Communication Research Methods: Final Exams

True

"Couples with affectionate communication will have higher relationship satisfaction." The prediction above is a one-tailed hypothesis.

True

"The longer I drove my car the other day, the better the weather got" is an example of a spurious correlation.

INCOMPLETENESS

- Do you believe Google is more interesting? - Do you believe that Chihuahuas are more loveable?

ABBREVIATIONS

- Do you believe disclosing medical health information on social media is TMI? - Should the city council approve funding for the PETA initiative?

VAGUENESS

- How do you feel about social media? - What do you think of animals?

AVERAGING OR RECONSTRUCTIVE

- In a typical week, how many times do you RT (re-tweet) something on Twitter? - In the average year, how many times do you walk your dog?

parameter

A ______________ is a piece of numerical data (a calculation) about a population

statistic

A ______________ is a piece of numerical data (a calculation) about a sample.

Respectable

A Cronbach's alpha of .70 should be interpreted as:

False

A Pearson's r (or coefficient of correlation) of .98 is much stronger than -.98.

latent (or hypothetical)

A ______________ variable is one that a researcher cannot directly observe, but can infer from other variables that are observable and measured directly. Two Examples: Self-Esteem and Communication Apprehension

False

A cross-sectional design is used to examine different samples of people at different points in time?

False

A large r2 means that the data points are very far away from the line you could draw through them.

A) descriptive B) experimental or C) qualitative

A recent survey conducted by the Pew "Internet and American Life Project" reported that 61% of Facebook users have taken a break from the service for several weeks or more in the past year. What type of survey simply documents the prevalence or typicality of a variable in the population?

H1: µseniors > µfirst year

A researcher predicts that in college classes, seniors are more confident sharing their opinions than first year students are. Which is the correct research hypothesis in symbols?

True

A small r2 means that the data points are very far away from the line you could draw through them.

False

A t-test assumes independent random groups, an interval/ratio dependent variable, and normal distribution, but NOT homogeneity of variance.

True

A t-test determines a ratio between systematic variance and error variance.

Lurker

A variable that explains both the IV and the DV

Intervening/Mediating

A variable that occurs between an IV and a DV.

Antecendent

A variable that occurs prior to the experiment and may impact the way an IV or DV functions

hypothesis

A(n) _________ is defined as "the conclusion that occurs at the end of a series of propositions."

panel

According to a recent journal article, there is a link between watching TV-violence as a child and engaging in aggressive behavior as an adult. This survey measured violent TV exposure in 450 six- to ten-year-old children. Fifteen years later, those same children were tracked down as adults so researchers could measure their aggression levels through self-reports and state crime records. Which survey design type does this study illustrate?

reliability

According to lecture, _______________ instruments produce consistent and stable measurements;

1. Parentheses 2. Exponents 3. Multiplication 4. Division 5. Addition 6. Subtraction

According to lecture, what is correct "Order of Operations" when you are using a formula to analyze data?

True

According to the study's results, having an exceedingly large number friends led to judgements that profile owners were relatively more introverted than those with moderately large numbers of friends.

False

After examining these results, it's fair to say that communication apprehension CAUSES shyness.

False

An abstract appears at the beginning of an article because it is written first

double-barreled

Are you in favor of tax cuts and immigration reform?

True

As discussed in our text, the results of a study can never prove or disprove anything at all, and so careful language must be used.

Positive Linear

As the price of hotdogs goes up, so does the price of hotdog buns. This is an example of what type of relationship?

Negative linear

As the price of hotdogs goes up, the price of hamburgers goes down. This is an example of what type of relationship?

a pilot test (1/2 pts.)

Before beginning the experiment, you need to make sure that training the nurse to be friendly versus unfriendly actually worked. So, you record two sample interactions between the nurse and a patient: one that is supposed to be friendly and one that is supposed to be unfriendly. You ask a few people to watch the videos and see if they can correctly tell which is which. Do they see a difference between the two performances? Do they correctly guess which one is supposed to be friendly? This procedure is called:

PERSONALITY TRAITS

Behavior assumed to be consistent across contexts and specific situations within particular contexts.

PERSONALITY STATES

Behavior that varies from one situation to another within the same context.

nominal

Biological sex (male and female) is an example of a variable typically measured at the ____________ level?

True

Both Greek and Egyptian civilizations created systems for determining knowledge that are loosely related to today's scientific method.

H1: ρComApp*Shyness ≠ 0

Consider our hypothesis below. What is the correct way to write the research hypothesis? H: There is a relationship between communication apprehension and shyness.

Currency - is the content recently updated?

Consider the web source Wikipedia. Which of the four criteria for evaluating web sites does Wikipedia excel at?

H0: ρComApp*Shyness = 0

Considering our hypothesis, what is the correct way to write the null hypothesis? H: There is a relationship between communication apprehension and shyness.

Nonprobability samples

Convenience samples, volunteer samples, and quota samples are

True

Degrees of freedom (df) are calculated by adding the number of people in Group 1 plus the number of people in Group 2, then subtracting 2 (n1 + n2 - 2).

Loaded Language

Do you agree that pets should be spayed given the ever-increasing number of unwanted pets left to fend for themselves on the streets?

LEADING QUESTIONS

Do you agree with me and with most young adults that employers firing you based on what you post on social networking sites is a threat to democracy?

incompleteness

Do you believe that women have larger vocabularies?

IMPRECISE QUESTIONS

Do you feel that most of your friends have a little something to learn about online communication?

DOUBLE-BARRELED

Do you like tofu and beef burgers?

Ambiguous Terms

Do you think cats get what's coming to them in most Kalamazoo homes?

abbreviations

Do you vote for the GOP?

A) response rate B) testing effects or C)control

During the experiment, you took a lot of steps to make sure any differences in patient compliance were because of nurse friendliness only. For instance, you used the same nurse for both groups, you scripted the nurse's behavior, and you randomly assigned the patients into the two groups (friendly vs. unfriendly nurse). The steps you took to rule out other sources of influence on the dv are called:

relational analysis

Examining feature films for the number of older women (versus older men) portrayed in a sexual relationship is an example of which content analysis use?

conceptual analysis

Examining feature films for the number of older women portrayed is an example of which content analysis use?

A) To determine if nurse friendliness and nurse credibility influence patient compliance B) To determine if nurse friendliness influences patient compliance and patient satisfaction or C) To determine if the results of the experiment hold up with a totally different group of patients

For which purpose should you expand your experiment into a factorial design?

(Sig. (2-tailed))

How much Type 1 error is present in this study?

PRESUMPTIVE QUESTION

How serious is your internet addiction?

H0: μmen __<__ μwomen

How should your write the null hypothesis (in symbols)? Remember, the prediction is that Men professors receive higher credibility ratings from students than women professors do.

H0: μromantic __<__ μaction

How should your write the null hypothesis (in symbols)? Remember, the prediction is: People who prefer watching romantic movies have higher relationship satisfaction than people who prefer watching action movies.

variability

How wide or spread out the distribution is, overall

List both modes (the data is bi-modal)

If there is a tie for the most frequently occuring score, which mode should you report?

False

If two things are correlated, that means one causes the other.

True

If you encountered the symbol Sigma x squared, Ex2 you should square every number and then add them (the squared values) together.

the narrow-down

If you organize a subsection of your Literature Review by first discussing broad information (like the overall characteristics of text-messaging behavior) and then narrowing down your focus (such as emoji use), which organizational pattern have you used?

(Tong, Van Der Heide, Langwell, & Walther, 2008)

If you were summarizing the article, what is the correct in-text citation for the first time you cite it in your paper? hint: see figure 4.16

A) 2 group post-test only B) Solomon 4 group or C) pre-test post-test control group

Imagine you conducted a study to determine the effects of journaling on emotional stability. You measured the emotional stability of 2 groups before starting the experiment. You ask the first group to journal once a day for 2 months and you don't ask the second group to chance anything. After two months, you measure the emotional stability of both groups again and compare them. What is the name of this experimental design?

averaging or reconstructive

In a survey of married couples: In a typical year, how many major conflicts do you have with your spouse?

the independent variable

In an experiment, which type of variable does the researcher change/manipulate?

A) sample: population B) central tendency: variability or C) systematic variance: error variance

In an independent samples t test, the calculated t value represents the ratio of:

coding

In content analysis, what is the word used to describe grouping one's findings in a consistent way?

False

In experimental design, the researcher manipulates the dependent variable and measures the independent variable.

.80 or higher

In hypothesis testing, what is the ideal amount of statistical power?

False

In research, the words "population" and "sample" mean exactly the same thing.

< .05

In research, what is the acceptable level of Type 1 Error?

the percentage of surveys returned compared to the percentage of surveys distributed

In survey research, what is response rate?

categorical / topical

In the Literature Review section of a research paper, what organizational pattern do researchers use most commonly to arrange the main ideas?

Social Information Processing Theory

In the article about number of friends and interpersonal impressions on Facebook, what theory is used to frame the study?

Apparatus

In what basic area of the Method Section does the author describe any special equipment or materials they used in the course of a study?

COGNITIVE KNOWLEDGE

Information/ understanding that is retained and recalled and could be measured with a standardized test.

reinforcer

It also appears that a confounding variable of "mood" may be influencing the outcome of your experiment. Patients who interacted with the friendly nurse seemed cheerier than patients who interacted with the unfriendly nurse. More cheerful patients are more likely to take their medications and follow advice. What type of confounding variable is "patient mood"?

False

It is ethical for researchers to revise their hypotheses a little if their results don't support the hypotheses.

False

It is okay to use abbreviations and acronyms in an abstract.

False

Item nonresponse is failure to obtain any survey measurements on a sample unit.

NOMINAL

Measurement level that categorizes into unordered groups (e.g., male or female).

INTERVAL

Measurement level that places along an ordered continuum with equivalent distances between the numbers (e.g, Likert scales and temperature in Farenheit).

RATIO

Measurement level that places along an ordered continuum with equivalent distances between the numbers and an absolute/meaningful zero point (e.g., inches and number of Facebook friends).

ORDINAL

Measurement level that rank-orders or places into ordered categories (e.g., first-year, sophomore, junior, senior).

H1: μmen > μwomen

Men professors receive higher credibility ratings from students than women professors do. How should your write the research hypothesis (in symbols)?

unethical behavior

Milgram's experiment on conformity to authority involved decieving participants into believing they were delivering painful (potentially fatal) electric shocks to other people. Both the procedures and the outcome of the study were bad because some participants had ongoing health and psychological issues after the study. Which of the following ethical scenarios applies best?

internal validity

Naturally, you are concerned about the degree to which the change in patient treatment compliance is actually caused by changes in nurses' friendliness and not something else. In other words, you are concerned about:

True

No matter how rigorously a study is conducted, there are always limitations.

A) ratio; nominal B) nominal; interval or C) interval; nominal

On most communication surveys, the majority of questions in the body of the survey are measured at the _______________ level; whereas most demographics are measured at the ______________ level.

semantic equivalence

One of the issues when translating surveys into other languages is that a word in one language may not have an equivalent word with the same meaning in a different language. This issue is called:___________________

normative equivalence

One of the issues when translating surveys into other languages is that different cultures have different social conventions about their willingness to discuss certain topics, the manner in which ideas are expressed, and the treatment of strangers. This is called:___________________

False

Other things being equal, a 20-item test is just as reliable as a 10-item test.

H1: μromantic > μaction

People who prefer watching romantic movies have higher relationship satisfaction than people who prefer watching action movies. How should your write the research hypothesis (in symbols)?

BELIEFS

Perception of reality about whether something is true or false.

ATTITUDES

Predispositions to respond to people, ideas, or objects in an evaluative way.

Step 1: Pick the Questions. Step 2: Create Instructions. Step 3: Choose a Design. Step 4: Process the Data.

Put the steps for making a survey in the right order.

- Whether there is a difference between pre- and post-test scores. - Whether the pre-test influences the post-test. & - Whether the mere passage of time influences the post-test.

Q: Why is the Solomon 4-group design considered the "gold-standard" experiment design? A: The Soloman 4-group can determine:

objective

Quantitative researchers strive to produce knowledge that is ______________.

False

Questionnaires, Interviews, and Experiments can equally demonstrate causal relationships.

- use the author's exact words. - include the quotation in quotation marks (unless it is so long it must be presented as an indented block). & - indicate the page number where the quotation is published.

Quotations involve the use of another author's exact words in your study. To ensure you give proper credit when quoting another author, you should:

Men professors (M = 4.28, SD = .79) receive significantly higher credibility ratings than women professors (M = 3.08, SD = 1.04), t(48) = -4.597, p < .05.

Reject the null because the significance level is < .05.

There is no significant difference in the relationship satisfaction of people who prefer romantic movies (M = 8.00, SD = 1.41) and action movies (M = 7.10, SD = .99), t(18) = 1.646, p > .05.

Retain the null because the significance level is >.05.

False

Retaining the null hypothesis means that there is a statistically significant correlation between the variables.

ratio, interval, ordinal, nominal

Select the list of variable levels that is ordered from the highest (most) to lowest (least) precise way to measure.

IMPRECISE AGENTS OF ACTION

Should we be allowed to vote online for President?

(Sig. (2-tailed)) significance level is __<__ .05

Should you reject or retain the null hypothesis? Reject the null because...

(Sig. (2-tailed)) significance level is >.05

Should you reject or retain the null hypothesis? Retain the null because...

True

Social desirability bias refers to the tendency to give answers that are viewed favorably by others.

null

Statistical analysis always tests the __________________ hypothesis.

True

Statistical analysis can only support or fail to support your prediction. It can never prove with 100% certainty that your prediction is definitely right or wrong.

Inferential Statistics

Statistical tesets that allow researchers to make inferences (generalizations) about some unknown aspect of a population from a sample.

True

Students are allowed to attend academic communication conferences and to present their own research there.

False

Summaries of preexisting research on a subject are primary sources.

nonresponse bias

Suppose you are collecting coal miners' evaluations of their field supervisor. As you process the data, you notice that several of the participants left the question about their gender blank. Since mining is a heavily male-dominated field, you wonder if women were more likely to skip the question for fear of revealing their identities or having their opinions blamed on their sex. What kind of bias are you seeing?

confederate

Suppose you bring a nurse in on the research and train him to be friendly to one group of patients and unfriendly to another group of patients. The stimulus to which you are exposing each patient is a(an):

A) it makes no difference B) sexual dysfunction questions or C) communication satisfaction questions

Suppose you have created a survey that includes 3 instruments: demographic questions, a measure of sexual dysfunction, and a measure of communication satisfaction with a romantic partner. Which of those instruments should be placed at the beginning?

You should manipulate nurse friendliness and measure patient compliance

Suppose you want to know whether nurses' friendliness has an influence on patients' compliance with their medical treatment plans. What is your role regarding the two variables?

face-to-face interview

Suppose your survey questions are open-ended. You need in-depth answers and you need a high level of agreement to participate in the research. Which type of survey is ideal?

False

Systematic variance is variance that can be attributed to other factors not related to the independent variable, such as chance.

Independent

The "cause" or variable the researcher manipulates.

Dependent

The "effect" or variable the researcher measures

True

The Pearson's r correlation assumes that both the variables are measured at the interval or ratio level.

test-retest reliability

The StrengthsFinder test identifies a person's Top 5 personality strengths. Suppose a researcher asks each person to take the StrengthsFinder test twice in order to examine the consistency between their scores at Time 1 and then six months later at Time 2. What type of reliability is being assessed?

null; research

The ________________ hypothesis predicts there is NO significant relationship or difference; whereas, the ______________ hypothesis predicts there IS a significant relationship or difference.

empiricism

The belief that science can only be used to study phenomena that can be "sensed" by average people is called ________________.

False

The central limits theorem states that the applicability of research results are limited only to participants whose scores are the most centrally occurring

Type 1 Error

The chance of mistakenly rejecting a null hypothesis that is true in the population.

Type 2 Error

The chance of mistakenly retaining a null hypothesis that is false in the population.

People with high levels of poverty tend to have low levels of education.

The correlation between poverty and level of education is -.68. So, which statement is true?

skewness

The degree of assymmetry of a distribution of scores (it's shiftedness to the right or left)

kurtosis

The degree of peakedness of a distribution of scores.

Ibn al-Haytham

The first person to utilize the scientific method was ____________________.

faking responses

The general term for when a participant deliberately attempts to alter results in a specific way.

Statistical Power

The level of precision for detecting significant effects in data.

False

The maximum amount of Type 2 error that is acceptable is 5%.

False

The maximum amount of Type I error that is acceptable is 20%

False

The median is the most frequenty occuring value in a data set.

The early 1900s

The notion of 'personality' has been around since the time of Hippocrates. However, actually measuring personality become feasible when?

APA style

The preferred format of writing for most communication journals is:

Type 1 Error

The probability of mistakenly rejecting a true null.

Type 2 Error

The probability of mistakenly retaining a false null.

Significance Testing

The process of analyzing quantitative data for the purpose of determining whether a null hypothesis is probably correct or incorrect.

Confidentiality

The researcher does not divulge any information that could lead to the identification of a participant.

Anonymity

The researcher doesn't know who participated in a study or which results belong to which participants.

Privacy

The researcher has information about each participant, but only shares participants' information when necessary.

60%

The response rate for good surveys should be at least:

positive skew

The shape of a distribution caused by having a few scores that are much higher than the majority (which are lower)

negative skew

The shape of a distribution caused by having a few scores that are much lower than the majority (which are higher)

Type 1 = Sig. (2-tailed)

The significance level (Sig. (2-tailed)) is the amount of Type 1 error

unit of analysis

The specific message(s) that a content analyst is coding are called the _____________________.

False

The t-test was invented by Karl Pearson.

a truncation symbol

The technique of placing an asterisk ( * ) after a search term in order to retrieve results that include all forms of the word (for instance, typing gene* to search for articles including the words gene, genetic, genetics, genetically) is called:

asking them to record their behavior in a treatment journal

There are several ways you could determine how closely each patient is complying with their treatment plan. How could you use a self-report scale to measure that dependent variable?

Reject the null because the (Sig. 2-tailed) significance level is __<__ .05

There is a significant, weak, positive correlation between communication apprehension and shyness, r (43) = .297, r2 = .09, p < .05.

the standard deviation of the sample

To determine the amount of sampling error, look first at ___________

True

To reject the null, Type 1 Error must be less than or equal to 5% (or .05).

True

Type 1 Error is the chance of mistakenly rejecting a true null hypothesis.

Confounding

Variables that obscure the effects of your IV

Research is the systematic effort to gather data and analyze it to answer questions

What is research

by supporting my arguments though the citation of empirical research

What is the best way for me to establish (or espouse) my credibility in the Introduction section of a research paper I am writing?

randomization

What is the difference between a TRUE experimental design and a QUASI (aka "pre") experimental design?

Number of Facebook Friends

What is the independent variable (IV) in this study?

PERCEIVED KNOWLEDGE

What or how much a person thinks he or she knows.

longitudinal

What type of survey is used if a researcher wants to get information from a group of participants across a long (e.g., years) span of time?

response set bias

When a participant answers questions in a certain way because of how items are arranged or presented. For instance, participants may select "5" on the first answer and then tend to pick "5" on the rest.

social desirability bias

When a participant changes how he or she scores on a measure to be perceived in a "better light."

"screw you" effect

When a participant tries to determine what answers the researcher wants and gives the opposite or a random response.

acquiescence

When a participant tries to determine what answers the researcher wants and produces them.

A) 30% B) 25% or C) 5%

When conducting a pilot test of a survey, about what percentage of your target sample size should you ask to take it?

False

When constructing questions (for research scales), it is OK to use words always and never.

- Write short reports. - Avoid jargon. & - Arrange material for emphasis.

When presenting research, business audiences are different from academic audiences. O'Shea (1986) offered seven keys to writing a readable report for the business world. Which of the following are good ideas for reporting research outside of academia?

True

When translating scales from one language to another, a researcher can recruit a bilingual individual to perform the translation and then ask experts to look over the translation. This is called modified direct translation.

True

When you reject a null hypothesis (because the significance level/p is < .05) you can tell which group was significantly higher or lower than the other by looking at the means.

Informed Consent

Which Belmont Principle protects the rights of people who have "diminished autonomy"?

r = -.87

Which correlation value (r) shows the strongest relationship between variables? In other words, which one has the greatest magnitude?

- Give multiple opportunities to take the survey. - Provide an incentive. - Keep it brief. - Make it mandatory. Don't even give participants a choice. (1.5/2pts.)-(take one away)

Which of the following are good ways to increase survey response rates?

bar graph with line following the shape

Which of the following distributions is appropriate for interval/ratio data?

Use hypothetical questions.

Which of the following is NOT a guideline for constructing questions (for research scales)?

The more different from an audience the speaker feels, the less comfortable the speaker will be.

Which of the following statements expresses a negative relationship between variables?

The more Riley goes to the gym, the more muscle mass he will have.

Which of the following statements expresses a positive relationship between variables?

- verbal - nonverbal & - mediated

Which of the following types of messages may be examined through content analysis?

- median - mean & - mode

Which of these are measures of central tendency?

When you need to establish cause-effect relationship between variables

Which of these situations is not a valid time to use survey research?

A) telescoping B) internal validity or C) ecological fallacy

You conduct a survey designed to determine the relationship satisfaction levels of couples that are separated geographically because of military deployment. You administer a questionnaire to 500 active duty soldiers who are currently overseas. Later, as you tabulate the results, you wonder if their spouses back home would have rated their relationships the same way? Which problem with self-report bias does this scenario illustrate?

Hawthorn effect

You discover that both groups of patients (those treated friendly and unfriendly by the nurse) are complying with their treatment plans much better than the average patient. Maybe these participants are on their best behavior because they know they are being observed. This phenomenon is called a(n):

A) interval dependent variable B) independent random samples or C) normal distribution

You want to determine whether students who are under 21 drink less alcohol than students who are 21 and older. You gather a sample of one hundred 18-20-year-olds and one hundred 21-23-year-olds. During the study, you discover that some of the students in the younger group are good friends with the students in the older group. What assumption of the independent samples t test procedure has been violated?

A) normal distribution B) bivariate normal distribution or C) interval/ratio measurement

You want to use a correlation to analyze data you have collected on two variables. However, when you look at the histograms of the two variables, they do not look like bell-shaped curves. Which assumption of correlation has been violated?

Machiavellian ethic

Zimbardo's Prison Study at Stanford violated ethical standards of research, but resulted in some useful knowledge about how the power of an oppressive situation. Which ethical scenario best applies?

validity

________________ instruments go one step further to also produce accurate measurements

Outlier

an extreme score in the data that is either much higher or much lower than typical scores.

Pearson Correlation

correlation (r)

SPELLING

do u have a Faceboop account?

True

r2 is the Effect Size of the relationship between (communication apprehension) and (shyness)

True

r2 is the proportion (or %) of variance that is shared by two variables.

True

t values of -.31 and .31 are exactly the same size.

standard deviation

the average distance between each score and the mean score

range

the distance between the highest and lowest scores in the dataset

Sampling error is...

the random differences that exist between the sample and the population