Research Designs

Question 1

Research Design

Answer 1

a framework for the collection and analysis of data

Question 2

Nomothetic Explanations

Answer 2

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

Question 3

Three Criteria of Causation

Answer 3

1. Correlation- proposed cause and effect must change together systematically
2. Time Order- proposed cause must precede the effect in time
3. Non-Spuriousness- rules out alternative explanations for the correlations observed

Question 4

Idiographic explanation

Answer 4

explains an entire case in detail; not concerned with generalizability to people not involved in the study
- typically qualitative; usually involves lengthily stories

Question 5

Purposes of Research: Exploration

Answer 5

research is conducted to explore a new topic or when the topic is relatively new itself

Question 6

Purposes of Research: Description

Answer 6

research is conducted to describe situations and events

Question 7

Purposes of Research: Explanation

Answer 7

research seeking to explain things, answering questions of how and why

Question 8

Experimental Design

Answer 8

systematic comparison of what happens when one set of participants is exposed to a treatment while another set of participants is not

Question 9

Field Experiments

Answer 9

conducted in real-life surroundings
- better external validity but struggle with identifying causality due to possible third variables

Question 10

Laboratory Experiments

Answer 10

take place in artificial environments
- controls research environment
- easier to replicate
- better internal validity but weak external validity

Question 11

Variables

Answer 11

characteristics or attributes of data that vary or change

Question 12

Independent Variable

Answer 12

the cause

Question 13

Dependent Variable

Answer 13

the outcome

Question 14

Experimental or Treatment Group

Answer 14

receives a treatment or manipulation of some kind

Question 15

Control Group

Answer 15

does not get the treatment or manipulation

Question 16

Random Assignment

Answer 16

participants are randomly placed in either the experimental or control group
- key to be able to determine a causal relationship

Question 17

Pre-test

Answer 17

measurement of the dependent variable before the experimental manipulation

Question 18

Post-test

Answer 18

measurement of the dependent variable after the experimental manipulation

Question 19

Status Characteristics Theory

Answer 19

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

Question 20

Internal Validity

Answer 20

concerned with the issue of whether causation has been established by a particular study

Question 21

History: Threat to IV

Answer 21

some event occurring after the treatment was given may have influenced the dependent variable

Question 22

Testing: Threat to IV

Answer 22

the pre-test may have influenced the dependent variable

Question 23

Instrumentation: Threat to IV

Answer 23

changes in the way a test is administered may account for pre-test and post-test differences

Question 24

Mortality: Threat to IV

Answer 24

participants leave the experiment before it is over

Question 25

Maturation: Threat to IV

Answer 25

participants change over time

Question 26

Selection: Threat to IV

Answer 26

post-test differenced between the control and experimental groups may have been caused by preexisting differences

Question 27

Measurement Validity

Answer 27

are you measuring what you want to measure

Question 28

External Validity

Answer 28

are the findings applicable to situations outside the research environment? - can the findings be generalized beyond the people or cases studied?

Question 29

Representativeness: Threats to EV

Answer 29

the findings may not be generalizable to a wide variety of people who were not in the experiment

Question 30

Effects of the Setting: Threats to EV

Answer 30

the findings may not apply to settings and environments that differ from those of the experiment

Question 31

History Effects: Threats to EV

Answer 31

the findings may not apply to other time periods, either in the past or in the future

Question 32

Effect of Pretesting: Threats to EV

Answer 32

the findings may not apply to people who were not pretested, and few people in society are pre-tested

Question 33

Reactive Effects: Threats to EV

Answer 33

the findings may be invalid because they were caused by injects behaving with the awareness of being in an experimental situation

Question 34

Replicability

Answer 34

the results remain the same when others repeat all or parts of a study

Question 35

Quasi-experiments

Answer 35

"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

Question 36

Cross-sectional Design

Answer 36

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

Question 37

Issues with Cross-sectional Designs

Answer 37

- issue establishing internal validity: direction of causation - issues with external validity: random method of participant selection helps

Question 38

Strength of Cross-sectional Design

Answer 38

can examine the effect of variables that cannot be manipulated in experiments

Question 39

Panel Study: Longitudinal

Answer 39

the same people, households, organizations, etc. are studied on multiple occasions

Question 40

Cohort Study: Longitudinal

Answer 40

people sharing the same experience are studied at different times, but different people may be studied at each time

Question 41

Trend Study Longitudinal

Answer 41

a given characteristic of a population is monitored over time

Question 42

Longitudinal Design Drawbacks

Answer 42

- 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

Question 43

Case Study Design

Answer 43

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

Question 44

Critical Case

Answer 44

illustrates the conditions under which a certain hypothesis holds or does not hold

Question 45

Extreme (Unique) Case

Answer 45

illustrates unusual cases which help in understanding the more common ones

Question 46

Revelatory Case

Answer 46

examines a case or context never studied before