Research Methods Final Study Guide

The interpretation of data in qualitative research always involves some form of

sorting and categorizing

In qualitative research, triangulation is the method of

using different kinds of data collection techniques in the analysis and interpretation

Mixed-methods research

was being conducted while some scholars debated whether it was possible

historians use secondary sources to

understand what is known about the topic

A researcher wants to determine the percentages of time that a teacher spends in various tasks, such as demonstration, explanation, and monitoring students. Which of the following is probably the most valid way to research this?

an observational study

Additional factors that can affect the relationship between physical activity and blood cholesterol, such as smoking, body fat, and so on, are called

confounding factors

In socio-historical research, technology is not used to

determine the accuracy of the material found

Choose the correct sequence for developing a questionnaire.

determining objectives, delimiting the sample, writing items, pilot testing

A basic characteristic of correlational research is that it

does not manipulate variables and hence cannot establish cause and effect

in a meta-analysis, the results of various studies on a topic are quantified using a standard measure that is called

effect size

whcih of the three branches of philosophy focuses on knowledge

epistemology

"To what populations, settings, treatment variables, and measurement variables can this effect be generalized?" might most appropriately be asked in relation to

external criteria

which of the following is not a common paradigm for socio-historical research

functional-modernism

According to the text, the proposal should be written in

future tense

the case study

gathers data from a single person or from a limited number of similar people

Individuals performing well merely because they are being observed (and not necessarily because of any effect of treatment) are considered to be under the influence of the

history

Which of the following should be included in the discussion section of a research report?

implications of the results

The major weakness of epidemiological studies isthe

inability to experimentally establish cause and effect

the socio-historical process that attempts to eliminate bias in an author is called

internal criticism

In the alternative format for a thesis or dissertation, the body of the thesis or dissertation

is a paper in research journal format

lumping as an approach to socio-historical research occurs when the researcher

takes disparate facts and groups them together

in calculating ES for a tratment effect betwee a pretest and a posttest, the text recommends the use of which standard deviation

the pretest standard deviation

In the journal format for theses and dissertations, the preliminary part

only a and b

Which of the following are most difficult to analyze in a questionnaire study?

open-ended item

Which of the following terms is used in connection with intensity of exercise and refers to the ratio of metabolic rate during exercise to the rate while resting?

MET

When a national poll reports that its survey has a margin of error of 3%, it is referring to error due to

Sampling

A major weakness of observational research lies in the operational definitions. Which question is an example of an operational definition?

What behaviors characterize a good teacher or good coach?

in a meta-analysis of 100 studies that compared boys and girls knowledge of AIDS, and average ES of 0.50 was found. this number represents

a difference of 0.50 standard deviation units

reasoning that moves from a limited number of specific observations to general conclusions is termed ___ reasoning

inductive

Which of the following should not be included in the results section of a research report?

raw data

a fundamental goal of philosophy is to examine reality primarily through

reflective procedures

Determinants of disease are often called

risk factors

The A-B-A-B designation refers to which type of research design?

single subject

in a meta-analysis the researcher found that the mean for the experimental group in a study was 14 and the mean for the control group was 10. the standard deviation of the control group was 5. based on the data what is the ES?

0.80

A survey technique that asks a jury of experts to respond to a series of questionnaires in order to reach a consensus about important issues is the

Delphi survey method

Scaled responses to questionnaire items such as strongly agree, agree, no opinion, and so on are referred to as ________ scale items.

Likert-type

A researcher wishes to study a group of children over a period of 10 years beginning in 2016 and ending in 2025. This is an example of a ________ study.

Longitudinal

The only true experimental design that can specifically evaluate the reactive or interactive effects of testing is the _______ design.

Solomon four-group

Which of the following statements about constructing tables is not true?

The table should include whatever test of significance was used.

In the results section of a research report, the author should include

a and b only

which of the following represents a secondary source regarding those waiting overnight for tickets for. basketball game

an article written by a newspaper columnist who did not observe everyone waiting in line

A study design uses, for example, two groups of people representing a disease-free population who are then classified as exercisers and nonexercisers. After a period of time, the mortality rates of each group are compared. This design is called a(n)

cohort study

Determining the relationship between students' attitudes toward drugs and the frequency of drug usage is an example of a(n) ________ study.

correlational

Which of the following would be included in a grant proposal but not in a thesis proposal?

curriculum vitae of the author

the inclusion criteria in a meta analysis are very mcuh like

delimitations

A baseline in single subject research

establishes initial rates of behavior before an intervention

In a research study in which the treatment involved quite intense physical training, 40% of the participants in the treatment group dropped out as compared with 5% of the control group. This threat to internal validity is called

experimental mortality

the socio-historical research process that attempts to establish whether a document is authentic is called

external criticism

To what populations, settings, treatment variables, and measurement variables can this effect be generalized?" might most appropriately be asked in relation to

external validity

A table of descriptive data should include what information for each group?

mean, standard deviation, and number

A researcher tests the knowledge that 10,000 school children from the southwestern United States have about nutrition, and the scores are transformed into percentiles by grade level. This type of research is a ________ survey study.

normative

which of the following represents a primary source regarding a fight in a ball game?

notes taken by a spectator at the game

It is reasonable to expect volunteer participants to be similar in nature to

other volunteers from similar populations

In qualitative research, sampling designed to select small groups or individuals likely to be knowledgeable and informative about the phenomenon of interest is called

purposive sampling

In experimental design, when comparisons are made of groups that have been selected on the basis of their extreme scores, the posttest means of the groups tend to move toward the mean of the entire population from which the extreme groups were selected. This threat to internal validity is called

statistical regression

The qualitative researcher typically

studies a small number of participants

in a meta-analysis, the ES for the experimental versus control group was 0.68, which represents a percentile equivalent of 75. this means that

the average score of the experimental group was better than 75% of the control groups scores

Measurements are frequently made and then averaged across several participants. To what degree of precision should the average be reported in a research paper?

to the precision with which it was measured

The first step in conducting a questionnaire survey is to

list specific objectives to be achieved

A major limitation in the use of video-recording in observational research is its

obtrusiveness

a method of philosophy that is designed to liberate people from the traditional claims of the other branches of philosophy falls under the heading of deconstructionism and is called

poetry

The lengths and contents of abstracts differ according to their intended use. The important parts of an abstract for a published research paper include the

problem, methods, results, discussion

Of the surveys frequently used for measuring physical activity in epidemiological research, the shortest (one to four items) is the

global questionnaire

In comparison to survey interviews, qualitative interviews tend to be

less structured

The five-chapter format for theses and dissertations differs from the four-chapter model in that a separate chapter is devoted entirely to

the literature review

Which of the following is the most unobtrusive technique for measuring student interest in reading?

Count how often students check out books from the library.

The internal validity of an experimental design is concerned with what question?

Did the independent variable really produce a change in the dependent variable?

Consider the following questionnaire item (which uses a yes/no format): "Do you use objective test items or essay items?" What rule regarding item construction does it violate?

Do not use items that have two or more separate ideas in the same item.

In developmental studies, when one wants to determine how individual children change rather than what is typical at each stage, one would prefer the ________ method.

Longitudinal

Which of the following techniques show(s) that the qualitative researcher was concerned with trustworthiness during data analysis?

A and c

A researcher finds that the control group performs above its usual performance when compared with the experimental group. This effect is named the

Avis effect

Which of the following is not included in a proposal?

Tables of results

A pretest of knowledge about microcomputers is given to a group of students 5 minutes prior to a film on the subject. A posttest given 10 minutes after the film shows a 10-point gain from the pretest. The researcher concludes that the film produced the gain. Which of the following is likely the threat to internal validity?

Testing

Which of the following is not true about a mixed-method study?

The emphasis on quantitative and qualitative methods is based on other similar studies.

Sometimes it is not possible to actually administer the treatment (e.g., when comparing children who had been in Head Start vs. children who had not). However, the researcher is trying to imply causation. This type of design (sometimes called causal comparative) is referred to as

an ex post facto design

In the journal format for theses and dissertations, the appendixes contain

an extended review of literature

which of the three branches of philosophy focuses on the value of things

axiology

To help ensure an acceptable return rate in a questionnaire study, the researcher should

b and c only

A type of study that matches individuals with and without disease on factors such as age and ethnicity is the

case control study

A job analysis is primarily a form of what research technique?

case study

splitting as an approach to socio-historical research occurs when the researcher

chips away at theory by examining how it holds together

Trustworthiness in qualitative research

deals with both data collection and analysis

The practice of selecting a small random sample of a survey's nonrespondents is primarily intended to

determine whether the nonrespondents are a different population from the respondents

A qualitative research technique involves interviews of small numbers of participants in a group setting. These groups are called

focus groups

a major difference is the purpose of a meta-analysis and review of literature for a research paper is that the meta-analysis uses the literature

for empiracle and theoretical conclusions

Interviewers may become more skilled with practice, which could cause differences between the results of participants interviewed early in the study and those of participants interviewed later. This threat to internal validity is an issue of

instrumentation

particularizing as an approach to socio-historical research occurs when the researcher

is interested in a minute detail of the past

generalizing as an approach to socio-historical research occurs when the researcher

is interested in how things fit into the bigger picture

An important advantage of the qualitative method is that

it is more likely than other methods to lead to new insights about the problem

Generally speaking, an oral presentation at a conference has

less detail than a poster

which of the three branches of philosophy focuses on the nature of things

metaphysics

Doing a mixed-methods study requires

more expertise than is required for two separate studies

The descriptive, analytical narratives that are a trademark of qualitative research are also called

narrative vignettes

A double-blind experiment is one in which

neither the researcher nor the participants know which participants receive the experimental treatment

it is common when looknig at a distribution to encounter extreme or unusual scores taht could have a misleading effect on the results. these extreme scores are termed

outliers

Prevalence of disease differs from incidence of disease in that prevalence refers to the number of

people who presently have a disease, whereas incidence relates to new cases

The one characteristic of true experimental designs that preexperimental and quasi-experimental designs do not have is

random assignment to groups

A study is designed to determine whether the addition of programmed instruction will produce greater achievement scores than the traditional lecture-discussion method. Participants are randomly assigned to two instructional groups. Both groups are tested at the end of the experimental period. What statistical test is indicated?

t test

the fact that meta-analysis quantifies findings from many studies is a frequently mentioned advantage. another strong advantage of the meta-analysis over the normal review paper is

the description fo the coding of study characteristics and the criteria for excluding studies

the most frequent and sever criticism of meta-analysis is that

the studies represent wide differences in methodologies, design,s and measurements