Research Methods
Dr. Mottle's experiment is conducted in the School of Nursing's cafeteria. The student nurses that she observes in the study do not know that they are being studied.
Dr. Mottle wishes to avoid the Hawthorne effect.
Mr. Marsh writes the following in his notes: the cashier had a bad hairdo. What would be a better way to describe the cashier's ______hair for field notes?
The cashier had combed his jet-black hair straight-forward over his eyes.
A sponsor tells Mr. Marsh that it will pay for his research if the results come out a certain way.
The ethical choice is for him to refuse to continue the study.
A gatekeeper can be intimidating; a researcher may need to negotiate with him/her.
True
A qualitative researcher's goal is to capture social life in a manner that rings true to experience of people being studied.
True
A symbol can have complex, multilayered meanings, and researchers must make qualitative judgments about how to code images.
True
An independent variable is the cause in a cause-effect study.
True
An interviewer needs to control the interview and its flow of interaction.
True
Argument used in the research context means a set of of logically connected statements that end with a logical conclusion.
True
Building relationships through doing small favors, appearing interested, and avoiding conflicts are all strategies for success in field research.
True
Cluster sampling has advantages and is less expensive than simple random sampling, but is slightly less accurate.
True
Grounded theory has nothing to do with electricity and grounding circuits.
True
In qualitative studies two different researchers may not get identical results when studying the same thing.
True
Index and scale are often used interchangeably and give information on variables.
True
Many measures in large bureaucratic organizations are social indicators.
True
Quota sampling is better than convenience sampling because with it a researcher ensures that major differences in the population also appear in the researcher's sample.
True
Snowball sampling is the same as network sampling.
True
The greater the possibility of risk to the subject (participant), the greater the need to obtain informed consent.
True
Two different types of research (e.g. descriptive and exploratory) can often blend together in practice.
True
When a researcher uses coding s/he turns aspects of text content into quantitative variables.
True
Data collection techniques include all the following
experiments, surveys, content analyses.
Two types of research are typically done in the later stage of the learning process. They are
explanatory, evaluation
Dr. Richards took his research in a completely new direction, and found himself asking the "What" question again and again to try to design a second study. His first study was considered a(n) __________ study.
exploratory
An experimenter's control over an experimental setting affects
external validity.
When a researcher reads a scholarly journal, s/he should
form a mental image of the article's topic.
What is the first step in conducting content analysis research?
formulate a research question
When a researcher leads a respondent to pick one response over another, the researcher is asking what type of questions?
leading questions
If a double-blind study means that the subject (participant) and the person administering the treatment do not know whether the treatment is the control or placebo, then what does a single-blind study mean?
that the subject (participant) does not know what s/he is getting - treatment or control
Use of official existing statistics raises ethical issues regarding
the fact that they are social and political products.
Professional associations promote codes of ethics, and
the penalty for a minor ethical violation rarely goes past public embarrassment and a letter of complaint.
When using a true random process, over the long run the odds are
the people in the groups will be equal.
Secondary data analysis is similar to existing statistics research in that
the researcher analyzes data that someone else collected.
Dr. Mottle wants to test whether the style of clothing has an impact on servers' tips. The dependent variable is
the size of the tips.
Mr. Marsh is confused - a probability sample would allow him to do what?
to make valid inferences from the sample to the population
The purpose of ethnography is
to provide a description of a way of life from the standpoint of its insiders.
When all the items in a scale or index fit together and measure a single concept, this is called
unidimensionality.
Tacit knowledge includes
unspoken cultural norms.
How many independent variables are in a 2 x 3 x 6 x 8 factorial design?
4
What is a contingency question?
A two-part question in which a first question screens who gets the second question.
Mr. Marsh is concerned that nothing seems to be happening in his field research. What should he do?
Be patient, the true relevance of what he is seeing may not be apparent until later when reviewing the information.
A researcher should look at what elements when reading an experimental research paper?
How was the dependent variable measured?
Nominal measures indicate a difference among categories. Which of the following would NOT be a nominal measure?
IQ scores
Which of the following are things a researcher would do to conduct a study with physical evidence?
Identify a physical evidence measure of a behavior of interest, Compare the two variables of the hypothesis using quantitative data analysis, and Systematically record the physical evidence.
What are the advantages of quantitative nonreactive research?
It is often faster and easier to collect data.
What is true of audio or video recordings in field research?
Recorders frequently miss action or are out of range.
A threat that might weaken external validity is
artificial setting
Hawthorne Effect is
awareness of being in a study.
A random sampling distribution curve is in the shape of
bell shape curve
The weakness of static group comparison is that the researcher
cannot know whether group differences prior to the experiment or if the independent variable caused differences in post test outcomes.
Questions that focus on similarities or differences among categories, processes, or aspect are called
contrast questions.
If a researcher walks into a bus station and starts interviewing people at random for his research is most likely using
convenience sampling
This type of validity uses a standard to indicate a concept. In other words it agrees with an external source. What type of validity is it?
criterion
Dr. Van Offer is a medical doctor with an idea about how to improve his dermatology patients care. He would like to perform a study. What type of study should he consider?
descriptive
Three major issues to consider when entering the field include: presentation of self, social role, and what other issue?
disclosure
When does a researcher focus the research question when his/her research uses quantitative data?
early in the process
Dr. Mottle is interested in studying the Amish migration into the Midwest during the 1900s. Which of the following would best fit her research?
historical research/qualitative research
Selection bias and maturation are threats to
internal validity.
Mr. Marsh is measuring temperature in his research using a thermometer that takes readings in Celsius. He will be using what variable level of measure?
interval
Convenience sampling
is easy and fast but of limited use.
Basic social research increases general knowledge and
is the source of most new scientific ideas.
In a grounded theory explanation a researcher builds the explanation by
making comparisons.
Dr. Mottle is studying chiropractic journals to determine trends for use of ultrasound in chiropractic practice. As she researches this topic, she is counting the number of times that ultrasound appears in written text. What type of coding is she most likely using?
manifest coding
When measuring space in content analysis, a researcher
measures the size, volume, and amount of time or physical space.
One key feature of random samples:
must identify and pick a particular sampling element, rarely using substitutions.
Good answer choices in closed format should have three features, including which of the following?
mutually exclusive, exhaustive, balanced
If a unit fits into one category only, it is
mutually exclusive.
This type of measurement indicates a difference among categories, and the categories can be ordered or ranked. If a student earned an A, that measurement would be a(n) __________ measurement.
nominal, ratio, interval (None of the above)
As a researcher learns how to fit in by learning rules, customs, etc., he does what?
normalizes
In all random samples the researcher starts by
numbering each element in the frame.
Cultural knowledge has two parts, explicit and
tacit.
Mr. Marsh is concerned about how he will organize the sequence of questions on his survey. Since many of his respondents will most probably lack strong views, he is concerned about
order effects
Dr. Van Offer is considering a research study of lung cancer caused by smoking. What population parameter would he most likely look for in the entire population?
people who are smokers and have lung cancer
Mr. Marsh changes his title to Dr. in order to influence survey respondents. He may be guilty of using
prestige bias
One limitation of this type of sampling is that the researcher only captures the diversity of a few predetermined population characteristics.
quota
Mr. Marsh is starting his literature review on the topic of children and tooth decay. He has found lots and lots of information and now he is really confused as to his next step. What do you think that he should have done first?
refined the topic
In verifying data quality of existing statistics Mr. Marsh discovers that the definition of work injury varies across different agencies and time. This is an example of
reliability
If Dr. Mottle's measurements of her data are consistent and do not vary because of the characteristics of how she measured, the measurement is
reliable
Which of the following might be an appropriate sample frame for a population aged 16-18?
school registration
Steps in the research process
select topic, focus question, design study, collect data, analyze data, interpret data, inform others
One of the essential steps in starting a field research project is
selecting a field site.
A researcher might use purposive sampling by
selecting cases from a specific, difficult-to-reach population.
Deception is acceptable within strict limits if a researcher
shows that it has a clear specific methodological purpose.
In sampling a hidden population, a researcher would use what type of sampling?
snowball
Which type of sampling is most applicable for capturing an existing network?
snowball sampling
Mr. Marsh responded that he always completed employee evaluations on time when he was a manager, when in fact, he rarely conducted the task. As a respondent in a survey he exaggerated to look good. This is an example of
social desirability bias.
What is the first stage in conducting a survey?
start-up
Researchers control experimenter expectancy by
using double-blind experiments.
Dr. Mottle is concerned that the information that was collected by one of the government agencies might have systematic errors in it limiting the __________ of the information.
validity
If Dr. Mottle gives items in an index more or less of a value her index is probably
weighted
Ethics can be an issue in research
when researchers use deception in their research.