Midterm Flashcards
What are the steps involved in research?
Asking the question
● Identifying the important factors (the variables)
○ The effect of pornography on relationship satisfaction
● Formulating a hypothesis
● Collecting relevant information
● Testing the hypothesis
● Working with the hypothesis
● Reconsidering the theory
● Asking new questions
● (then back to the beginning it’s a cycle)
Primary, Secondary, General
● Primary ○ Journals, research articles ○ Direct source ○ Not a literature review ○ Original report ○ Peer reviewed ● Secondary ○ Literature reviews ○ Articles that are talking about studies that other people have done ○ Provides a level of information “once removed” from original work ○ Ex: Textbook ● General ○ Newspapers ○ Very removed ○ Overview of a certain topic
Basic vs. Applied
Basic
○ You want to know just to know you don’t want to do anything about it. Informative
○ No immediate application
○ Uncovers evidence ●
Applied
○ You want to know so that you can make a difference ■ Head Start
○ Addresses practical problems: suggests solutions
○ Doing it with an intent
Quantitative, Qualitative, Critical
Quantitative
○ Numbers
○ Generally surveys
○ Big groups of people
○ Pros: easy to analyze, cheap, large populations
○ Cons: Surface level
● Qualitative
○ How individual people feel about things and think about things
○ Looking for patterns
○ Smaller numbers, allows for better quality
○ Pros: indepth, better understanding, how and why
○ Cons: more expensive, time consuming
● Critical
○ Questioning generally accepted views and beliefs
○ Promotes social change
○ Questions that challenge widely held beliefs
○ Tied to a theory
○ Follows research process
Conceptual
dictionary definition ( for that particular research) ○ generally accepted ○ ex: Family ○ ex: Big House ○ ex: marital satisfaction
Operational
links abstract concept to a behavior, specific definition
○ the way you will measure the variable
○ ex: Family with at least one child attending elementary school
○ ex: Big House that has at least four bedrooms
○ ex: amount of time you spend holding hands
Independent vs. Dependent Variables
Independent Variables
○ affects the dependent
○ Marital Satisfaction
Dependent Variables
○ The outcome, affected by the independent
○ Time spent together, communication, etc.
Control Variables
○ Other things that affect dependent
○ Things that could interfere with the dependent variable
Nominal
: Categories without any quantitative value
○ Least precise
○ Based on category
○ must include 1 or more categories that are mutually exclusive and
exhaustive
■ exclusive: everyone has a group, but can’t be a member of
more than 1 group
■ Exhaustive: includes ALL categories
○ no ranking you can mix up the order without changing the outcome
○ Exclusive, exhaustive
○ Race, religion, married, not married
Ordinal (order)
Ranks people or objects
○ More or less comparisons
○ No particular value assigned (scale of 110)
○ Ex. 1st, 2nd, 3rd… no one could be between those.
○ ex: 1st, 2nd and 3rd place. There are no values in between each
place.
○ Ex: Likerttype scales (“on a scale from 1 to 10”) there are no
inbetween values
Interval
There is no absolute zero (temperature), you can have negatives ○
8. Coding Data
○ Not used very often
○ Starts at different points (0 in Celsius is different than 0 in
Fahrenheit)
○ Ex: Coordinates on a GPS it can say you’re at zero but that
doesn’t mean you aren’t in a place
○ Ex: Height in inches You cannot be 0 inches tall
○ Ex: temperature
Ratio
absolute zero indicates absence of factor (no negative)
○ intervals in the scale are meaningful
○ has all qualities of an interval scale
○ It stops at 0, cannot have negatives
○ ex: age, years of education, weight, weight, time, # of times you
hold hands to measure love
Coding Data
Taking something from your collection form and making it so you can analyze it
● Assigning values to variables (ex: Male0, Female1)
Research Questions
○ Comparison
Do men and women differ in satisfaction?
b. Relationship
How are these things related?a. Types,
1) Comparison: How do these things differ?
2) Relationship: What is the association between the two?
TYPES
1) OpenEnded:
no response set is provided
ex: How do you feel about taxes? 2) CloseEnded:
response set provided
ex: What is your religion?
a) LDS b) Catholic c) Jewish questions must be mutually exclusive (you can pick one answer)
questions must be exhaustive (all possible answers have been provided)
Hypothesis
a. Characteristics, Testing
● Null: it’s the hypothesis that shows there is n o relationship. Statement of equality. X=Y (this is the same there is no difference).
○ ex. there will be no difference in husbands and wives satisfaction. Shows there is no relationship between gender and satisfaction.
○ We are trying to prove the null hypothesis wrong in every study and prove that there IS an association between two variables
● Nondirectional: reflects differences. nature of it is left open.
○ there is an association between the 2 measurements in a hypothesis. No decided direction.
○ ex. There is a difference in husband and wives relational satisfaction. There is a difference, but we don’t know how or what it is.
○ Ex: Pornography affects marital satisfaction
● Directional hypothesis: will reflect differences as well, but it will reflect the nature of the difference. Reflects difference and nature of it (direction in which it changes)
○ predicts the direction the hypothesis will go.
○ ex. Husbands will have a higher level of marital satisfaction than wives. We know
(predict) there is a difference and what the direction is of the difference.
○ The more exercise I get, the happier I will be. As this one goes up, this other one
will also go up (or down).
○ Ex: Pornogrpahy n egatively affects marital satisfaction
Theoryとは
・An organization or framework of concepts that permits prediction of data.
・A set of related statements that explains a variety of occurrences
Functions of theory
- Helps to organize data
- Allows scientists to generate predictions for situations in which no data have
been obtained - Suggests possible directions for future research
Levels and Kinds of theory
- General Theories
Theoretical perspectives or orientations
They offer explanations for a relatively broad range of events and can be applied to a variety of substantive concerns
Examples: System Theory (could be used to study: Parentchild, siblings, inlaws
relationships), Symbolic interaction, Social Exchange Theory - Middle Range Theories
These are substantive theories
They offer explanations regarding a particular subject area
Examples: Gottman’s theory of marital conflict; Baumrind’s theory of parenting
Parts of a Theory
- Assumptions (also called Axioms, Postulates) Beliefs accepted as given or self evident
Accepted as true without being tested - Concepts
The important ideas in a theory
Example: in Larson’s and Holman’s theory of premarital predictors of marital satisfaction, important concepts would be: Background factors; individual characteristics, couple interactional processes, marital quality, etc - Hypotheses (propositions)
Suggests relationships or outcomes that might be expected if the model is
accurate
May be stated in If … then form - Theoretical model
Identifies all the important ideas in the theory (concepts) and how they are related to each other
May be represented as a diagram Tentative, not conclusive
Induction vs. Deduction
・Induction: “turning Into a theory”
○ You conduct research for the purpose of creating a theory
○ we go in with a study without thinking of any theory attached and then
with results and patterns we then create a theory
○ reasoning proceeds from a particular data to a general theory, used in
interpretive/qualitative research
● Deduction
○ You take a theory and then conduct research to get data
○ you already have a theory in mind, and then you collect data to support
that existing theory
○ reasoning proceeds from a general theory to particular data, used in quantitative research
Literature Reviews
Looking at the research that has already been done. To find the gap, ensure that your contribution is meaningful.
The review of all the literature that is available on a research topic. Includes searching for research articles that have already been written on your chosen topic. Can result in writing a paper citing all of the work that has already been done on the topic, along with what more you intend to find out about the subject through research.
- determine topic and narrow it
- library research using search engines (focus on primary sources, key articles)
a. PsycInfo & Cited References - Summarize important information (findings, samples, methods)
- Look for comparisons, contrasts among articles to integrate findings.
Provides overview of the research area ( theories and research) Determines if research question has been definitively answered
a. Identifies gaps in researched areas
b. makes sure your contribution is meaningful to the body of knowledge existent
Measurement
・You can measure anything that exists •Doesn’t mean that measurement is easy
・Most variables in our research are made up (Variables are often ambiguous, Can be measured many different ways)
Terminology
•Concept :words that express generally agreed upon meaning(examples: biological sex, depression, intelligence, prejudice) Agreement upon the concept helps us measure it.
•Indicators: ( definition: Observation that we believe reflects the concept of interest. Indicates presence or absence of the concept). Used to conceptualize variables. i.e. indicator for prejudice is does person use racial slurs?
Indicators have to be: Real observations, Specific, Interchangeable
•Dimensions: specific aspect or subcategory of indicators for a concept. Concepts often have several dimensions. Recognizing different dimensions of a concept helps us refine research (sometimes only study one dimension of a concept)
An Example: Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression (CESD) Scale
Conceptualization and Operationalization
・Conceptualization-Theory
・Operationalization-Measurement
- Conceptualization is the refinement and specification of abstract concepts
Taking a vague concept and clarifying it in more detail (example: By prejudiced, I mean someone who uses racial slurs.) Use indicators to clarify concepts.
2.Operationalization is the development of specific procedures(operations)to observe concepts. HOW concepts/indicators are measured.
•Reliability and Validity
Must be clear about these to understand importance of measurement in research
3 Definitions for the levels of measurement
- Real Definitions: The “true” concept
- Nominal Definitions: Your definition of the concept
•(create nominal definitions with conceptualization)
•Refining the abstract concept - Operational Definition
•(create operation definitions by selecting the indicators you will use)
•Specific research procedures to measure a concept
Single or multiple measures
Some concepts only need one measure (gender, age)
Some concepts may require multiple measures (more complicated concepts, primary variable of interest. Examples: marital quality, depression, racism. etc)
