This is the first book devoted primarily to the presentation of nonclinical coding systems for the assessment of characteristics of persons and social groups. These systems have been empirically derived, refined, and validated, and may be applied with high interscorer agreement in research in the behavioral and social sciences and in the applied areas of education, business, and health.

Rapidly expanding beyond its original conception as a source of a few well-established motive scoring systems, this volume became a more general handbook for researchers who wish to employ content analytic methods to measure motives, attributional and cognitive styles, and psychosocial orientations. Although the early-developed motive scoring systems are included here, with various revisions and updatings, most of the systems are of more recent origin, and many are published here for the first time. The influence of the Murray tradition is evident in many of the systems; however, some derive from other research traditions and are not thematic in the sense of employing stories or the analysis of themes in stories.

Readers will discover that problematic aspects of earlier research have been addressed, important new research has been carried out, and significant advances have been made in the theoretical conceptions underlying both method and content. Limitations of the method, and problems that remain to be solved, are identified and discussed.