CONTENTS 1 Introduction .............................................................................................. 1 1.1 Why do we need special multilevel analysis techniques? .................. 6 1.2 Multilevel theories ............................................................................... 7 1.3 Models described in this book ............................................................. 8 2 Multilevel Regression Models ............................................................. 11 2.1 The basic two-level regression model ............................................... 11 2.2 Computing parameter estimates and analysis strategy .................. 16 2.3 An example of a simple two-level regression model ......................... 24 2.4 Standardizing regression coefficients ............................................... 26 2.5 Interpreting interactions ................................................................... 27 3 Working with HLM, VARCL and MLn

This study was a meta-analysis of the relationship between personality and ratings of transformational and transactional leadership behaviors. Using the 5-factor model of personality as an organizing framework, the authors accumulated 384 correlations from 26 independent studies. Personality traits were related to 3 dimensions of transformational leadership—idealized influence–inspirational motivation (charisma), intellectual stimulation, and individualized consideration—and 3 dimensions of transactional leadership—contingent reward, management by exception–active, and passive leadership. Extraversion was the strongest and most consistent correlate of transformational leadership. Although results provided some support for the dispositional basis of transformational leadership—especially with respect to the charisma dimension—generally, weak associations suggested the importance of future research to focus on both narrower personality traits and nondispositional determinants of transformational and transactional leadership. A recent PsycINFO search revealed that 1,738 of the 15,000 articles (12%) published since 1990 on the topic of leadership included the keywords personality and leadership. Clearly, scholars have a strong and continuing interest in the dispositional bases

Although the merits of parents using corporal punishment to discipline children have been argued for decades, a thorough understanding of whether and how corporal punishment affects children has not been reached. Toward this end, the author first presents the results of meta-analyses of the association between parental corporal punishment and 11 child behaviors and experiences. Parental corporal punishment was associated with all child constructs, including higher levels of immediate compliance and aggression and lower levels of moral internalization and mental health. The author then presents a process–context model to explain how parental corporal punishment might cause particular child outcomes and considers alternative explanations. The article concludes by identifying 7 major remaining issues for future research. Corporal punishment has been an integral part of how parents discipline their children throughout the history of the United States

Abstract. Parapsychology, the laboratory study of psychic phenomena, has had its history interwoven with that of statistics. Many of the controversies in parapsychology have focused on statistical issues, and statistical models have played an integral role in the experimental work. Recently, parapsychologists have been using meta-analysis as a tool for synthesizing large bodies of work. This paper presents an overview of the use of statistics in parapsychology and offers a summary of the meta-analyses that have been conducted. It begins with some anecdotal information about the involvement of statistics and statisticians with the early history of parapsychology. Next, it is argued that most nonstatisticians do not appreciate the connection between power and "successful " replication of experimental effects. Returning to parapsychology, a particular experimental regime is examined by summarizing an extended debate over the interpretation of the results. A new set of experiments designed to resolve the debate is then reviewed. Finally,

Colleges use SAT ® I scores and the high school record to predict success in college. Validity studies are conducted to determine the effectiveness of these predictors of success in college. The relationship of the predictors to an appropriate criterion of college success is an indicator of effectiveness. The relationship between predictors—such as the SAT I and high school grades—and a criterion of college success is usually measured by computing a correlation coefficient. Correlation coefficients range in absolute value from 0 to 1, with 0 representing no association and 1 indicating a perfect association. In validity studies, correlation coefficients are sometimes called validity coefficients. Higher correlations reflect stronger associations between the predictors and the criterion. Different outcomes may serve as criteria for determining success in college. There is no one agreed upon measure of college success. Academic achievement is most frequently used as a criterion in validating admission tests. Measures of academic achievement that have served as criteria for such validity studies include course grades, grade-point averages (GPA), graduation, attrition or persistence, promotion, teacher ratings, and special awards or honors. Researchers have studied the validity of the SAT I and its predecessor, the SAT, for more than 70 years through hundreds of validity studies conducted at various colleges employing the SAT in their admission process. The overwhelming majority of these studies use the high school record (i.e., grade averages, rank) and SAT

Abstract: We examine 693 cross-section estimates of left-right party impact on policy in OECD countries. The estimates, reported in a wide variety of outlets, are conflicting. Meta-analysis of that literature helps to reveal systematic variation in statistical support of left-right partisan impact on policy. Estimates are found to be more sensitive to policy domain than to issues of measurement and methodology. 3 The question of the impact of political parties on policy has been the object of much scrutiny and debate in the past decades. The main theoretical debate concerns the relative weight of socioeconomic and political variables in determining policy outputs. Advocates of the so-called “convergence ” school of thought argue that industrialised societies of the twentieth century have become more and more similar, facing the same kind of problems and applying the same kind of solutions. Consequently, the argument goes, political, institutional and cultural differences do not matter much when it comes to explain variations in policy outputs (Skinner 1976; Thomas 1980). In reaction to the convergence argument, policy scholars have suggested that indeed politics matters (Castles and McKinlay 1979b). Without denying the importance of economic factors, advocates of the “politics matters ” school of thought argue that there is a correlation between

In first explicating the notion of quantitative literature review for the social sciences, Glass (1976) argued that knowledge is not built from any individual study, but from the integration of findings from many studies. Individual studies do not so much yield knowledge as evidence with which knowledge can be built. Knowledge is socially constructed. To overemphasize a single study’s findings or integrate research only impressionistically leaves researchers knowing less than the evidence offers, insufficiently exploiting the wealth of data scattered in separate studies. Quantitative research integration, or meta-analysis, has a history in both the physical and social sciences that precedes Glass ’ formulation (Bangert-Drowns 1986; Hedges 1987). Most generally, meta-analysis is a perspective rather than a method, a recognition that research findings can be interpreted probabilistically in the context of collections of studies. The meta-analytic perspective is consistent with,

Within-compound associations in retrospective revaluation and in direct learning: A challenge for comparator theory

This monograph is based on the papers from a technical review on

As we begin the new millennium, it is an appropriate time to examine what we have learned about personality-performance relationships over the past century and to embark on new directions for research. In this study we quantitatively summarize the results of 15 prior meta-analytic studies that have investigated the relationship between the Five Factor Model (FFM) personality traits and job performance. Results support the previous findings that conscientiousness is a valid predictor across performance measures in all occupations studied. Emotional stability was also found to be a generalizable predictor when overall work performance was the criterion, but its relationship to specific performance criteria and occupations was less consistent than was conscientiousness. Though the other three Big Five traits (extraversion, openness and agreeableness) did not predict overall work performance, they did predict success in specific occupations or relate to specific criteria. The studies upon which these results are based comprise most of the research that has been conducted on this topic in the past century. Consequently, we call for a moratorium on meta-analytic studies of the type reviewed in our study and recommend that researchers embark on a new research agenda designed to further our understanding of personalityperformance linkages.