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63 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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§ Cohort studies
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examining specific subpopulations as they change over time. Age group... such as people born during the 1950’s.
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§ Panel studies
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examines the same set of people each time. Interviewing the same sample of voters every month during an election campaign... asking for whom they intended to vote.
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Cross-sectional
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study based on observations representing a single point in time. U.S. census
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Individual people
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you can combine their descriptions to provide a composite picture of the group the individuals represent.
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Groups
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we may be interested in characteristics that belong to one group... considered a single entity. Example: if you were to study the members of a criminal gang to learn about criminals, the individual (criminal) would be the unit of analysis; but if you studied all the gangs in a city to learn the differences, say, between big gangs and small ones, you would be interested in gangs rather than their individual members.
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o Organizations
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a researcher might study corporations... by which he or she implies a populations of all corporations. Individual corporations might be characterized in terms of their number of employees... net annual profits... gross assets... number of defense contracts... percentage of employees from racial or ethnic minority groups.
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o Social interactions
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study what goes on between individual humans. Example: Comparing the length of chat-room interactions on ISPs.
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o Social artifacts
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any product of social beings or their behavior. Example: how gender roles are taught
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o Self-administered questionnaires
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respondents are asked to complete the questionnaire themselves. Cheaper and quicker than face to face interaction surveys.
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o Interview surveys
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produce fewer incomplete questionnaires. Achieve higher completion rates than self-administered questionnaires have. More effective for complicated issues. interviewers must be neutral in appearance and actions; their presence in the data-collection process must have no effect on the responses given to questionnaire items
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o Telephone surveys
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cheaper and can be mounted and executed quickly. Safe when interviewing people in high-crime areas.
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o Online surveys
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difficulty assuring that respondents to an online survey will be representative of some more general population.
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o Strengths of survey research
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advantages in economy... amount of data that can be collected... and the chance to sample a large population. Strong on reliability.can test and establish causal relationships and replicable
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o Weaknesses of survey research
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somewhat artificial... potentially superficial... and relatively inflexible. Weak on validity.
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o Clear instructions
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are important for getting appropriate responses
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o Appropriate question forms
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open-ended or closed-ended questions. Open-ended questions are harder to analyze.
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Avoid Double-barred questions
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when researchers ask respondents for a single answer to a question that actually has multiple parts. Do you agree or disagree with the United States’ abandoning its space program and spending the money on domestic programs? The answers could be yes... no... maybe.
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Avoid overlapping categories
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how many times did your family sit down to eat dinner together in the last week? 0-2...2-4...4-6. What if you answer 4?
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o Respondents must be willing to answer
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some research requires information that they are unwilling to share with us.
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o Questions should be relevant
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when attitudes are requested on a topic that few respondents have thought about or really care about... the results are likely to be useless.
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o Short items are best
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Respondent should be able to read an item quickly... understand its intent... and select or provide an answer without difficulty.
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o Avoid negative items
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appearance of a negation in a questionnaire item paves the way for easy misinterpretation.
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o Avoid biased items and terms
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wording is everything
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o Contingency questions
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question intended for only respondents... determined by their responses to some other question. Can steer participants toward relevant questions and away from those that don’t concern them.
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o Inverted funnel
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begins with specific questions and then moves to more general questions. Initial questions set a frame of reference for following ones. For example: teacher evaluations at rutgers
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o Funnel
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begins with broad questions then moves to more specific ones. Assists respondent in recall of detailed information.
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- Ordering effects
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appearance of one question can affect the answers given to later ones. Try to estimate what the effect will be so that you can interpret results meaningfully.
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Correlation
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an empirical relationship between two variables such that (1) changes in one are associated with changes in the other or (2) particular attributes of one variable are associated with particular attributes of the other.
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Correlation establishes
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that a relationship exists and the strength of that relationship
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Causation
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the act or agency which produces an effect.
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Independent variable
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takes the form of an experimental stimulus.
Influences another variable is manipulated by researcher in experiment. |
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Dependent variable
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changed by another.
Depends on independent variable. Measured by researcher in experiment. |
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Confound variables
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variables that are not being controlled by the researcher - but that also vary systematically with the DV. It is not possible to eliminate “noise” – but presence of an uncontrolled compound variable draws serious questions about the validity of your whole study. Example – choosing to do an alcohol study at a Mormon university.
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Internal validity
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is the validity of (causal) inferences in scientific studies, usually based on experiments
have I ruled out or controlled for the other reasons that could be giving me these results? |
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Concern with internal validity
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accuracy of conclusion drawn from a particular study. Can the study lead to accurate results?
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External validity
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how research from one internally valid study might be generalizable to another context. Generlizability of conclusion. Can the results be applied to other cases?
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Measurement validity
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does my scale measure what I intend to measure? Is it accurate?
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Measurement reliability
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does my scale give me stable and consistent results?
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Face validity
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does it seem accurate?
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Predictive validity
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does it predict to a future measure of the same concept?
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Construct validity
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does it relate to other concepts in logical ways
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History in internal validity
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during the course of the experiment... historical events may occur that will confound the experimental results.
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Sensitization
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when an initial measurement influences measurements that follow. When participants are given the same questions over time – they can adapt to that measurement. For example – being asked a set of questions after each doctor’s visit.
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o Selection
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comparisons don’t have any meaning unless the groups are comparable at the start of an experiment.
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o Mortality
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experimental subject will drop out of the experiment before its completed and this can affect statistical comparisons and conclusions.
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o Maturation
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people are continually growing and changing... and such changes can affect the results of the experiment.
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o Pretesting
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the measurement of a dependent variable among subjects
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o Post-testing
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the re-measurement of a dependent variable among subjects after they’ve been exposed to an independent variable.
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o Control groups
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allows researchers to detect any effects of the experiment itself.
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Self-report
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useful when measuring one’s psychological characteristics and assessing own behavior.
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Drawbacks of self-report
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unable to answer or may provide socially desirable answers.
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Other report
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one’s behavior or characteristics described by others and is useful when evaluating one’s performance or skills.
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Drawbacks of other report
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limited observation and lack of motivation to report or bias toward a person
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Behavioral observation
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observing one’s behavior and is useful when direct measures of behavior may be more accurate than other methods.
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Longitudinal studies
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designed to permit observations of the same phenomenon over an extended period. Studying a UFO cult from its inception to its demise.
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Trend studies
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examines changes within a population over time. Comparing U.S. censuses over a period of decades... showing shifts in the makeup of national population.
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Researcher's personal attribute effects
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gender or race. Poorly dressed...smells bad...or well dressed...physically attractive
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Researcher's expectancy effects on participants
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use a "blind" experimenter. When you expect a response from the participant.
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To minimize threats on research you do
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random sampling and random assignment (equate groups before an experiment). I can be reasonably sure that these two groups are the same.
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Randomization controls for
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both known and unknown potentially confounding variables because randomization randomizes everything.
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Natural experiment
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takes advantage of a naturally occurring event to conduct research that would otherwise be unfeasible or unethical.
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Weakness of natural experiment
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depends on the actual context. Tradeoff between internal and external validity
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Strength of natural experiment
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research that would otherwise not be possible
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