等主题是心理学研究的热点,从而启发中国的心理学研究者应加强研究方法和统计的训练,关注研究的本土化,进行跨学科、多层次整合的研究以及拓展研究主题。     

The Career Development of Adolescent Mothers: A Review of 25 Years of Professional Literature

Twenty‐one articles from peer‐reviewed journals published over 25 years (1983–2008) were selected for inclusion in a review of the professional literature on adolescent mothers' career development. Findings identified that the selected literature included a variety of research methods and theoretical approaches, identified areas of need for this population, and discussed impediments to the career development of adolescent mothers. The most frequent recommendations, aside from the need for further research, were to develop and implement comprehensive programs for adolescent mothers that are strength based and responsive to their needs, and to foster career development skills/knowledge and resiliency.     

Personal Development through Profiling: A Critique

Although a great deal of research and evaluation is currently being conducted into profiles and records of achievement, relatively little is still known about how pupils themselves respond to such recording. Material drawn from reviewing sessions is used to highlight some of the potentially important issues in this respect and how the outcomes are likely to differ from the counselling situation. Among these issues are teacher domination, differences between high- and low-achieving pupils, and gender variations in response. Stress is placed on the need for further systematic study of this aspect of profiling if we are to avoid instituting a procedure that, far from being a source of motivation, is perceived by pupils as just one more imposition on them.     

家庭对青少年职业发展影响的研究综述

家庭在青少年职业发展上的重要作用越来越受到职业发展领域研究人员的重视.本文从家庭因素是青少年职业发展的重要环境、父母对青少年职业发展的影响和亲子依恋关系与青少年职业发展三个方面回顾了家庭对青少年职业发展影响的研究。     

Reliability in Dream Research: A Methodological Note

The coefficients of internal consistency and retest reliability had been rarely investigated within the methodology of dream content analysis. Analyzing a dream series of elderly, healthy persons obtained from weekly telephone interviews, the internal consistency of a series of 20 dreams and retests after 4 or 22 weeks, respectively, had been computed. The findings indicate that dream recall and dream length are quite stable, but dream characteristics such as bizarreness and emotional tone underlie large intraindividual fluctuations. In order to obtain reliable measures for these variables which will be important for correlational studies, including waking-life trait measures, one has to obtain as many dreams as possible (about 20) in a very short time period. Further research is needed to extend the present findings to diary dreams and laboratory dreams.     

Differences in Student Perceptions of Secondary Vocational Education: Implications for Multicultural Career Counseling

Comparative analysis of 204 African-American and White students' perceptions toward secondary vocational education revealed that students formed perceptions toward these programs from a multidimensional perspective. Generally, African-American female students held positive perceptions whereas African-American male students held negative perceptions toward vocational education programs.     

A Decade of Career Development Research: Implications for Theory,Practice, and Research

This study examines trends in the area of career development programs, practices, and research during the last decade based on program sessions at the American Educational Research Association's annual meetings.     

Convergence in Career Development Theory: A Book Review

Book reviewed in this article: Convergence in Career Development Theory: Implications for Science and Practice by Mark L. Savickas and Robert W. Lent (Eds.)     

Meta-Analysis of Pragmatic and Theoretical Research: A Critique

Meta-analysis refers to a set of statistical procedures used to summarize and integrate many empirical studies that focus on one issue. This numerical method of integrating research findings is said to be superior to the narrative type of reviews because it is more objective, reliable, and rigorous. Moreover, the meta-analytic approach is supposedly capable of resolving research controversies, strengthening empirical hypotheses, and discovering new relationships among variables. In this study, these claims are examined and found to be wanting. Some objections to the use of meta-analysis as a means of substantiating theoretical assertions are raised with reference to the rationale of experimentation and to how knowledge evolves. It is concluded that it is inappropriate to apply meta-analysis to integrate theoretical research.     

Competing Values: A Respectful Critique of Narrative Research

Smythe and Murray (2000) presented the basic ethical issues in narrative research (NR) in a comprehensive, well-reasoned, and direct manner. In this critique, we highlight 3 issues. Two matters appear to challenge the internal inconsistency of the assumptions of NR: privileging some voices over others and a potential inherent conflict of interest for some researchers. We also examine some issues regarding the protection of research participants and conclude with modest recommendations.