CRJ387 - research methods
The scientific criteria for causality include ____.
a correlation between the cause and the effect
Things we consider real because we've been told they are real reflect ____ reality.
agreement
Traditional beliefs about patrol effectiveness, response time, and detective work are examples of ____ reality.
agreement
In our daily lives, we base reality of experience and __________.
agreement
Manipulation of data for the purpose of drawing conclusions is known as _____________.
analysis
If a researcher cannot match a given response to a specific research subject, the research can promise __________________.
anonymity
An interrupted time-series design can be very useful in ____ research.
applied
Experimental mortality is also known as ____.
attrition
When we trust the judgments of people who have special training, such as a doctor or a lawyer, we relying on _____ as a way of knowing.
authority
A questionnaire is sent to 1,000 police departments in Florida and gathers information on the number of sick days officers use after being involved in a shooting incident. This is an example of ____ research.
case-oriented
Types of longitudinal studies include trend, panel, and _______________ studies.
cohort
If a researcher is able to link information with a given person's identity but promises not to do so publicly, the researcher is promising ____________________.
confidentiality
Scientific inquiry is a(n) _____ activity.
conscious
_______________ validity is the correspondence between the empirical test of a hypothesis and the underlying causal process that the experiment is intended to represent.
construct
Traditional approaches to finding cause and effect usually try to isolate causal mechanisms from other possible influences while the scientific realist approach views these other possible influences as ____.
contexts
With respect to harm in the conduct of research, ____.
criminal justice research may generate special considerations regarding physical harm
A researcher is interested in how criminality is related to age and a large number of individuals of different ages at one point in time. This is a ____ study.
cross-sectional
Which type of study would serve as a "snapshot" of a phenomenon at a single point in time?
cross-sectional study
You observe police activity in your city for one week, and then you summarize what you observed. What type of study have you performed?
descriptive
Which action is central to voluntary participation?
disclosing research purpose with informed consent
Which unit of analysis is a social artifact?
editorials in the New York Times
Things we know from direct experience are a direct result of ____ reality.
experiential
We live in a world of two realities: _____.
experiential and agreement
When we attempt to answer questions about why something happens, the purpose of our research is _____.
explanation
A measure that corresponds well to the common understanding of the concept that is being measured is said to have ____ validity.
face
(T/F) Confidentiality and anonymity mean the same thing, and can be used interchangeably.
false
(T/F) In grounded theory, observations rarely contribute to theory development.
false
(T/F) In the measurement of crime, single incident cannot include multiple offenses, but may have one offense and multiple offenders.
false
(T/F) Longitudinal studies are designed to permit intensive observations over a short period of time.
false
(T/F) Participation as a research subject must always be voluntary.
false
(T/F) Personal human inquiry is prone to errors such as overgeneralization, inaccurate observation, replication, and selective observation.
false
(T/F) Validity refers to the degree to which every observation can be classified in terms of one and only one attribute.
false
(T/F) In grounded theory, observations rarely contribute to theory development.
false
(T/F) In a classical experiment, subjects are measured on the independent variable before the experiment begins and again after the dependent variable has been manipulated by the researcher.
false
A conceptual definition ____.
focuses our observational strategy
In the U.S., adult prisoners _____.
have, historically, been physically harmed by research participation
If you believe that the exception proves the rule, you are engaging in _____________ reasoning.
illogical
If you make sure that what you are looking at is what you intended to look at, you can avoid _____.
inaccurate observation
An experiment examines the effects of a(n) ____ variable.
independent
_______________ reasoning moves from the specific to the general, from a set of particular observations to the discovery of a pattern that represents some degree of order among the varied events under examination.
inductive
The norm of voluntary participation is usually satisfied by ____.
informed consent
According to federal regulations, which of the following populations is classified as a "special" population?
juvenile delinquents
Attempts to guard against harm to the participants in the simulated prison were accomplished by ____.
making certain that all participants were psychologically healthy
When using a nonequivalent-groups design, the researcher will handle subject assignment to groups by ____.
matching subjects in the experimental and comparison groups
When a professor assigns grades, the professor is engaging in ____.
measurement
A researcher using social artifacts as the unit of analysis might be studying ____.
newspaper editorials
When random assignment to experimental and control groups is not possible, the researcher may be forced to use a(n) _______________ design.
non-equivalent group *do not forget group*
Units of analysis are typically also the units of ____.
observation
The two pillars of science are logic and _______________.
observation
Data analysis looks for patterns in what is ____.
observed
When conducting field or survey interviews, ____.
only legitimate researchers should have access to the master file
A researcher asks participants to indicate how frequently they have used various illicit drugs using the following scale: 1 = never used; 2 = used 1 - 5 times; 3 = used 6 - 10 times; 4 = used more than ten times. This scale is best described as ____ level.
ordinal
A researcher studying rates of psychiatric disorders among inmates as a function of institutional security level finds that the highest-security prisons have the highest rates of psychiatric disorders. The unit of analysis is ____.
organizations
A promise of anonymity is unlikely to be possible when ____.
personal interviews are conducted
When we want to try to predict our own personal futures, we use casual and _______________ reasoning.
probabilistic
The age of an offender is an example of the ____ level of measurement?
ratio
The primary difference between the interval and the ratio level of variables is that ____.
ratio level is on a true zero point, while interval level is not
The test-retest method is used to examine ____.
reliability
If you have concluded that a particular pattern exists and have developed a general understanding of why, you may be tempted to ignore facts that don't fit. This illustrates _____.
selective observation
What unit of analysis is being used in the following statement? "An enormous variation of deviant activities was represented in a sample of 1,485 news items. We categorized these deviant activities into five general types of analysis: violence, economic, political, ideological/cultural and diversionary."
social artifacts
If randomization is not possible, the researcher would be well-advised to ____.
switch to quasi-experimental study
When reporting research findings in professional journals, ____.
technical failures and mistakes should be reported
A researcher studies community-level arson rates in relation to economic indicators such as household income, poverty, and unemployment. The researcher finds that communities with higher arson rates have higher poverty and unemployment rates and lower household income. The researcher concluded that unemployed people are more likely to commit arson than are those who are employed. What error was just committed?
the ecological fallacy
A(n) _____ can be thought of as a complex set of relationships among several concepts.
theory
By accepting what everybody knows, we rely on ____.
tradition
A major Midwestern university does annual surveys of its alumni. These surveys are designed to gauge the attitudes that alumni hold about the university, its academic programs, and the major team sports. These surveys have been an annual event for the last two decades and represent which type of study?
trend study
(T/F) Conceptualization is the process by which we specify precisely what we mean when we use particular terms.
true
(T/F) Each of us is born into and inherits a culture made up, in part, of firmly accepted knowledge about the workings of the world.
true
(T/F) Explanatory scientific research centers on the notion of cause and effect.
true
(T/F) The four purposes of research are exploration, description, explanation, and application.
true
(T/F) Construct validity refers to generalizing from our experimental observations to causal processes in the real world.
true
(T/F) Each of us is born into and inherits a culture made up, in part, of firmly accepted knowledge about the workings of the world.
true
(T/F) Harm to research subjects may be justified if the potential benefits of the study outweigh the harm.
true
(T/F) Individuals must be allowed to make their own decisions about participation in research.
true
(T/F) Most explanatory social research uses a probabilistic model of causation.
true
(T/F) Selective observation is a danger of overgeneralization.
true
(T/F) The benefits and burdens of participating in research should be distributed fairly.
true
When we say something is valid, we make a judgment about the extent to which relevant evidence supports that inference as being ____.
true or correct
One of the most important issues addressed by institutional review boards relates to _____.
voluntariness of participation
When a professor uses students in her class as research participants, there is a potential for ethical problems in that their participation may not be __________________.
voluntary
Which example would create an ethical dilemma when doing applied research that is evaluative in nature?
Upon review of a juvenile probation department, researchers found that contact sheets, which are designed to keep track of both phone and personal interactions between the officer and the juvenile, in one probation officer's files were all dated June 15th.
Informed consent ____.
allows subjects to weigh the risks and benefits of participating
Most criminal justice professionals routinely review ____ to get the most up-to-date and accurate information.
performance reports and statistical tabulations
Institutional review boards ____.
provide expert advice on how to resolve ethical dilemmas present in some research
Which of the following is a purpose of institutional review boards?
to evaluate safeguards to protect the welfare of human subjects