Communications 301 Mid-Term Study Guide Q7

The Hawthorne Effect refers to increases in worker productivity explained by workers apparently interpreting research by management as management taking an interest in them.

True

To determine causation, the dependent variable must be caused by the independent variable.

True

To establish a defensible content analysis coding scheme, you need a clear theoretical background.

True

Two ground rules for content analysis are that categories must not overlap, and each unit can only be coded once.

True

Content analysis cannot only tell us about the content we are studying, it also answers questions about how that content affects people.

False

Experimental settings are not a threat to external validity because they reflect external reality.

False

In an experiment, this is the group that receives the treatment (the group of kids who watch Ninja Turtles and then hit their little brothers with nunchucks)

experimental group

The focus is on whether the experiment has captured the outside world the researcher is investigating.

external validity

Which of these elements is NOT necessary for a true experiment?

Randomization of research subjects A control group A pretest and a posttest Correct Answer All of the above elements are necessary for a true experiment

A spurious relationship occurs where a relationship between variables has been found but is actually explained by another variable the researcher was not focused on.

True

Content analysis can be used for analyzing visual content.

True

Content analysis is a quantitative technique for describing the content of communications.

True

Content analysis is predominantly a quantitative form of a research.

True

Content analysis only examines content at its face value; it does not look for latent meaning in its examination.

True

In asking about the validity of an experiment, a researcher is asking whether the experiment captured the concepts the researcher intended to capture.

True

One of the basic things we learn from the Hawthorne Effect is that, we can alter the things or people we are observing simply by observing them.

True

Repeated testing can be a threat to internal validity as group participants become more and more familiar with a test.

True

Selection bias occurs when experimental groups are not comparable.

True

This is the group that does NOT receive the treatment (the group that does NOT watch Ninja Turtles and thus does NOT hit their little brothers with nunchucks)

control group

The focus is on experimental design

internal validity