Ch. 2: Where to Start

Purpose of SSCI and SCI?

-it allows you to search through citation information such as the name of the author or article title. -has a great feature, which they both have the ability to use the "key article" method

What are the five major sections of a research article? Description on each?

1. Abstract-a summary of the research report 2. Introduction-outlines the problem that is being investigated 3. Methods-describes in detail the exact procedures used in the study 4 Results-findings are presented 5. Discussions-researcher reviews the research from various perspectives

What resources are available when conducting any research project?

1. Journals 2. Research databases 3. Literature reviews 5. Internet searches 6. Google scholar

What are the three boolean operators?

AND, OR, and NOT

What are literature reviews?

Articles that summarize the research in a particular.

What is a theory?

It consists of a systemic body of ideas about a particular topic or phenomenon.

What is a hypothesis?

It's a type of idea or question, it makes a statement about something that may be true. It's waiting for evidence to support or refute it.

What are the two related search resources?

Science Citation Index (SCI) and Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) -these can be accessed using the Web of Science computer database

It's important to note that when the results of a study confirm a prediction, the hypothesis is only______

Supported, not proven

Respondents

The individuals who take part in survey research

DOI

stands for Digital Object Identifier which helps in finding full-text sources of the article.

Participants

the individuals who participate in research projects

Informants

the people who help researchers understand the dynamics of particular cultural and organizational settings

AND operation

this operation forces two different conditions to be true for an article to be included.

OR operation

this operation is used to expand a search that is too narrow

NOT operation

this operation will exclude sources based on criterion you specify.

What's the equivalent term for participants?

Subjects

What is a prediction?

An assertion concerning what will occur in a particular research investigation.

SCI includes what?

includes disciplines such as biology, chemistry, biomedicine, and pharmacology.

SSCI includes what?

includes social and behavioral sciences such as sociology and criminal justice.

What is PsycINFO?

-The American Psychological Association began a monthly publication of psychological abstracts in 1927. These abstracts are brief summaries of articles in psychology. -PsycINFO is a database containing psychology abstracts. (This database is updated weekly).

What are some databases used for research projects?

1. PsycINFO 2. PsycARTICLES 3. PsycBOOKS 4. Sociological Abstracts 5. PubMed 6. ERIC (Education Resources Information Center)

Theories serve what two important functions?

1. Theories organize and explain a variety of specific facts or descriptions of behavior. 2. Theories generate new knowledge by focusing our thinking so that we can notice new aspects of behavior.

What are the five sources of ideas?

1. common sense 2. observation of the world around us 3. theories 4. past research 5. practical problems

Winograd and Soloway experiment (1986)

They conducted a series of experiments to demonstrate that people are likely to forget where something is placed when two conditions are present: 1. the location where the object is placed is judged to be highly memorable 2. the location is considered a very unlikely place for the object.