Unit 5

Question 1

What distinguishes nonexperimental from experimental research?

Answer 1

It is based on the degree of control that the researcher has over the subjects and the conditions of the research.
Nonexperimental research lacks a certain amount of control and may not be able to assign subject to groups, causing less certainty over whether the differences between the conditions actually caused any differences in behavior.
Nonexperimental research’s data collection procedure often must forfeit some degree of control in return for obtaining data
Third characteristic of some nonexperimental research, called qualitative research, concerns the questions that are typically asked by the research. Qualitative research is much less interested in the cause-and-effect of behavior that is research based on experimentation. It is interested in how individuals understand themselves and make meaning out of their lives

Question 2

Nonexperimental research that asks questions regarding how people make meaning out of the world

Answer 2

Qualitative research

Question 3

Nonexperimental research that measures two or more variables to determine the degree of relationship between them

Answer 3

Correlational research

Question 4

Why is nonexperimental research often called correlational research?

Answer 4

Because nonexperimental research seeks causes of behavior by looking for correlations among variables. With correlational research there is the inability to manipulate some variable independently

Question 5

Study method in which the researcher observes and records ongoing behavior but does not attempt to change it. A type of nonexperimental research.

Answer 5

Observational research

Question 6

A type of nonexperimental research that studies existing records to obtain data and test hypotheses

Answer 6

Archival research

Question 7

A type of nonexperimental research which is an exploratory study of an existing situation as a means of creating and testing and a hypothesis

Answer 7

Case study

Question 8

Assessing public opinion or individual characteristics by the use of questionnaire and sampling methods. A nonexperimental research method.

Answer 8

Survey

Question 9

Observational research of subjects in their natural environment carried out to disturb the subjects as little as possible

Answer 9

Naturalistic observation

Question 10

Another term for naturalistic observation, commonly used in the social sciences

Answer 10

Unobtrusive research

Question 11

Another term for naturalistic observation in the social sciences, emphasizing that subjects are unaware that they are being studied

Answer 11

Nonreactive research

Question 12

Unobtrusive measure of behavior that uses physical evidence.

Answer 12

Physical trace

For example, graffiti in school restrooms to discover attitudes toward racial integration of the school, smudges on pages of library books to see which pages are most read, and grease prints on display cases in museums to see which displays are most interesting to children

Question 13

How is naturalistic observation different from the casual observation that most people do?

Answer 13

Naturalistic observation is more objective and the objective methods used allow one to evaluate the generality of the findings

Question 14

Physical traces are of two forms:

Answer 14

Used traces end products

Use traces are the physical evidence that results from use or wear and tear, for example, the bare spots on the lawn indicating a shortcut from one building to another

Products are the physical evidence of what is left behind from past behavior, for example empty beer bottles left after party.

Question 15

What are the advantages and disadvantages of using physical traces?

Answer 15

They have advantage of being a non-reactive measure, people’s behaviors are not influenced by the act of measurement. They can also be used to test hypotheses about behaviors and preferences and these measures can be used to assess the validity of certain kinds of verbal reports, for example, the posters of pop music stars in the walls of the teenagers room and the teenagers expressed liking for his or her favorite star

The disadvantages are that other factors can influence The deposit or Rosian a physical traces, so it is important that physical traits measures not be used alone. The best approach is to use multiple methods to collect data to test the same hypotheses

Question 16

Observational research in which the observer participates in a group to record behavior

Answer 16

Participant-observer research

Question 17

Under what conditions is participant-observer research useful?

Answer 17

In starting a small group that is separate from the population as a whole, when Little is known about a group, or when the groups activities are not generally available to public view. May include new religious movements, nude beachgoers, criminals, and gays

Question 18

Describe the ethical problems that participant-observer research poses

Answer 18

By entering the group, the observer changes it to some extent. Therefore, the active observing the behavior changes the behavior to be observed.

The ethical question of invasion of privacy. Participant observer is cannot always obtain informed consent from the people they study.

Question 19

What are the advantages and disadvantages in conducting archival research?

Answer 19

It saves time and collecting data because the dad I have already been collected, the dad are often a matter of public record which reduces the researchers ethical concerns.

It’s disadvantages are inherent biases may be present because the data are collected by others for a particular purpose which may not be designed to address the researcher’s specific question, only some records are produced and kept or missing and incomplete, the quality of the data may not be as good as the researcher anticipates, changes may have occurred in the way records are kept or the definition of categories, reactivity may have been a problem when archival record was produced

When conducting any research, research or needs to identify alternative explanations for the research results and gather additional evidence from independent sources to refute any alternative hypotheses

Question 20

Outline the characteristics of case studies

Answer 20

They examine individual instances, or cases, of some phenomenon. The individuality of the situation characterizes the case study.

There are two advantages of case studies, they can provide insight into possible causes of people’s behavior that can be tested later with more controlled research approaches, they allow for the study of rare events.

Disadvantages are that researchers can rarely in for any cause-and-effect relationships from results because of the presence of extraneous variables, subject observer bias is are likely to occur, and it is difficult to generalize the results to other cases

Question 21

Involves evaluating the pictures and language in publicly available texts to evaluate a hypothesis

Answer 21

Content analysis

Question 22

The content of the text or photograph as indicated by measuring the frequency of some objective word phrase or action

Answer 22

Manifest content.

For example, the frequency of certain sexual words

Question 23

The content of the text or photograph as measured by the appearance of themes as interpreted by the researcher

Answer 23

Latent content

More subjective and runs the risk of being less reliable than manifest content analysis. Is a good idea to do both manifest and latent content analysis and compare the results

Question 24

Tentative, small-scale study done to pretest and modify study design and procedures

Answer 24

Pilot study

Helps to find the bugs in the study

Question 25

What is the difference between research method and research procedure?

Answer 25

Method is a broader term that encompasses all aspects of the study, including the logic of the design and the steps for caring it out.
Procedure refers only to what the researcher does in translating the design into action and the instructions and how they are given, as well as a debriefing.

Question 26

What are three procedures to sample behaviors in naturalistic observation?

Answer 26

Time sampling by selecting various time intervals, either systematically such as every 15 minutes or randomly, for their observations

Event sampling, recording each event that meets a predetermined definition which tends to happen in frequently, such as fighting

Situation sampling, irefers to observing behavior in as many different locations and under as many different circumstances and conditions as possible