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.
