Evaluating the Validity of Self-Reported Deviant Behavior Using Vignette Analyses

In this paper, the validity of vignette analyses of various forms of deviant behavior in the presence of opportunities is analyzed on the basis of ideas derived from cognitive psychology. Abelson’s Script Theory together with insights into human memory of visual and verbal information, allow the assumption that vignette analyses using visual stimuli are valid measures of deviant behavior in particular. The study includes an empirical examination of these ideas (n = 450). Nonparticipant observations and vignette analyses with visual and verbal material were carried out with regard to three forms of deviant behavior occurring in the presence of opportunities presenting themselves in everyday life. Observed and self-reported frequencies of deviant behavior or deviant intentions were counted and cross-tabulated. Log-linear analyses with dummy coding using observation data as reference category were run. Data analyses yielded the result that frequencies of deviant behavior were related to the techniques of data collection under consideration. Especially vignette analyses of the return of ‘lost letters’ that use both visual and verbal stimuli overestimate ‘actual’ (i.e. observed) return rates. This result is discussed with regard to the underlying methodological assumptions as well as its implications.     

Research article: Look after they leap: illustrating the value of retrospective reports in employee turnover

The prevailing methodology for studying employee turnover is limited because it emphasizes prediction rather than understanding. This paper critiques this methodology and draws out the implications of an alternative: retrospective self-reporting, by actual leavers. Retrospective self-reporting has three main advantages. First, it allows direct assessment of actual incidents of turnover, so interventions can be informed by accounts of real events, instead of being based on inference. Second, it offers insight into the dynamic character of decisions to quit, which are often unpredictable or precipitated by sudden events. Third, it allows for assessment of the role of non-work factors. This makes a methodological contribution, allowing greater insight into the decision to quit, which is ontologically, socially and dynamically complex. It has implications for how we construe and manage turnover. The argument is illustrated by a recent study of 352 UK National Health Service nurse leavers but has wider implications for turnover in the public sector.     

Current and potential methods for measuring emotion in tourism experiences: a review

This study provides an assessment of methods used in existing tourism research to measure emotion and discusses the potential for use of psychophysiological methods such as electro-dermal analysis, facial muscle activity, heart rate response, eye-tracking system and vascular measures. Psychophysiological measurement techniques have been reported in the marketing, advertising and media literature; however, to the best knowledge of the authors, no studies are reported in the tourism literature. Instead, studies of emotion in the tourism literature invariably employ self-report questionnaire methods which capture only tourists' high-order emotions and are subject to a variety of forms of bias. Unconscious emotional responses that can provide unbiased portrayal of individuals' initial emotional reactions when exposed to a stimulus have been largely ignored. The paper concludes that studies combining both self-report and psychophysiological measures are needed and areas for future research are discussed.     

林业经济管理博士学位论文中研究方法的自陈情况分析

学位论文中研究方法是非常重要的一部分,本研究采用内容分析法,对中国4所典型的林业类高校中林业经济管理专业博士学位论文中研究方法的自陈情况进行分析,同时对不同高校的博士学位论文中研究方法的自陈情况进行比较分析,发现这些博士学位论文中研究方法方面存在的问题,最后对这些问题给出解释,并给出两点改进的意见。