New Methods for the Analysis of Change (Decade of Behavior)

Description

We inhabit a world of both invariant characteristics and continuous change. Modeling and predicting these regularities and changes captivated researchers in recent years and resulted in tremendous advances in the field of measurement. New Methods for the Analysis of Change reveals those new trends and emerging themes. For example, as little as ten years ago, researchers were using traditional procedures emphasizing interindividual variability that often ignored change which manifests itself in the form of intraindividual variablity. Nearly all the chapters in this volume strongly emphasize intraindividual variablity. In addition, missing data posed a great problem to longitudinal researchers in the past. Now, missing data is recognized as a subdiscipline within statistics. This volume presents state-of-the-art methods explored by recognized authorities on the analysis of change. Chapters highlight methods for estimating and evaluating models of growth and change over time at the level of the individual; address issues of measurement that are important in the analysis of change; point out methods for separating intraindividual growth from aspects of phenomena that are stable over time; identify larger frameworks in order to integrate knowledge; and provide methods for dealing with missing data. This rich offering of methodological advances will influence a variety of disciplines from psychology and sociology to education and economics.