FInal Flashcards
What are three types of unobtrusive research?
- Content analysis
- Analysis of existing statistics
- Comparative and historical analysis
Content analysis
The study of recorded human communications like books, websites, paintings, laws
What coding in content analysis?
Coding is the provess whereby raw data are transformed into a standardized form suitable for machine processing and analysis
Manifest Content
The concrete terms contained in a communication; i.e. the tangible data
Latent Content
The underlying meaning of communication; i.e. the meaning behind the manifest contest or tangible evidence
What are tally sheets?
A type of counting and record keeping.
What are the strengths of content analysis?
- Economy of time and money
- Allowing for the correction of errors
- Permits the study of processes occurring over time
- Research has little (if any) effect on subject
- Reliability
What are the weaknesses of content analysis?
- Limited to recorded communications
- Validity
What is evaluation research?
Research undertaken for the purpose of determining the impact of some social intervention, such as a program aimed at solving a social problem
What are “needs assessment studies” ?
Studies that aim to determine the existence and extent of problems, typcally among a segment of the population
What are cost-benefit studies?
Studies that determine whether the results of a rogram can be justified by its expense (both financial and other)
What are monitoring studies?
Studies that provide a steady flow of information about something of interest, such as crime rate or the outbreak of epidemic
What are program evaluation studies or “outcome assessment studies”?
The determination of whether a social intervention is profucing the intended result
Name five experimental designs
- Classical experimental method
- One-shot case studies
- one-group pretest-posttest designs
- static-group comparisons
- posttest-only control group designs
What are quasi-experimental designs?
Contrary to research designs that rely on random assignment, these studies lack random assignment due to the inability to assign participants to certain conditions. Sometimes these studies lack an experimental or a control group, and sometimes lack a pre-tests or post-tests.
Name three quasi-experimental designs
- Time-series design
- Nonequivalent control groups
- Multiple time-series designs
Time-series Design
A research design that involvves measurement made over some period, such as the study of traffic accident rates before and after lowering the speed limit.
Nonequivalent Control Groups
A control group that is similar to the experimental group but is not created by the random assignment of subject
Multiple time-series designs
The use of more than one set of data that were collected over time, so that comparisons can be made. A type of quasi-experimental design where a series of periodic measurements is taken from two groups of test units (an experimental group and a control). The experimental group is exposed to a treatment and then another series of periodic measurements is taken from both groups.
What is participant reactivity?
The problem of social research subjects potentially reacting to being studies, this altering their behavior from what it would have normally been
What is the emic vs etic perspective?
Emic and etic are two different approaches when trying to explain social realities observed while conducting fieldwork. Etic perspective is the perspective of the observer or the researcher. Emic perspective is the perspective of the studied social group.
Name seven field research paradigms
- Naturalism
- Ethnography
- Enthnomethodology
- Grounded theory
- Case studies
- Institutional enthnography
- Participatory action research
Naturalism
Research conducted in the habitat of the subjects, i.e., work place, family, street corner, or any other location where individuals interact and behave spontaneously. It is descriptive and attempts to record spontaneous interaction and behavior. A central assumption of naturalistic research is that human interaction unfolds in social context and, thus, to understand communication a researcher needs to examine it in social setting
Ethnography
A report on social life that focuses on detailed and accurate descriptions rather than explanations; It is designed to explore cultural phenomena where the researcher observes society from the point of view of the subject of the study.
Ethnomethodology
An approach to the study of social life that focuses on the discovery of implicit, usually unspoken assumptions and agreement; a method of sociological analysis that examines how individuals use everyday conversation and gestures to construct a common-sense view of the world
Breaching experiments
an experiment that seeks to examine people’s reactions to violations of commonly accepted social rules or norms
Grounded theory
An inductive approach to the study of social life that attempts to generate a theory from the constant comparing of unfolding observations (i.e. data being collected is used to generate theories and refine variables).
Case studies
the in-depth examination of a single instance of some social phenomenon
Institutional ethnography
A research technique in which the personal experiences of individuals are used to reveal power relationships and other characteristics of the institution within which they operate
Participatory action research
an approach to social research in which the people being studies are given control over the purpose and procedures of the research
Emancipatory research
research conducted for the purpose of benefiting disadvantaged groups
What is rapport?
An open and trusting relationship, especially important in qualitative research, between researchers and the people they’re observing
Qualitative interview
Contrasted with survey inteviewing, the qualitative interview is based on a set of topics to be discussed in depth rather than based on the use of standardized questions
Name the seven stages of completing the interviewing process
- Thematizing
- Designing
- Interviewing
- Transcribing
- Analyzing
- Verifying
- Reporting
What is the weakness of qualitative field research?
There are no appropriate statistical analyses
What are the strengths of qualitative field research?
- Effective for studying subtle nuances in attitudes and behaviors and social processes over time
- Flexibility
- Inexpensive
Validity and reliability in field research
Validity is great than survey and experimental methods, but reliability may pose potential problems
What are the three parts to survey designs?
- The questionnaire
- Sampling design
- Method of administration
Questionnaire
A document containing questions and other types of items designed to solicit information appropriate for analysis. Both questions and statements can be used as items on questionnaires.
Open-ended questions
Questions for which the respondent is asked to provide his/her own answers
Closed-ended questions
Survey questions in which the respondent is asked to slect an answer from a list provided by the researcher
What are the three main principles for writing survey questions?
- Avoid confusion
- Avoid bias
- Keep the respondents’ perspective in mind
Biased or leading questions
suggests the answer the survey author is looking for and often unintentionally reflects the author’s bias
Double negative
when two “no” words are used in the same sentence. This can cause confusion within your survey questions and results in the respondent answering in the opposite way that they intended to.
Double barreled question
an informal fallacy. It is committed when someone asks a question that touches upon more than one issue, yet allows only for one answer.
Prestige bias
Recall the doctor example in class (Most doctors say that cigaretee smoke…), the pestige of a doctor is a marker that cues the respondent what the “right” answer is.
Social desirability bias
When respondents give the normative or socially desirable answer to a question
Contingency question
A survey question intended for only some repsondents, determined by their responses to some other question. (Have you ever smoked the mary jane? If yes -> then X, y, z).
Name the four types of survey administration methods
- Self-administered questionnaires
- Interview surveys
- Telephone surveys
- Online surveys
Self-administered questionnaires
Questionnaires in which repsondents are asked to complete the questionnaire by themselves. This can be mainl distribution and return surveys, monitoring returns, and follow-up mailings. Advantages: Cheaper and faster than face-to-face interviews, requires a small staff, and respondents are more willing to answer controversial items
What is the response rate in survey research?
The number od people participating in a survey dicided by the number selected in the sample.
What is the ideal response rate in survey research?
Over 70%
Interview surveys
A data-collection encounter in which one person (interviewer) asks questions of another (respondent). Advantages: fewer incomplete questionnaires, more effective for complicated questionnaires, face-to-face is more intimate
What is probing in reference to interviewing?
A technique employed in interviewing to solicit a more complete answer to a question
Random-digit dialing (RDD)
A sampling technique in which random numbers are selected from within the range of numbers assigned to active telephones; used in telephone surveys
Computed-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI)
A data-collection technique in which a telephone-survey questionnaire is stored in a computer, permitting the interviewer to read the questions from the monitor and enter the answers on the computer keyboard
Telephone surveys
one of the survey methods used in collecting data either from the general population or from a specific target population. Advantage: cheaper and more time efficient
Online surveys
a questionnaire that the target audience can complete over the Internet. Advantages: time and cost-effective, respondents more willing to answer controversial items
Independent variables
Takes the form of a stimulus (present or absent); the “cause”
Dependent variables
the effect that occurs
Pretesting
The measurement of a dependent variable before any stimulus
Postesting
The measurement of a dependent variable after the subjects have been esposed to an IV
Experiemntal group
A group of subjects to whom an experimental stimulus is adminstered
Control group
a group of subjects to whom no experimental stimulus is administered and who should resemble the experimental group in all other respects
Hawthorn effect
When researchers were interested in employee statisfaction and productivity, they increased and descreased lighting. They found that change in lighting had no effect, but rather it was the thought of being watched that increased productivity.
Double-blind experiment
An experimental design in which neither the subjects nor the experimenters know which is the experimental and which is the control group
Randomization (sampling)
A technique for asisgning experimental subjects to experimental and control groups
WEIRD population
Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic societies. Most social science reseach is done on this population
Matching (sampling)
Pairs of subjects are match based on their similarities on one or more variables, and one member of the pair is assigned to the experimental group and the other to the control group
Name three pre-experimental research designs
- One-shot case study
- One-group pre-test post-test design
- Static-group comparison
One-shot case study
A single group of subjects is measured on a DV following an experimental stimulus
One-group pre-test post-test design
Similar to the one-shot case study but a pre-test is added. There is no control group.
Static-group comparison
Similar to the one-shot case study, but there are both experimental and control groups. Still no pre-test.
Internal validity
The possibility that conclusions drawn from experimental results can accurately reflect what happened in the experiment; i.e. does your IV truly cause an effect in the DV?
History effects
refer to events that happen in the environment that change the conditions of a study, affecting its outcome. Such a history event can happen before the start of an experiment, or between the pre-test and post-test.
Maturation effects
How people’s behavior naturally changes overtime
testing effects
the fact that the person taking part in the research is tested more than once can influence their behaviour/scores in the post-test, which confounds the results; that is, the differences in scores on the dependent variable between the groups being studied may be due to testing effects rather than the independent variable
instrumentation effects
Takes place when the measuring instrument (e.g. a survey, interviews/participant observation) that is used in a study changes over time.
selection bias
the bias introduced by the selection of individuals, groups or data for analysis in such a way that proper randomization is not achieved, thereby ensuring that the sample obtained is not representative of the population intended to be analyzed
experimental mortality
When participants frequently drop out of experiments whilst they are taking place/before they finish
External validity
The possibility that conclusions drawn form the experimental results may not be generalizable to the real world.
What is a factorial design?
A research design where there is more than one experimental variable
Stengths of experiemntal method
- Isolation of experimental variables impact over time 2. replication 3. Scientific rigor
Weakness of experimental method
The artificiality of lab settings
The solomon 4 group design
A complex combination of the standard pretest-posttest two-group design and the posttest only design, along with experimental conditions and control conditions.
Nonprobability sampling methods
Any technique in which samples are selected in some way not suggested by probability theory. Examples include reliance on available subjects as well as purposive (judgmental), quota, and snowball sampling
Probability sampling methods
Samples selected with true random selection. Often used for large scale surveys.
What are the four types of nonprobability sampling methods?
- Availability/convenience sample
- Purposive or judgemental sampling
- Snowball sampling
- Quota sampling
Availability Sampling or Convenience sampling
Particpants selected due to availability, or rather that they’re easy to find. However, it does not allow for control over representativeness.
Purposive sampling
A type of nonprobability sampling in which the units to be observed are selected on the basis of the researcher’s judgment about which ones will be the most useful or representative
Snowball sampling
A nonprobability sampling method, often employed in field research, whereby each person interviewed may be asked to suggest additional people for interviewing
Quota sampling
A type of nonprobability sampling in which units are selected into a sample on the basis of prespecified characteristics, so that the total sample will have the same distribution of characteristics assumed to exist in the population being studied.
Problems with quota sampling
Even when we know the quota sample is representative of the particular characteristics for which the quotas have been set, we have no way of knowing if the sample is representative in terms of any other characteristics.
If all members of a populations were identical in all respects, would we need probability sampling?
No, there is no need for careful sampling procedures when every person is the same. However this is quite rare.
Representative sample
A sample that “looks like” the population from which it was selected in all respects that are potentially relevant to the study.
A potential bias for representative samples?
When there is a patterns to how people were chosen for the sample that makes it so it is no longer representative. This may be an unconscious or conscious doing of the researcher, or even simply the non-response from respondents.
Representativeness?
The quality of a sample of having the same distribution of characteristics as the population from which it was selected.
EPSEM (equal probability of selection method)
A sample design in which each member of a population has the same chance of being selected into the sample
Sampling error
The degree of error to be expected by virtue of studying a sample instead of everyone. For probability sampling, the maximum error depends on three factors: the sample size, the diversity of the population, and the confi dence level.
Advantages of probability sampling
- They are typically more representative than other types of samples because biases are avoided
- They permit researchers to estimate the accuracy or representativeness of the sample
Parameter
The summary description of a given variable in a population.
What are the four types of probability sampling designs?
- Simple random sampling
- Systematic sampling
- Cluster sampling
- Stratified sampling
Simple random sampling
A type of probability sampling in which the units composing a population are assigned numbers. The numbers are randomly generated.
Systematic sampling
A type of probability sampling in which every kth unit in a list is selected for inclusion in the sample—for example, every 25th student in the college directory of students. You compute k by dividing the size of the population by the desired sample size; k is called the sampling interval. Within certain constraints, systematic sampling is a functional equivalent of simple random sampling and usually easier to do. Typically, the first unit is selected at random.
Which is more accurate: systematic random sampling or simple random sampling?
Systematic random sampling
Stratified random sample
Rather than selecting a sample from the total population at large, the researcher ensures that appropriate numbers of elements are drawn from homogeneous subsets of that population
Proportionate stratified sampling
This is when the participants selected are made to represent an exact proportion of the population.
Cluster sampling
A multistage sampling in which natural groups (clusters) are sampled initially, with the members of each selected group being subsampled afterward. For example, you might select a sample of U.S. colleges and universities from a directory, get lists of the students at all the selected schools, then draw samples of students from each.
