Hypotheses & Research Questions Flashcards
what is a hypothesis?
a formal (and testable) prediction of what will occur?
what is a research question?
a question around which research activities are organized?
when should you use an hypothesis?
1) when we are testing the relationship between two or more variables
2) when we have an educated/informed guess as to what is likely to occur
what should you use a research question?
when we’re exploring a new area and/or aren’t clear about the relationships between the variables in our study
how is quantitative data frequently collected?
Questionnaires
are the terms questionnaires and surveys interchangeable?
No
- surveys: method of data collections
- questionnaires: the instrument containing the questions
what is the first step in developing a questionnaire?
develop a list of variables that you want to measure
what are the two broad types of variables?
variables of primary interest
control and descriptive variables
what are variables of primary interest?
variables you are explicitly interested in learning more about
what are control and descriptive variables?
variables whose collection gives the research the ability to describe what the sample looks like in terms of demographics and to address spuriousness
T or F: it is important to think about variables that might confound the relationship(s) between our variables of primary interest
True
How do write a good questionnaire?
- Develop a thorough list of variables you want to collect
- Think about the best way(s) to measure each variable
- Think of all possible answers to each question
- Avoid biased, misleading, socially desirable, or double-barreled questions and overly technical terms
- Pay attention to contingency questions
- Think about the presentation order of your questions
- Use clarity and brevity
- Think long and hard about scaling/measurement level
- Pre-test!
What are ways to deploy questionnaires?
1) in-person
2) telephonically
- manual
- computer-assisted
3) online
What is the next step after post-collection?
format/tabulate the data
T or F: most forms of quantitative data analysis require data to be in tabular format
True: data is organized using columns and rows
- each column represents a variable while each row represents a unique respondent or media artifact
what is the next step after formatting data in a tabular form
inspect the data for obvious errors/flaws
T or F: missing data is not an important factor to consider
False
how to handle missing data?
1) listwise deletion: delete all cases with one or more bit of missing data
2) pairewise: exclude cases with missing data on a variable-by-variable basis
3) imputation: replace missing data with an educated guess of how the respondent is likely to have answered
what is the next step after data has been inspected?
conduct statistical analyses
what aids statistic analysis?
computer programs;
- Excel
- IBM SPSS
- STATA
- R
- Python
