Research Methods Quiz 2

cj research methods

ethical concerns

typically associated with morality; both deal with matters of right & wrong

ethical

behavior conforming to the standards of conduct of a given group

ethics

are a matter of agreement among professionals

the belmont report

established three basic ethical principles for the protection of human subjects:

respect for persons

treating persons as autonomous agents and protecting those with diminished autonomy

beneficence

minimizing possible harms and maximizing benefits

justice

distributing benefits and risks of research fairly

the common rule

federal policy based on the belmont report

minimal risk of harm

voluntary

informed consent

disclose purpose/debriefing

informing subjects after an experiment about the experiment’s purposes, methods, and evaluating subjects’ personal reactons

deception 

usually unethical, but sometimes necessary to create more realistic treatments in which the true purpose of the research isn’t disclosed to participants

confidentiality

identifying information that could be used to link respondents of their responses is available to a limited amount of research personnel

anonymity

no identifying information is recorded that could be used to link respondents to their responses

what are the limitations for confidentiality?

subpoenas and mandatory reporting

what are the types of special populations?

what additionally classify as prisoners?

what are the levels of review for an IRB?

conflict of interest

private/personal interests that have the potential to compromise the exercise of professional judgement

transparency

open disclosure of the research process

dimensions

subconcepts within a larger concept

operatinalization

the process of specifying the operations that will indicate the value of a variable for each case (make empirical)

indicator

measurable aspect of a dimension

categorical variable

a variable that classifies people or objects into groups

continuous variable

a variable that numerically measures a particular characteristic / the extent to which a particular characteristic is present or absent

nominal variable

variables whose values have no mathematical interpretation; they vary in kind or quality but not in amount

dichotomous/binary variables

a variable having only two values, or the presence (!) or absence (0) of an attribute 

ordinal variables

variable in which the numbers indicating a variable’s values specify only the order of the cases (greater than or less than distinctions)

mutually exclusive

a property of all levels of measurement whereby there is no overlap between the categories within a variable

exhaustive

a property of all levels of measurement whereby the categories or range within a variable capture all possible values

measurement validity

the type of validity that’s achieved when a measure measures what it’s presumed to measure

systematic social observation (SSO)

a careful method of observing phenomena

unobtrusive measures

measures that allow data collection about individuals or groups without their direct knowledge/participation

simple observation

watching and recording behaviors or events in their natural or controlled settings without intervention

contrived observation

a researcher creates an artificial environment to study behavior under controlled conditions

face validity

exists when an inspection of the items used to measure a concept suggests that they are appropriate ‘on their face’ / does the question appear to match the concept?

content validity

establishes that a measure covers the full range of the concept’s meaning (literature review)

criterion validity

established by comparing the scores obtained on the measure being validated to those obtained with a more direct or already validated measure of the same phenomenon  

construct validity

established by showing that a measure is related to other measures as specified in a theory

measurement reliability

reliable when it yields consistent scores or observations of a given phenomenon on different occasions / prerequisite for measurement validity

test re-test reliability

a measurement showing the measures of a phenomenon at two points in time are highly correlated if the phenomenon has not changed or have changed only as much as the phenomenon itself

interitem reliability (internal consistency)

an approach that calculates reliability based on the correlation among multiple items used to measure a single concept

cronbach’s alpha

a statistic that measures the reliability of items in an index or scale

alternate-forms reliability

procedure for testing the reliability of responses to survey questions in which subjects’ answers are compared after the subjects have been asked slightly different versions of the requestions or when randomly selected halves of the sample have been administered slightly different versions of the questions

split-halves reliability

achieved when responses to the same questions by two randomly selected halves of a sample are about the same

Intraobserver/Intrarater Reliability 

consistency of ratings by an observer of an unchanging phenomenon at two or more points in time

Interobserver/Interrater Reliability

when similar measurements are obtained by different observers rating the same persons, events, or places

psychometrics

the process of evaluating the reliability and validity of measures about individuals

econometrics

evaluating the reliability and validity of measures about organizations, neighborhoods, or other collective units / the application of statistical models to test hypothesis in economics

census

research in which information is obtained through the responses that all available members of an entire populations give to questions

population distribution

an empirical distribution made of raw scores from a population

sample distribution

an empirical distribution made from raw scores from a sample

sampling distribution

a theoretical distribution made of infinite number of sample statistics

parameters

number that describes a population from which samples might be drawn

statistics

number that describes a sample that has been drawn from a larger population

sampling error

any difference between the characteristics of a sample and the characteristics of the
population from which it was drawn / the larger the sampling error, the less representative the sample is of the population

random sampling error

the difference between a sample's results and the true value of the entire population, caused by the inherent randomness of the selection process / ie. variation only due to chance

the central limit theorem

the property of the sampling distribution that guarantees that this curve will be normally distributed when infinite samples of large size have been drawn

normal distribution

symmetric distribution shaped like a bel (bell curve) centered around the population mean

point estimate

a sample statistic, such as a mean or proportion

confidence interval

range of values spanning a point of estimate that’s calculated to have a certain probability of containing the population parameter

confidence limit

the upper and lower boundaries of a confidence interval, which is a range of values likely to contain a population parameter

representative sample

a sample that looks like the population from which it was selected in all respects that are potentially relevant to the study / allows for sample generalizability

target population

a set of elements larger than or different from the population sampled and to which the researcher would like to generalize study findings

probability of selection

likelihood that an element will be selected from the population for inclusion in the sample

probability sampling

sampling methods that rely on a random, or chance, selection method so that the probability of selection of population elements is known"

nonprobability sampling

sampling methods in which the probability of selection of population elements is unknown

random selection

the fundamental element of probability samples; the essential characteristic of random selection is that every element of the population has a known and independent chance of being selected
into the sample

sampling frame

a list of the elements of a population from which a sample actually is selected

simple random sampling

every case in the population has the same probability of selection

stratified random sampling

a random sample that draws from different categories of a population

proportionate stratified random sampling

each group contributes the same percent to the sample as it has in the population

disproportionate stratified random sampling

each group contributes a different percentage to the sample than it has in the population

multistage cluster sampling

cases are selected in two or more stages

nonprobability sampling

sampling methods in which the probability of selection of population elements is unknown

availability sampling

elements are selected on the basis of convenience

purposive sampling

elements are selected for a purpose, usually because of their unique position

snowball sampling

elements are selected as they are identified by successive informants or interviewees

quota sampling

elements are selected to ensure that the sample represents certain characteristics in proportion to their prevalence in the population

nonprobability sampling key takeaways