research methods

guidelines for asking quqesions in survey research

-DO NOT ASK DOUBLE BARRLED QUESTIONS -using different words -no questions w/ statement -short is better then long -clarity -avoid bias -respondent competence to answer -respondent willingness to answer -avoid negative wording

advantages of interview method

-attain higher response rates -completion rate of 80-85% -harder to turn down face-to-face -decreases number of "dont knows' and "no answers" -guard against confusing/complicated questions -interview can clarify -can observe as well as ask question

what kinds of quesions can be answered by survey research

-characteristics of large population -develop operational definitions -measurment

Guttman scales

-check all with which you agree -easiest statements - hardest -if respondent accepts a more intense statemtn, likely to accept less intense tatement -method of disocvery and using emirical intensity structure

good ways to slect areas for problem questions

-focus research -separate relevant from irrelevant background -to solve a problem, one must know what the problem is *what is the relationship between ___ and _____ -What are some research areas that interest you? -What topic areas first drew you to the field? -What are some topic arias you have read about in some of your classes? -What do you think is the most personally meaningful issue that makes communication studies most important to you?

problem questions

-focus research -separate relevant from irrelevant background -to solve a problem, one must know what the problem is

kurtosis

-how peaked the distrubution is over the mean SD x 3 (?) statistical term that refers to the extent to which a frequency distribution departs from a normal curve with respect to its weight

narrative tales

-how they tell story of what they learned in the study -the realist tale -the confessional tale -the impressionist tale

disadvantages of telephone surveys

-limited to people w/phones -unlisted numbers -hampered by "bogus surveys" -sales campaigns disguised as research -people can hang up -reliance on answering machines

characteristics of scientific inquiry about communication

-logic and observation -theory, data collection, data analysis -emirical enterprise -social regulariies -aggregates, not individuals

role of logic in research using hypotheses

-logic is one of the two elements central to scientific enterprise (ch.1) -inductive: moves from particular to general -deductive: moes from general to specific major premise: if p, then q minor premise: p (or not q- then not p) conclusion: q

qualittative research

-presents finding in texual form -usually words

What are the units of analysis in communication research?

-the what or whom being studied in social science research, the most typical units of analysis are individual people, groups, organizations, and social artifacts.

ethical standards expected of reserachers

-voluntary participation-informed consent -no harm to participants -anonymity and confidentiality -objectivity and ideology -protection of participants -honesty and integrity -avoid plagarism

What are inductive and deductive reasoning?

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What are the characteristics of scientific inquiry about communication?

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In conducting survey research, what are the challenges of asking good questions?

1. factual questions sometimes elicit questionable answers 2. what people say they do, or will do , and what they actually do are not always related 3. respondents attitudes, biefs, habits, and interests can appear highly unstable 4.small changes in wording sometimes result in dramatically different responses 5. respondents can misinterpret what questions are asking 6. the order in which questions are asked can affect respondents answers 7. changes in question format can affect respondent answers 8. respondents often answer questions when they know little about the topic 9. questions can make cultural bias that can result in different responses from people of varying cultural backgrounds

ways to improve validity of questionnaire information

1. question order -counter balancing -funnel format -reverse funnel format -contingency ordering 2. questionnaire layout and design 3.giving instructions - contain clear instructions and introductory comments 4. pretest the questionnaire - check for errors

requirements of a theory

1. specify the topic 2. range of phenomena the theory addresses 3. indefify and specify major ocnetps and variables 4. find out what is known about relationship among variables 5. reason logicallly from those to spefic topic of interest

what are the major purposes of communication research?

1. study the processes of message production, transmission, and making making. 2. systematically examine the content or form of communicative messages. 3. communication researchers are interested in studying functions and effects of messages.

What are the 3 arguments that may be sued to show that new research is invited

1. try not to evaluate a study outside the parameters of the approach to knowing in which it is positioned 2. try not to reject findings because a study and its method are not perfect 3. try not confuse from with substance

What are the major organizations in the field and what journals do they publish

APA (american psychological association) -journal of communication studies

What were the major contributions of aristotle, augustine, cicero, plato and bacon

Aristotle- study of communication is an rant - branch of ethics plato- not an art, no subject matter of its own, no concern for truth, not prevent suffering to innocent cicero- communicators must develop vast knowledge, types of style- plain, middle, grand augustine- content and invention - gospels, style - letters of apostles bacon- reason, will, and imagination

variable vs. constuct

Variable: -logical groupings of attributes -gender (variable_ made up of masculine and feminine (attributes) Construct: (#110) -theoretical creations based on observations but cannot be observed directly or indirectly -scholastic aptitude

anonymity and confidentiality

anonymity - reserach cannot link a resonse to a participant confidentiality - researcher knows

semantic-differential scale

asks respondents to choose between two opposite positions -evaluation (good-bad) -potency (strong- weak) -activity (fast - slow) good _ _ _ _ _ bad

thrustone scale

attempt to develop items that are empiraclly demonstrated to be equally distant from one naother -similar to Guttman, but each statement has a point value -judges determine intensity of different indicators

What were the major contributions to communication studies made during the classical medieval and renaissance periods?

classical- worlds first newspaper. Cicero and Quintilian medial- communication as core subject/study. tivium and quarivium renaissance- development of cheap paper - use for printing press, publications in local languages, replacement of disputation with the term paper

What is the difference between a variable and a construct

construct- a theoretical creation that is based on observations but that cannot be observed directly or indirectly Variables - logical set of attributes -ex. gender is a variable composed of feminine and masculine

what are the differences between cross-sectional and longitudinal studies?

cross-sectional studies are based on observations representing a single point in time. Longitudinal studies have a design involving the collection of data at different points in time.

hypothesis

deducted from theory and test through emiricla observation -predictions of diffferent or of relationship -directional or non-directional

What is the ecological fallacy?

erroneously drawing conclusions about individuals based solely on the observation of groups

standard deviation

how far the data are from the mean -asses the variance

requirements of sound research problem questions

must be stated unambiguously, usually in question form include at least two variables be testable avoid value judgements be grammatical and deal with communication (adfeg?) adolescents

What are the differences among the premodern, the modern, the postmodern, the positivist and the critical realism views

pre- this view has guided most of human history, assumed we saw things as they really are post-spirits do not exist all thats real are the images we get through our own points of view. "theres nothing out there, its all in here, points of view change within our own minds, individual views modern-no one is right or wrong, different people have different views, everyone sees world differently positivist-stated that the only authentic knowledge is scientific knowledge and that such knowledge can only come from positive affirmation of theories through strict scientific method critical realism- highlights a mind dependent aspect of the world, which reaches to understand (and comes to the understanding of) the mind independent world

quantitative research

presents finding in numerical form -frequencies, averages etc.

likert scale

standardized response categories -strongly agree, agree, etc -1-5 or 1-7

What are the systems, critical, and interpretive paradigms?

systems- one of the primary sisters of knowing found in communication research. systems reseachers are in interested in studying how systems function. critical-one of four primary systems of knowing in communication research. Scholars who adopt a critical paradigm are interested in understanding power relations interpretive- one of four primary systems of knowing in communication research. Interpretive researchers are interested in understanding meanings and they are constructed.

mean

the average

median

the middle number

mode

the number that shows up the most

What is a theory and of what is it composed

theory= a systematic explanation for the observations that relate to a particular aspect of life. theories can deal with causal explanation, functional explanation, or understanding elements of a theory requirements- falsification and probability components of a theory -abstract calculus -theoretic constructs -rules of correspondence - degree to which abstract calculus and theoretic constructs can be applied to every day experience

What are the differences between tradition authority as ways of knowing and what are the difficulties and potential fallacies with using each

tradition- offers clear advantages to human inquiry -by accepting what everyone knows, you are spared by the overwhelming task of starting forms scratch on your research for regularities, meaning, prediction, explanation disadvantages at the same time -if you seek a fresh understanding to human inquiry that everybody already understands and has always understood, you may mark the fool for you efforts -seek new knowledge from something that is already common knowledge or commonly accepted authority-accpetance of these new acquisitions will depend on the status of the person who claims to know. positives- we trust people because they have special training in specified field and expertise negatives- scientists make mistakes, scientific knowledge changes over time. Inquiry is hindered why we rely on knowledge outside their specialty

the tpes of hypothesis

two tailed or non directional -directional (one-tailed) -specifies a direction of outcome -non-dierectional (two-tailed) -simply predicts a rationship null -implict presumtption that there is no idfference between groups (no relationship between variables -if null hyptoheis is rejected, research hypothesis is supported

z-scores

used when data do not already have a mean of zero and SD of 1

variables vs constants

variables- logical groupings of attributes inputs-independent variables outputs-dependent variables constants- something that does not change

standard normal curve

when there is normal variation around a mean -mean = 0 -SD = 1

skewness

where the abnormally long tail is