Computer Simulation , Content Analysis , Experiments (treatment and control groups)

Computer Simulation

a method of social research

‘running’

Simulation means __ the model forward through (simulated) time and watching what happens.

Aim is to create a model of target that is simpler to study than the target itself.

•In the social sciences, the target is always a dynamic entity, changing over time and reacting to its environment.

Content Analysis as a technique

researchers examine artifacts of social communication

•these are written documents or transcriptions of recorded verbal communications

Content analysis is

any technique for making inferences by systematically and objectively identifying special characteristics of messages

criteria of selection

Objective analysis of messages conveyed in the data being analyzed is accomplished by means of explicit rules called ______, which must be formally established before the actual analysis of data

When using a content analysis strategy to assess written documents, researchers must:

Decide at what level they plan to sample and what units of analysis will be counted.

Sampling may occur at any or all of the following levels:

•words, phrases, sentences, paragraphs, sections, chapters, books, writers, ideological stance, subject topic, or similar elements relevant to the context.

Inductive approach

begins with the researchers "immersing" themselves in the documents in order to identify the dimensions or themes that seem meaningful to the producers of each message

Deductive approach

researchers use some categorical scheme suggested by a theoretical perspective, and the documents provide a means for assessing the hypothesis

words or terms, themes, characters, paragraphs, items, concepts, and semantics.

Seven major elements in written messages can be counted in content analysis:

Major elements in written messages

words, themes, characters, paragraphs, items, concepts, semantics, combination of elements

Words

smallest element or unit used in content analysis. Its use generally results in a frequency distribution of specified words or terms.

Themes

a simple sentence, a string of words with a subject and a predicate

Characters

count the number of times a specific person or persons are mentioned rather than the number of words or themes.

Paragraphs

is infrequently used as the basic unit in content analysis chiefly because of the difficulties that have resulted in attempting to code and classify the various and often numerous thoughts stated and implied in a single ___.

Items

represents the whole unit of the sender's message-that is, an __ may be an entire book, a letter, speech, diary, newspaper, or even an in-depth interview

Concepts

involve words grouped together into conceptual clusters (ideas) that constitute variabIes in a typical research hypothesis.

•For instance, a conceptual cluster may form around the idea of deviance. Words such as crime, delinquency, and fraud might cluster around the conceptual idea of deviance

Semantics

how strong or weak a word (or words) may be in relation to the overall sentiment of the sentence.

Combinations of Elements

In many instances, research requires the use of a combination of several content analytic elements.

specification of the content characteristics being examined and application of explicit rules for identifying and recording

Content analysis involves the interaction of two processes: ___ and ___ these characteristics

conceptualization and operationalization

As with all research methods, ___ and __ necessarily involve an interaction between theoretical concerns and empirical observations

Common Classes.

used in society to distinguish between and among persons, things, and events (for example, age, gender, mother, father, teacher, and others).

•These common classes are essential in assessing whether certain demographic characteristics are related to patterns that may arise during a given data analysis

Special Classes

Those labels used by members of certain areas (communities) to distinguish among the things, persons, and events within their limited province.

•These special classes may be described as out-group versus in group classifications.

•out-group-the reference is to labels conventionally used by the greater (host) community or society

•in group-the reference is to conventional terms and labels used among some specified group

Open Coding

•The central purpose of which is to open inquiry widely.

•Although interpretations, questions, and even possible answers may seem to emerge as researchers code, it is important to hold these as tentative at best.

•As suggested by Strauss is to "believe everything and believe nothing" while undertaking open coding.

4 Basic Guidelines When Conducting Open Coding

1. Ask - ask the data a specific and consistent set of questions

2. Analyze - analyze the data minutely

3. Interrupt - frequently interrupt the coding to write theoretical note

4. Never assume - never assume the analytic relevance of any traditional variable such as age, sex, social class, and so fourth until the data show it to be relevant.

Coding Frames

Content analysis is accomplished through the use of __.

•The __ are used to organize the data and identify findings after open coding has been completed.

•The first coding frame is often a multileveled process that requires several successive sorting of all cases under examination.

•Investigators begin with a general sorting of cases into some specified special class.

Steps involved in content analysis

read through or examine the data, becoming familiar with it

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Identifying coding units (CODE: label used to identify connections between meaning units)

↓

The data analysed by applying the coding units. (CATEGORY: groups of related codes)

↓

summarise the data in a frequency table. include a tally of the number of times that a coding unit appears.

Strengths of Content Analysis Process

• Perhaps the most important advantage of content analysis is that it can be virtually unobtrusive.

• An additional advantage is that it is cost effective.

• A further advantage to content analysis is that it provides a means by which to study processes that occur over long periods of time or that may reflect trends in a society.

Weakness of Content Analysis Process

The single serious weakness of content analysis may be in locating unobtrusive messages relevant to the particular research questions.

Another limitation of content analysis is that it is ineffective for testing causal relationships between variabIes.

Experimental Research

•The purpose of ___ is to determine cause-and-effect relationships.

•The ___ method enables us to identify causal relationships because it allows us to observe, under controlled conditions, the effects of systematically changing one or more variables.

Manipulation

an intervention studied by an experimenter, is the key defining characteristic of experimental research.

•The use of __ in studying cause-and-effect relationships is based on the activity theory of causation.

•Active ___ is involved only in experimental research

Extraneous variables

are variables other than the independent variable of interest (e.g., teaching approach) that may be related to the outcome.

Alternative explanations or rival hypotheses

These are competing explanations for the relationship between an IV and a DV, the reviewer might argue that the outcome is due to a particular extraneous variable rather than to the independent variable.

confounding variables

Sometimes we use the term ___ to refer to extraneous variables that were not controlled for by the researcher and are the reason a particular result occurred

randomly assign

The best way to control for extraneous variables in an experiment like the one above is to __ research participants to the groups to be compared.

Random assignment

helps ensure that the people in the groups to be compared are similar before the intervention or manipulation

Weak Experimental Research Designs

-they do not control for many potentially confounding extraneous variables

•whenever a researcher uses it, he/she must be alert to the influence of potentially confounding extraneous variables that can threaten the internal validity of the study.

Weak Experimental Research Designs

One-Group Posttest-Only Design, One-Group Pretest-Posttest Design, Posttest-Only Design With Nonequivalent Groups

One-Group Posttest-Only Design.

a single group of research participants is exposed to an experimental treatment and then measured on the dependent variable to assess the effect of the treatment condition.

One-Group Pretest-Posttest Design

A group of research participants is measured on the dependent variable, O, prior to administration of the treatment condition. The independent variable, X, is then administered, and the dependent variable, O, is again measured.

•The difference between the pretest and posttest scores is taken as an index of the effectiveness of the treatment condition.

Posttest-Only Design With Nonequivalent Groups.

a design in which one group of research participants is administered a treatment and is then compared, on the dependent variable, with another group of research participants that did not receive the experimental treatment.

Strong Experimental Research Designs

one in which the influence of confounding extraneous variables has been controlled.

•A __ therefore is one that has high internal validity.

one or more of the control techniques and to include a control group.

In most experimental research designs, the most effective way to achieve internal validity and eliminate rival hypotheses is to include ___ and __.

•Randomize whenever and wherever possible

Strong Experimental Research Designs

Experimental group, Double-blind Procedure, Pretest-Posttest Control-Group Design, Posttest-Only Control-Group Design, Factorial Designs, Repeated-Measures Designs. Nonequivalent Comparison-Group Design, Interrupted Time-Series Design, Regression-Discontinuity Design,

Experimental group

is the group that receives the experimental treatment condition while the Control group is the group that does not receive the experimental treatment condition

Double-blind Procedure.

Design in which neither the researcher nor the participant know the specific condition (experimental or control) that the participant is in.

Pretest-Posttest Control-Group Design

A research design that administers a posttest to two randomly assigned groups of participants after both have been pretested and one of the groups has been administered the experimental treatment condition

Posttest-Only Control-Group Design.

Research design in which a posttest is administered to two randomly assigned groups of participants after one group has been administered the experimental treatment condition

Factorial Designs

a strong experimental design in which two or more independent variables, at least one of which is manipulated, are simultaneously studied to determine their independent and interactive effects on the dependent variable.

Repeated-Measures Designs

•If all participants receive all levels of the independent variable, we call it a within-subjects independent variable (also called a repeated-measures variable)

•If the participants are separated so that any particular participant receives only one level of the independent variable, we call it a between-subjects independent variable.

Factorial Designs Based on a Mixed Model

A factorial design in which different participants are randomly assigned to the different levels of one independent variable but all participants take all levels of another independent variable

Quasi-Experimental Research Designs

An experimental research design that does not provide for full control of potential confounding variables. The primary reason why full control is not achieved is that participants cannot be randomly assigned to groups.

Nonequivalent Comparison-Group Design.

This design consists of giving an experimental and a comparison/control group a pretest and then, after the experimental treatment condition has been administered to the experimental group, administering a posttest.

The following are the type of biases that can exist in Nonequivalent Comparison-Group Design:

•Selection Bias — Because there is no random assignment, there will always be a potential differential selection bias

•Selection-Maturation — Exists if participants in one group become more experienced, tired, or bored than participants in the other group.

•Selection-Instrumentation — Exists if the nature of the dependent variable or the way it is measured varies across the nonequivalent groups.

•Selection-Testing — Exists if one group of participants reacts differently to taking the pretest.

•Selection-Regression — Exists if the two groups are from different populations

•Selection-History — Exists if an event occurring between the pretest and posttest affects one group more than the other group.

•Differential Attrition — Exists if the dropping out of participants from either group produces group differences on the posttest scores.

Interrupted Time-Series Design

•This design uses multiple pretests and multiple posttests.

•A single group of participants is pretested a number of times during the A, or baseline, phase; exposed to a treatment condition; and then post tested a number of times during the B, or treatment, phase

Regression-Discontinuity Design.

A design that assesses the effect of a treatment condition by looking for a discontinuity in regression lines between individuals who score lower and higher than some predetermined cutoff score.