FYC4801 Exam 1

Reliability criteria

-Stability over time: temporal stability of a test from one measurement session to another (test-retest) - Equivalence: the degree to which another alternative instruments measure the same thing (alternative forms) -Internal consistency: questions how well a set of items measures a particular behavior or characteristic within the test (split in half)

What kind of information needs to be included in an informed consent?

-What the research participants will be asked to do in the study -Their rights as a research participant -Direct risks and benefits to them as a result of their participation - How you will protect their identity and the information they give you -Who to contact if they have questions or concerns about the study or their rights as a research participant

Goals of inquiry for social science research

1. Explanatory: mapping out a topic that may warrant further study later 2. Descriptive: describing the state of social affairs 3. Explanatory: providing reasons for phenomena, in terms of causal relationships.

What is an alternative hypothesis?

A hypothesis where a relationship does exist between the 2 variables. it can be directional (positive or negative)

What is a null hypothesis?

A hypothesis where no relationship exists between the variables ex: previous conflict in the home does not have an effect on future relationships' intimacy.

What is a law?

A principle that has never been successfully challenged.

What is a hypothesis?

A scientific statement that asks to be tested, it specifies a relationship between variables.

What is a theory?

A theory is an understanding of how something works - a body of knowledge and explanatory concepts that seek to increase our understanding

Ratio measuring

Actual zero must be present, meaningful mathematical manipulation ex: age in years, work experience, football score

What are indicators?

An observable and measurable entity that serves to define a concept in a practical way.

Describe plagiarism

Appropriating and using as one's own documented ideas, processes, results, or words of another without giving the appropriate credit.

Characteristics of a good research question

Are about topics that are suitable for social research - Are capable of being answered with the types of data used in social research -Have either theoretical or practical importance -are clear; every concept is clearly defined (conceptualized) - every concept has a logical relationship to something that can be empirically sensed (operationalized) -build on and offer something new to previous research -have multiple possible answers - focuses on 2-3 variables

Nominal measuring

Attributes only have names, no rank implied, cannot be manipulated mathematically- no adding/subtracting/multiplying/dividing ex: marital status, gender

How do epistemological perspectives influence research and scientific understanding?

By becoming failiar with research that has already been published regarding a topic, it can influence one's actual research and allow one to better understand the topic. It is important to test theories and hypotheses in order to decipher what has evidence and can be supported, since nothing can be "proven" in social science. It helps discover laws and share others' reality.

What is the difference between coding and scoring?

Coding: assigning numbers to response options for identification purposes Scoring: meaningful assessment to response options that create value (agree-disagree)

Validity

Concerned with the degree to which researchers are measuring the behaviors they intended to measure

Operationalize definition

Creating a definition for a concept that can be observed and measured; the physical things that will be measured that represent the presence or absence of a concept/variable

Positivism research:

Discover the underlying laws that are universally applicable to explain the outcome or phenomena under study

What is social science research?

Has a lot to do with how people interact with each other -to discover the underlying laws that are universally applicable to explain the outcome or phenomena under study -to understand patterns and relationships and to generalize these understandings over time

Reliability

How consistently we get the result, stability of measurement over a variety of conditions in which basically the same results should be obtained

Why is the informed consent process so important?

It gives the research participants... -Autonomy (respect for persons) - Beneficence (responsibility to maximize the impact of the research) - Justice (about who has access to research, who is going to benefit from it, and who can participate if they want to)

What are some examples of concepts?

It implies considerable evidence but not complete uniformity -There are competing theories to explain the same thing

What makes an item good?

It is an indicator of a variable that is clear and measures one behavior. It does not use jargon/tecnhical terms, so it is more likely common knowledge.

What are some common flaws in item development?

Jargon, double barreled, long in length, uses a negative (not, no)

How do you create a research question?

Looking at the designated constructs and relationships, you create a relatable variable for each theoretical construct and consider a possible relationship that goes along with theory. For our research project, we chose the elaboration likelihood model, which states that one construct increases behavioral/attitude change (construct B).

How can we improve the reliability and validity of measures?

Making more reliability is to clarify your operationalized definition and items. However, this can reduce validity since some things can be overly simplified for the purposes of reliability.

Describe fabrication

Making up data or results and recording or reporting them

Describe falsification

Manipulating research materials or research subjects , equipment, or processes or changing or omitting data or results, such that the research is not accurately represented in the research record

What are concepts?

Mental representations of generalized abstractions

Interval measuring

Must be even along a number line ex: time of day, temperature, GPA

Categorical variable

Not an increase in value because there is no relationship, treat it as dichotomous ex: what is your favorite color? Yellow, Blue, Green, Red, Orange, etc. they are all equal in value on a survey. ex2: political affiliation

Explain what a composite measure is and how we use them in social science

Outcome=composite score: a series of items all measuring a single variable; the scores for each individual item are added together to produce a single score for the variable

Ordinal measuring

Size, order. Does not need to be ex: health status, letter grade, income level

Directional hypothesis

States that there is a positive or a negative statistical difference

Non-directional hypothesis

States that there is statistical difference between 2 variables

Characteristics of a good theory

Testable -Falsifiable - Parsimonious (shouldn't be so complex that we cannot understand them, need to be rather simple) -Explanatory -Wide in scope (can apply to a variety of things) -Cumulative -Formalized -Heuristic (generates new ideas, new applications of the theory)

How are research participants protected?

The IRB (institutional review board) determines if risks posed to human subjects are acceptable (cost/benefit analysis) -Research involving human subjects must be approved in advance by the University Institutional Review Board.

Conceptual definition

The process of clarifying the meaning of a concept; the exact definition of a concept

Explain the relationship between research and theory

Theory provides a basis or idea (framework) for researchers to test different hypotheses. It helps focus research projects, so they do not become fishing expeditions.

Why do we use theory in research?

Theory summarizes knowledge, providing a synthesis of what we know about a particular behavior. It also helps with practical applications by acting as a guide for policy-making and programming. It provides logic.

Dichotomous variable

There are only 2 answers ex: yes/no

Continuous variable

Three or more choices that increase in value (can be placed on a continuum) ex: Gator fan level: wearing clothes, attending uf, going to all football games ex2: family size, number of cigarettes smoked per day

Constructivism research objective

To share, understand and describe the reality experienced by different individuals or groups

Why are validity and reliability so important in measurement?

Validity is important because if your measures are not assessing your variables, you waste time and money. Reliability is important since consistence in results establishes trend(s) in behavior.

Dependent variable

Value depends on that of another

Independent variable

Variation does not depend on that of another

What is epistemology?

Ways of knowing- how do we know what we know?

How would you state the potential relationships between variables as hypotheses?

When X goes up, Y goes up. -When X goes down, Y goes down. -When X goes up, Y goes down. -When X goes down, Y goes up.