Research Methods Test 1

Front 1

Unit of Analysis (UOA):

Back 1

objects or events under study; simply what or who is to be described or analyzed; determines your conclusions; asks why or what the causes are

Front 2

Ecological Fallacy:

Back 2

occurs when relationships between properties of groups or geographic areas are used to make inferences about the individual behaviors of the people within those groups or areas. Conclusions about relationships among individuals cannot necessarily be drawn from data on groups; you must carefully determine the units about which you wish to draw conclusions and then make sure that your data pertain only to those units

Front 3

Variables:

Back 3

characteristics of units that vary, taking on different values, categories or attributes for different observations; may vary over cases or over time or over both cases and time; used to understand and explain the variance

Front 4

Variables vs. Attributes or Categories:

Back 4

“gender” is a variable consisting of the categories “male or female”, “marital status” is a variable consisting of the categories “single, divorced, widowed, etc.”, “political party” is a variable consisting of “republican, democrat, etc.”

Front 5

Dependent Variable (DV):

Back 5

the variable we are interested in explaining and predicting; differences in the dependent variable are thought to depend on other things; happened after other things (effect); Y, row in a table

Front 6

Independent Variable (INDV):

Back 6

explanatory variables that do the influencing and explaining; are predictor variables because their values or categories may be used to predict the values or categories of DV’s; one that may be used to explain and predict the variance in the dependent variable (cause), X, column in a table

Front 7

Extraneous Variable:

Back 7

variable that cannot yet be explained, such as you cannot explain a persons region, religion, nationality, etc.

Front 8

Control Variable (CV):

Back 8

variables held constant, or prevented from varying, during the course of observation or analysis; cannot account for or explain any of the variation in the explanatory variables; not of immediate interest but might otherwise explain part of the phenomenon that the investigator wishes to understand; ALWAYS draws from the DV; may make the relationship between the DV and INDV disappear when added; variables that are added to a hypotheses but still cannot be explained yet such as GPA and class attendance

Front 9

Positive Relationship:

Back 9

exists if an increase in the value of one variable is accompanied by an increase in the value of the other, or the decrease in the value of one variable is accompanied by a decrease in the value of the other; the two variables consistently change in the same direction

Front 10

Negative Relationship:

Back 10

exists if a decrease in the value of one variable is accompanied by an increase in the value of the other; changes in one variable are opposite in direction to changes in the other

Front 11

Hypotheses:

Back 11

an expected but unconfirmed relationship between two or more variables; statement of the relationship between two or more variables; MUST imply one variable has influence on another and changes in one variable relates to changes in another; should ask what are the causes

Front 12

Perfect Association:

Back 12

all pairs of cases show the same association

Front 13

Three kinds of evidence for a casual relationship: Association, nonspuriousness, and direction of influence

Back 13

Association, nonspuriousness, and direction of influence

Front 14

Moderate Association:

Back 14

about 50% of pairs show the association

Front 15

No Association:

Back 15

some pairs show the association

Front 16

Nonspuriousness:

Back 16

when an association between the DV and INDV still exists after we hold control variables constant

Front 17

Spurious:

Back 17

if an association between the DV and INDV disappears after we hold the CV constant; when we test our hypotheses we need to hold the CV constant and the relationship will disappear between the DV and INDV, making the CV the INDV

Front 18

Direction of Influence:

Back 18

a cause must happen first then the effect; changes in the casual factor (INDV) must influence changes in the effect (DV)

Front 19

Four Basic Research Approaches to the Social World:

Back 19

1. Experimental: the data is artificial and the sample is small. Advantages: easy to hold control variables constant, disadvantages: data is artificial, sample is small, conclusion isn’t reliable
2. Survey: the sample is large, the data is real, standardized interviews, questionnaires. Advantages: the sample is large and the data is real, disadvantages: hard to hold control variables constant
3. Field Research: both survey research and field research take place in a natural setting but field research includes observation participation, unstructured interviews, data from everyday events. Advantages: gets an insider’s view of reality especially in the studies of dynamic or rapidly changing situations, Disadvantages: depends on the unsystematic techniques which lend themselves to investigators bias, and fail to lend themselves to replication
4. Using Available Data

Front 20

A table presenting the distribution of the DV across the categories of the INDV:

Back 20

(DV-row, INDV- column)