Chapter 3: Sex Research Flashcards
a group of people a researcher wants t study and make inferences about
population
a part of a population
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
random sample
an excellent method of sampling in research, in which each member of the population has a known probability of being included in the sample
probability sampling
the problem that some people will refuse to participate in a sex survey, thus making it difficult to study a random sample
problem of refusal or nonresponse
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 wo may in some ways differ from those who refuse to participate
volunteer bias
a sample chosen in a haphazard manner relative to the population of interest; not a random or probability sample
convenience sample
purposely giving false information in a survey
purposeful disortion
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
test-retest reliability
a method of data collection in which the respondent fills out questionnaires on a computer
computer-assisted self-interview (CASI)
an ethical 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
informed consent
an ethical principle in research, which holds that the risks of participation should be distributed fairly across groups in society, as should the benefits
justice principle
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)
cost-benefit approach
a method for acquiring a sample of people in which existing participants suggest names of future participants to be recruited
snowball sampling
a set of procedures used to make valid inferences about text
content analysis
in content analysis, the correlation or percent of agreement between two coders independently rating the same texts
intercoder reliability
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
qualitative
a research method used to provide a description of a human society
ethnography
a research method in which the scientist becomes part of the community to be studied and makes observations from inside the community
participant-observer technique
a study in which the researcher does not manipulate variables but rather studies naturally occurring relationships (correlations) among variables
correlational study
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 research 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
experiment
reaching the conclusion that one factor actually causes or influences an outcome
causal inference
the average of respondents’ scores
mean
the middle score
median
the percentage of people giving a particular response
incidence
how often a person does something
frequency
a number that measures the relationship between two variables
correlation
