Presentation 5-Cause and Effect Variables Flashcards
Causality
Causality, we mean that some independent variable (x) is the factor or one of several factors whose change produces variation in a dependent variable (y).
Causality can only be inferred.
To infer the existence of a causal relationship one must demonstrate the following:
- A statistical association between the independent and dependent variable must exist.
- The independent variable must occur prior in time to the dependent variable.
- The relationship between independent and dependent variables must not be spurious (false): that is, the relationship must not disappear when the effects or other variables are taken into account.
Ethical Issues in Research
Ethics are the responsibilities that researchers bear toward those who participate in research, those who sponsor research, and those who are potential beneficiaries of research
Several ethical issues arise in social science research.
What is ethical in research practice is based on human values and varies as those values change.
Social and psychological research is typically evaluated in terms of risks versus benefits with “questionable practices” being allowed if the research promises sufficient benefits.
Ethical Values- Informed Consent and Confidentiality
Informed Consent- This refers to telling potential research participant about all aspects of the pending research before they agree to participate. Rigid adherence to the doctrine of informed consent can limit social research by eliminating some useful research methods and forcing the study of only those persons who volunteer.
Confidentiality-This means that the researcher will not publicly identify individual participants and their responses or actions. Intrusion by third parties such as courts of law can occasionally be a threat to the guarantee of confidentiality.
Ethical values- Privacy and Deception
Privacy
This refers to the ability to control when and under what conditions others will have access to your beliefs, values or behaviour.
Exposing subjects to physical or mental distress should be kept to a minimum and should never be done without fully informed consent. Subjects should be thoroughly debriefed at the conclusion of the research.
Deception
It is believed that some research will be difficult to conduct without some level of deception. At a minimum, many experiments necessitate not telling the participants the true research hypotheses, this field observers sometimes use disguised observation, where people in public settings are observed but are not aware that such observation is taking place.
When deception is used it is a sound practice to conclude the period of observations with a debriefing during which people are told the true purposes of the research and informed of any deceptions that were utilised.
This should be done in a positive and supportive way so that the participants feel they were joint partners in a worthwhile enterprise rather than dupes of the researchers. Withholding of information is a form of deception.
More on deception
Deception can range from relatively minor omissions, such as not telling people the full story of what you are doing, to outright falsehood about your identity and the nature of the study. To deceive is to deliberately mislead others.
The issue is most relevant in experimentation where personal knowledge of the purposes might change people’s behaviour.
Experimenters who employ deception are responsible for debriefing the participants – describing the nature of the deception, why it was done, why the approach was chosen over other procedures not involving deception and allowing the participant to express their feeling about what happened.
Ethical Values- Impersonation and Anonymity
Impersonation
With full consideration of the ethical and practical problems in using deception, many researchers find instances where they feel it is justified. Impersonation (acting as someone other than oneself) has been useful in understanding life in mental and penal institutions.
Anonymity.
This is a second means of ensuing privacy is to accord the participants anonymity which means that no one including the researcher can link any data to a particular respondent. This can only be accomplished by not including any identifying names or numbers with the data collected.
Ethical Values- Harm, Distress and Benefit
Harm, Distress and Benefit.
Researchers should avoid exposing participants to physical or mental distress or danger.
If the potential for such distress exists in a research investigation, the participants should be fully informed, the potential research findings should be of sufficient importance to warrant the risk, and no possibility should exist of achieving the results without the risk. People should never be exposed to situations that might cause serious or lasting harm.
Variables
Variables are operationally defined concepts that can take on more than one value.
Example: In a hypothesis
The independent variable (stands alone) is stated first in the hypotheses followed by the dependent variable.
The independent variable is the presumed active or casual variable – it is the one believed to be producing changes in the dependent variable.
The dependent variable is the passive variable or the one that is affected. The independent and dependent variables need to be clearly specified.
Hypotheses
Hypotheses should be so stated that they can be verified or refuted. Hypotheses after all are statements about which we can gather empirical evidence to determine whether they are correct or false.
Discrete Variables
In addition to considering the level of measurement of a variable, researchers also distinguish between variables that are discrete or continuous. Discrete variables are variables with a finite number of distinct and separate values. A perusal of a typical client face sheet from a human service agency will reveal many examples of discrete variables, such as sex, race, household size, number of days absent, or number of arrests. Household size is a discrete variable because households can be measured only in a discrete set of units, such as having one member, two members, and so on. No meaningful measurement values lie between these distinct and separate values.
Continuous Variables
Continuous variables are variables that, at least theoretically, can take on an infinite number of values. Age is a continuous variable because it can be measured by an infinite array of values. We normally measure age in terms of years, but theoretically we could measure it in terms of months, weeks, days, minutes, seconds, or even nanoseconds! There is no theoretical limit to how precise the measurement of age might be.
For most social science purposes, the measurement of age in terms of years is quite satisfactory, but age is nonetheless a continuous variable.
Nominal and Ordinal variables/Examples of Discrete Variables
Nominal variables are, by definition, discrete in that they consist of mutually exclusive or discrete categories.
Ordinal variables are also discrete. The mutually exclusive categories of an ordinal variable may be ranked from low high, but there cannot be a partial rank.
For example, in a study of the military, rank might be ordered 1 = private, 2 = corporal, and so on, but it would be nonsensical to speak of a rank of 1.3.
Validity
Validity refers to the accuracy of a measure: Does it accurately measure the variable that it is intended to measure? If we were developing a measure of self-concept, a major concern would be whether our measuring device measures the concept as it is theoretically defined.
There must be a fairly clear and logical relationship between the way a variable is nominally defined and the way it is operationalized. For example, if we propose to measure self-concept on the basis of how stylishly people dress, we would probably have an invalid measure.
Content Validity
Does it seem logical to use this measure to reflect that variable? We might measure child abuse in terms of the reports made by physicians or emergency room personnel of injuries suffered by children. Although this is not a perfect measure because health personnel might be wrong, it does seem logical that an injury reported by such people might reflect actual abuse. No matter how carefully done, content validity clearly is subjective in nature. All we have is logic and common sense as arguments for the validity of a measure. This serves to make content validity the weakest demonstration of validity, and it should usually be considered no more than a starting point.
