Chapter 2 - METHODS

Question 1

What are goals of science?

Answer 1

• Description (accurate portrayal/depiction of phenomenon)
• Explanation (gathering knowledge about “why” phenomenon exists it its causes)
• Prediction (anticipate an event prior to its occurrence)
• Control (manipulation of conditions to affect behavior)

Question 2

What is science?

Answer 2

A process or method for generating a body of knowledge
(Represents a logic of inquiry - way of doing things to increase understanding of concepts, processes, & relationships)

Question 3

Interrelated constructs(concepts), definitions, & propositions that present a systematic view of a phenomenon by specifying a relations among variables, with the purpose of explaining & predicting the phenomenon

Answer 3

What is “Theory”?

Question 4

Statements about the supposed relationships between or among variables

Answer 4

What is hypothesis?

Question 5

What are 5 things that make a good theory?

Answer 5

• Parsimonious: explains a lot, yet simple
• Precision: specific & accurate in its wording
• Testability: verifiable by experimentation/study
• useful: practical, helpful in describing/explaining/predicting important phenomena
• Generativity: stimulates additional research

Question 6

What is induction?

Answer 6

Data —> Theory

Question 7

What is deduction?

Answer 7

Theory —> Data

Question 8

What is an independent variable & what are some other names we use for it?

Answer 8

Anything that is systematically manipulated

&

Predictor, precursor, & antecedent

Question 9

What is a dependent variable & what are some other names we use for it?

Answer 9

What we’re measuring/assessing

&

Criteria, outcome, or consequence

Question 10

What is an extraneous variable?

Answer 10

Any other variable that can contaminate results

Question 11

What is validity?

Answer 11

Are we measuring what we’re supposed to be measuring?

Question 12

What is the research process order?

Answer 12

Design the study
Analyze data
Collect data
Formulate hypothesis
Report findings

Question 13

What is internal validity?

Answer 13

Extent to which causal inferences can be drawn about variables
(Relating our alternative explanations)

Question 14

What is external validity?

Answer 14

Extent to which results generalize to other people, settings, time (student participants & “real world” applicability

Question 15

Types of Research Designs: Overview

Answer 15

• Experimental Methods
• Lab Experiment
• Field & quasi-experiments
• observational methods

Question 16

What are field experiments?

Answer 16

Random assignment & manipulation of IV in a naturally occurring, real-world setting

Question 17

What are quasi-experiments?

Answer 17

Field experiment without random assignment and not always practical to randomly assign participants; use of intact groups

Question 18

What is manipulation in experimental methods?

Answer 18

Systematic control of one or more independent variables

Question 19

What is Random Assignment in experimental methods?

Answer 19

Each participant has an equally likely chance of being assigned to each condition

Question 20

What are observational methods in research designs?

Answer 20

Also called, correlations designs, descriptive research

• do not involve random assignment or manipulation of IVs
• make use of available resources
• can draw conclusions about relationships but NOT casualty
• common in field settings

Question 21

Examinations of a single individual, group, company, or society
—> interviews, historical analysis, research into the writings of policies of an individual/organization

—> main purpose: is to describe &/or explain

Answer 21

Case studies

Question 22

What type of research relies on “secondary” data sets?

Answer 22

Archival research

Question 23

What type of data is collected at one point in time from a single group of respondents?

Answer 23

Cross-sectional data

Question 24

What type of data is collected over multiple time periods so that changes in attitudes & behaviors can be examined

Answer 24

Longitudinal data

Question 25

What are self-administered questionnaires & where are they used?

Answer 25

Used in both lab & field settings - Surveys that are completed by respondents in the absence of an investigator - can be given to large groups at once - easy to administer - give respondents anonymity

Question 26

What are the two approaches to using method of data collection?

Answer 26

- self-administered | - interviews

Question 27

What are the two major concerns of accuracy of measurement?

Answer 27

- reliability | - validity

Question 28

What is reliability?

Answer 28

Consistently/stability of a measure

Question 29

What is test-retest reliability? | Give an example of it

Answer 29

The stability of a test over time Also called coefficient of stability Example: participants are given a test at Time 1 & then given the exact same test at Time 2

Question 30

What is parallel forms reliability? Give an example of it

Answer 30

The two tests are measuring the same thing Ex: Two different forms of a final, survey on paper & computer, test for disabled applicants

Question 31

What is interrater reliability?

Answer 31

Extent to which multiple judges/raters agree on ratings of a particular thing or person

Question 32

What is internal consistency reliability?

Answer 32

Extent to which individual test items seem to be measuring the same thing

Question 33

What type of reliability is split the test in half to see if one half is equivalent to the other?

Answer 33

Split-half reliability

Question 34

What type of reliability is examining the correlations among all test items to determine consistency.

Answer 34

Inter-item reliability (Cronbach’s coefficient alpha)?

Question 35

What is the rule of thumb for reliability?

Answer 35

.70

Question 36

Extent to which a test measures the underlying construct that it was intended to measure Ex: self-esteem, intelligence, motivation, cognitive ability

Answer 36

Construct Validity

Question 37

Degree to which a test/predictor covers a representative sample of the quality being assessed

Answer 37

Content Validity

Question 38

Degree to which a test is a good predictor of attitudes, behavior, or performance

Answer 38

Criterion-related Validity

Question 39

Extent to which test scores obtained at one point in time predict criteria obtained at some later time Ex’s: GREs, GPAs, research experience, predicting later success in graduate school

Answer 39

Predictive Validity

Question 40

How well a test predicts a criterion that is measured at the same time test is administered Ex: want to see if newly developed selection tests predict performance of current employees

Answer 40

Concurrent Validity

Question 41

Degree to which a measure of the construct is related to measures of other, similar constructs

Answer 41

Convergent Validity

Question 42

Degree to which a measure of the construct is related to measures of other, dissimilar products

Answer 42

Divergent Validity

Question 43

What are the two approaches to construct validity?

Answer 43

- content validity | - criterion-related Validity

Question 44

What are the two approaches to criterion-related Validity?

Answer 44

- predictive validity | - concurrent validity

Question 45

Summarized in a single # the values, characteristics, or scores describing a series of cases

Answer 45

Statistics

Question 46

What are the measures of Central Tendency?

Answer 46

- Mode - Median - Mean

Question 47

Score in the middle of a distribution - extreme scores do not affect this - mostly use this for skewed data

Answer 47

Median

Question 48

Most frequent single score in a distribution - useful with categorical data

Answer 48

Mode

Question 49

Arithmetic average of a group of scores | - sensitive to extreme scores

Answer 49

Mean

Question 50

Characterize a typical member of the group

Answer 50

Measures of Central Tendency

Question 51

Inform us how closely scores are grouped around the measure of Central Tendency; “spread-outedness” of the data

Answer 51

Measures of Dispersion

Question 52

What are the three measures of dispersion?

Answer 52

- range - variance - standard deviation

Question 53

Spread of scores from the lowest to the highest

Answer 53

Range

Question 54

Most useful measure of dispersion | - sum of squared differences between each score & the mean

Answer 54

Variance

Question 55

Square root of the variance; retains original metric of scores

Answer 55

Standard deviation

Question 56

This distribution is - symmetrical - bell shaped curve - proportions will be same for (+) & (-) scores Ex: job attitudes, intelligence, performance

Answer 56

Normal Distribution

Question 57

What does correlation coefficient (r) indicate?

Answer 57

- indicates direction of the relationship - indicates the strength/sign of the relationship between two variables Magnitude —> 0 - 1.00

Question 58

What is coefficient of determination (r2)?

Answer 58

Coefficient of determination (r2): percentage of variance accounted for by the predictor

Question 59

Allows us to predict one variable from another - how much variance in a criterion variable is accounted for by a predictor variable (The higher the overlapping is, the better the predictor is)

Answer 59

Regression

Question 60

- methodology used to conduct quantitative literature reviews - used to combine the results of multiple studies to arrive at the best estimate of the true relationship

Answer 60

Meta-Analysis