This chapter provides a comprehensive statistical analysis of the relationships between each of the variables defined in the previous chapter. Using the methods outlined in Chapter 8, measures of intersubjectivity and collaborative complexity are applied to 277 episodes of naturally occurring preschooler free play across five Head Start classrooms. Contextual variables external to the interacting group include the flexibility of the space and materials in the activity area. Group variables include gender composition, group size, primary play type, and duration of the episode. The results show that intersubjectivity is positively related to collaborative complexity, supporting the concept of collaborative competence as being composed of both dimensions. Types and degrees of intersubjectivity between episodes vary with play type and gender composition, and longer episodes have higher intersubjectivity. Space and material flexibility along with group size have significant impacts on collaborative competence. High collaborative competence was found in episodes characterized by either high degrees of cooperation and joint attention intersubjectivity or by high degrees of reciprocal collaboration and social intersubjectivity. The results show how different contexts support specific forms and dimensions of collaborative competence. The discussion centers on the role of collaborative competence as a useful concept for assessing interactions.

This chapter details the practical, theoretical, and philosophical aspects of experimental science. It discusses how one chooses a project, performs experiments, interprets the resulting data, makes inferences, and develops and tests theories. It then asks the question, "are our theories accurate representations of the natural world, that is, do they reflect reality?" Surprisingly, this is not an easy question to answer. Scientists assume so, but are they warranted in this assumption? Realists say "yes," but anti-realists argue that realism is simply a mental representation of the world as we perceive it, that is, metaphysical in nature. Regardless of one's sense of reality, the fact remains that science has been and continues to be of tremendous practical value. It would have to be a miracle if our knowledge and manipulation of the nature were not real. Even if they were, how do we know they are true in an absolute sense, not just relative to our own experience? This is a thorny philosophical question, the answer to which depends on the context in which it is asked. The take-home message for the practicing scientist is "never assume your results are true."

This chapter explicates the Bayesian foundations of iterative research, where scholars move back and forth between theory revision, data collection, and data analysis. In this style of research, attention to likelihood ratios guards against common forms of confirmation bias, while Occam factors help to control ad hoc hypothesizing.

The chapter tests the theory derived from the empirical chapters. It provides additional empirrical evidence that countries with organizational gatekeepers are capable of undermining homegrown jihadi Salafism. It also shows that countries lacking institutional regulatory mechanisms in the Islamic sphere become radicalizers of their domestic Salafi communities.

The new English statistics entered into American social science chiefly through Columbia University, as a result of Giddings’ enthusiasm for the work of Pearson and of other faculty members visiting and remaining in close touch with Pearson. Ogburn, as a graduate student at Columbia, was introduced to the new statistics, and made use of correlation and regression in early research in the fields of social class and politics and the social consequences of business cycles. After taking up a chair at Chicago in 1927, he became involved in debates over the nature of sociology and argued explicitly for its understanding as science. He insisted on the importance of the precise, statistically informed description and analysis of social phenomena, on concepts being made operational for research purposes so as to allow for measurement in some form, on theory being open to empirical test, and on the need for sociologists, even when involved in public policy issues, to maintain their professional objectivity. But Ogburn did not himself show any great interest in theory development, being perhaps, under the influence of Pearson, disinclined to ‘look too far behind phenomena’ and also finding little of value to him in the theoretical approaches prevailing at Chicago.