NR 3010 Exam 2

What is an observational study?

Observing patterns at scales of which they occur without interference.

What are the three scales at which an observational study can be conducted?

Cross-sectional/horizontal: measuring at multiple sites

Repeated-measure/panel/longitudinal: measuring one variable over timer

Spatio-temporal: combining cross-sectional and repeated-measure, allowing us to compare patterns between and within sites

What is examined in an observational study?

The response, the key factors, interactions, and covariates

Is it easy to determine causation from observations?

No, multiple factors may cause a response

What are observations good for?

Large-scale questions to generate hypotheses

What method did Jones and Yamamoto employ? What was their paper about?

Observational study

How environmental factors relate to colonization patterns of invasive and non-invasive species over time, and how well they correlate with the proposed mechanisms: biotic resistance, window of opportunity, historical legacies/land use, invasion debt.

Methods: 4 transects in a forest surveyed every ten years. Recorded presence and health of plants, and if they were native.

They suggest that despite research suggesting that older forests are more resistant to invasion, managers should still monitor and manage for invasive species in them.

What are the strengths of observational studies?

Feasibility (scope and scale), long term, cost effective, natural, can examine complex systems, ethical ease

What are the weaknesses of observational studies?

Causality, bias (only collecting data you think is important), complexity (desire to collect too much data), lots of data (multiple observations needed)

What are the steps to designing an observational study?

Define the research question, select the study site, chose the sampling method, determine variables, plan data collection, minimize bias, record observations, analyze data, draw conclusions

What method did Patridge and Clark use? What was their paper about?

Observational study

They hypothesized that green roofs would have greater abundance/richness of birds and arthropods than conventional roofs.

Methods: four paired sites in NYC. Sampled species during migration and breeding periods.

Results: arthropod and bird richness and abundance was higher on green roofs. The effectiveness was impacted by isolation, diversity, and size.

What is qualitative interviewing?

A conversation with a purpose: understanding the world from the point of view of the interviewee by examining their lived world experiences.

Why do qualitative interviewing?

To gather evidence for things that are not observable: feelings, thoughts, intentions, meaning, previous actions. Through interviews, you are able to probe deeper and steer the conversation towards your topic of interest.

What are some advantages of qualitative interviewing?

Evidence for things that are hard to observe (human experience), deeper probe, addresses complex topics, flexibility/freedom in response, level of surprise, open/exploratory, trust/rapport, ease

How do you perform a qualitative interview?

Follow the guide/instrument/schedule prepared in advance based on knowledge gathered through a lit review.

Consider temporality (past/present/future orientation of the questions), sequence (non-threatening first), and order of the questions.

Ask demographic questions separately at the end.

Probe and be flexible (active listening).

Pose an open-ended final question to allow respondents to share what they’ve been dying to tell you.

Practice and pilot!!!

What are some types of qualitative interviews?

Unstructured conversations: open-ended, no predetermined questions

Semistructured/guided interview: every person asked about a set of topics from an interview guide prepared in advance, directed but not commanded

Structured interview: questions are the same questions but there is no predetermined menu of responses

What are some types of questions posed during a qualitative interview?

Experience and behavior, opinion and values, feeling, knowledge, sensory, creative, reflections, forecasts

What are some potential pitfalls of qualitative interviewing?

Leading questions, not allowing participants enough time to answer/rushing, ethics (consent and confidentiality), unthorough documentation of responses, having your own biases and showing your position, bad sequencing, not probing

What is content analysis?

A method of both data collection and analysis in which content is examined systematically and rigorously to identify meanings, themes, patterns, and assumptions.

Interpreting an existing body of material.

What are the steps of content analysis?

1) Select content

2) Collect and store content

3) Analyze (systematically and repeatedly reviewing the data)

4) Write-up

What is qualitative coding?

The process of systematically categorizing excerpts in your qualitative data in order to find themes and patterns.

Naming what you are seeing and how you are simplifying the data so you can make sense of it in a consistent manner.

What is a code?

A word or short phrase that symbolically assigns an attribute to a portion of data.

What can you create codes for during content analysis?

Actions/behaviors, events/conditions, activities, strategies/tactics, conditions, meanings/symbols, relationships/interactions, consequences, settings

What are the steps of qualitative coding?

1) Select the sample

2) Open code the sample (code everything)

3) Pare down your coding list and create a codebook (master guide stating the code, what it signifies, and an example)

4) Close code all the data using your codebook

5) Repeat

What are analytic memos?

Notes you write yourself about the data on impressions, patterns emerging, and what might be of interest later on.

What method did Gould use? What was her paper on?

Qualitative surveys, interviews, and coding

Understanding cultural dimensions of human/environmental relationships by considering cultural ecosystem services in Hawaii. What intangible values related to ecosystems are particularly salient for Kona residents, and if the experience of these values changes based on ethnicity, gender, length of residence, ae, and education.

Methods: 30 semistructured interviews and 205 in-person surveys of Hawaii residents.

Results: Spirituality, heritage, and identity-related values are particularly salient, though they vary based on ethnicity and duration of residence.

Type of coding: overarching themes with subcodes/subthemes under each

What is inductive coding?

Ground-up coding: using the data to come up with codes or themes without preconceived notions. Allowing the theory to emerge from raw data.

What is deductive coding?

Top-down coding: examining data with knowledge of certain codes or themes within the subject. Start by developing a codebook, then reading through the data and assigning the pre-determined codes.

What are the principles of content (qualitative) analysis? What purpose do they serve?

Be systematic and transparent, keep meticulous records, reliability (intra-coder, inter-coder), validity (respondent validation, data triangulation). This increases validity and transparency of your results and decreases bias.

What is the main purpose behind using properly designed experiments?

Determining causality by controlling for all other factors to see if an observed relationship is real.

What are the four key components of an experiment?

Meaningful treatments, appropriate controls, replication, and randomization/interspersion

What method did Finkelstein and Sanders use? What was their paper about?

Experiment

Does increasing sodium in plant nectar attract more pollinators?

Methods: 12 individuals of 5 common plants were selected. 6 of each were treated with sodium-enriched nectar, 6 with control nectar. Plants were randomly placed equidistant along 6 transects. They observed for polinator visitation over multiple days, 3 time blocks each. After observing, they netted and identified polinators around the plants. Each plant was observed 24 individual times, each plant species 270 times.

Results: 2x as many visitors to pollinator enriched plants, consistent across species. 2x high richness at enriched plants.

What method did Strules and Destefano use? What was their paper about?

Experiment

Do beavers experience a seasonal salt drive?

Methods: 8 sites were selected at random, 4 with and 4 w/o water lilies. Treatment aspen and pine sticks were soaked in NaCl, control sticks were soaked in water. From April-October in 2008-9, they conducted 1 feeding trial a month, which lasted 5 days and 5 nights. 1 stick array (3 treatment, 3 control) was placed in each location per trial. Sites were visited once daily to assess beaver depredation. 13 trials were conducted overall, with 151 arrays placed.

Results: Aspen were generally selected for over pine, but there was no significant difference in selected for treated vs untreated sticks, leading the researchers to believe beavers probably don’t experience a salt drive.

What are the three tools used to carry out a survey/types of surveys?

Survey questionnaires, observational surveys, survey interviews

What types of questions are posed during a survey questionnaire?

Subject driven —> feelings, preferences, behaviors, attitudes, opinions, beliefs (strong/unbending), knowledge, filtering

What are some question structures a researcher may choose to employ during a survey questionnaire?

Ranked choice, true/false, scale, open-ended, frequency, choice (one or all that apply)

What are some tips for conducting a successful survey questionnaire?

PILOT PILOT PILOT

Keep in clean (straightforward/good structure and flow)

Clear instructions

Ensure all questions are essential

Balance question types

Start with friendly → harder questions (build rapport)

Filter (exclude irrelevant questions)

Funnel (broad to specific)

Be careful with wording (no ambiguous or leading/loaded)

Separate double barreled questions

Don’t make assumptions about what the respondent knows

If asking frequency questions, consider “last time” instead of “how often” (memories can be hazy)

Ensure the response choices encompass all likely responses and that the respondent has enough room to answer (i.e. N/A, other, option for feedback)

Be efficient with the respondent’s time

What method did Balmford et al. use? What was their paper about?

Survey questionnaire

Examining the role of environmental knowledge in promoting pro-environmental behavior, and the extent to which different element’s of people’s footprints vary across behavioral domains.

Methods: PILOTED the survey with 36 students. Distributed it electronically, received 734 responses: 300 conservationists, 207 economists, 227 medics. Had people rank the importance the attached to the environment. Assessed knowledge of the environment and pro-environmental action. Behavioral questions about several behaviors known to cause environmental impacts.

Results: Conservationists tended to have a lower footprint, but it differed across behaviors (inconsistent). Variation is predicted by gender (higher for males), nationality (higher for US nationals), occupation (highest for economists), education level (higher with increased education), and income (higher with higher). Attaching high value to the environment also consistently resulted in a lower footprint. No association between footprint and environmental knowledge. Different components of the environmental footprint are typically not correlated with one another.

Further study: when given a chance to explain their answers, conservationists tended to rationalize their behaviors more, and they rationalized each behavior differently. Advantageous comparison (their behavior is better than the alternative), sanitizing language (using fancy words to minimize the degree of their impact), self sanction (acknowledging what they did wasn’t the best), diffusion of responsibility (not their fault), moral licensing (allowing bad behavior because they did something else good)