Research and Program Evaluation

Question 1

Idiographic

Answer 1

Single Subject

Question 2

Nomothetic

Answer 2

Using groups of individuals to discover general principles

Question 3

Kurt Lewin’s Action Research

Answer 3

Intended to improve the situation with local people/clients who will be better off at the end of research

Question 4

Threats in Internal Validity - Were the dependent variables truly influenced by the experimental Independent variables or did other factors have an impact?

Answer 4

Maturation of Subjects - Psychological or physical changes
Mortality- Subject withdraw
Instruments used for measurement
Statistical Regression - The notion that extremely high or low scores would move towards mean if measure was utilized again.

Question 5

External Validity

Answer 5

Can the experimental research results be generalized to the larger population? If not, EV is very low.

Question 6

Parsimony (or Occam’s Razor) in Research

Answer 6

interpreting the results in the simplest way

Question 7

Factor Analysis

Answer 7

Statistical procedure that uses the important or underlying “factors” in an attempt to summarize a lot of variables. Concerned with data reduction

Question 8

Confounding

Answer 8

occurs when an undesirable variable which is not controlled by the researcher is introduced in the experiment

Question 9

Quasi-Experiment

Answer 9

a type of research design that attempts to establish a cause-and-effect relationship by using other criteria other than randomization.

Question 10

Minimum Subjects

Answer 10

Correlational Research - 30

Survey - 100

Question 11

Organismic Variable

Answer 11

one that researcher cannot control yet exists (ex. height, weight, gender)

Question 12

R.A Fisher

Answer 12

Pioneer of hypothesis testing.

Question 13

Alternative Hypothesis (or Affirmative Hypothesis)

Answer 13

The IV has indeed caused change

Question 14

probability (P) in research should be set beforehand and be…

Answer 14

.05 or lower. Two most popular- .05 (difference occur via change 5 out or 100 times of 5% of the time or 1 in 20 chance) and .01

Question 15

Alpha (Type 1) Error vs. Beta (Type 2) Error

Answer 15

Alpha- Research rejects null hypothesis when it is true - probability equals level of significance
Beta- Accepting the null hypothesis when it is false - lowering significance level (P=.001) raises the chances of committing a Beta error.

Question 16

t test

Answer 16

Simplistic form of the analysis of variance used to ascertain whether two samples means are significantly different. Computation (t value) must exceed the number cited in the t table in order to reject the null. More than two groups? Use ANOVA.

Question 17

One-way vs. two-ways Analysis of Variance

Answer 17

One-way- testing one IV, even if it has more than one level
two-way- testing multiple IV,
Multiple DV? -MANOVA (multivariate analysis of variance)

Question 18

Correlation Coefficient (r)

Answer 18

Makes a statement regarding the association of two variables and how a change in one is related to to the change in another. Ranges from -1.0 to 1.0. 0.0 = no relationship

Question 19

Biserial Correlation

Answer 19

one variable is continuous (measure using interval scale)

one variable is dichotomous (two valued)

Question 20

The Pearson Product-Moment Correlation r

Answer 20

used for interval or ratio data, most common correlation coefficient

Question 21

Spearman rho correlation coefficient

Answer 21

Used for ordinal data

Question 22

The Empirical Rule (68-95-99.7)

Answer 22

In a normal distribution, 68% of scores fall within +/-1 standard deviation of the mean; 95% within 2 SDs of the mean, and 99.7% SDs within 3 SDs of the mean

Question 23

Mode

Answer 23

The point of maximum concentration

Question 24

Factorial Design

Answer 24

Designing an experiment with more than 1 independent variables

Question 25

Histogram

Answer 25

A distribution with class intervals that can be graphically displayed via a bar graph

Question 26

x-axis

Answer 26

horizontal axis used to plot the IV. Also can be called the abscissa

Question 27

y-axis

Answer 27

vertical axis used to plot the dependent variables or data. also can be called the ordinate

Question 28

Scattergram

Answer 28

a pictorial diagram of two variables being correlated

Question 29

z-scores = Standard deviation = standard score

Question 30

Stanine scores

Answer 30

Standard Nine - nine intervals with 5 being the mean

Question 31

4 basic measurement scales be complexity

Answer 31

N- Nominal - no true zero, no order, classifies/labels groups (nonparametric - non measurement)
O- Ordinal - orders variables but distance not always equal (nonparametric)
I - Interval - no absolute zero, but numbers scaled equal distance apart (Parametric, can + or - but but not / or x)
R- Ratio - interval scale with absolute zero. can use +,-,x,/

Question 32

Hawthorne Effect

Answer 32

a tendency in some individuals to alter their behavior in response to their awareness of being observed.

Question 33

The Rosenthal Effect

Answer 33

high expectations lead to improved performance in a given area.