MC 396 - Research for AD & PR final

What is the purpose of research?

Uses a scientific approach to collect information, predict trends, identity challenges, and improve decision-making

What are the three types of communication change?

Perception = how someone sees something

Attitude = how someone feels

Behavior = what someone does

What does strategic mean?

Choosing the most important target at the right time

What is involvement recognition?

The extent to which people see a connection between themselves and a problematic situation

What is problem recognition?

People notice a difference between expectations and reality and believe action is needed

What is constraint recognition?

People believe obstacles prevent them from taking action

What are the five types of publics?

Nonpublic, latent public, aware public, active public, activist public

What is a nonpublic?

A group that has no consequences or connection to the problem

What is a latent public?

Could be affected by a problem but has not recognized it yet

What is an aware public?

Recognizes the problem but has not taken action

What is an active public?

Has started taking individual action to solve a problem

What is an activist public?

Has organized with others to collectively address a problem

What are publics?

Groups with shared interests who organize around organizational consequences. They are situational and problem-specific

What are stakeholders?

Individual or groups who affect an organization’s operations and with whom the organization builds mutually beneficial relationships

What are the five purposes of public segmentation?

Effective messaging, targeted communication, resource optimization, crisis management, and measurement/evalution

What happened in the Little Albert experiment?

A child was conditioned to fear certain objects. Ethical issues included lack of informed consent and psychological harm

What happened in the Milgram obedience study?

participants believed they were giving electric shocks to another person. Ethical issues included deception and psychological stress

What happened in the Stanford prison experiment?

Participants were assigned prisoner and guard roles, resulting in abusive behavior and psychological distress

What happened in the Tuskegee syphilis study?

African American men with syphilis were studied from 1932-1972 without proper treatment or informed consent

What is the Belmont Report?

A report establishing ethical principles and guidelines for research involving human subjects

What are the three core principles of the Belmont Report?

Respect for persons, beneficence, and justice

What does respect for persons mean?

Informed consent, voluntary participation, anonymity, confidentiality, and privacy

What does beneficence mean?

Maximize benefits and minimize harm. Do not harm to participants

What does justice mean?

Avoid bias and distribute research benefits and burdens fairly among groups

What is an IRB?

Institutional Review Board. Reviews and approves research involving human participants to protect their rights and welfare

What are the four phases of research?

1. Situational Analysis

2. Making Strategy

3. Taking Actions

4. Assessment

What happens in phase 1: situational analysis?

Understand the problem, review existing research, identify and define key concepts, explore relationships, and develop hypotheses

What happens in phase 2: making strategy?

Plan research methods, select data collection tools, determine sampling, collect data, and analyze results

What happens in phase 3: taking actions?

Implement communication strategies, campaigns, messaging, and outreach based on research findings

What happens in phase 4: assessment?

Evaluate results, measure outcomes, identity improvements, and prepare reports

Is phase 4 the end of research?

No, research is continuous. Assessment results can lead to a new situational analysis and new hypothesis

What are the main sections of a research paper?

introduction, literature review, method, analysis results, overall conclusion, implications and limitations

What is secondary research?

using existing scientific information collected by others for a different research purpose

Why conduct secondary research

Saves time and money, provides insights, supports arguments, and helps understand existing knowledge before conducting new research

What is primary research?

Collecting new, original data directly from the source

What is the difference between primary and secondary research?

Primary = new data collected by you

Secondary = existing data collected by others

What is a conceptual definition?

Explains what a concept means in theory using abstract ideas or other concepts

What is an operational definition?

Explains exactly how a concept is measured or identified in a study

What is an independent variable (IV)?

The presumed cause or predictor that influences another variable

What is a dependent variable (DV)?

The outcome or effect that is influenced by the independent variable

What words help identify variables in a hypothesis?

Impacts, influences, triggers, generates, and affects

What is the role of secondary research in a literature review?

Helps define variables, identify IVs and DVs, understand relationships, and develop hypotheses

What is qualitative research?

Research focused on experience, opinions, and descriptions. Examples: interviews, focus groups, observations

What is quantitative research?

Research focused on numerical data and statistics. Examples: surveys, experiments, big data analysis

What should happen before an interview?

Introduce yourself, thank the participant, explain the research, discuss confidentiality, obtain consent, answer questions, and start recording

What should happen after an interview?

Stop recording and thank the participant

What are the advantages of interviews?

Deep insights, flexible follow-ups, privacy, trust, convenient scheduling, and no group pressure

What are the disadvantages of interviews?

Time-consuming, labor-intensive, interviewer bias, trained interviewer needed, and small samples

what are the advantages of focus groups?

Group Interaction, deeper discussions, new ideas, spontaneous responses, and cost-effectiveness

What are the disadvantages of focus groups?

Groupthink, dominant participants, quiet participants, sensitive-topic difficulties, and scheduling challenges

What is generalization?

How well findings from a sample represent the larger population

What are probes?

Follow-up questions that encourage interviewees to elaborate, clarify, and provide deeper answers

What are the three conditions for casuality?

Covariation, time antecedence, and non-spuriousness

What is covariation?

Two variables are associated or related to each other

What is time antecedence?

The presumed cause (IV) must happen before the effect (DV)

What is non-spuriousness?

The relationship between two variables is not explained by a third variable

What is correlation analysis?

Tests covariation to determine whether two variable are related

What is regression analysis?

Tests whether an independent variable predicts or influences a dependent variable

What two things should you check in statistical results?

P-value and coefficient value

What coefficient values generally indicate a strong relationship according to class notes?

Above +0.60 = strong positive

Below -0.60 = strong negative

What is nominal measurement?

Classifies information into categories without ranking. Numbers have no mathematical meaning

What are two requirements of nominal categories?

Mutually exclusive (no overlap) and exhaustive (cover all possibilities)

What is ordinal measurement?

Ranks categories, but the distances between values are not necessarily equal

What is interval measurement?

Has ranking and equal distances between values but no true zero

What is ratio measurement?

Has ranking, equal distances, and a true zero point

What is the order of measurement levels from weakest to strongest?

Nominal → Ordinal → Interval → Ratio

What is statistical power?

The ability of statistical test to detect an effect or relationship when one truly exists

What are descriptive statistics?

Describe and summarize individual variables within a sample

What are inferential statistics?

Use sample data to draw conclusions about a larger population and test hypothesis

What does infer mean?

To draw a conclusion based on evidence or facts

What is a null hypothesis (H0)?

States there is NO relationship, difference, or effect

What is a research hypothesis (H1)?

States there IS a relationship, difference, or effect

What does p<.05 mean?

Statistically significant, reject the null hypothesis

What does p>.05 mean?

Not statistically significant, fail to reject the null hypothesis

What does a p-value of .01 mean?

If H0 were true, there is a 1% chance of observing a result this extreme or more extreme, reject H0

What does a p-value of .082 mean?

If H0 were true, there is an 8.2% chance of observing a result this extreme or more extreme, fail to reject H0