Research in I/O Psych Flashcards
Why Conduct Research?
Answering Questions and Making Decisions, Research and Everyday Life, Common Sense Is Often Wrong
research ultimately saves organizations money. These monetary savings can result from many factors, including increased employee satisfaction, increased productivity, and fewer accidents.
Answering Questions and Making Decisions
Understanding research helps you to critically listen and analyze results of these studies to make more intelligent decisions.
Research and Everyday Life
Unfortunately, common sense is not so common and is often wrong.
Common Sense Is Often Wrong
Considerations in Conducting Research:
Ideas, Hypotheses, and Theories
Ideas, Hypotheses, and Theories Step 1
Decide WHAT to Research
an educated prediction about the answer to a question.
hypothesis
prediction is usually based on a ____
theory
Once a research idea has been created, the next step is to search the literature for similar research.
Literature Reviews
if the question you are interested in answering has already been researched in __ studies, it is probably ____ for you to conduct a new study.
20, not necessary
Literature reviews can be conducted in many ways such as:
1.Online/Electronic Database
2.Internet
3.Periodicals
Types of Periodicals
Journals, Trade Magazine, Magazines
A written collection of articles describing the methods and results of new research.
Journals
A collection of articles for those “in the biz,” about related professional topics, seldom directly reporting the methods and results of new research.
Trade magazines
An unscientific collection of articles about a wide range of topics.
Magazines
The ____ contains a wealth of information on just about every topic.
Internet
Location of the Study
Laboratory and Field
are conducted under controlled conditions, in which the researcher manipulates the independent variable (IV) to measure the effect on the dependent variable (DV).
Laboratory Research
Disadvantage of laboratory research
external validity, or generalizability.
Disadvantage of laboratory research where the extent to which research results can be expected to hold true outside the specific setting in which they were obtained.
External validity
Disadvantage of laboratory research where the extent to which research results hold true outside the specific setting in which they were obtained.
Generalizability
research conducted in a natural setting as opposed to a laboratory.
Field research
What field research obviously gains in external validity it _______ that are not of interest to the researcher (internal validity).
loses in control of extraneous variables
The formal process by which subjects give permission to be included in a study and subjects participate in studies of their own free will.
Informed Consent
Type of research method to use:
1.Experiments
2.Quasi-experiments,
3.Archival research
4.Observations
5.Surveys and;
6.Meta-analyses
The most powerful of all research methods because it is the only one that can determine cause-and-effect relationships.
Experiments
Two characteristics define an experiment:
manipulation and random assignment
The manipulated variable in an experiment.
Independent variable
The measure of behavior that is expected to change as a result of changes in the independent variable.
Dependent variable
In an experiment, the group of subjects that receives the experimental treatment of interest to the experimenter.
Experimental group
A group of employees who do not receive a particular type treatment.
Control group
Research method in which the experimenter either does not manipulate the independent variable or in which subjects are not randomly assigned to conditions.
Quasi Experiments
Research that involves the use of previously collected data.
Archival Research
Archival research has many desirable features, such as not being obtrusive or expensive, but it also has severe drawbacks.
1.Records in files are not always accurate and are not always kept up-to-date.
2.Furthermore, the type of data needed by a researcher may not be in the archives because the data were never recorded in the first place.
to ask people their opinion on some topic.
Surveys
Surveys can be conducted via a variety of methods such as
mail, personal interviews, phone, email, and the Internet.
Well-designed survey questions are:
a.easy to understand;
b.use simple language,
c.do not ask about hypothetical situations,
d.and keep the questions relatively short in length.
is a statistical method of reaching conclusions based on previous research.
Meta-Analysis
a statistic that indicates the amount of change caused by an experimental manipulation.
Effect size
a statistic that is the average of the effect sizes for all studies included in the analysis and A meta analysis results in one number
mean effect size
are used as the effect size when researchers are interested in the relationship between two variables, and the majority of studies use correlation as their statistical test.
Correlation coefficients (r)
is used as the effect size when researchers are looking at the difference between two groups.
A difference score (d)
method of selecting the subjects who will serve as the sample in a study.
Subject Samples
Types of Subject Samples
Random Sample
Convenience Sample
Random Assignment
