Research 1 Final Exam Flash Cards

Problem identification

Recognizing that a problem exists, identifying what the research problem is, and diagnosing and assessing the problem through practice

Paradigm

Researcher's worldview or perspective on how the world works and governs their practice

Set of beliefs, values, and practices that guides research practices

Hypothesis

Educated guess that tries to predict the relationship between variables

Hypothesis testing

Determination if there is enough evidence to support a claim or theory by analyzing data from a sample and seeing if the claim exists in the real world

Conceptualization

Process of breaking down and defining key concepts and variables that will be studied

Breaking down broad ideas into specific measurable elements

Qualitative methods

Gathering non-numerical data like interviews, observations, and documents to measure during research

Quantitative methods

Gathering numerical data like experiments, surveys, and studies to measure and analyze findings in research

Operationalization

Process of how researcher explains how the idea is being measured, observed, and manipulated

Independent variable

Variable that the researcher intentionally manipulates to see its effect on dependent variable

Dependent variable

Variable being tested or measured in an experiment

Value of DV should be directly affected by IV

Attributes

Specific quality or characteristic that describes something

Variables

Concepts that describe differences of logical groupings of attitudes

Gender, marital status, economic status, income

Constant

Concept that doesn't explain differences among a group

Positive relationship

IV increases as DV increases OR IV decreases as DV decreases

Either both go up or both go down

Negative relationship

IV increases as DV decreases OR IV decreases as DV increases

One goes up other goes down

Curvilinear relationship

A relationship between two variables whereby the strength and/or direction of their relationship changes over the range of both variables

Everything is all over the place

Ex anxiety and achievement

One tail direction

AKA directional test

Alternative hypothesis specifies direction of effect

Testing to see if greater or less than a certain value but not both

Ex: A has a positive/negative effect on B

Two tail direction

Hypothesis test used to examine if there is a significant difference between groups or variables

Does NOT specify direction of difference

Ex: A has an effect on B

Null hypothesis

States that there is no relationship among the variables being studied

Alternative hypothesis

States that there is a relationship among variables being studied

Your own hypothesis, should contradict null

Nominal scale

Lowest level of measurement

Data is put into simple, categorical attributes

Gender, ethnicity, yes or no responses, etc

Ordinal scale

Measurements can be ranked but intervals may be inconsistent

Interval scale

Lacks a true zero point but all data is represented by numbers with equal intervals between

Example: Temperature, income range, etc

Ratio scale

Data can be categorized, ordered, have equal intervals, and a true zero point

Example: age, income, time spent in therapy, etc

Exhaustive variable

Includes all possible answerable responses

Ex: white, black, hispanic, asian, other

Ex: catholic, jewish, protestant, other, none

Mutually exclusive variable

Participant can only belong to one category

Ex: income range Less than 50k, 50-100k, so on and so forth

Inaccurate observations

Failure to observe things right in front of us properly

Result of human error

Overgeneralization

Cognitive bias where individuals assume that a single event or experience is generalizable to all similar situations/individuals/experiences

Pure research

AKA basic/fundamental research

Research for the purpose of gaining knowledge and understanding

Applied research

Research designed to address real world problems and improve practice

Deductive method

Begins with a general theory and narrows down into a specific hypothesis

Inductive method

Begins with specific observations and data and develops general hypotheses and theories to explain the observations

Problem

Situations characterized by doubt and ignorance that represent felt difficulty

Situation

Unknown when ignorance matters in some way

Situation can become a problem due to theoretical or practical consequences

Mixed methods of inquiry

Combination of qualitative and quantitative methods in the same study

Theory

Set of interrelated statements that aim to explain something

Extraneous variable

Any factor other than the IV that may have an influence on the DV

May lead to inaccurate conclusions

Control variable

Factor that is intentionally kept constant during research to ensure that DV is only changing because of manipulation of IV

Antecedent variable

Factor that occurs before and may influence both IV and DV

Mediating variable

Explains process by which IV impacts DV

Example: watching TV late (IV) and feeling tired the next morning (DV). Lack of sleep would be mediating variable

Moderating variable

Affects direction of the relationship between IV and DV

Concept

Mental image that symbolizes person, idea, object, behavior, event

Idiographic model

Focuses on standing a unique individual through their experiences, circumstances, and perspectives

Nomothetic model

Aims at a general understanding- not necessarily complete- of a class of phenomena, using a small number of relevant causal factors

Cross sectional studies

A research method that studies the same participants multiple times over a period of time

Longitudinal studies

A research method that studies the same participants multiple times over a period of time (can be months, years, decades, etc)

Trend studies

Investigates change in phenomenon over time

Ex: tracking change in homelessness or unemployment

Cohort studies

following a group of people who share a specific characteristic over time to examine how that characteristic relates to a particular outcome

Ex: social work cohort employment & wages after graduation

Panel studies

longitudinal research where data is collected from the same group of individuals (the panel) repeatedly over time

allows for researcher to track patterns and changes over time

Theories and research

Sum up group related studies to connect major themes

Descriptive study

Measures and reports characteristics of a population or phenomenon without manipulating variables

Description

Identify relationship between variables but relationship is still new test hypothesis

Exploratory research

Initial understanding of an unexplored or poorly understood topic or phenomenon

Exploration (new interest)

Process of observing and analyzing to decide whether there are generalized categories that describe the relationship

Evaluation research

Evaluates social programs, policies, and interventions

Individual people

Sex

Age

Regions of birth

Groups

Social group, family, gang in a city, formal and social organizations

Social artifacts

Products of social beings or their behavior

Ex: books (size, weight, content, pictures)

Social interaction

Weddings, friendship choices, divorce, riots

Individualistic fallacy

the error of solely attributing social problems or individual outcomes to individual characteristics or behaviors

neglects the influence of systemic, structural, or environmental factors

Reductionism

Overly strict oversimplification of complex social phenomena to simpler more fundamental parts

Indicators

Quantifiable measurements used to assess and track changes, used to determine effectiveness of interventions

Research problem

Specific issue or gap in existing knowledge that a study aims to address

Research question

specific and focused question that guides the research process by addressing the problem and helps guide data collection

should be feasible, relevant, and have more than one answer

Process of research

problem formulation

designing study

data collection processing and analysis

interpret findings

write research report

Literature review

Critical analysis of existing research and publications on a specific topic

Aids with problem selection, seeing if question has been answered, identifying and addressing obstacles, and building on existing research

Research proposal

Problem formulation

Lit review Designing study Hypothesis

Data collection

Data processing

Data analysis

Application

Writing research

Law

Legal framework that governs practice of social work

Ideology

Underlying beliefs and values that shape how social workers approach research and develop interventions

Tradition

Previously established approaches, methods, and beliefs about how to study and understand phenomena

Authority

Power or influence a social worker has when doing an experiment

Direct observation

Researcher watches and records behavior in real time

Level of measurements

Nominal

Ordinal

Interval

Ratio