Chapter 3: Sex Research Flashcards
Direct Observation
A behavioral measure in which the scientist directly observes the behavior being studied.
Eye-Tracking
A behavioral measure in which a device measures the participant’s point of gaze over time.
Population
A group of people a researcher wants to study and make inferences about.
Sample
A part of a population
Random Sample
An excellent method of sampling in research in which each member of the population has an equal chance of being included in the sample.
Probability Sampling
An excellent method of sampling in research in which each member of the population has a known probability of being included in the sample.
Problem of Refusal or Nonresponse
The problem that some people will refuse to participate in a sex survey, thus making it difficult to study a random sample.
Volunteer Bias
A bias in the results of sex surveys that arises when some people refuse to participate, so that those who are in the sample are volunteers who may in some ways differ from those who refuse to participate.
Convenience Sample
A sample chosen in a haphazard manner relative to the population of interest. Not a random or probability sample.
Purposeful Distortion
Purposely giving false information in a survey.
Test-Retest Reliability
A method for testing whether self-reports are reliable or accurate; participants are interviewed (or given a questionnaire) and then interviewed a second time sometime later to determine whether their answers are the same both times.
Computer-Assisted Self-Interview (CASI)
A method of data collection in which the respondent fills out questionnaires on a computer. Head-phones and a soundtrack reading the questions can be added for young children or poor readers.
Informed Consent
An ethnical principle in research in which people have a right to be informed, before participating, of what they will be asked to do in the research.
Justice Principle
An ethical principle in research that holds that the risks of participation should be distributed fairly across groups in society, as should the benefits.
Cost-Benefit Approach
An approach to analyzing the ethics of a research study, based on weighing the costs of the research (the participants’ time, stress to participants, and so on) against the benefits of the research (gaining knowledge about human sexuality).
Snowball Sampling
A method for acquiring a sample of people in which existing participants suggest names of future participants to be recruited. Also called respondent-driven sampling.
Content Analysis
A set of procedures used to make valid inferences about text.
Intercoder Reliability
In content analysis, the correlation or percent of agreement between two coders independently rating the same texts.
Qualitative Research
A collection of naturalistic, holistic methods, including participant observation and in-depth interviewing, in which the results are conveyed not in numbers but in words.
Ethnography
A research method used to provide a description of a human group, a social setting, or a society.
Participant-Observer Technique
A research method in which the scientist becomes part of the community to be studied and makes observations from inside the community.
Correlational Study
A study in which the researcher does not manipulate variables but rather studies naturally occurring relationships (correlations) among the variables.
Experiment
A type of research study in which one variable (the independent variable) is manipulated by the experimenter while all other factors are held constant; the researcher can then study the effects of the independent variable on some measured variable (the dependent variable); the researcher is permitted to make causal inferences about the effects of the independent variable on the dependent variable.
Causal Inference
Reaching the conclusion that one factor actually causes or influences an outcome.
Meta-Analysis
A statistical method that allows the researcher to combine the results of all prior studies on a particular question to see what, taken together, they say.
Mean
The average of respondents’ scores.
Median
The middle score.
Incidence
The number of new cases within a specified time period.
Prevalence
The percentage of people in a population who have engaged in a certain behavior or have a certain condition at a specific point in time.
Frequency
How often a person does something.
Correlation
A number that measures the relationship between two variables.
