SW 650 Concepts for Midterm

Nominal

lowest on the scale of measurement a numeral is assigned to objects or events, making sure each category is mutually exclusion and exhaustive numerals no internet meaning other than for organization there are "no less than" or "greater than" relations among categories nor operations such as addition or subtraction ex: Primary language spoken at home: - 1. English, 2. Spanish, 3. Hmong, 4. German, ... x. Other - Favorite ice cream flavor : 1. Chocolate, 2. Mint Chip, 3. Espresso, 4. Cookies and cream, 5. Strawberry....x. other

Inductive

move from specific to abstract: create theory observing the real world

continuous variable

numbers (e.g. 0-3 assigned to Likert scale measure for program satisfaction)

Ordinal

numbers are used to order categories the attributes or categories can be ranked or ordered from highest to lowest (1st, 2nd, 3rd) The categories have unequal widths or intervals Social Class : "upper class"=3, "middle=2 class", or "working class"=1. Likert or rank-ordered scale: Strongly Agree=4, Agree=3, Disagree=2, -Strongly Disagree=1 Yes=1 ;No=0"

Quantitative

observations translated into numbers relies on hypothesis testing and quantitative tests like surveys, personality tests, and standardized research tools. striving for partial explanation for phenomena emphasis on nonomthetic aims (general population)

P-values

p-values indicate the probability that if you accept the alternative/research hypothesis you've gotten are really close due to chance -p value close to 0= signals that your null hypothesis is false and a difference is likely to exist. -large p-values closer to 1 imply that there is no detectable difference for the sample size used, you cannot reject the null hypothesis.

Examples of risk to research participants

psychological harms social harms physical harms harm of exploitation legal harms economic harms

extraneous variables

represent potentially alternative explanations for the relationship between the independent and dependent variables. *a major goal in a research design is to decrease or control the influence of extraneous variables as much as possible.

Tea Room Trade Study

researcher acted as lookout for men in sexual acts and took down license plate numbers and would visit them at home to get more information

Ethical duties of researchers (e.g in analysis, reporting, interpreting data)

researcher should be familiar with study's limitations and shortcomings or failures and must make these known. Every published study should have a "limitations" section. Ethical duty of researcher to disseminate research and to not use research results to bring harm upon certain groups of people

Confidentiality vs. ananymity

researchers are able to identify specific respondents but promise to keep information secret (anyone with access to info must be trained) concealing identity of participants in ALL records - researcher is unable to link info with specific respondent

Operational definition

spells out precisely how the concept (nominal definition) will be measured Operational definitions must include indicators: observables that identify the presence or absence of the concept under study -- a count, a score on a scale or an item

Longitudinal Studies

studied intended to describe processes occurring over time and whose observation are conducted over extended period. there can be of great value in: understanding processes/change figuring out what factors impact people over time (understanding predict ive value of attributes/circumstances) the most credible way to indicate x causes y

what are the two types of measurement error?

systematic and random

units of analysis

the major entity that is being analyzed in a study-that which you are collect information about. individuals groups families schools organizations/agencies cities countries

Measurment

the process of assigning numbers or numerals to states, traits, attitudes, behavior, etc Why do it? Objectivity: more objective than casual observations, minimize personal judgements. Replicability: if we have a set procedure to follow, other can do the same to test our findings.

conceptualization

the process of specifying what we mean by particular terms (e.g. poverty, obesity, recovery, committed relationship).

Operationalization

the process of spelling out precisely how the concept will be measured.

Authority

the status of the discoverer; depends on authority of "experts" ; ex: athletes promoting specific nutrition stuff

dependent variable

the variable being explained or impacted, the outcome the DV (or set of Dvs) is usually the variable your'e particularly interested in

Cross sectional studies

these examine some phenomenon at one time may have exploratory, descriptive or explanatory purpose explanatory cross-sectional studies have an inherent problem: they aim to understand causal process that occur over time, but their conclusion are based on observation made at only one time.

alternative or research hypothesis

this is the research hypothesis, stating a relationship between variables as predicted or guided by theory. you want to accept the alternative (means there are statistically significant associations) the research hypothesis is explicitly stated in research manuscripts

Evaluation

to evaluate social policies, programs and interventions: evaluate research may encompass exploration, description, and explanation -an exploratory study design examines whether it was really the program or intervention that explains why the goal was achieved in some other factor

Exploratory

to investigate little understood phenomena a primary interest may be to test the feasibility or best methods to be used in more extensive study

Descriptive/Correlational Research

to provide an accurate of phenomena and or association or comparison between phenomena. -describes the characteristics or conditions of a population or problem -answers to: who, what, where, when, how and how much -examines the nature of relationships between factors -does not involve testing interventions or experiments -typically utilizes cross-sectional research designs -uses either quantitative or qualitative research methods.

How do we know things?

tradition, authority, experiential, intuition, research

What are the three types of longitudinal studies?

trend, cohort, panel

random

we worry about these less Those errors that are neither consistent or patterned. They are random. Unpredictable from one test taking situation to the next. ex: Fluctuations in Mood Read items carelessly. Telephone rings during exam - momentarily lose your concentration.

systematic

we worry about these more errors in the instrument that are consistent and patterned and repeatable form one setting or test taking situation to the next ex: Self-reports: The validity and reliability of measures are key Response sets: Social Desirability: tendency to respond in a way that makes one or one's reference group look favorable ; indicates a desire for approval. Acquiescent Response set: agree regardless of content of statement Central tendency: tendency of people to select middle-of-the-road answers Recall problems : trouble remembering specific/exact information *Advantage of self-reports: if anonymous, may minimize social desirability Interviews: Way the question is asked (questionnaire bias) [next slide] Who is asking question (unique characteristics of the interviewer (mannerisms, attitudes, appearance, demograph.) Social desirability can be greater in an interview *Advantage of interviews: interviewer can explain, observe and probe Examining Available Records: Various sources will consistently under-or over-report (i.e. inaccurate data) *Advantage: The least time-consuming and costly measurement option

Experiential

what we experience

Premature closure of inquiry

withdrawing from the pursuit of evidence, refuting the consider information that may counter deeply held assumptions or beliefs and invested resources.

Steps of Evidence Based Practice

1. Formulate a client, community or policy related question 2. Systematically searching the literature 3. Critically appraise the relevant studies for quality and applicability. (consider all available research (ideally): how relevant to your client? How strong is the evidence? 4. Determine which evidence-based intervention is most appropriate with and for your client. 5. Apply intervention 6. Evaluation and feedback

3 conditions for establishing a causal relationship

1. IV and DV are statistically significantly correlated. 2. IV must precede DV in time -in experimental research, the intervention always precedes the outcome you measure. (most compelling case for causality) Longitudinal studies are in good position to decipher if IV precedes DV 3. Reasonable alternative explanations for relationship between IV and DV are rules out (no spuriousness)

Moderating variable

A moderator is a variable that affects the strength of the relation between an independent variable and a dependent variable. Moderating variable is a variable that changes (increases or decreases) the effect of the independent variable upon the dependent variable.

Types of Reliability

A reliable measure should not change from one application to the next or between one rater versus another There are two good methods of measuring stability: test-retest reliability inter-rater reliability

Test-Retest (stability)

Administer a test at one point in time and then re- administer it at a second point in time. Assuming nothing in your life has changed which would influence test scores, the scores on the two test-taking occasions should be close to one another.

What is meant by informed consent?

All participants must be aware they are participating in a study potential research subjects should be given enough info to determine possible risks and language must be age appropriate Research subjects must be volunteers, no coercion All subjects must be able to comprehend the material (legal guardians must give permission, but if possible, the subject must assent) Participants must feel free to decline participation General components of informed consent What is the purpose of this research? Why is this important to study? Why are you invited to participate in the study? What will participation involve? (what activities, how long, recorded or not, etc.) Clear specification of possible risks to you (limits of confidentiality, disclosure of alternative tx) Clear specification of benefits to you Compensation (how much, when?) Your rights: clear statement that participation is voluntary throughout and you may leave at any time with no consequences (no loss of benefits to which one is otherwise entitled) Confidentiality/anonymity: how protected? (where will data be kept, who will have access, etc.) Contact info for research and IRB

What is meant by evidence-based practice?

An approach to decision-making which is transparent, accountable, and based on a consideration of current best evidence (credible evidence) about the effects of a particular intervention. Does not consider peoples common sense or beliefs or even experienced fractions observations as "credible evidence" process in which practitioners make decisions in light of the best research evidence available; integrate the best available research evidence with their practice expertise and other resources; characteristics, circumstances, needs, values and preference of their client system or target population; and knowledge of the idiosyncratic circumstances bearing on specific practice decisions. Implies career-long learning

An interval variable is similar to an ordinal variable, except that the intervals between the values of the interval variable are equally spaced. However, the zero point on the scale is either: arbitrary (negative values on the scale can be used),or not meaningful in the full sense (it does not make sense to refer to 0 as the absence of a trait) ex:IQ test results Temperature Degree Score on a depression scale

An interval variable is similar to an ordinal variable, except that the intervals between the values of the interval variable are equally spaced. However, the zero point on the scale is either: arbitrary (negative values on the scale can be used),or not meaningful in the full sense (it does not make sense to refer to 0 as the absence of a trait) ex:IQ test results Temperature Degree Score on a depression scale

What sort of research is exempt from full IRB review?

Certain research conducted in educational settings (cognitive diagnostic, aptitude, achievement) Unobtrusive research Research involving publicly available data Program evaluation Interview or survey procedures with elected or appointed officials Food/consumer preference research Almost any survey or interview-based study that does not deal with "sensitive issues" and material is anonymous or confidential

Nuremberg Code: Purpose and Examples of principles

Codes of research ethics with human subjects can be traced to ethical standards established by a military tribunal on Nazi war crimes during WWII Established basic principles that must be observed in order to satisfy moral, ethical and legal obligations Ten Principles: Voluntary consent Experiment must yield fruitful results unprocurable by other methods (not random, unnecessary) Anticipated results justify the study Must avoid all unnecessary physical and mental suffering and injury Must never be conducted if there are reasons to believe that death or injury will occur Degree of risk should never exceed the degree of humanitarian importance of the problem to be solved Proper preparations and adequate facilities must be provided to protect against even remote possibilities of injury, disability or death Experiment should be conducted only by scientifically qualified persons Human subject should be at liberty to bring the experiment to an end during it Researcher must be prepared to terminate at any stage if probable cause to believe that a continuation is likely to result in injury, disability or death to experimental subject

Idiographic

Definition: the approach of investigating individuals in-depth detail to achieve a unique understanding of them. Underlying assumptions: humans are unique an therefore general laws re: psychological and social behavior are not tenable Methodology: Qualitative methods provide a more complete and global understanding of the individual who is studied using flexible detailed procedures (individuals in a class of their own) Advantages: more complete and global understanding of individuals Disadvantages: difficult to generalize findings; more unreliable less scientific (replicable)

nomothetic

Definition: the approach of investigating large groups of people to find general principles that apply to everyone. Underlying assumptions: human behavior is a complex combination of many factors and therefore it is best study people on a large scale. Methodology: Quantitative and experimental methods are best to identify the universal laws governing behavior. the individual will be measured using a score (looking for averages). Advantages: useful for predicting and controlling behavior Disadvantage: superficial and understanding of any one person; not informative with respect to any one individual (averages)

Face Validity

Do the items look like the variable/construct that you say you are measuring?

Validity

Does our measure/scale assess the specific concept that we are attempting to measure

Zimbardo's Prison Experiment

Done at Stanford; assigned a group of students to play either the role of prison guard or prisoner; prisoners were locked up in the basement of the psychology building, and the guards were put in charge of their treatment - students took their assigned roles perhaps too well, and the experiment had to be ended early because of the cruel treatment the guards were inflicting o the prisoners *Standford students as guards and prisoners in mock prison. Guards became sadistic and prisoners became depressed

Ratio

Highest level of measurement Has a meaningful zero point=absence of the trait Numbers indicate intervals between categories are not only equivalent but also they indicate ratio between scores ou can do any mathematic manipulation (inc. ratios/division, multiplication)and utilize the most sophisticated statistical methods.

Deception and when it is viable

IRB must be convinced it is necessary, with minimal risk and will not adversely affect participant rights

percent agreement

Ideally you would like 80% agreement or more for inter-rater reliability to be acceptable, but some argue that 70%-80% is marginally acceptable.

NASW Code of Ethics

Informed consent: SWs should never design or conduct evaluation or research that does not use consent procedures Voluntary: should inform participants of their right to withdraw from evaluation and research at any time without penalty Competence: Social Workers engaged n the evaluation of services should discuss collected information only for professional purposes and only with people professionally concerned with this information. Beneficence: SWs should report evaluation and research findings accurately. They should not fabricate or falsify results and should take steps to correct any errors later found in published data using standard publication methods Beneficence: SWs engaged in evaluation or research should be alert to and avoid conflicts of interest and dual relationships with participants

inter-rater reliability

Inter-rater Agreement or appropriate when you use assistants to do interviewing or content analysis for you. For nominal and ordinal levels of measurement, you would calculate the percent of agreement between the raters on...(for example) specific diagnosis--ADHD, Conduct Disorder, Generalized Anxiety, etc. level of marital dysfunction (high, medium, low) the existence of caregiving burden (yes/no) For interval or ratio levels of measurement, you would calculate the correlation (r) between the ratings of the two observers...(for example) on a 1-7 level of disruptive activity in a classroom (ratings by two or more individuals)

Cronbach's alpha

Measure of internal consistency of the items; Scores range between zero and one. Correlates performance on each item with overall score. Tells you how much measurement error you have • If Cronbach's alpha ( α ) is .90, means that 10% of score is error. • If Cronbach's alpha is .40, means that 60% of score is error. ** As a general rule, you want Cronbach's α to be at least .70 ("acceptable") and higher (above .80="good")

Mediating Variable

Mediating Variable: (AKA Intervening variable) A variable that explains why or how the IV is related to the DV -the mechanism by which the IV affects the DV.

Characteristics of a good research question

Must be narrow, specific Must be posed in a way that can be answered by observable evidence should have significant potential relevance for guiding social welfare policy or social work practice (passes the so what test?) there must be more than one possible acceptable answer to the question

phases of the research process

Observing Wondering Deriving a question Developing a research plan to explore the question Implementing a systemic and documented process of observation and evaluation tabulation, analyzing results deriving conclusions noting limitations of question or study revising the question or study design, possibly generating a hypothesis for further research.

Interpretivst

Ontology: reality is a product of individual consciousness or interpretation multiple realities; no objective reality rejects that idea that social science can create true objective knowledge of any kind. Epistemology: -subject/participants is expert on her/his reality. -rejects idea that the methods of the natural sciences can be applied in the social sciences -study of social phenomena requires methods that can capture t he social world have constructed and the means the actors attribute to their experiences.

Positivism

Ontology: reality is separate from our consciousness; can be studied and understood in a rational, scientific manner (in controls to religion or superstition) Epistemology: -Researcher is the expert, hierarchical relationship between researcher and subject -researcher can be objective -observation is the best form of data -search for linear or patterned relationship to yield general laws. Human nature? humans are determined by their environment, not unique agents of free will. determinism: (e.g race, gender, family SES)

Concerns about research that have been expressed by communities of color/other minorities What is meant by 'vulnerable subjects or participants'?

Pregnant women, human fetuses and neonates, prisoners, children, cognitively impaired people, students and employees, minorities, economically and/or educationally disadvantaged, AIDS/HIV subjects, terminally ill subjects

Reliability

Refers to a measure's ability to yield consistent results each time it is applied. Two principles Equivalence: all the items that make up a measuring instrument should be measuring the same thing and thus responses should be consistent from one item to the next. Stability:a reliable measure should not change from one application to the next.

content validity

Refers to the degree to which a measure covers the range of meanings included within the concept. You essentially check your operationalization against the relevant content domain for the construct. not so easy with more abstract or less well understood or agreed upon phenomena (e.g. Recovery assessment, intelligence, coping) Like face validity, content validity is also established on the basis of subjective judgment rather than 'empirical judgment'.

How to evaluate the quality of a scale? (reducing measurement errors)

Reliability and Validity Reliability: a measure's ability to yield consistent results each time it is applied. --Does not guarantee validity Validity: the extent to which our scale measures what we think it is measuring. --Valid measures are reliable

Tuskegee Syphilis Study

Research study conducted by a branch of the U.S. government, lasting for roughly 50 years (ending in the 1970s), in which a sample of African American men diagnosed with syphilis were deliberately left untreated, without their knowledge, to learn about the lifetime course of the disease.

Literature Review

Researcher needs to find out what has been done already-building on available information *ultimately, you can make a decision about duplicating a previous study, duplicating a study with different methodology, or departing radically from previous work. What sort of studies have been conducted? what research design? what factors studied? what findings? what limitations? What theoretical approaches have been used to study related questions (if relevant) Where are the gaps in knowledge?

Belmont Report-Three

Respect: be honest and fair with subjects. Tell them everything they need to know in order to make informed decisions about involvement. Be aware of minimizing power differentials that might pressure to participate Beneficence: principle of ensuring a)no harm and b)max. benefit. Research should never physically or psychologically injure people being studied, even if they volunteer for study participants can be harmed by data analysis and report and various other aspects the IRB must be persuaded that a small amount of risk outweighs the benefits gained Justice: concerned with questions of fair distribution: who should receive benefits of research or bear its burdens. Distributions of these go beyond who can afford them and research should not systematically involve persons from groups unlikely to be among beneficiaries

What is triangulation?

Several different methods to collect the information to address the same question Investigator triangulation - Methodological triangulation - Data triangulation

Explanatory/Causal Research

To test hypotheses about cause and effect relationships: looking for answer to questions of why? what predicts outcomes? Does x cause y? - typically utilizes hypotheses -typically involves quantitative research (not always) -typically involves longitudinal designed (to establish a time sequence: x happened before y) 1. Experimental designer whereby there is some sort of manipulation or intervention to see is the introduction of causes X causes Y. 2. Statistical research, where researchers examine the influence of factor x on outcome y while statistically controlling for another facets that may explain the relationship between x and y.

What are some ways to avoid measurement bias?

Triangulation

Paradigm

a model or frame of reference that shapes the questions we ask and how we understand or make sense of the world. (i.e. world view) - paradigmatic assumptions about he world and people.

Theory

a systematic set of interrelated statements intended to explain some aspect of the social or natural world. (often formulated in terms of if/then statements) -explanatory relies on theory which can be referred to as a hypothesis -all intervention research (including program evaluation) draws upon the theory that the the treatment provided will have effects on certain predetermined outcomes.

Control variable

a type of extraneous variable that we anticipate as possibly related to the DV (and IV at times) and we built into our study "held constant" - we measure it but ints not the focus in our study -by taking control variable into consideration, we intentionally neutralize the specific alternative explanation ex: we want to know the relationship between race/ethnicity and political participation net of the impact of SES (SES=control variable)

Benefits to research participants

access to treatment insight/learning about self worthwhile information opportunity for altruism final report incentives

Basic/Pure science

aimed at advancing existing base of science-knowlede to understand nature (human ,social, phys, structural) and or predict phenomena. May involve theory and theory testing but has no clear or proximal application to affect change in human problems or introduce intervention.

Intuition

an effortless, immediate, automatic feeling or thought, as contrasted with explicit, conscious reasoning

Miligram Experiment

an experiment devised in 1961 by Stanley Milgram, a psychologist at Yale University, to see how far ordinary people would go to obey a scientific authority figure. This tested how far someone would go to harming another person.

Ethics

branch of philosophy dealing with values relating to human conduct, with respect to the rightness and wrongness of certain actions and to the goodness and badness of motives and ends of such actions.

attributes

categories that represent the variation of the concept or how much/little of the indicator for the concept is present —can be numbers or categories. Examples: Level of Spirituality? Very much, Some, A little, Not at all Religious Affiliation? Christian, Moslem, Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist, ... Age? 3-110 years (each age/year represents an attribute) university residence? yes/no

nominal level variable

categories/labels (e.g. focal areas in UW-Madison's SSW advanced general practice: CYFW, Health, Aging, Mental Health)

IRB committee

committee consisting of academicians, professionals and trained lay people formally designated and trained to approve, monitor and review biomedical and behavioral research involving humans paramount responsibility is to ensure researchers adhere to ethical standards in conduct of research, thereby protecting rights and welfare of research subjects all research projects involving human subjects must be reviewed by IRB

variable attributes

continuous variable nominal level variable

qualitiative

data includes words, observations, themes, elicited, interactions, artifacts -relies on flexible questions and open need question, observations -focuses on getting inside a participants experiences and subjectivity, what happened in a particular instance to particular people -striving toward a fuller explanations -emphasis on ideographic aims

What are some common ethical dilemmas in research?

deception in research depriving some people of experimental treatment for purpose of testing effectiveness with the experimental group voluntary participation stands in opposition to the common scientific goal of generalizability in research

nominal defintion

establishes the conceptual meaning assigned to the variable.

independent variable

explanatory or predictor variable, conceptualized as explaining or causing or having the effects on another variable. in experiments or intervention studies, the IV is always the experimental condition or the treatment group in studies that do not test an intervention or an experimental condition, if hypothesizing a causal relationship between x (IV) and Y(DV), x must precede y in time.

Deductive reasoning

from abstract to specific, from theory to observations (data)

Reasons for growing interest in research ethics:

history of exploitative or dangerous research endeavors have facilitated an organized movement toward legal regulation of research - require the careful consideration of possible consequences of research for human beings

A spurious relationship

if when controlling separately for each category of the control variable, the original relationship between the independent and dependent variables disappears, it means that the original relationship was spurious relationship, one that no longer exists when a third variable is controlled.

Tradition

"truisms" things that everyone knows

What are the characteristics of scientific research?

(TROUT) Tentative- everything we think we know today is open to question and subject to reassessment, modification, or refutation Replicable-studies are open to question, and need to be replicated; very different in psych and social psych Observable/observations/empirical- knowledge is grounded in orderly comprehensive observations Unbiased: observations should should be unbiased; every researcher has bias Transparent: all procedural details are openly specified for review and evaluation to show the basis of conclusions that were reached Systematic-routines

Applied social science

(application for change) designed to advance solution to practical problems, develop and evaluate interventions or tech. May involve theory, often invokes theory testing and has a clear and proximal application to address human problem.

Null hypotheses

(the opposite) there is no relationship/no association between variables=knowing the values on one variable, would not tell you anything about the values. as a researcher, you usually want to reject the null hypothesis rejecting the null hypothesis means there IS a relationship. (so there is support for your speculation based on theory) *null hypothesis is implied rather than stated

Hypothesis

*must be testable research often (but not always) starts with a theory to explain how and why A hypothesis is a speculative (or tentative) statement that predicts the relationship between two more variables. - a prediction of how changes in y are expected to explain and be accompanied by changes in X) a test of t he hypothesis has implication for the validity of the theory

Variable

is any entity that can take a different values. Anything that can vary can be considered a variable age attitudes personality type type of criminal offense quality of life income