NECESSARY (BUT NOT SUFFICIENT) INNOVATION - COMMENT ON FOX AND JONES (1998), KOEHLY AND SHIVY (1998), AND RUSSELL, KAHN, SPOTH, AND ALTMAIER (1998)

In the Special Section on Innovative Quantitative Research Methods, C. M. Fox and J. A. Jones (1998), L. M. Koehly and V. A. Shivy (1998), a nd D. W. Russell, J. H. Kahn, R. Spoth, and E. M. Altmaier (1998) have presented statistical methods related to Rasch modeling, social netwo rk analysis, and latent variable structural equation modeling for expe rimental designs, respectively. These methods address 3 critically imp ortant issues in counseling psychology research: (a) measuring constru cts, (b) modeling processes of change, and (c) operationalizing social relations. It is argued that innovation in methods is necessary to st udy complex phenomena, but sophisticated methods should not be used to disguise insufficient conceptualizations of the research problem.