EXAM #1 Flashcards
WEEK 1
What is the definition of communication?
Communication is a social process in which individuals employ symbols to establish and interpret meaning in their environment
Social coms
involving humans and their interactions
Process coms
ongoing, dynamic, and unending
Symbols
arbitrary representations for things, ideas, events, or phenomena
Intrapersonal
talking to yourself, “voice” in your head, verbal rehearsal
Interpersonal
communication between two or more people (dyadic comm is two people only)
Family communication
Friendship communication
Relational communication
Ordinary ways of knowing
Things you know, things you don’t know, and things you know you don’t know
Ordinary ways of knowing examples
Some ordinary ways of knowing
Authority
Tradition
Intuition
Experience
Others?
Problems with the ordinary ways of knowing
Inaccurate observations
Limited memory; bias
Selective observations
Confirm what we already “know”
Overgeneralizations
Illogical reasoning (ice cream & crime)
Possible solution: scientific inquiry
Defintion of Research
A systematic process of asking questions and finding answers
“Investigation or experimentation aimed at the discovery and interpretation of facts, revision of accepted theories or laws in light of new facts, or practical application of such new or revised theories or laws”
Research is scientific inquiry
Two components of being scientific
Rationalism (logic)
Knowledge through reasoning
Using theory to guide research
Empiricism (observation)
Knowledge through observation
Scientific inquiry involves the combination of empiricism and rationalism
What does scientific inquiry strive for
Objectivity – you take efforts to remove personal bias from your research.
Observability – you gather empirical data about the phenomenon of interest.
Testability – repeated observations test theoretical claims.
Replicability – you can repeatedly observe the phenomenon of interest.
Parsimony –simple explanations are preferred to complex ones.
Clarity – you write and argue in a manner that is lucid, avoiding unnecessary complication.
Goals of scientific inquiry
Explain
Predict
Control
The scientific method
Theory: proposed explanation
Hypotheses: predictions, based on theory
Observations: empirical, objective, and controlled collection of data
i.e., testing the hypothesis
Generalizations: extrapolations from our sample to the population
Give credit when using
Another’s idea, opinion, or theory
Facts, statistics, graphs, etc.
Quotations of spoken or written words
Paraphrases of spoken or written words
When you quote
Place the passage in quotation marks
Document source
Unacceptable paraphrase
ORIGINAL: “Health communication scholars are well-positioned to aid in the mitigation of and response to climate change and its health effects” (Chadwick, 2016, p. 782)
UNACCEPTABLE PARAPHRASE: Health communication researchers are positioned well to help slow down and respond to climate change and the health effects of climate change.
Why was that unacceptable?
Writer only changed:
A few words and phrases
Order of original words (or sentences) remains the same
Writer failed to cite source
Would still be unacceptable even if cited the source
Objective and credible
Sources that do not have a particular position on the issue (e.g., newspaper reports, scientific orgs, )
NOT: advocacy org, lobbyist orgs, your friend, or a social media influencer
Peer reviewed
Sources that have been subjected to rigorous review by other researchers
Only found in articles in certain types of journals
Be able to recognize a definition or example of backtracking.
Be able to recognize the four criteria for assessing website quality.
Be able to accurately cite sources both in-text and in reference lists.
Know how to differentiate an empirical journal article from other types of journal articles.
*“Empirical article” means it is based on some form of data, typically statistical. There are other types!
Outline of imperial article
Introduction
Rationale
Literature review
Method
Results
Discussion
Limitations
Future directions
References
Know when it is appropriate to use hypotheses versus when to use research questions.
Is there a lot of literature on this topic?
Can you make a reasonable prediction about how the variables you’re interested in will be related?
If NO—then use a research question.
If YES—then use a hypothesis.
Be able to recognize a definition or example of a research question.
A question that explores the relationship between two or more concepts.
RQ1: Will X cause Y?
RQ2: Is there a relationship between A & B?
RQ3: Are groups with a strong positive sense of identity less likely to insult other groups?
Be able to recognize a definition or example of a hypothesis.
Statement of the proposed relationship between the variables in your study
H1: As P increases, Q will increase.
H2: There is a relationship between M and N.
H3: Groups with strong positive identity are less likely to insult other groups
Usually is sufficient research on the subject to feel somewhat confident in your prediction
One tailed directional hypothesis
Predicts specific nature or direction of the relationship
Identifies how one variable affects another
Ex: As X increases, Y decreases
Ex: As non-verbal warmth increases, liking of the person increases
Two tailed non-directional hypothesis
Two-tailed (non-directional)
Predicts a difference or a relationship, but not the specific nature or direction of the relationship
Predicts that one variable affects another, but does not predict how
Ex: there is a relationship between X and Y
Ex: There is a relationship between conflict style and satisfaction with college roommate
Shyness predicts communication apprehension
Relationship or difference?
One-tailed or Two-tailed?
Relationship
One-tailed
Independent voters are more likely to vote than democrats or republicans.
?????
Null hypothesis
States that there is no difference between or relationship among the variables
EVERY hypothesis has a hidden null hypothesis
This is what we actually test in science
Why do we actually test null hypothesis in science?
because statistics can never “prove” that something is true, but they can prove that something is false
Be able to recognize a definition and examples of variables
Any entity that can take on a variety of different values
Ex: sex, speech anxiety, age, tolerance for disagreement, time
What we manipulate, measure, and control in research
Be able to recognize variable attributes and values
Attributes: the categories of the variable (e.g., male/female; freshman/soph/jr/sr)
Values:
the numerical designation assigned to each category to allow for analysis (e.g., 0 = male, 1 = female)
OR the inherent numerical value of the variable (e.g., age)
types of variables
Nominal
Ordinal
interval
Ratio
Nominal
Mutually exclusive, exhaustive categories
Mutually exclusive = only possible to be a member of one category
Exhaustive = every unit of analysis must be able to be assigned to one of the categories
Ex: sex, religious affiliation, political party affiliation, birthplace, college major, hair color…
How do you identify nominal?
Presence or absence of the concept
Ignores gradations (e.g., M/F)
Order of categories is random
Assignment of values to categories is random
Ordinal
Mutually exclusive, exhaustive categories
Order matters
More or less of the variable
Ex: social class, acculturation, prejudice, sophistication, conservatism, etc.
Distance between the categories doesn’t matter
Interval
Mutually exclusive, exhaustive categories
Logical order
Equal distances between levels within each category
Does not have a true zero point
Ex: Fahrenheit, Celsius, IQ
Ratio
Mutually exclusive, exhaustive categories
Logical order
Distances between categories are equal
Has a true zero point that represents the absence of the characteristic
Income, speed, temperature in Kelvin, age, number of times married, number of credits taken, length of residence
Summary of NOIR
Nominal:
Two objects are different
Ordinal:
Two objects are different
One is more/less than the other
Interval
Two objects are different
One is more/less than the other
We know how much more or less
Ratio:
Two objects are different
One is more/less than the other
We know how much more or less
We know the ratio of one to the othe
Examples of NOIR
What do all statistical tests assess?
Relationships and/or differences
Relationships
How the 2+ variables are related or move together
Differences
Differences of degree”: How 2+ groups show difference in levels of a variable
Which group is higher/lower?
Does preference vary between groups?
Positive linear relationship def. and ex.
Variables move in same direction
As X increases, Y increases
“It’s positive to stay together”
Negative relationship
Variables move in opposite directions
As X increases, Y decreases
“It’s negative to go our separate
No relationship
Change in one variable means anything can happen with the other variable
Curvilinear relationship
Linear: no changes in direction
Curvilinear: ≥ 1 changes in direction
PRACTICE RELATIONSHIP TYPE
The more supportive an organization’s work climate, the lower its employee turnover.
The more television a person watches, the more fearful they are of the world.
A change in occupation does not affect your favorite sports team.
As the level of fear used in a message rises, audience’s level of fear will initially rise and then level of fear will decrease.
??
Independent variable
Presumed cause of the dependent variable
In experiments is manipulated by the experimenter
Direct manipulation or grouping by characteristic
Changes in the IV produce changes in the dependent variable (DV)
Dependent Variable
Presumed effect
Changes in the IV produces change in the DV
DV depends on the IV
Just observed/measured, not manipulated
What researchers are primarily concerned with
Describe, explain, or predict what will cause changes to the DV
PRACTICE IV AD DV
The more supportive an organization’s work climate, the lower its employee turnover.
The more television a person watches, the more fearful they are of the world.
A change in occupation does not affect your favorite sports team.
As the level of threat used in a message rises, audience’s level of fear will initially rise and then level of fear will decrease.
Practice: extroverts will experience less communication apprehension than introverts
Variables? (level?)
Specified relationship ?
IV?
DV?
??
Short answer Qs
Writing different types of research questions and hypotheses (e.g., directional, null) given what someone is studying
Identifying independent and dependent variables
Correcting a citation to make it in APA format
Edward has the following hypothesis in his study, “Sensation seeking and believability of social norms messages predict alcohol consumption.” What is/are the independent variable(s) in this study?
Alcohol consumption
Believability of social norms messages
Sensation seeking
b and c only
All of the above
??
Be able to recognize a definition of concepts
Ideas that we want to measure
Love
Prejudice
Communication apprehension
Hope
Height
Shyness/sociability
Understand and be able to recognize a definition or description of conceptualization
Clearly specifying what the concepts mean in our research project.
What do we mean by love?
Are there different types of love?
Creating our definition
Check out a dictionary for help
Understand the difference between direct and indirect observation
Look for indicators that the concept is present
Direct observation (e.g., height, hair color)
Indirect observation (e.g., love, prejudice, hope)
Example of conceptualization
Relational closeness is the degree of interdependence occurring between relationship partners. This interdependence can be experienced cognitively, emotionally, and behaviorally, and the degree of interdependence can vary temporally within relationships as well as across relationships.
Understand and be able to recognize a definition or description of operationalization
How we go from a concept to a variable
Explains how we are going to measure the concept
I.e. how we will observe indicators of a concept
Ex: intelligence:
Score on the Stanford-Binet Battery of Intelligence
Ex: height
What is listed on one’s driver’s license
What does operationalization do?
Identify
Variables
Attributes
Levels of measurement (NOIR)
Single or multiple indicators
Understand that there a many different ways to measure most concepts
thats it
Conceptual definition
A working definition of what the concept means for purposes of investigation
—usually based on theory/prior research
Operational definition
how exactly the concept will be measured in a study
Be able to recognize a definition of measurement
Infinite number of ways to measure most concepts
Ex: stress is “a heightened sense of emotional pressure that inhibits everyday behavior and provokes a physiological response.” How could we measure this construct?
Complete a survey measure.
Observe for signs of stressful behavior.
Analyze discourse for discussion of stress.
Draw blood or saliva and measure levels of stress hormones
Measurement definition
Process of systematic observation and assignment of numbers to phenomena according to rules
Be able to recognize/provide examples of Likert items
Statement followed by range of choices for disagreeing or agreeing with the statement
Ex: Learning about quantitative research methods is fun
Strongly disagree
Disagree
neither agree nor disagree
Agree
Strongly agree
Be able to recognize/provide examples of semantic differential items
Rating of opinions on a scale between two opposite poles (e.g., good/bad, clear/unclear, fun/boring)
Words must be relevant, understandable, and opposite
Also called bipolar scale
Know how to create good items for a measurement instrument (i.e., using the checklist)
Be able to recognize examples of bad survey items and know how to correct them
???
Be able to recognize a definition or example of a questionnaire
A method for gathering data about people’s beliefs, attitudes, knowledge, perceptions, and behaviors
Involves mostly close-ended questions about the variables of interest
Know and be able to recognize examples of circumstances in which a survey is an
appropriate or inappropriate method for data collection (e.g., know what you want to ask,
goal generalizability, etc)
Do you know what you want to ask (and how to ask it)?
Generally further along in exploration of the topic
Do you need to collect new data?
Can you collect?
Is there a better way to collect?
Is there existing data?
Are you trying to establish patterns
or causation?
If causation, do an experiment
Participants know/willing to tell you
Memory
Bias
Fear, shame, embarrassment
Retribution
Confidentiality, anonymity
Goal generalizability
Be able to recognize a definition or example of the different survey designs (e.g., cross
sectional).
Cross-sectional – get information at a given point in time
Longitudinal – examine info over time
Types of longitudinal
Trend – different samples at different times
O
O
O
Panel – same sample at different times
O O O
Be able to recognize a definition or example of a pilot test
Questionnaire
document containing questions, statements, and other types of items designed to solicit information for analysis
Outline of questionnare
Introductory text
Instructions
Order of measures and questions
Concluding text
Pilot testing
Can test whole (gets at flow & order issues)or test only the parts of the Q’aire that are newly developed
Pilot test with 5-10% of your ultimate sample
Ask questions after pilot testing
Cognitive interviewing
Understand why pilot testing is important and be able to recognize the characteristics of
effective pilot testing
Understand and be able to recognize/provide definitions, examples, pros, and cons for
each of the different methods of disseminating surveys
Understand and be able to recognize definitions/examples of the methods for translating
surveys
???
