week 01 - intro & sci method

Question 1

course goals

Answer 1

• introduce methods of how scientific investigation is done
• demonstrate how scientists from different disciplines use basic asessment methods in their specialty
• appreciate how these methods are integrated in the context of larger environmental and resource survey systems, & especially
  
  • interdisciplinary problem solving

Question 2

science is… (3)

Answer 2

1. accumulating knowledge
   
   • observation / common sense
2. identifying interesting patterns
3. justifying theories/explanations - reject false ones
   
   • ability to falsify a hypo. is key

Question 3

identify interesting patterns

(models / working hypo. / theories)

Answer 3

• establish connections b/t phenomenon
• integrate statements / theories -> laws
• explanation of obs. pattern is model/theory
• Models:
  
  • perceived problem + insight + existing theory + belief + previous observations
  • starts as verbal, non-math -> quantified in math terms
  • usually relates a response (dep. var) to one or more factors (independent/predictor var)

Question 4

deductive reasoning

Answer 4

• big theory -> individual cases
• top-down logic
• All men are mortal. Harold is a man. Harold is mortal.

Question 5

inductive reasoning

Answer 5

• individual case -> big theory (aka, stats)
• these 10 people are bald -> all people are bald.

Question 6

why is sci. approach needed?

Answer 6

• provides common lang. across disciplines
• publicly tests private theories
  
  • confirmation bias: ignore all results contrary to your theory
  • theory tenacity: cherry pick results to support convoluted, bonkers theories

Question 7

role of descriptive / exploratory studies

(bio-assays / observational)

Answer 7

• quantitative & robust description of pattern is crucial to sci. process
• sample what’s “out there”… find relationships

Question 8

role of natural & manipulative experiments

Answer 8

• Natural
  
  • large scale
  • no randomization
  • no replication
  • capable of revealing association only
• Manipulative
  
  • >= 2 treatments/factors
  • goal: make comparisons
  • experimenter directly applies treatments
  • null & research hypo. must be complementary & exhaustive

Question 9

3 Rs of experiments

Answer 9

• Randomization: of treatment application or sample collection… avoids bias
• Representation: site/seedling/treatments are rep. of pop to which results would be applied
• Replication (watch out for pseudo): ensures results are not a one-time event; isolates variabilty due to site

… combined they have potential to reveal causation.

Question 10

social: research cycle

Answer 10

• decide on a focus; develop resarch Qs
• choose resarch approach
• select methods
• collect the data
• carry out analysis
• report findings
• repeat

Question 11

social: sources of Qs

Answer 11

• call for proposals
• prof told me to
• personal interest
• observation
• theory
• mgmt issue
• program effectiveness

Question 12

social: Qs drive the approach (8)

Answer 12

• historical: resconstruct past obj. / accurately
• descriptive: system. desc. situation or area of interest
• developmental: patterns/seq of growth/change
• case: bg/status/env interactions of given social unit
• correlational: how variations in 1 factor corr. w/ vars in one or more others, based on correlation coeff.
• causal: start w/ effect, look for cause
• true experiment: start w/ treatments (causes), observe effects and compare
• quasi experimental: approx. conditions of true exp

Question 13

social: research methods

Answer 13

• interviews
• surveys
• observations
• data sets
• archival materials
• ethnography
• journaling
• documents
• discourse

Question 14

social: practical considerations (4)

Answer 14

• access to data
• time
• cost
• human subjects protection

Question 15

social: sampling frame

Answer 15

• random sample
• stratified random sample
• “snowball” sample
• purposeful

Question 16

social: what’s the data tell you?

Answer 16

• patterns
• difference
• relationships
• causality
• inference