Research Designs Flashcards
Research Design
a framework for the collection and analysis of data
Nomothetic Explanations
involve attributions of cause-and-effect, expressed in terms of general laws and principles
- try to explain a class of events rather than a single event
- ie; sports team does better at home than on the road
- typically quantitative
Three Criteria of Causation
- Correlation- proposed cause and effect must change together systematically
- Time Order- proposed cause must precede the effect in time
- Non-Spuriousness- rules out alternative explanations for the correlations observed
Idiographic explanation
explains an entire case in detail; not concerned with generalizability to people not involved in the study
- typically qualitative; usually involves lengthily stories
Purposes of Research: Exploration
research is conducted to explore a new topic or when the topic is relatively new itself
Purposes of Research: Description
research is conducted to describe situations and events
Purposes of Research: Explanation
research seeking to explain things, answering questions of how and why
Experimental Design
systematic comparison of what happens when one set of participants is exposed to a treatment while another set of participants is not
Field Experiments
conducted in real-life surroundings
- better external validity but struggle with identifying causality due to possible third variables
Laboratory Experiments
take place in artificial environments
- controls research environment
- easier to replicate
- better internal validity but weak external validity
Variables
characteristics or attributes of data that vary or change
Independent Variable
the cause
Dependent Variable
the outcome
Experimental or Treatment Group
receives a treatment or manipulation of some kind
Control Group
does not get the treatment or manipulation
Random Assignment
participants are randomly placed in either the experimental or control group
- key to be able to determine a causal relationship
Pre-test
measurement of the dependent variable before the experimental manipulation
Post-test
measurement of the dependent variable after the experimental manipulation
Status Characteristics Theory
there is a categorical distinction among people such as personal attribute or role that has attached to it widely held beliefs in the culture that associate greater status worthiness and competence with one category of the dinstinction
Internal Validity
concerned with the issue of whether causation has been established by a particular study
History: Threat to IV
some event occurring after the treatment was given may have influenced the dependent variable
Testing: Threat to IV
the pre-test may have influenced the dependent variable
Instrumentation: Threat to IV
changes in the way a test is administered may account for pre-test and post-test differences
Mortality: Threat to IV
participants leave the experiment before it is over
Maturation: Threat to IV
participants change over time
Selection: Threat to IV
post-test differenced between the control and experimental groups may have been caused by preexisting differences
Measurement Validity
are you measuring what you want to measure
External Validity
are the findings applicable to situations outside the research environment?
- can the findings be generalized beyond the people or cases studied?
Representativeness: Threats to EV
the findings may not be generalizable to a wide variety of people who were not in the experiment
Effects of the Setting: Threats to EV
the findings may not apply to settings and environments that differ from those of the experiment
History Effects: Threats to EV
the findings may not apply to other time periods, either in the past or in the future
Effect of Pretesting: Threats to EV
the findings may not apply to people who were not pretested, and few people in society are pre-tested
Reactive Effects: Threats to EV
the findings may be invalid because they were caused by injects behaving with the awareness of being in an experimental situation
Replicability
the results remain the same when others repeat all or parts of a study
Quasi-experiments
“natural experiment”
- experiment-like conditions are produced naturally occurring phenomena or changes brought about by people not doing research
- lack clear causation
- high external validity, weak internal validity
- ie; twin studies, evaluation research
Cross-sectional Design
involve taking observations at one point in time
- no manipulation of independent variable
- two or more variables are measured in order to detect patterns of association
Issues with Cross-sectional Designs
- issue establishing internal validity: direction of causation
- issues with external validity: random method of participant selection helps
Strength of Cross-sectional Design
can examine the effect of variables that cannot be manipulated in experiments
Panel Study: Longitudinal
the same people, households, organizations, etc. are studied on multiple occasions
Cohort Study: Longitudinal
people sharing the same experience are studied at different times, but different people may be studied at each time
Trend Study Longitudinal
a given characteristic of a population is monitored over time
Longitudinal Design Drawbacks
- attrition overtime
- in may be difficult to determine when subsequent waves of the study should be conducted
- for panel conditioning; peoples attitudes and behaviours may change as a result of participating in a panel
Case Study Design
a basic case study involves an in-depth study of a single case
- qualitative or quantitative
- external validity is not the main goal of a case study, instead they provide in-depth descriptions of a particular case that cannot be achieved through other methods
Critical Case
illustrates the conditions under which a certain hypothesis holds or does not hold
Extreme (Unique) Case
illustrates unusual cases which help in understanding the more common ones
Revelatory Case
examines a case or context never studied before
