Theory and Model Development

Abstract

Among the major difficulties with research in the field of commuting are the incompatible conceptualizations of the process that has spawned inconsistent or unstable findings. As we saw in the previous chapters, the independent variables, the dependent variables, and the linkages among them frequently differed across studies. This fact, more than any other, has contributed to the ambiguity in the field and has been partly responsible for the inherent difficulty in drawing definitive conclusions. The criticism leveled at social sciences that worthwhile inferences from the data available in a specific field are often nonexistent is an old one and is a legitimate frustration felt within and without the discipline. It is this (sometimes, sad) state of affairs, more than any other reason, that has been responsible for the popularity of techniques such as meta-analysis over the past decade (Hunter & Schmidt, 1990).