Communication Research Exam 2
what is a problem statement?
A statement articulating the research problem and making an argument to conduct a new study???
why should you train coders?
All coders must be trained Increases agreement among coders Commit coding system and rules to paper Practice on similar texts or messages Once sufficient degree of reliability is established, coders then work independently
Why is content analysis called a data reduction technique?
Content analysis is one type of data reduction technique. Regardless of the size of text or the number of messages, meaning can be classified into fewer categories.
what is field research?
Field research (a type of qualitative research) involves observations made of people in their natural settings as they go about their everyday life. Ex. home, school, daycare, etc.
inductive and deductive analysis
Inductive--reasoning process in which researchers work from what emerges from the data to formulate hypotheses and eventually develop theories; generally used with qualitative research methods. Deductive-- reasoning process in which researcher begins with a theory and then gathers evidence, or data, to assess whether the theory is correct; generally used with quantitative research methods.
what is the goal of qualitative research?
Qualitative researchers aim to gather an in-depth understanding of human behavior and the reasons that govern such behavior. The qualitative method investigates the why and how of decision making, not just what, where, when.
how do you interpret correlation coefficients?
Two ways. One, direction of the relationship. Relationships can be positive (values on one variable increase as values on the other variables increase too). Relationships can be negative (values on one variable increase, while values on one variable decrease) Second, the strength of the relationship. Strength, magnitude, or size. The greater the absolute value of a correlation coefficient, or r, the stronger the relationship.
stories or narratives are infrequently used in research
a reliable guide to the storytellers' beliefs, attitudes, values, and actions.
Normal Curve
aka Bell Curve Theoretical distribution of scores. Majority of cases are distributed around the peak in the middle. Progressively fewer cases move away from the middle. In a normal distribution, the curve is symmetrical. Mean, media, and mode have the same value.
organization of a qualitative research report
at a minimum it must have an introduction; a summary of the literature; a description of data collection and analysis; and a report of the findings, interpretations, and analysis.
closed vs open questions
closed-- question form in which. respondents are asked a question (or given a statement) and then given a set of responses to select from open-- question for which respondents use their own words to format a response
participant observation
data collection method used with qualitative methods; allows researchers to observe communication firsthand
ethnography
detailed study and representation of people and their interaction; the holistic description of interactants in their cultural or subcultural group
unit of analysis
discrete element coded and counted in content analysis; an observable and measurable unit
null hypthesis
implicit complementary statement to the research hypothesis that states that no relationship, except one due to chance, exists between the variables
crystallization
in writing qualitative research, combines forms of analysis and representation of qualitative data.
what does a correlation not tell the researcher?
it cannot determine causation. it does not provide any information about the cause and effect relationship between the two variables.
significance level
level of error the researcher is willing to accept; established for each statistical test; symbolized as p or referred to as the alpha level; also referred to as the probability level.
how is the methods section different than the results section of a report?
method section-- section of the written research report that describes how the research study was executed results section--section of the written report that provides the results of the study without interpretation
Mean
most common measure of central tendency; commonly referred to as the average; computed by adding up all of the scores and dividing by the number of cases
What are other names for qualitative research?
naturalistic research ethnography field research participation observation
field notes
notes about observations made in the field, in the interaction setting, or while interaction occurs
degrees of freedom
number of values that vary within a statistical test; represented by the symbol df; accounts for variation due to error
descriptive statistics
numbers that summarize essential and basic information about the dataset as a whole
respondent validation
occurs when researcher asks participants to review the researcher's notes or interpretations.
content analysis
qualitative research method that integrates both data collection method and analytical technique to measure the occurrence of some identifiable element in a complete text or set of messages
focus group
qualitative research method; facilitator-led group discussion used for collecting data from a group of participants about a particular topic in a limited amount of time
interaction analysis
quantitative research method; codes the content of ongoing communication between two or more individuals; identifies the verbal or nonverbal features or functions of the stream of conversational elements o Strengths § Elements before and after a coded element are considered § Places emphasis on relative position § Several coding schemas have been developed and validates over time o Limitations § Limited by validity and representativeness of coding scheme § Ongoing streams of conversation are not neat and tidy and can be difficult to code § Time consuming
Why are Reference lists important?
reference list-- the section of the written report that provides an alphabetical listing by author's last names of all materials cited or referenced in the research report. it is important because this is the mechanism by which readers trace backward from your document to other research reports.
What is a regression and multiple regression?
regression-- set of statistical techniques that predict some variables by knowing others; the most common use of regression is to assess the influence of several continuous level predictor, or independent, variables on a single continuous criterion, or dependent, variable. multiple regression-- statistic test for the significant relationships between the dependent variable and multiple independent variables separately and as a group.
Standard Deviation
representation of the variability or spread of the dataset; the amount the scores in a distribution deviate from the mean
What is a Literature Review?
section of the written report that provides the framework of the research investigation; summarizes the literature the researcher sought and studied to design and develop the research study.
correlation
statistical test that examines the linear relationship between two continuous level variables; represented by the symbol r
inferential statistics
statistical tests that provide information about the relationships between or among variables in the study; used to draw conclusions about a population by examine the sample.
t-statistic vs. ANOVA
t-statistic-- Determines if differences between two groups of the independent variable on the dependent variable are significant ANOVA-- statistical test that compares the influence of two or more groups of one or more nominal independent variables on a continuous level dependent variable; represented by the symbol F, also referred to as analysis of variance
Where do the conclusions go in a research report?
the discussion section. the author should describe how the conclusions of this study confirm, extend, or challenge theory.
manifest content
type of content coded in content analysis; a description of the characteristics of the content itself