Use Of Alternative Methodologies Research Articles

Victimization and Repeat Victimization Over the Life Span: A Predictive Study and Implications for Policy

This study was based on the 1999 General Social Survey, a national Canadian survey of criminal victimization involving about 26,000 individuals, 15 years of age and over. More than half of all respondents (57.8%) reported experiencing at least one criminal incident during their life span. More than one in eight (13.5%) were victimized more than once and these repeat victims experienced over half (54%) of all offences. Less than 5% of the sample was victimized three times or more, although these individuals experienced nearly a quarter of all offences reported by the respondents. Logistic regression analyses, relating to violent, property, and all offences, revealed that the variables that best predicted victimization and repeat victimization were age, province of residence, and education, while gender, ethnicity, country of birth, urban residence, and routine activities were less consistent in their ability to predict victimization as a whole or repeat victimization. Taken together, the predictors achieved modest success in predicting membership in the victim and non-victim groups. The study concluded that the concentration of victimization warranted victim-based preventive measures, with the qualification that nearly half of all victimizations were not experienced by repeat but, rather, single-incident victims. It was also recommended that special attention be accorded in the future to understanding the relatively low level of lifetime victimization of persons 65 years of age and over, the elevated risk faced by residents of British Columbia, and the risks of violence faced by Aboriginal Canadians. The study concludes with a call for the use of alternative methodologies to study victimization and for the validation of the General Social Survey through a smaller number of face-to-face interviews in order to ascertain the role played by recall and disclosure issues in victimization surveys involving telephone interviews.

Effect of speed limits on speed distributions and highway safety: A survey of recent literature

This paper examines recent work on the effect of motor vehicle speed limits on highway speeds and highway safety. The review is empirical and concentrates on identifying the quantitative effects that changes in regulatory speed limit policies on interstate and non-interstate roads have on the distribution of speeds and traffic safety. Among the findings, small speed limit changes on non-limited-access roads will have little effect on speed distribution and highway safety unless complemented with speed-reducing actions. Also, the 10 mph increase in rural interstate speed limits increased nationwide mean speed and speed variance by < 4 and 1 mph respectively. Further, notwithstanding higher rural interstate speed limits leading to speed adaptation on non-affected roads, the evidence is consistent with a zero system-wide effect. Implications for further research relate to the importance of controlling for confounding factors, aggregation, the use of alternative methodologies, and the importance of enforcement in affecting speed distributions and highway safety.

Effect of speed limits on speed distributions and highway safety: a survey of recent literature

This paper examines recent work on the effect of motor vehicle speed limits on highway speeds and highway safety. The review is empirical and concentrates on identifying the quantitative effects that changes in regulatory speed limit policies on interstate and non-interstate roads have on the distribution of speeds and traffic safety. Among the findings, small speed limit changes on non-limited-access roads will have little effect on speed distribution and highway safety unless complemented with speed-reducing actions. Also, the 10 mph increase in rural interstate speed limits increased nationwide mean speed and speed variance by < 4 and 1 mph respectively. Further, notwithstanding higher rural interstate speed limits leading to speed adaptation on non-affected roads, the evidence is consistent with a zero system-wide effect. Implications for further research relate to the importance of controlling for confounding factors, aggregation, the use of alternative methodologies, and the importance of enforcement in affecting speed distributions and highway safety.

A critique of coping scales

This paper describes the issues that must be considered by researchers who wish to measure coping. The assessment of coping is discussed in terms of two major debates, namely whether coping should be conceptualised as a trait-like personality characteristic or as a statelike response to a specific stressor, and the use of general scales as opposed to situation-specific scales. The dimensionality of coping is described with the acknowledgment of the difficulties in creating discrete typologies and the disagreement over the optimal number of categories. These difficulties are partly a consequence of the conceptual overlap between coping, appraisal, and stressor outcomes, and are exacerbated by the inappropriate use of some factor analytic techniques in the development of the scales. Methodological concerns are highlighted, particularly the problems of content confounding, tapping the whole domain, behavioural and cognitive content of items, choice of response format, ceiling effects, and specification of the coping period. Recommendations for future research are made in consideration of the costs and benefits of coping, inclusion of salutogenic strategies, and the use of alternative methodologies in stress research.

Reflection: can we assess it? Should we assess it?

ABSTRACT This paper reports on a study undertaken by two university‐based teacher educators into an aspect of professional practice. The feasibility and desirability of assessing reflection demonstrated by student teachers studying early childhood literacy was investigated. While reaffirming the importance of developing reflective practitioners, the study highlighted the difficulties of equitably or meaningfully assessing reflection. Use of alternative methodologies was called for in future research into reflection

Ratio and Frontier Analysis for Assessing Corporate Performance: Evidence from the Grocery Industry in the UK

This paper considers the use of alternative methodologies for assessing corporate performance of industrial sectors within the economy. It is argued that the use of ratio analysis in itself is insufficient for assessing performance, and that more advanced tools like data envelopment analysis should be used to complement ratio analysis. Data envelopment analysis is used in the paper to address a series of issues concerning the measurement of corporate performance, which includes an assessment of sales' efficiency, the effects of economies of scale, benchmarking of a firm's performance and the association between industry groups and performance. The paper uses data drawn from the grocery industry in the UK.

Ratio and Frontier Analysis for Assessing Corporate Performance: Evidence from the Grocery Industry in the UK

This paper considers the use of alternative methodologies for assessing corporate performance of industrial sectors within the economy. It is argued that the use of ratio analysis in itself is insufficient for assessing performance, and that more advanced tools like data envelopment analysis should be used to complement ratio analysis. Data envelopment analysis is used in the paper to address a series of issues concerning the measurement of corporate performance, which includes an assessment of sales' efficiency, the effects of economies of scale, benchmarking of a firm's performance and the association between industry groups and performance. The paper uses data drawn from the grocery industry in the UK.

Cognition in Clinical Psychology: Measures, Methods or Models?

This paper critically examines the recent impact of cognitivism upon the field of clinical psychology, and concludes that certain criteria of scientific adequacy have been compromised. The argument is developed that the introduction of information processing constructs to theoretical models of psychopathology has made a potentially valuable contribution to the discipline; but that the acceptance of mental events as dependent measures has severely undermined the scientific credibility of experimental attempts to evaluate such models. It is proposed that future progress will require the adoption of a particular methodological constraint. Specifically, it is suggested that cognitive explanations of psychopathology can only be tested adequately by evaluating the validity of the behavioural predictions that they generate. Using examples of recent research that has investigated the cognitive characteristics of vulnerability to anxiety and depression, an attempt is made to demonstrate that adherence to this proposed constraint not only is possible, but actually provides a far greater degree of understanding than could be attained through the use of alternative methodologies. It is postulated that the future scientific status of clinical psychology may depend upon our collective response to the issues that are raised in this paper.

Breaking Out of the Rut: The Use of Alternative Methodologies to Measure AIDS-Related Attitudes and Behaviour

Breaking Out of the Rut: The Use of Alternative Methodologies to Measure AIDS-Related Attitudes and Behaviour

Forensic Economics and the Wrongful Death of a Household Producer: Current Practices, Methodological Biases and Alternative Solutions of Losses

Abstract. A new frontier in forensic economics has emerged: expert testimony on the loss of earning capacity due to the wrongful death of a household producer not in the labor force. Forensic economics—the application of economic analysis by an expert witness—in this area is at an early stage of development. While several methods have been developed for estimating the value of household production, one method, in negligence cases, dominates in the courtroom: replacement cost. Reliance upon a single methodology seems unwise in light of the newness and complexity of research in the area of household production. There are promising alternative methods which could be used. Opportunity cost, family profile and value of service flows methodologies are good candidates. Potentially, the use of alternative methodologies could help provide a consistency check on the reasonableness of any one particular methodology. Presently, several constraints frustrate the task of refining the state of forensic economics in this area. However, progress can be made by, among other things, subjecting forensic economics in these cases to more thorough unbaised professional review such as is common in an older area, antitrust cases.