Research Methods Exam 1

What are the five Methods of Knowing?

intuition, authority, personal experience, custom and tradition, and rationalism

intuition

relying on your guts and emotions or instincts to guide you/basing what you believe to be true on a feeling

authority

much of what a person believes is true comes from a person of authority that you trust and you buy into

personal experience (empiricism)

forming opinions and 'knowledge' based on your observations and experiences

custom and tradition (culture)

believing something to be true because most people in society believe it to be true and this is they way we've always done it

cognitive conservatism

holding onto beliefs even though there are massive amounts of evidence against it

rationalism

using logic and reasoning to acquire new knowledge

Steps in the Scientific Method are...

1. Make observations
2. form tentative hypothesis
3. make a testable prediction
4. gather data in a systematic manner
5. use data to support/refute/refine the hypothesis

Conclusions about the scientific method...

1. it is empirical
2. it is systematic (not only picking things that fit your hypothesis)
3. it is objective (you try to minimize bias or influence)

The Goals of Science are...

1. describe
2. predict
3. explain

informal observation

things in your personal life

practical problems

problems in society

research question

question about the relationship between two variables

hypothesis

a prediction about the relationship between two variables

When do you use a research question or a hypothesis?

research question: if you don't have the research, lit review, or evidence
hypothesis: if you have evidence pointing one way

variable

anything that varies

quantitative variables

anything that has a number associated with it

categorical variable

anything that has a quality or label associated with it

operational definition

describes a set of procedures that we use to follow or measure a variable

conceptual definition

terms used to describe a variable, may involve other concepts

sampling

a chunk from the whole population

population

every person within a specific group

probability sampling

each member in a population has a specific chance of being selected

simple random sampling

every person in the population has an equal change of being selected

stratified random sampling

divide population into subgroups and use simple random sampling within the groups

non-probability sampling

there is no specified change of being selected

cluster sampling

identify clusters or groups of individuals and randomly select some groups

convenience sampling

get what i can get however i can get it and whenever i can get it

purposive sampling

when you are looking for a certain type of person for a study

proportional sample

numerical number sample 20% guys and 80% girls

independent variable

the variable that the researcher manipulates (the cause)

dependent variable

the variable the researcher measures (the effect)

confounding variable

systematically varies with the independent variable

beneficiates

maximize benefits and minimize risks

What are risks in a study?

psychological harm, physical harm, loss of privacy

autonomy

participants have a choice of whether to participate

deception

intentionally withholding information or lying to participants about something

debriefing

telling people about the experiment afterwards

honest experiment

taking advantage of a real situation that allows you to study what you want to study

justice

why you select your participants

IRB (institutional review board)

oversees the ethical treatment of research participants

exempt research

doing surveys about things that may not elicit any sort of emotional response

What are examples of exempt research?

surveys, questionnaires, educational test, naturalistic observation-studying, something in public, demographic research

minimal risk research

the risk that participants will be in does not exceed the typical risk in daily life

greater than minimal risk research

research that involves mental, physical stress or serious invasion of privacy (must have protections in place)

What are the levels of measurement?

nominal, ordinal, interval, ratio

What does a nominal level of measurement have in it?

category labels

What does an ordinal level of measurement have in it?

category labels, rank order

What does an interval level of measurement have in it?

category labels, rank order, equal intervals

What does a ratio level of measurement have in it?

category labels, rank order, equal intervals, true zero

nominal

variables whose attributes have only the characteristics of exhaustiveness and mutual exclusiveness

exhaustiveness

covering all the possibilities in a variable

mutually exclusive

you can either be this or that

ordinal

variables whose attributes can be logically ranked

interval

variables whose levels are equally distant from one another

ratio

same is interval but it has a true 'zero' point (starts at zero then equidistant)

What are implications of measurement levels?

1. higher level = richer data
2. higher level = more analysis can be done
3. any level of measurement can be reduced by levels can not be reduced

What is an example of a nominal variable?

college major

What is an example of an ordinal variable?

military rank

What is an example of an interval variable?

1, 21, 41, 61, etc.

What is an example of a ratio variable?

0, 20, 40, 60, etc.