Chapter 2 - Research methadologies Flashcards
Types of Research Methods(Purpose behind Researching)
Basic Research: to improve our basic knowledge of a subject
Applied Research: to solve specific problems and apply the solution to help people
Program Evaluation: looks at existing programs in place and evaluates the effectiveness of them
Types of Research Designs
Qualitative: subjective where findings are in written format as opposed to numerical
E.g. Case studies, Narrative analysis
Experimental: participants are allocated into different groups for an experiment
Research Process Steps
- Describe
- Predict
- Select Methodology
- Control
- Collect Data
- Analyze
- Explanation
Describe
To describe the observable characteristics of an event, object or individual
- Similar to theory(an educated guess) which has to be tangible and testable
Predict
formulate a testable hypothesis about the behavior and a tentative statement between the two variables
Types of methodologies
Natural Observation: allow behavior to occur without interference from the researcher
Case Study: one individual or a small group is studied in depth in hope of revealing universal principles
Survey: a questionnaire
- Can reach a lot of people and is low cost
- Cons is that people can lie when answering
Narrative Analysis: centers around the study of stories and personal accounts of people groups and cultures
- Researchers analyze themes, structures and dialogues of each person’s narrative
Longitudinal Study: tracks the same people over a period of time (weeks, months, years)
Correlation Study: an approach to research that involves measuring different variables to see whether there is a prediction relation among variables
- The goal is to find out simply if there is a relationship between variables measured by the correlation coefficient
- CS can always suggest there is a correlation between variables but can never prove causation
- E.g. Is there a relationship between arriving early or late for classes and students getting better grades
Control Group
used to help show a baseline to allow for comparisons against the experimental group
Population
total number of participants in the experiment
Quasi Experimental Design
Refers to all subjective research methodologies
- ie, narrative analysis and case studies
Internal validity
the degree to which a study allows unambiguous casual inferences to the population
- that there are no methodological errors
External Validity
the degree to which a study ensures the potential findings apply to settings and samples other than the ones being studied
Ecological Validity
the degree to which an effect has been obtained under conditions that are typical for what happens in everyday life
- how controlled was the setting of the experiment
Theory
an explanation or comprehensive framework for making sense of evidence, organising observations and predicting behaviors or events
- Needs to be tangible and testable and falsifiable.
Hypothesis
the outcome of a theory where you get a specific prediction or educated guess as to the link between two variables and what will happen during your experiment
Placebo Effect
when a person mental or physical health improves after taking a placebo treatment due to their belief in them taking the treatment will improve them
