Measurement in Social Psychology

Although best known for experimental methods, social psychology also has a strong tradition of measurement. This volume seeks to highlight this tradition by introducing readers to measurement strategies that help drive social psychological research and theory development.

The books opens with an analysis of the method that dominates most social sciences, self-report, and presents a conceptual framework for interpreting the data generated from self-report. From there, the book introduces strategies for designing stronger, more useful measures, and reviews the many innovative measurement techniques that have helped expand the range of theories social psychologists might test. A section on individual assessment methods, techniques designed to measure the internal psychological states of individual respondents, comprises separate chapters on implicit, neurological, psychobiological, diary, and elicitation approaches; a complementary section, creative extraction, reviews multiple interrelated strategies that gather the rich forms of data that humans often leave behind, including chapters focused on archival, media harvesting, geocoding and computerized text analysis approaches.

The many methods covered in this book complement one another, such that the full volume provides researchers with a powerful toolset to help them better explore what is "social" about human behavior.

Hart Blanton is Professor of Communication at Texas A&M University. He conducts research in the areas of social influence, health communication, and research methodology.

Jessica M. LaCroix is Research Assistant Professor at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences and specializes in health psychology, research methodology, and military suicide prevention.

Gregory D. Webster is Associate Professor of Social Psychology at University of Florida Research Foundation with graduate degrees from the College of William & Mary and the University of Colorado.