Research final exam
In a normal distribution, 95% of measures fall within how many standard deviations from the mean?
2 SD
which category of qualitative research aims to increase people's awareness of social injustices and encourages social change?
Critical
If you use a post hoc test that is more conservative, how does this influence the likelihood of rejecting the null hypothesis?
Less likely to reject the null hypothesis
You are interested if there are differences in quadriceps strength in the dominant versus non-dominant limb in a group of weightlifters following the same workout routine. What type of test would be most appropriate to use to determine if there is a difference?
Paired t-test
Type of source that would be the MOST reputable to include as a reference in your research proposal?
Peer-reviewed research journals
In the scientific method which step follows the formulation of one or more hypotheses?
Planning the methodology
If your calculated alpha level is less than your pre-determined alpha level you can determine:
there is a significant relationship or difference
Which study design involves the randomization of participants to groups (R), includes a pretest (D), a treatment (T), and posttest data collection (D)?
Pretest-posttest design
Which is NOT a characteristic about participants that may be included in the methodology?
Previous experience with research
Characteristics of qualitative research
Qualitative research... uses many different data collection methods such as observations and interviews emphasizes interpreting the lived experiences of the participants in the study designs are fluid and flexible Qualitative research is NOT performed in a controlled laboratory setting
What is TRUE regarding pre-experimental design?
Random assignments of participants to groups is not utilized
In qualitative research, the extent to which the findings are useful to others in similar situations is called:
transferability
T/F: One advantage of using questionnaires to gather descriptive data is that questionnaires can be administered to a larger group of participants simultaneously.
True
T/F: all legitimate research hypotheses can be accepted OR rejected based on the results of the study
True
T/F: the methods section for a research proposal should be written in future tense
True
Which is an assumption that guides qualitative research?
-It is important that the researcher be open to new possibilities throughout the qualitative research process -Qualitative researchers believe that social interactions are holistic and complex -Qualitative researchers work both inductively and deductively Qualitative researcher's perspectives are NOT objective
which alpha level is the most stringent?
0.01
What is a post hoc test and when would you need to use them in a statistical analysis?
A post hoc test is used to see WHERE differences between groups occurred. You would use a post hoc test after you have already ran a statistical analysis.
SA: briefly describe how a research proposal differs from an adult consent form, and how an adult consent form differs from a child assent form?
A research proposal is a sort of "plan of action" for a research study. An adult consent form allows participants in the study to know what they are "getting into" by participating in the study, with appropriate "layperson" terminology. A child consent form is essentially the same as an adult consent form, except for that it is written using terminology that a child can understand. A child consent form also needs to be accompanied by a parent/guardian form.
How do you best describe "what is research"?
A structured process for solving problems or answering questions
We discussed a measure of association called relative risk in cohort studies. Let's say that a study calculated a relative risk ratio of 3 for developing diabetes if an individual engaged in less than 120 minutes of exercise per week. How would you interpret this relative risk ratio?
An individual would have a 3:1 chance of developing diabetes if engaged in less than 120 minutes of exercise per week
When 2 variables have a positive relationship, what is the behavior of the variables?
As one increases, the other also increases
Which type of research aims to examine relationships between or among variables of interest?
Correlational research
When describing the cause-effect research design, which of the following is considered the "effect" variable?
Dependent variable
We discussed that meta-analyses are an approach to synthesizing the results of multiple existing research studies on a particular topic. What is the first step of conducting a meta-analysis to draw conclusions about a research topic?
Determine the inclusion criteria for studies of interest
SA: what are 5 questions that can be considered and included in an article critique?
Did the first couple of sentences grab the reader's attention? Was the purpose clearly stated? Was the type of statistical test to be used stated and the reasoning for choosing that kind of test stated? Was the reader left with a "so what" feeling? Did the researcher have a compelling rationale for conducting the study?
When should pilot testing of a study protocol occur?
During the planning of the study
You are reading a journal article that is focused on the influence of the menstrual cycle on patellar tendon characteristics in professional female soccer players. Having taken a research methods course, you understand that the generalizability of the results of this study can only be applied to other professional female soccer players. This concept is known as:
External validity
T/F: Questions used in surveys in research tend to be more open-ended in nature, whereas interview questions tend to be more close-ended.
False
T/F: as a student at the College of Charleston, if you agree to participate in a study but change your mind partway through the study, you may jeopardize your status as a student at the college
False
T/F: Although referred to by two different names, there is no difference between a systematic review and a meta-analysis
False; a systematic review often comes before a meta analysis because a systematic review gathers data and a meta analysis will interpret that gathered data
We discussed that historians collect evidence of the past form a variety of sources. What is a primary source?
First hand evidence, including original writings, photographs or artifacts
SA: What are 2 ways that you can avoid committing plagiarism?
Give credit where credit is due (cite sources) re-write things in your own words, or paraphrase, and if it is not common knowledge, then still cite it
What is included in a strong research proposal?
How the study will be conducted, a budget justification for proposed costs of conducting the study, and what the researcher wishes to investigate
Define inclusion and exclusion criteria
Inclusion criteria is what participants must possess to be a part of the study exclusion criteria is what participants must NOT possess to be a part of a study
When describing cause-effect research design, which is considered the "cause" variable?
Independent variable
Consider the following statement and conclusion: i. All of the flowers in Maggi's garden are yellow ii. All flowers are yellow This is an example of what?
Inductive reasoning
SA: If during a correlational analysis, you calculate r actual= 0.48 and r critical= 0.59, would you consider this to be a significant relationship? Why or why not? Regardless of the significance, what is the strength of the correlation?
No it is not a significant relationship. R actual must be greater than r critical to be significant/to reject the null hypothesis. The strength of this correlation is moderate/medium.
Which study design involves one group of participants that receives a treatment (T), followed by data collection (D) to assess the effect of the treatment?
One-shot study design
The concept that the risk of participating in a research study should not outweigh the benefits of a participant is known as:
Risk/benefit ratio
You have determined your null and directional hypothesis. What is the next step in determining if there is a difference between variables?
Select an appropriate alpha level
As a researcher conducting a qualitative study, why is it important to avoid asking questions or explanations from participants too early in the study?
So that the participants will act as they naturally would, and not be influenced by the fact that they are being tested
Which true experimental research design in addition for testing the effects of the experimental treatment also specifically tests for reactive effects of testing?
Solomon four-group design
Which of the following statements best describes descriptive research?
Studies that capture important characteristics of the participants without researcher manipulation of variables
We discussed 4 characteristics that must be true in order for a cause-effect relationship to be true. Describe TWO of these 4 characteristics.
The cause must be the only variable leading to the effect There must be a strong correlation between the cause and the effect
SA: What is the difference between a main effect and an interaction effect?
The main effect would be the effect of one variable and the interaction effect would be the effect of 2 variables combined.
SA: How detailed should the methodology section of a research proposal be and why?
The methodology should be detailed enough that if someone else read them, they could replicate the study. This is so that if the study needs to be replicated it can be, and the reader is entirely sure of what is going on.
SA: List 5 elements that should be included in an informed consent form?
The methods/what the participant is expected to do Confidentiality statement a description of the possible risks and possible benefits from the study a statement saying that the participant can drop out of the study at any time a statement saying that the participant could be dropped from the study at any time
What is one of the main purposes of a research proposal?
The proposal serves as a contractual agreement between the research an those who approve the proposal
What information does the effect size provide?
The strength of a treatment
A research question or problem should be stated in terms of independent and dependent variables. Which of the following statements best describes an independent variable?
The variable being manipulated
Which assumptions need to be met in order to use a parametric statistical test?
The variable must be normally distributed the variable must have the same variance within samples drawn from the population Scores or measures for the variable must be independent You do NOT have to have data that are ordinal
Which of the following research designs optimizes external validity?
Time series design
SA: When would you utilize a factorial ANOVA instead of a two-way ANOVA?
When you have more than 2 levels for 2 different independent variables
In contrast to an original research paper, literature reviews typically lack:
a methods section
An effect size of 0.6 would be considered:
a moderate effect
SA: What is a pilot study and what is the purpose of a pilot study?
a pilot study is performed so that the researchers will have a "baseline" for their research study. It is conducted to test the workability of a research study. If the pilot study does not work out as planned, the researchers are send "back to the drawing board"
you are interested in developing a study that investigates the influence of skeletal maturity on injury epidemiology and would like to include participants aged from 15-25 years. you will need to include which types of documents?
adult, parent/guardian consent and child assent forms
list 4 examples of descriptive data you are likely to collect during a research study
age height weight gender/sex
what is the level of tolerable error due to chance known as?
alpha level
What does ANOVA stand for?
analysis of variance
truting that a study participant will actually consume a supplement you are studying in the directed dosage at the directed frequency is an example of an...
assumption
Types of studies that involve the discovery of new knowledge without consideration of any immediate application is called:
basic research
Let's say a researcher is interested in risk factors for needing knee joint replacements related to level of physical activity in adulthood. The researcher identifies individuals who have had knee joint replacements and those who have healthy knees and surveys them about how much physical activity they engaged in throughout their adult years. This is an example of what type of study?
cohort
You are interested in the relationship between study habits and class attendance. You designate specific inclusion and exclusion criteria your participants must meet so that you are able to generalize your results to a larger representative population at the conclusion of the study. This type of sampling is:
convenience
creating a trustworthy design is important in making sure that qualitative research findings are believable. The ability of the researcher to present believable findings that are authentic and accurate is called:
credibility
in developmental research, a cross-sectional design can be defined as:
describing different age groups at one point in time to stimulate the process of development
These statistics are used to characterize a group with regard to a set of data, measured on all members of a group
descriptive statistics
To determine a relative indication of meaningfulness of results, you should calculate:
effect size
List and describe three threats to internal validity
history maturation instrumentation
In order to determine a cause-effect relationship, the researcher must manipulate a variable. This is the...
independent variable
IRB stands for...
institutional review board
in order to have "good" __________ when planning research design, researchers attempt to control for extraneous factors that might affect the dependent variables
internal validity
Major categories of qualitative research:
interpretive critical naturalistic NOT descriptive
Numerical measures of data where zero does not indicate the absence of a quantity are:
interval
SA: list 3 criteria for identifying a good research question/problem
it should be testable it should be specific it should be novel (new)
over the duration of your study, you discover that a piece of equipment was not properly calibrated during the data collection of 4 of 20 total participants. the data for those participants has been rendered useless so you were only able to include data for 16 total participants. This is an example of a...
limitation
statistics that are measures of central tendency
median, mode, average NOT range
You have calculated a cohen's d effect size of 0.63. How would you interpret this effect?
medium
Which of the following statistics is the least precise indicator of central tendency?
mode
SA: is there a difference in the interpretation of non-parametric statistics from the interpretation of parametric statistics? yes or no? if no, explain.
no, different tests are just used in order to arrive at a conclusion
Data that are identifiable only by a label or name are:
nominal
a statement indicating that there is no expectation of a relationship or a difference between a set of conditions is called a:
null hypothesis
This form of qualitative data collection allows for the researcher to learn about the setting or context in which social interactions occur as well as watching how those interactions occur
observations
"maximal torque production" measured by peak maximal voluntary isometric contractions performed in an isokinetic dynamometer is an example of an...
operational definition
data that are ranked are:
ordinal
the alpha level is reported as:
p
What is the name of the parametric test for correlations?
pearson's r
The sample size for a given study can be determined by calculating:
power analysis
Which of the following correlations is the strongest?
r= -0.73 <---- r=0.28 r=-0.28 r=0.55
Numerical measures of data where zero indicates the complete absence of a quantity are:
ratio
During the data analysis process of qualitative data, the researcher will often return to the original framework of the study and literature reviews to clarify and confirm themes that emerged during the study. This type of coding is called...
selective coding
an estimate of the spread of scores away from the mean is referred to as:
standard deviation
if r= -0.68 what strength of correlation is that?
strong
You are sampling participants from a pool of 8000 people attending a basketball game about concession stand options. You decide to poll every 25th person in the stands. This is an example of what type of sampling?
systematic
The null hypothesis will say:
that there is no change
What is a reason why you would use a non-parametric statistical test?
the data are ranked the data are kurtosed the data are not normally distributed you would NOT want to use a non-parametric statistical test if the data are in intervals
T/F: Due to the high degrees of variability in individual performance, actual differences that may exist may be masked when using traditional experimental research design; therefore, single-subject research design may be more appropriate to determine individual responses to an experimental treatment
true
T/F: Epidemiological research involves the study of relationships between an exposure to something that impacts health and health outcomes related to that exposure in populations
true
T/F: internal criticism refers to the determination of credibility of evidence gathered in historical data collection. That is, that the evidence is consistent with wether pieces of evidence and what is known about the time period of interest
true
If you reject the null hypothesis when the null hypothesis is true, you have committed a...
type I error
If you accept the null hypothesis when the null hypothesis is false, you have committed a...
type II error
How does descriptive research differ from experimental research?
with descriptive research you're not manipulating variables