Research Methods: Exam 2 Chap 4-6

What are the requirements of an experiment?

-Three factors 1. two groups - treatment - control 2. Random Assignment - matching, observe changes after experiment in both 3. Re-test and Post-test - one group is exposed to the treatment and the other group did not receive the treatment.

Sampling frame

A list of all elements or other units containing the elements in a population

Ecological fallacies

An error in reasoning in which incorrect conclusions about individual-level processes are drawn from group-level data

Reductionist fallacies

An error in reasoning that occurs when incorrect conclusions about group-level processes are based on individual-level data

Cross-population generalizability

Exists when findings about one group, population, or setting hold true for other groups, populations, or settings. This is also called external validity.

A measure that is valid because it obviously pertains to the subject matter has:

Face Validity

Field experiments vs. Natural experiments

Field: Experimental method in a real-world setting.

Ratio

Fixed measuring points with an absolute zero. - zero= absolutely no amount of whatever. - Ratios can be formed between numbers - If ZERO is a possible choice in a test question than it is a Ratio level questions.

"What is your opinion concerning the development of new prisons in Sussex County? Please write your answer below" is an example of which type of question?

Open-ended

The process of ______________________ helps researchers to achieve measurement validity.

Operationalization

Which level of measurement is illustrated in the following data set: freshman, sophomore, junior, senior, graduate

Ordinal

Overt

Overt observations refer to the researcher being open about their intentions in the field and ensuring all members of the social group are aware of what is happening.

Element

The individual members of the population whose characteristics are to be measured

Content Validity

The type of validity that exists when the full range of a concept's meaning is covered by the measure.

Criterion validity

The type of validity that is established by comparing the scores obtained on the measure being validated to those obtained with a more direct or already validated measure of the same phenomenon

In deductive research, one key step is:

Transplanting portions of abstract theory into testable hypotheses.

Interobserver Reliability

Use more than one observer When similar measurements are obtained by different observers rating the same persons, events, or places

Interitem Reliability

Use multiple items to measure single concept

Reliability

When a measure yields consistant scores on different occasions. A measure is reliable when it yields consistent scores or observations of a given phenomenon on different occasions. Reliability is a prerequisite for measurement validity.

Construct Validity

type of validity that is established by showing that a measure is related to other measures as specified in a theory.

Close-Ended

(fixed choice) - Respondents are offered explicit choices from which to choose. - Response choices or categories should be. - Mutually exclusive - exhaustive. ***Most surveys utilize this.***

Options for operationalizing

- Using available data - constructing questions - making observations - Collecting unobtrusive measures

What are three types of measures?

1. Nominal 2. Ordinal 3. Interval 4. Ratio

What measures are used to study groups?

1. Overt 2. Participant observation 3. Unobtrusive

Types of longitudinal collection are?

1. Repeated cross sectional design - different results 2. Fixed sample panel design - sample results 3. Event- cohort design - whatever your studying has the same characteristics

Basic sources of threats to validity are?

1. history 2. selection bias

Non-spuriousness

A criterion for establishing a causal relationship between two variables; when a relationship between two variables is not due to variation in a third variable.

Cluster

A naturally occurring, mixed aggregate of elements of the population

Quasi-experiments

A research group in which there is a comparison group that is comparable to the experimental group in critical ways, but subjects are not randomly assigned to the comparison and experimental groups.

Cross-sectional data collection

A study in which data are collected at only one point in time.

Open-ended

A survey question to which the respondent replies in his or her own words, either by writing or by talking - questions without explicit response choices. -preferable when the range of responses cannot be adequately anticipated.

Exhaustive attributes

A variable's attributes or values are exhaustive when every case can be classified into one of the categories

Mutually exclusive attributes

A variable's attributes or values are mutually exclusive when every case can be classified as having only one attribute

Defining concepts is important because. 1. Some research utilizes terms that are not familiar to everyone. 2. Some concepts are defined differently by diff. people or groups. 3. Experts do not always agree on the meanings of some concepts.

All of the above

Professor Zhang is comparing answers that subjects in her study gave to slightly different versions of a survey she is using. She is testing for:

Alternate Forms-Reliability

A question with fixed choices for responses is what type of question?

Closed-ended

Alternate-Forms Reliability

Compare subjects' answers to slightly different versions of survey questions. A procedure for testing the reliability of responses to survey questions in which subjects' answers are compared after the subjects have been asked slightly different versions of the questions or when randomly selected halves of the sample have been administered slightly different versions of the questions

Dr. Henson is able to demonstrate that his measure of fear of crime is related to a variety of other measures specified in theory. His measure has:

Construct Validity

When scores on one measure can be accurately compared to those obtained from a more direct or already validated measure, what type of validity has been established?

Criterion Validity

In inductive research, one key step involves:

Identifying patterns among related observations

You identify at what level of measure?

Interval level

Participant observation

Is one type of data collection method typically done in the qualitative research paradigm.

Test-Retest Reliability

Measure obtains same results at 2 different times. A measurement showing that measures of a phenomenon at two points in time are highly correlated, if the phenomenon has not changed, or have changed only as much as the phenomenon itself

Unobtrusive

Methods used to collect data w/o interfering in the lives of respondents

A list of the municipal police departments in Arkansas would be an example of what level of measurement?

Nominal

Types of quasi-experimental designs

Nonequivalent control group. - not random Before and After designs

The length of time spent at a residential treatment center is an example of what level of measurement?

Ratio

Split-Halves Reliability

Reliability achieved when responses to the same questions by two randomly selected halves of a sample are about the same

Census

Research in which information is obtained through the responses that all available members of an entire population give to questions

Intraobserver Reliability (intrarater reliability)

Same observer provides similar measures over time. Consistency of ratings by an observer of an unchanging phenomenon at two or more points in time

Disproportionate stratified sampling

Sampling in which elements are selected from strata in different proportions from those that appear in the population

Availability sampling

Sampling in which elements are selected on the basis of convenience

Non-probability sampling method

Sampling methods in which the probability of selection of population elements is unknown

At the beginning of the semester Professor Joo gave his criminology class a survey to determine their knowledge of criminal theory. At the next class session, he gave the same class the same survey. He is trying to establish:

Test-Retest Validity

Attrition

The 'wearing away' or progressive loss of data in research. Attrition occurs when cases are lost from a sample over time or over a series of sequential processes. One form of sample attrition occurs in longitudinal research

Conceptualization

The process of specifying what we mean by a term. In deductive research, conceptualization helps to translate portions of an abstract theory into testable hypotheses involving specific variables. In inductive research, conceptualization is an important part of the process used to make sense of related observations.

True or false: you can make an ordinal variation into an interval level.

True

Causal Effect

When variation in one phenomenon, an independent variable, leads to results, on average, in variation in another phenomenon, the dependent variable.

Can both reliability and validity be achieved?

You must always assess the reliability of a measure if we hope to be able to establish its validity. Remember that a reliable measure is not necessarily a valid measure.

Longitudinal data collection

a study in which data are collected that can be ordered in time; also defined as research in which data are collected at two or more points in time.