Chapter 2: Research Methods

Question 1

History of Relationship Science

Answer 1

it is quite new; began in earnest in 1960s and is less well known and less well understood than most other sciences; made tremendous strides in the past 50 years ; often uses diverse samples of people; examine various relationships (family, friendship, romantic etc); relationships are often studied over long periods of time; study pleasant and unpleasant aspects and follow them in their natural settings

Question 2

Where do the questions that researchers ask come from?

Answer 2

personal experience, social problems, previous research, theories

Question 3

Convenience Sample

Answer 3

anyone who is readily available

Question 4

Representative Sample

Answer 4

participants who resemble the entire population who are of interest

Question 5

Volunteer Bias

Answer 5

of those invited, people who agree to participate may differ from those who refuse; Ex) one study found that volunteers were better educated, employed in higher-status jobs, and more likely to have cohabited than those who refused to participate in a longitudinal study of their relationships

Question 6

Why are convenience samples more often used?

Answer 6

representative samples are more expensive

Question 7

What is the danger of convenience samples?

Answer 7

that they will differ in important ways from other samples that are more representative; but many processes studied by relationship scientists are so basic that they do not differ much from group to group

Question 8

The people in a representative sample….

Answer 8

reflect the demographic characteristics such as sex, age, race etc of the entire population of people that the researchers wish to study

Question 9

What are the two different research designs used in relationship science?

Answer 9

Correlational designs and experimental designs

Question 10

Correlational Designs

Answer 10

study naturally occuring events to find associations between them; it tells us that the two events are associated but it DOES NOT explain causal connections, if any, between the two events

Question 11

Positive Correlation

Answer 11

increases in one event are associated with increases in the other

Question 12

Negative Correlation

Answer 12

increases in one event are associated with decreases in the other

Question 13

Experimental Designs

Answer 13

manipulate events to delineate the causal connections between them; illuminate cause and effect; “if we change x, what happens to y?”

Question 14

You can not do experiments on…

Answer 14

events that you cannot control: ex) how much two people love each other

Question 15

Types of Data Collected

Answer 15

self reports, observations, physiological measures, archival materials

Question 16

Self Reports

Answer 16

asking people about their experiences; inexpensive and easy to obtain; help understand peoples personal points of view

Question 17

Potential Problems with Self Reports

Answer 17

participants may misunderstand some questions; peoples memories may not be accurate; people may not be able or willing to tell the truth

Question 18

Social Desirability Bias

Answer 18

people may be reluctant to report anything that makes them look bad

Question 19

Observations

Answer 19

watching behavior directly; not casual undertakings; observers are highly trained, and their observations are often highly detailed

Question 20

Experience Sampling

Answer 20

uses short, intermittent periods of observation to capture samples of behavior that occur over longer periods of time

Question 21

Reactivity

Answer 21

people may change their behavior when they know they are being observed

Question 22

Physiological Measures

Answer 22

assess peoples autonomic and biochemical responses; measures of heart rate, hormone levels, brain activity, muscle tensions, and genital arousal can provide information about how physical states are associated with social behavior

Question 23

Archival Materials

Answer 23

inspection of personal documents (such as photographs and diaries) and public records (such as marriage license) can also be informative

Question 24

Scientific Method

Answer 24

four step approach that can be used to obtain accurate information

Question 25

Four Steps of the Scientific Method

Answer 25

conceptualize a process or problem; collect data; analyze data; draw conclusions; following the four step process, revise research conclusions and theory

Question 26

Cross-Sectional Approach

Answer 26

individuals of different ages are compared at one time

Question 27

Longitudinal Approach

Answer 27

same individuals are studied over a period of time, usually several years or more

Question 28

Cohort Effects

Answer 28

due to a persons time of birth, era, or generation, rather than the persons actual age