Chap 2: Non-Experimental Research Flashcards
What is non-experimental research?
Research that lacks manipulation of an independent variable.
What are the different categories of non-experimental research?
Observational research
Archival research
Case studies
Surveys
What is observational research?
Observational research is research where the researcher is simply observing ongoing behaviour.
What are the 2 forms of observational research?
Naturalistic observation a.k.a unobstrusive/non-reactive research, where research conducted is disturbed as little as possible by the observation process.
Participant-observer research, the observer participates in a group to record behaviour.
What is archival research?
Research conducted using data from archival data that are already present in existing records or archives.
When is archival research appropriate?
When collecting new data would be wasteful, or when ethics/logistics make it infeasible to conduct an experiment.
What are some problems which may occur when doing archival research?
Archival data may not always consist of useful data suiting the research, biases in the data when the data was collected may also be present.
What are case studies?
When a researcher investigates a particular situation or phenomenon that has come to their attention. The situation is usually a practical problem that must be solved as soon as possible.
What are the 2 basic categories for question types?
Open-ended and close-ended
What are the 6 characteristics of open-ended questions?
Freedom of choice, participants are not limited on what to answer
More complete responses
More difficult to code due to its narrative form
More effort from participant required
Suited for smaller/preliminary studies/pilots
Less prone to coding errors
What are the 7 characteristics of close-ended questions?
Restricted, causes participants to think about their answer
Responses are simplistic, artificial forced choice
May spark an answer not thought before
Easier to code
Requires less effort from participant
More suited for larger studies
More prone to coding errors
What are some question formats in questionnaires?
Categorical
Visual Analog Scale
Likert Scale
Branching Questions
What are the 6 major pitfalls of questionnaire construction?
Not addressing a single issue (double-barreled questions, or ambiguous questions)
Order effects (Previous questions may influence the answer of other questions)
Make alternatives clear (Categories or answers must be exhaustive and clearly defined)
Acquiescence/yea-sayers (Tendency to agree to any statement regardless of the content)
Social Desirability Tendency (Bias may appear when participants perceive one alternative to be more socially acceptable than the other)
Framing (Avoid writing questions in a way that will bias the result, ask sensitive questions sensitively)
What method is used to determine the presence of acquiescence?
Reverse scoring questions.
What method is used to determine the presence of social desirability tendency?
Verification key questions.
