After Lesson 15, I was confused about instruments and attributes, but Lesson 16 cleared up a lot with the eight examples of instruments given in class. I should point out that I studied about the Halo effect several years ago in a class called Organizational Behavior but that I did not have a good grasp at the time of what it really meant. In this lecture, Dr. Norman explained the Halo effect in a way that made perfect sense to me, so now I can close the book on that past area of confusion.

As I have watched this class unfold and watched Dr. Norman go through his various lists on the board, I have noticed the same types of categorization that seem inherent with all forms of conceptual knowledge. In the Organizational Behavior class that I took, I recall the same series of endless lists and categories, and because much of my past training has been in Mathematics, the use of such lists has always been awkward for me. In general, I would have to say that I do not like all the lists and categories because they make me feel that I have to learn by memorization. Whether that is true or not, I cannot say. But by contrast, a Mathematician can learn a few axioms and some basic principles and then take off in most any direction.

I could not help but wonder, as I watched Lesson 17, if I have ever been part of someone else’s study. I have completed questionaires before, participated in telephone surveys, and taken numerous aptitude tests in the public school system. Having done some of those things in the past and now listening to Dr. Norman talk about how the various instruments are implemented is helping me understand the whole Counseling Research process. The nice thing about preparing a Research Proposal is that I know that knowledge is gained by applying principles and techniques that are taught in the classroom.

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Lesson 18. Experimental Validity (Part I)

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