research methods Flashcards
hypothesis: what is it?
-testable beliefs about the relationship between events
-example: if citizens are enrolled in a course on civics, does that therefore increase their political participation?
conceptual variable
-abstract idea of the variable of interest
-politcal participation
operational variable
-concrete definition of concept used in experiment
-whether they voted in the recent election
correlational research
-technique where two or more variables are systemically measured and the relationship between them is assessed
naturalistic
-observing behavior in its natural setting
-pros: real behavior, real situations
-cons: research interference, some behaviors are rare and are hard to observe, cannot determine cause
case study
-extensive study of a single person or group
-pros: extensive information, can ask specific questions, can study rare behaviors
-cons: hard to generalize, cannot determine cause
survey
-asking people about their belies, behaviors, etc
-pros: can study behaviors that are difficult to observe
-cons: participants might be biased or untruthful, random sampling is difficult and expensive, question framing can bias results
archival
-examining public records
-pros: access to large amounts of data, no difficulty in generalizing
-cons: many interesting behaviors are not recorded, cannot determine cause
what are 3 features of a true experiment?
-random assignment to treatment conditions
-manipulation of independent variable
-experimental control
what do experiments allow you to do that correlational studies do not?
-systematically manipulate one or more variable, while measuring another set
-goal is to determine causality (correlations do not)
random sampling
all members of the study population have equal chance of inclusion in the sample
random assignment
each member of the study is randomly assigned to one condition, with an equal chance of being assigned to any group
