Research Flashcards
Control Group
group of research participants that does not receive the new treatment being studied
Experimental/Intervention Group
subjects who are matched and compared with control group- subject to specific variable being tested
Randomized Controlled Trial
experimental design that measures the effect of intervention by randomly assigning participants to either an experimental/itnervention group or control group.
Quasi Experimental Design
quasi means resembling
resembles a randomized control trial, but does not include random assignment to a control or experimental group.
instead it allows research to control assignment to the treatment and control groups using criteria other than random assignment
used in field research when random assignment is difficult or not possible
single subject design
where the subject serves as their own control rather than using another individual/group
an assessment is made before and after the treatment
retrospective design
in retrospective design participants are asked to look back and remember what they were like at an earlier time point
cross sectional design
researchers collect data at a single point in time from participants of different ages
longitudinal design
same people are measured at differetn ages
cross sequential design
combination of cross sectional and longitudinal. At first point groups of people from different ages are measured. Then the groups are followed over time.
correlation
mutual relationship between two variables that are related; a change in one variable is associated with a change in the other variable
positive correlation between height and weight
correlation does not always mean causation
independent variable
when performing an experiemtn we look at the effect of the independent variable has on the dependent variable.
this is the variable that is changed in an experiment
dependent variable
the variable tested and measured in a scientific experiment
the dependent variable is DEPENDENT on the independent variable
as the experimentr changes the independent variable the effect ont he dependent variable is observed and recorded
someone is testing the effect of a new antidepressant- the new medication is the independent variable and the level of depression is the dependent variable
inter rater reliability
degree to whcih different people give similar scores for the same observations, refers to the consistency of.a measure
literature review
Proces of searching published work to find out what is already known about a resarch topic
mean
average
median
middle score
mode
most frequent value
null hypothesis
a statement that no relationship exists between study variables
pretest
questionnaire or other data gathering instrument administred toa subject just before ea period of inquiry that provide sa baseline for comparison with the end results
postest
a questionnaire or other data gathering instrument administered to a subject at the end of a specific period of inquiry
pilot study
procedure for testing and validating a questionnaire or other instrument by administering it to a small group of respondents from intendede test population. procedure helps determine whether the test items possess desired qualities of measurement and the ability to discriminate other problems before the instrument is put to widespread use
construct validity
degree to which instrument measures the characteristic being investigated
validity
degree to which a tool measures what it claims to measure
internal validity
confidence that can be places in the cause and effect relationship in a study
external validity
extent to whcih an effect in research can be generalized to other populations, settings, and treatment variables
concurrent validity
extent to which results of a particular test or measurement, correspond to thsoe of a previously established measurement for the same construct
predictive validity
involves testing a group of subjects for a certain construct
reliability
overall consistency of a measure. Higher reliability indicates a measure will produce statistically similar results under consistent experimental conditions.
objective data
data that you can measure. includes things like age, number of times a behavior occurred, blood pressure, temp etc objective data should be an unbiased observation/measurement
subjective data
data that is given from the viewpoint of the client and is not measurable…how a person feels or their pan level
qualitative research
includes inductive, in depth studies of indivdiuals, groups etc… focuses on the WHY and HOW of decision making
quantitative research
systematic investgiations that include descriptive or inferential statistical analysis
