MIDTERM 1

Question 1

concrete vs. abstract levels of experience

Answer 1

concrete- sensory experiences, composed of percepts which put together are patterns.

abstracts- concepts are an organization of sensory experiences, concepts put together are propositions which are explanations of the connections of different abstracts.

Question 2

knowledge

Answer 2

the connection of facts to make empirical rules (connection between concrete and abstract)

Question 3

theory; scientific theory vs. ideology

Answer 3

the interconnection of proposition or the connection of ideas to tell a story, scientific theory has empirical foundations and is testable and the ideology is based on faith

Question 4

how are theory is developed

Answer 4

inductive reasoning (actuarial) - looking at specific cases to make generalizations. 
deductive reasoning(clinical)- looking at the general ideas and applying them to specific cases.

Question 5

quantitative vs. qualitative research methods

Answer 5

qualitative is inductive, quantitative is deductive

Question 6

hypo-deductive method

Answer 6

using facts to explain abstract concepts

Question 7

empirical deduction

Answer 7

the process of hypo-deductive method in which we turn abstract concepts into researchable form

Question 8

operationalization

Answer 8

finding the variables to measure propositions

Question 9

variables vs. values

Answer 9

variables- empirical measurement of observable characteristics.
values- different forms of the variable

Question 10

instrumentalization

Answer 10

instrumentalization- creating a tool to measure the variable

Question 11

measurement

Answer 11

applying the tool of measurement to the variable

Question 12

observation

Answer 12

the result of the measurement of the variable

Question 13

data

Answer 13

collection of observation over many cases

Question 14

statistics

Answer 14

summary of that data

Question 15

Elements of a good research question

Answer 15

1. starts with a why or what causes
2. focuses on variance of a situation
3. focuses on the dependent variable
4. general nouns not focuses on the individual thing

Question 16

univariate vs. bivariate analysis

Answer 16

They are both forms of statistical analysis. one looks at explaining variables individually and the other looks at the relationship between two variables.

Question 17

what is the difference between theory and hypothesis

Answer 17

casual theory is the explanation between the relationship between variables, the “why”. Hypothesis is the testable theory derived from the theory, or the operationalization of the theory.

Question 18

steps to creating the hypothesis.

Answer 18

1. find a unit of analysis

2. identify independent and dependent variable

Question 19

control variable

Answer 19

the variable that may affect the relationship between the independent and dependent variable.

Question 20

3 key questions when choosing a statistical technique of analysis

Answer 20

1. how many variables are being measured- uni, bi, multivariate
2. inferential or descriptive
3. what is the level of measurement

Question 21

NOIR

Answer 21

Nominal- no order or rank
Ordinal- ranked order, no fixed relationship between
Interval- ranked order, negative values, fixed relationship
ratio- ranked order, fixed relationship, absolute zero

Question 22

measurement errors

Answer 22

consistent vs. inconsistent measurement errors.

Question 23

criteria for a good measurement

Answer 23

reliability- free of random error

validity- free of systematic error

Question 24

frequency distributions and frequency tables and there weakness

Answer 24

frequency tables are used to look at the distributions of observations in the dataset, but when the data becomes a lot frequency tables have to collapse some of the information which can lead to information loss.

Question 25

measures of central tendency vs. measures of dispersion

Answer 25

central tendency- the typical value of the data

dispersion- spread of the values of the variable

Question 26

what do the measures of dispersion mean

Answer 26

IQV- the heterogeneity in the data set
Variance and SD- the deviance of the mean
range- difference between the lowest and highest value