Research Strategies and Validity

Question 1

What is a research strategy?

Answer 1

A general approach to research determined by the type of question that the research hopes to answer

Question 2

How is the descriptive research strategy different from other research strategies?

Answer 2

It’s the only strategy that focuses on individual variables

Question 3

What is the main goal of the descriptive research strategy?

Answer 3

To obtain a description of specific characteristics of a specific group of individuals

Question 4

What is the difference between linear relationships and curvilinear relationships?

Answer 4

Linear - a pattern where data points on a graph cluster to appear as a straight line
Curvilinear - a pattern where data points on a graph cluster to appear as a curved line

Question 5

What does the correlational study try to do? What does it NOT do?

Answer 5

Attempts to describe the relationship between two variables, NOT explaining the relationship

Question 6

What is the experimental research strategy intended for?

Answer 6

To answer cause and effect questions about the relationship between 2 variables

Question 7

How is the quasi-experimental research strategy different from an experimental research strategy?

Answer 7

It can never produce an unambiguous explanation

Question 8

What particular research strategy demonstrates a relationship between variables, but doesn’t explain the relationship?

Answer 8

Nonexperimental research strategy

Question 9

What is the main difference between a correlational research strategy and a nonexperimental research strategy?

Answer 9

Correlational - uses one group of participants and measures two variables per individual
Nonexperimental - compares two or more groups of scores, measuring only one variable per individual

Question 10

What do correlational research strategies and nonexperimental research strategies have in common?

Answer 10

While they use different data, they have the same purpose and produce the same kind of conclusion

Question 11

Determining a research design requires three basic aspects of the research study - what are they?

Answer 11

1. Group vs. individual - will the study examine and describe a group or will it focus on one sole individual?
2. Same vs. different individuals - will the study examine changes in the same group or examine differences in different groups?
3. Number of variables included - how many variables will be observed, manipulated, or regulated?

Question 12

What is a research design?

Answer 12

A general plan for implementing a research strategy

Question 13

What is the research procedure?

Answer 13

The exact, step-by-step description of a specific research study

Question 14

What is external validity?

Answer 14

The extent to which one can generalize the results of a study to people and other variables other than those used within the study

Question 15

What is a threat to external validity?

Answer 15

Any characteristic of a study that limits the ability to generalize the results from a research study

Question 16

What is internal validity?

Answer 16

The extent to which a study produces a single, unambiguous explanation for the relationship between the two variables

Question 16

What are 3 kinds of generalization and how might they involve threats to external validity?

Answer 16

1. From a sample to the general population - the sample is representative to the general population
2. From one study to another - the results obtained from one study will be similarly if not exactly to another
3. From a study to a real-world situation - will the results in a research environment be replicated in a real-world environment?

Question 16

What would a threat to internal validity look like?

Answer 16

Any factor that would allow for an alternate explanation

Question 17

Why is volunteer bias a threat to external validity?

Answer 17

Volunteers for a study are not perfectly representative of the general population

Question 18

What threat to external validity occurs when individuals participating in a research study perceive and respond differently compared to how they would in the real world?

Answer 18

The novelty effect

Question 19

The potential influence of experience in earlier treatments that poses a threat to external validity is called what?

Answer 19

Multiple treatment interference

Question 20

Sensitization alters participants so they react differently to treatment without assessment. Why is it a threat to external validity?

Answer 20

The results may be limited to individuals who have experienced a pretest

Question 21

What are extraneous variables?

Answer 21

Any variables in a research study other than the specific variable(s) being studied and investigated

Question 22

About how many extraneous variables do every research study have?

Answer 22

In the thousands

Question 23

What is a confounding variable?

Answer 23

An extraneous variable that changes systematically along with the two variables being studied; a threat to internal validity as it provides an alternate explanation for the observed relationship

Question 24

What are individual differences?

Answer 24

Personal characteristics that differ from one individual from another

Question 25

What are cues given to participants about how they are meant to behave?

Answer 25

Demand characteristics

Question 26

Experimental research studies have how much internal and external validity?

Answer 26

High internal, low external