Political Analysis Final Exam
If we are interested in learning about how social and economic elites influence decision making in one city and will rely upon census data, newspaper accounts, interviews, and surveys to do this research, we are relying on the ________study design.
Case
If the independent variable affects the dependent variable, this is called a ______________ hypothesis
Causal
In one type of quasi-experimental study design, in place of a control group, one uses a
Comparison group
A researcher is watching a group of teens at the mall. She is watching from about 100 yards away. Her role is a(n)
Complete observer
Sally is a researcher engaging in observational methods. She is taking part in all activities of those she is observing. What is her observer role?
Complete participant role
___________________ are words or signs that are used to describe phenomena
Concepts
What is one way to combat issues of internal validity?
Conduct longitudinal studies versus cross-sectional studies AND do not ask people about things that occurred in the past.
_____________ observations involve clear decisions about what kind of things are to be observed
Controlled
If we are presenting a detailed picture of a population, in terms of gender, age, income, residence, we have most likely conducted
Descriptive research
Which of the following is not an example of a nonprobability sample?
Determinate
To minimize the effects of an experimenter affecting the research results, we can use a(n)
Double Blind Study
_____________ refer(s) to a set of abstract principles that are used to determine appropriate and acceptable social conduct.
Ethics
Which of the following statement is accurate?
Evaluation researchers must balance issues of reliablility and validity with practicality
________________ is/are statistics provided by large organizations
Existing statistics
Experimental designs have the advantage of being superior to non-experimental designs because they most clearly achieve the purpose of
Explanation
___________ research is designed to explain why something varies
Explanatory
True/False: A major disadvantage of using an unobtrusive measure is that your subjects are likely to be inconvenienced
False
True/False: A researchable question is usually one that other researchers have already explored
False
True/False: An institutional review board (IRB) is designed to make sure that the researcher will not publish false results
False
True/False: Content analysis can be applied only to recorded communication
False
True/False: Cost-benefit analysis is used to determine if the program saves money for program participants
False
True/False: Data collected from observational methods can be generalized to a larger population
False
True/False: Evaluation research is a scientific method that does not need to consider who the intended audience is for its findings
False
True/False: In a classic experimental design, the independent variable can be manipulated, controlled, introduced, or it can occur naturally.
False
True/False: Internal validity is not an issue with quasi-experiments because there are experimental and control groups.
False
True/False: It's easy to create indexes and scales that are both reliable and valid
False
True/False: Observational research includes participant observation but does not include non participant observation
False
True/False: Qualitative research is based on the statistical summary of data
False
True/False: Quantitative content analysis focuses on verbal communication rather than statistical
False
True/False: The most important reason for doing observational studies is because of their cost effectiveness
False
True/False: They are basically two kinds of evaluation: outcome evaluations and costs-benefit evaluations
False
True/False: Thick descriptions are based on bare bone facts versus context and motives
False
Observational research has some potential disadvantages as well as advantages over other forms of research.
Frustrating and energy consuming
Of the following variables, the one most appropriate for analyzing central tendency by using the mean is a city of residence
Height
A contingency table helps to display
How categories within variables are related
Which type of survey tends to have the highest response rate?
In person interview
Which of the following statements is factually testable?
Individuals with more education earn more than less educated individuals
______________ is when subjects are informed about the general purpose of the research
Informed consent
A committee on human subjects is more commonly known as
Institutional Review Board
____________ validity refers to the agreement between a study's conclusion and what is actually true
Internal
Refers to a change in a respondent's answer based on the fact that an interviewer is present
Interviewer Effect
Which of the following is a researchable question?
Is high academic achievement in high school related to academic success in college?
Which of the following is not a question typically asked in a cost effectiveness study?
Is the program saving money?
In an experimental design, the independent variable is
Manipulated
To improve the representativeness of samples, one can use a technique where randomization is used at several points. Sampling methodologies that use this technique include
Multistage
Which of the following statements is true regarding research risks?
No study is completely risk-free
When a researcher is participating in ________________ observation, the goal is to remain aloof.
Non-participant
If those who respond to a survey are different (e.g., better educated, higher income, politically involved) from those who do not respond, a researcher is faced with
Non-response bias
As a surveyor, you call households on your call list and 10% never answered the call. What kind of error have you encountered?
Nonresponse error
What stimulated the impetus for social science disciplines to consider ethical issues?
Nuremberg trials after WWII
Stakeholders are
People or groups affected by the program
Letters, emails, Twitter feeds, and autobiographies are included in
Personal records
An experimental design is appropriate if it is _________ to do so
Practical and ethical
If a researcher collects original data for her own purposes, she is relying on _________________ to study a research question
Primary data
______________ data is collected by the researcher and _____ data is collected by someone other than the researcher.
Primary; secondary
____________ is research that determines whether a program is being implemented as designed.
Process evaluation
Most participant observers practice which type of sampling?
Purposive
The fact that we cannot be certain about the _________________ the available data that has been collected is a disadvantage to using this as a source of information.
Reliability of
A/n is an index in which some items are given more weight than others
Scale
Instances where all members of the population have an equal chance of being selected are known as
Simple random samples
What was a main finding in the focal research by Arthur, Clark, Clark, and Racine?
Some minority groups experienced gatekeeper issues and were not represented in anthologies until the 1990s
A data collection method that involves administration by a trained interviewer of a survey instrument with closed- ended responses is a
Structured interview
The strategy of how data will be collected is referred to as the
Study Design
Many phone numbers are not listed in telephone books. How do surveyors combat this issue?
Surveyors use random digit dialing to formulate their call lists
Which of the following would describe applied research
The aim of research is to have practical results for use in the immediate future
A researchable question must be feasible. Which of the following is not an element of feasibility?
There must be a grant to support the investigation
A researcher describes his observation using basic language and without much detail. He is using a _______ description
Thin
The time it takes to complete all stages of a research project from the planning stages to the final report is referred to as
Time expenditures
True/False: "Qualitative methods" can include qualitative interviewing ad the use of available data
True
True/False: A hypothesis is a testable relationship between how two variables are related
True
True/False: A hypothesis is a testable statement about how two or more variables link together
True
True/False: A researcher is interested in understanding why some students choose to live in residence halls while others do not
True
True/False: A researcher observing behavior in a public place, for example, a bus station or a public library, is under no ethical obligation to disclose to those in the setting that he or she is conducting research
True
True/False: A set of categories that defines class assignment as freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior is an ordinal level of measurement
True
True/False: A stratified sample allows us to make certain that we account for individuals who may represent small numbers in the population
True
True/False: A study design must balance ethical, practical, and methodological issues
True
True/False: An abstract is a summary of the research article that includes the major arguments and conclusions
True
True/False: An early step involved in doing science is to specify the goals of inquiry
True
True/False: Because of their high level of engagement, qualitative interviews have a high response rate
True
True/False: Before conducting an experiment, we can minimize the chances that the control and experimental groups are different from each other in important ways by randomly assigning the population to each group.
True
True/False: Both a respondent's gender and race can affect responses to questions on a survey or questionnaire
True
True/False: Content analysis is a method of data collection in which some forms of communication are studied systematically
True
True/False: Content analysis is a technique that depends on the researcher's capacity to create and record meaningful variables for classifying units of analysis
True
True/False: Content validity is a test for validity which involves utilizing the judgment of experts in the field
True
True/False: Evaluation research design includes choices about study design, measurement techniques, sample selection, and methods for analyzing data
True
True/False: Generally, the questions asked by content analyzers have to do with who says what to whom, why they say it, and how and with what effect it is said.
True
True/False: How individuals account for the world, create meaning and interpret situations is a major focus for interpretivists
True
True/False: If a researcher has a good idea about how one variable affects another, she will be interested in testing a causal hypothesis.
True
True/False: If we are using the variable of "language" to understand responses to a survey, categories might include French, Italian, Spanish, and English
True
True/False: If we make accommodations to oversample certain members of a sample, we are taking a cluster sample
True
True/False: If we take group based results and infer that individuals in those groups share those characteristics, we are committing ecological fallacy
True
True/False: If we were interested in learning why individuals turn to lives of crime, we would be conducting explanatory research
True
True/False: If you sample a population where every person has an equal chance of being selected, you have a probability sample
True
True/False: In experimental designs, the researcher is manipulating the independent variable and seeing what happens to the dependent variable.
True
True/False: In most interviewing protocols, it is usually better to establish rapport before proceeding with difficult or sensitive topics
True
True/False: In participatory action research, the researcher must be intimately involved in the community
True
True/False: In the focal research by Lang and Podeschi, respondents were given questionnaires which contained a cover letter ensuring respondent's anonymity
True
True/False: In the focal research by Martinez and Lee, Martinez had to spend hours with police detectives who acted as gatekeepers for the data
True
True/False: Independent variables influence dependent variables
True
True/False: Just because two variables are related to each other in some matter does not mean that they are necessarily causally related.
True
True/False: Many federal agencies have adopted the "Common Rule" which outlines a set of regulations for human subjects research
True
True/False: Martinez and Lee compared the context of immigrant homicides, including Haitians, Jamaicans, and Mariels in Miami.
True
True/False: Measures of dispersion indicate how varied the population is with respect to certain values
True
True/False: Observation is useful if you do not know much about the subject under investigation
True
True/False: Observational research techniques are often a problem because they cause the researcher to intrude into the lives of the research subject
True
True/False: One advantage of experimental designs in laboratory settings is that you know with some confidence that only one group has been exposed to the treatment introduced by the researcher
True
True/False: One form of data display is cross-tabulation of variables you are interested in
True
True/False: One of the potential problems with longitudinal research is keeping in contact with respondents over time and keeping their information confidential.
True
True/False: Peer-reviewed journals include articles that have been evaluated by content experts before publication
True
True/False: Purposive and other non-random methods of sampling are the mot common kinds of sampling approaches in observational studies
True
True/False: Quantitative research is focused on variables, including their description and relationships
True
True/False: Response rates among cell phone surveys are higher than among landline surveys
True
True/False: Selecting treatment and control groups from the population by method of random sample increases the study's generalizability.
True
True/False: Stakeholders are people who are affected by a program
True
True/False: The anonymity of respondents of mailed questionnaires cannot be guaranteed
True
True/False: The classic experiment is also referred to as the pretest-posttest control group experiment.
True
True/False: The most widely used method of data collection is the questionnaire
True
True/False: The publication of research allows for public scrutiny
True
True/False: There are times when the unit of analysis and the unit of observation can be the same thing
True
True/False: Typically, ethical concerns are greater in qualitative interviewing because the personal identity of the respondent is known and because individually identifying data may be collected
True
True/False: When one is conducting a research study, it is a good idea to first consider whether one wants results that are generalizable. This issue is very critical in determining what approach is best to use in sampling
True
True/False: You don't need to sample when the number of things you want to examine is small.
True
In some cases, research subjects have been deceived about the rule purpose of research they are participating in. One of the most outrageous of this was the infamous
Tuskegee study
Which of the following represents the correct chronological order of events?
Tuskegee, Milgram, ASA Code of Ethics, Common Rule
The biggest survey administered in the United States is the
U.S. Census
One of the most frequently employed sources of existing statistics is/are the
US Census Bureau
A researcher is interested in gaining in depth stories from individuals about their experiences with violence. A pilot test has shown that individuals take anywhere between 10 and 15 minutes to relate these experiences. What interview approach is most appropriate here?
Unstructured interview
What has been the dominant mode of social science research in the twentieth century?
Using secondary data
Sometimes you can locate data that very nearly meet your research needs, so the issue of _______________ arises.
Validity
A scenario the researcher creates to obtain information in an interview or survey
Vignettes
Which type of survey method has the lowest response rate?
Web surveys
If we are interested in generating new theoretical perspectives in an area where little research has been done, we would most likely use
a case study
sampling is a way to learn about ______ by obtaining information from _____ of a larger population
a larger population ; a subset
The view that knowledge is not based on irrefutable observable grounds, that it is always somewhat speculative, but that science can provide some solid ground for these speculations is known as
a post-positivist view of science
Visual analysis is
a set of techniques used to analyze images
A sample is
a subset of a population
The dependent variable (DV) is defined as
a variable that is being influence by another variable
What was the program used for evaluation in the focal research by Harrison and Norton-Hawk?
a women's prison in Ecuador
An informed consent form would include
all of the above would be included on an informed consent form
The advantage of trend studies is that they
all of these (avoid panel attrition, avoid panel conditioning, save the expense of finding the original participants, enable the researcher to collect data anonymously)
Which of the following is not a common source for finding academic materials for a literature review?
all of these are common sources for finding materials for a literature review (internet search, books, articles, government documents)
Locating respondents in qualitative research
all of these are part of locating respondents in qualitative research (is not always a simple process often involves gatekeepers sometimes requires snowball sampling may entail posting notices on bulletin boards)
What other methods also relies on observations?
all of these methods rely on observation in one way or another
If we examined the extent of war and tear in carpeting in a museum to study the popularity of exhibits, we could be employing
an erosion measure
An example of a lack of voluntary participation is when
an individual with power over another asks that he or she participate in a project
According to the text, the two most important ethical principles are _______ and ________
anonymity; confidentiality
The focal research by Arthur, Clark, Clark and Racine used_________________ as the unit of analysis
anthologies
The difference between basic research and applied research is
applied research aims to improve something and basic research aims to add to the knowledge base
Semi-structured interviews
are designed ahead of time but are modified as appropriate for each participant
Ethical concerns in applied research
are equally important as in basic research
If as the value of A (let's say height) increases, B (let's say weight) also increases, we can say that they
are positively related
Units of analysis
are the units about which information is collected
Group-administered questionnaires
are typically inexpensive and also raise ethical concerns about voluntary participation
Institutional Review Boards are found
at every college, university and research center.
Content Analysis allows researchers to study
available recorded data
A researcher is curious about why some students perform better on essay exams than others. He is engaged in
basic research
Generally speaking, quantitative content analyses tends to ________________ and qualitative content analysis tends to ___________
be deductive; be inductive
The graph of a normal distribution looks like a(n)
bell
Examining the relationship between a mother's occupation and her daughter's selection of an occupation is an example of
bivariate analysis
If social scientists want to develop or build theories about an aspect of social life that has previously been misunderstood, they might engage in
both inductive reasoning and developing grounded theory
The focal research, Moving On? Continuity and Change after Retirement by Adler and Clark utilized what kind of study design?
both panel and longitudinal
The general purpose of Institutional Review Board is to
both review research protocol to guarantee that the benefits of the research outweigh the risk to the subjects and to determine whether subjects will be properly informed about the research
In conducting longitudinal research, a panel design has several advantages. These include
both the ability to track individuals over the course of time and the ability to collect data that reflects immediate experience rather than relying on individual memory
Conducting and transcribing interviews is
both time consuming and labor intensive
Values,_____________, and personal factors are three sources of research topics
changing social and political climate
A researcher assigns her observations into categories. She is her variables
coding
An antecedent variable
comes before both the independent variable and dependent variable
____is the process of clarifying what is meant by a concept
conceptualizing
An experimental design has the advantage over non-experimental approaches in determining the order in which events occur and
controlling the effects of other variables
In coding, the goal is to
create categories that flow from the data and apply these to cases
Surveys typically use large probability samples and a(n) _______ study design
cross-sectional
In ____________________, a research is summarizing the data that has been collected into more manageable categories
data reduction
Secondary data is
data that has been collected by someone else
If we approach a setting with a theory we want to test, we are employing
deductive reasoning
When the observed take on different attributes simply as a result of being observed, this is called
demand characteristics
Researchers can best protect the identity of participants whose disclosure is likely to result in legal action (for example, drug dealers, prostitutes) by
destroying all records immediately after the data is used
A trend design collects data at different times from
different samples
Social anthropological approaches to qualitative research aims to
discover regular patterns in social interaction
In a frequency distribution, we are
displaying the number of cases that fall in categories
The response rate is calculated by
dividing the number of completed surveys by the number in the sample
The ___________ model allows a researcher to examine more than two variables at a time
elaboration
Demonstrating non-spuriousnesses means to
eliminate alternative explanation
Which of the following would be considered a variable
employment status education religion marital status (all of these)
In a probability sample, every element in the population has a(n) ________ chance of being included in the sample
equal
Content analysis is not appropriate for
evaluating Census data
Crosstabulation is a technique used to
examine the association between two variables
The elaboration technique that helps a researcher determine that the original relationship was spurious is known as
explanation
Before the 1970s,
few studies focused on women
Which type of evaluation research is best used in the early implantation stages of the program or policy?
formative
Although researchers may be pleased to receive funding for their research, this may prove troublesome because
funders may impose limitations on the topics under investigation and the release of research findings as well as only support research that interests them in pursuit of social and political ends
Claudia is the director of an agency. She is the only one who can give the researcher permission to interview participants. Claudia is a(n)
gatekeeper
"In our research, we are looking at how gender (male or female) affects the amount of money individuals leave for tips at restaurants." In the previous statement, ___________ is the variable, and ____________ is/are the categories of the variable.
gender; male or female
A cohort is a group of people who
have an event or an experience in common
What is the dependent variable in the focal research by Martinez and Lee?
homicide
Scott believes that the higher a student's GPA in the freshmen year, the more likely he or she will be to graduate from college in four years. This is an example of a
hypothesis
Exploratory research is
ideal for examining unstudied phenomena
Formative analysis usually occurs
in the early stages of the program development and design
Open ended questions allow for respondents to answer
in their own words
If a researcher was interested in creating a multidimensional composite measure of "adjustment to adolescence", she would create a(n)
index
Operationalization is specifying what particular___ will be used for a variable
indicators
The unit of analysis for studies based on secondary analysis is almost always
individuals
Some topics may be interesting and important, but gaining access to the population may be very difficult. Which of the following presents the greatest obstacles?
individuals who are members of a secret cult
Typically, the analysis of interviews is
inductive
Which of the following is associated with grounded theory?
inductive reasoning
A written consent form is used to
inform the participants about the research and any potential benefits and risks associated with their participation in the study
The term for a participant in observational research who is interviewed is called a(n)
informant
A researcher has prepared a list of topics he wishes to cover and the order he plans to ask them in an interview. This plan is called a(n)
interview guide
Participatory action research
involves researchers working with the community memers to empower a community
A hypothesis
is a testable statement about how two or more variables are expected to be related to one another
A theory
is an explanation about how and why something is as it is
Measurement
is basically a representation of variable concepts
Cross-sectional research
is both the most widely used type of research and generally has large samples
Evaluative research
is designed to assess programs or policies
Applied research
is research with a practical purpose and helps to create, modify, and implement programs and activities that make a difference in people's lives
One advantage of content analysis is that
it can be conducted with a relatively small expenditure of time, money, and person power
The advantage of an unstructured interview is that
it focuses on the respondent's understanding of the social world and allows the researcher to understand their viewpoints
A biased sample means
it is a sample that is not representative of the population from which it is drawn
One of the great strengths of the scientific method is that
it promotes skepticism about its knowledge claim
The value of a good literature search is that
it provides an overview of the current state of research and narrows your inquiry
Evaluation research is distinguish from basic research by
its immediate usefulness and its specific practical implications
Research questions can be about
local or global governments individuals or organizations entire society local or global governments as well as entire society (all of these)
If we were interested in how individuals' attitudes about smoking marijuana change from adolescence to adulthood,marriage and parenthood, the most appropriate study design would be
longitudinal
which of the following is a category of a variable?
male Asian sociology divorced (all of these)
When we develop ways to classify subjects to represent variables that we are interested in understanding, we are employing
measurement
error occurs when the measurement we obtain is not accurate
measurement
Dr. Eaton adds extensive commentary to her coding so that she can better understand their meaning. She is using
memoing
A placebo
must appear authentic and is a simulated treatment of the control group
In collecting data, qualitative interviewing has been used in conjunction with
observational techniques
What is a potential problem with knowledge from personal inquiry?
one may overgeneralize, perceive selectivity, premature closure, and uses senses alone (all of the above)
A researcher who defines "elite families" as those with annual incomes larger than $250,000 has___ this concept.
operationalized
A researcher designs a survey question asking respondents to indicate their class standing as either: First-Year, Sophomore, Junior, Senior, or Graduate Student. What level of measurement did she use?
ordinal
Letter grades given at the end of the term are an example of measurements; calculated GPA's are a type of _______________ measurement
ordinal; ratio
variables are those whose categories can be ranked
ordinal; ratio
As we administer the same survey to panel members on several occasions, there is a chance they will be affected by the questions. This is known as
panel conditioning
Collingham's focal research used
participant observation
When using minors as participants, you can obtain , a form parents sign stating they do not want their children to participate in the study
passive consent
A measure has validity if it corresponds with behavior that it is supposed to be associated with
perdictive
Knowledge that is based on evidence from our senses is referred to an
personal inquiry
A parameter refers to a ____________ characteristic while a statistic refers to characteristics from a _________________.
population; sample
Secondary data are frequently contrasted with
primary data
First and foremost, the central ethical obligation for researchers is to
protect study participants from harm
A researcher hand selects elements to be in his sample based on how much they will facilitate this study. This researcher is using sampling
purposive
Research that is focused on the interpretation of the action of, or representation of meaning created by, individual cases is known as__research
qualitative
When researchers have few cases and desire to interpret the meaning of words, they are engaging in
qualitative analysis
Screening and contingency questions can be used in questionnaires and surveys to
reduce the number of questions individuals have to respond to that may not apply to them
When a measure yields the same results time after time, the measure is
reliable
A question about one or more topics that can be answered through research is referred to as a
research question
Emily Durkeim's classic study on suicide is based on
secondary data analysis
Imagine that you have conducted qualitative interviews with a small sample of nurses about their jobs. You have done 25 interviews, each about 30 minutes long, resulting in about 20 pages of transcription. Now that you have about 500 pages of data, how would you go about analyzing the data?
select topics that participants have talked about, create categories through coding, and after categorizing, look for patterns
A researcher is interested in studying a small and elite population. She finds one element and then asks that respondents provide her with the names of others in the group. This researcher is using ____________ sampling.
snowball
A/n__________ relationship exists when an antecedent variable explains the original relationship between an independent variable and a dependent variable
spurious
As a measure of dispersion, a __________________ tells us how far the mean is from individual scores.
standard deviation
Measures of central tendency do not include
standard deviation
You want to draw a sample of the employees at a large university ensuring that in your sample you have people represented from all personnel categories: administrators, faculty, secretarial staff, cleaning staff, mail room staff, technicians, students, etc. You want to use a probability sample. Which type of probability sample would be best for your purposes?
stratified sample
The practical reason for paying attention to levels of measurement is related to
summarizing information
Cross-sectional designs are often used to
test causal hypotheses
A researcher is checking the reliability of a measure by comparing results from one time to another. This researcher is using the method.
test-retest
Gaining access to data means
the ability to obtain information to conduct the study
When selecting an evaluation strategy, which of the following is not usually an important factor?
the education level of program staff
Panel conditioning is
the effect of repeatedly measuring variables on members of a panel study.
The "continuum of availability" refers to
the fact that at least available data is often worth exploring
Content analysis dates back to
the late 1600s
A researcher computes a statistic with a probability of p>.05. This means that
the relationship is likely not strong enough to suggest that it exists in the population
Quantitative content analysis depends on
the researcher's capability to create meaningful variables
Survey research typically involves administering _____ to _____
the same set of questions; a large number of individuals
The larger the size of the samples taken from the population, the more likely that
the statistic will be an accurate estimation of the population parameter.
Like other kinds of social research, one of the first steps in content analysis is to determine
the units of analysis that the research will focus on
What was the key variable in the focal research by Arthur, Clark, Clark and Racine?
the visibility of minorities in anthologies
When we rely on physicians, clergy members, and elected officials for information, we are putting our faith in
their knowledge in those positions of authority
When new interviewees or settings slook very similar to interviewees or settings observed previously, this is referred to as
theoretical saturation
Trend studies are disadvantageous because
they cannot identify changes in individuals and they cannot pinpoint the cause of changes
Experimental designs are especially helpful for determining the time order of variables and in minimizing the effects of
third variables
Qualitative data processing is
time consuming and often rewarding
Analyzing the data from qualitative interviews usually involves
transcribing interviews from tape recordings or notes and reading this for themes and patterns
Study A involves two samples from the same population that are surveyed at two different times. Study B involved collecting data from the same sample over two time periods. Study A is a ______study and Study B is a __________study.
trend; panel
Longitudinal research requires data collection at least______different times
two
The purpose of qualitative interviewing is to
understand how individuals subjectively see the world and make sense of their lives
In general, the _________ in studies based on existing statistics is not the individual
unit of analysis
_______________ are the units about which information is collected and ___________ are the units from which information is collected
units of analysis; units of observation
In searching for literature that is relevant to your topic, it is useful to
use keywords and rely on academic indexes
Some research is likely to be quite expensive while other research can be conducted with few costs. Of the following, which study design is likely to be the least costly?
using available data from a library
Martha is a researcher who grew up in poverty and has struggled to be upwardly mobile in her career. Her research questions now center on the experiences and struggles of those currently in poverty. Because of her background, Martha should make sure her research is......
value-free
The sampling distribution of any statistic tends to hover around the population parameter, especially as the number of samples gets
very large
A researcher asks participants to share a photo that "best represents their childhood." This researcher is using
visual methods
That positivist view of science states that
we should only study things that can be observed and measured
Outcome evaluations usually begin with a question like
what is the reason the program is doing what it is doing?
In writing a report, it is important to complete a literature search so that
you are able to present an argument that this research is important to do and you ground yourself in teh field and are well informed about the topic
________________ is a statement about two or more _________________ are expected to relate to each other
A hypothesis; variables
What type of experimental design is best when ethical concerns prevent the ability of the researcher to perform a true controlled experiment?
A quasi-experimental design
Field experiments typically have better generalizability because they occur outside an official laboratory setting. On the other hand, there are disadvantages, which include which of the following?
All of these (Researchers do not have complete control over the setting. It may be impossible to run the experiment so that it is methodologically sound Researchers are usually at the mercy of others in the setting and must abide by institutional constraints.)
Sending a questionnaire by email
All of these (is useful for geographically dispersed samples is inexpensive is good for large samples raises the question of coverage error)
Qualitative interviews vary in terms of
All of these (number of times each respondent is interviewed the length of each interview the degree of structure of each interview the number of interviewees and interviewers participating in the session)
Consent forms
All of these (provide information to the respondent on the nature of the research ensure confidentiality and anonymity provide contact information on the principle investigator are approved by the Institutional Review Board prior to the interview)
Research costs include
All of these (salaries, pre-testing data costs equipment costs, data collection costs)
What type of sampling is used in content anlaysis?
All of these (simple random stratified)
A group administered questionnaire has the advantage that
All of these (the researcher can explain the survey and answer any questions that may arise, the conditions under which the questionnaire is administered are the same for all respondents, it is less expensive to conduct than mail surveys)
Which of the following is not a benefit to group interviewing?
All of these are benefits of group interviews (Group sessions are less time consuming Group sessions are cost effective Members in group can help other respondents recall information Group sessions can be stimulating to respondents)
___is an example of a composite measure
An index
___________ is when it is impossible for the researcher or anyone else to connect individuals with specific data
Anonymity
In a classic experimental design, it is important to take measures of control and experimental groups
Before and after the treatment