...Chapter 5 RESEARCH DESIGN GENERAL CONCEPT MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS 1. General Mills conducted research on a "new, improved" version of their cereal, TRIX. Consumer taste tests showed the new version was preferred over the old TRIX, but the new version was a failure when it was introduced. It was noted that the research was flawed in that the new version of TRIX was compared with the old TRIX, a choice that consumers in the marketplace would not have. The correct research should have compared the new TRIX with competitor brands. This example was presented in your text to illustrate: a. poor budgeting for research b. how researchers in large firms are in "silos" and are not open to outside suggestions c. how former research studies often determine the design of present studies d. improper research design e. a case where exploratory research should have been undertaken after the causal research Answer: (d) Difficulty: (Moderate) Page: 114 2. Which of the following is true about research design? a. Research design should be the first consideration in a research project. b. Research design decisions should be made after data analysis. c. Research design should be selected during the initial meeting with a client. d. Research design should be selected after thoroughly considering the problem and research objectives. e. Research designs should be made after data collection. Answer: (d) Difficulty:...
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...previously or not. There are different types of validity, but the two main varieties are internal and external validity. Internal validity answers the question- do the obtained results have a relationship with what we demonstrated in the experiment? Does the experiment show the real cause of what we draw in the conclusion? It is judged by how well it meets the seven internal validity threats. External validity explain if the observed causal relationship can be generalize among persons, settings, and times. It concerns with the relationship between experimental treatment and other factors. It is used when we have larger population. b) Preexperimental designs are used to control contamination of the relationship that exists between independent and dependent variables. This design is very weak because it fails to control the threats to internal validity or to provide comparison groups that are truly equivalent. Quasi-experimental designs are field experiments that are more advanced than preexperimental. They have control over some of the variables. Using this experiment, we cannot know when or to whom to expose experiment treatment. Also, these designs are not classify as true experiments either. c) History and maturation are two of the many threats that appear in internal validity. History represents events that occur during the experiment and confuse the relationship studied. Researchers measure those events during the experiment....
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...mathematical interest and not directly relevant to statistics. Moreover, many topics in statistics are independent of probability theory. Probability (or likelihood) is a measure or estimation of how likely it is that something will happen or that a statement is true. Probabilities are given a value between 0 (0% chance or will not happen) and 1 (100% chance or will happen). The higher the degree of probability, the more likely the event is to happen, or, in a longer series of samples, the greater the number of times such event is expected to happen. These concepts have been given an axiomatic mathematical derivation in probability theory (see probability axioms), which is used widely in such areas of study as mathematics, statistics, finance, gambling, science, artificial intelligence/machine learning and philosophy to, for example, draw inferences about the expected frequency of events. Probability theory is also used to describe the underlying mechanics and regularities of complex systems. Statistics is the study of the collection, organization, analysis, interpretation and presentation of data. It deals with all aspects of data, including the planning of data collection in terms of the design of surveys and experiments. The word statistics, when referring to the scientific discipline, is singular, as in "Statistics is an art."This should not be confused with the word statistic, referring to a quantity (such as mean or median) calculated from a set of data, whose plural is statistics...
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...answering these four types of questions, there are other types of question that are not well suited to quantitative methods: 1. The first situation where quantitative research will fail is when the problem needs to be analysed in depth. Quantitative research is good at providing information in breadth from a large number of units. But when it comes to exploration of a problem or concept in depth, quantitative methods are too shallow. To get really under the skin of a phenomenon, the best suited methods are, ethnographic methods, interviews, in-depth case studies and other qualitative techniques. 2. As stated earlier, quantitative research is well-suited for the testing of theories and hypotheses. What quantitative methods cannot do very well is to develop hypotheses and theories. The hypotheses to be tested may come from a review of the literature or theory, but can also be developed using exploratory qualitative research. 3. If issues to be studied are particularly complex, an in-depth qualitative study, like a case studyis more likely to pick up on this than a quantitative study. This is partly...
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...empirical arguments. Begins with a question and ends with facts. | Concepts or Constructs | Abstract terms people use to describe reality. People may share general definitions or understandings of a concept, but because they are abstract, the specific interpretation of these concepts among many people may differ. An abstraction. Cannot be measured directly. | Dimensions | A theoretical term used to describe clusters of concepts that together represent a broader, more complex concept. | Conceptual Definition | Is the working or “dictionary type” definition a researcher uses for a concept. It tends to be nonspecific | Operational Definition | Is used to define something (e.g. a variable, term, or object) in terms of a process (or set of validation tests) needed to determine its existence, duration, and quantity. | Measurement | The process of observing concepts, as indicated by their operational definitions, and assigning some type of score or meaning to responses. | Nominal Measure | Low level of measurement, answer choices are exhaustive as well as mutually exclusive. (Exhaustive means there is an answer choice for everyone, and mutually exclusive means the participant selects one and only one choice unless otherwise instructed). Associating a name with something. No ordering or rank, just a name. (e.g., numbers...
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...The design of any experiment is of utmost importance because it has the power to be the most rigid type of research. The design, however, is always dependent on feasibility. The best approach is to control for as many confounding variables as possible in order to eliminate or reduce errors in the assumptions that will be made. It is also extremely desirable that any threats to internal or external validity be neutralized. In the perfect world, all research would do this and the results of research would be accurate and powerful. In the real world, however, this is rarely the case. We are often dealing with human subjects, which in itself confounds （puzzles） any study. We are also dealing with the restraints of time and situation, often resulting in less than perfect conditions in which to gather information. There are three basic experimental designs, each containing subsets with specific strengths and weaknesses. These three basic designs include: (1) pre-experimental design; (2) quasi-experimental design; and (3) true experimental design. They will be discussed below and as you will discover, are addressed in order of effectiveness. Pre-Experimental Design Pre-experimental designs are so named because they follow basic experimental steps but fail to include a control group. In other words, a single group is often studied but no comparison between an equivalent non-treatment group is made. Examples include the following: The One-Shot Case Study. In this arrangement...
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...There are four steps of the scientific method. The first step, observation, is the first phase of solving the problem. Observation includes researching and collecting all the information you will need for the problem. After our observation we need to develop a hypothesis. A hypothesis is what we think that the solution to a particular problem is. A hypothesis is an assumption that we will use the next step, experimentation to determine whether or not the hypothesis is true. An experiment is simply the tests that are done to prove or disprove a particular hypothesis. One of the main ways scientist experiment with their hypotheses is with research studies. If after experimentation research and experiments can’t prove your hypothesis, you both modify the hypothesis and restart experiments and research studies or you can reject the hypothesis and start over from the very beginning. One of the best ways of proving your hypothesis is through various types of research studies. A few different research studies are epidemiology studies and also clinical trials. According to Clinicalresearch.edu, Epidemiology is “the study of distribution and determents of health-related states or events in specified populations.” Also considered observational studies, Epidemiology analyze things...
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...Application of Scientific Methodology on Two Sample Case Studies Student Name Institution Introduction Scientific method is one of the most reliable methods that are used to convey information and knowledge among researchers. In 18th century there were difficulties in the ways in which scientists could verify the works of other colleagues (Achinstein, 2004). Thus there was agreed upon a method to be used when conducting research which became the scientific method. This method is relied upon because it is a source of reliable knowledge and that research that is conducted in this advocated way provides knowledge and information that has a high probability of being true. Through this methodology thus a researcher must be able to convince his colleagues that the concepts are in fact correct. This is important because research work is based on the foundation of trust. Very few researches provide completely new information that was unknown in the past. Most of them build up on existing information and thus drawing conclusions from other peoples work hence the foundation of trust. I am going to look in to detail of the scientific methodology by considering two scenarios which are actually problems that we are going to solve through the concept of scientific method. Scenario 1 You wake up early one morning to go to work or take your kids to school and you cannot find your car keys Let us examine the steps that make up the methodology in solving scenario 1 problem 1. Make...
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...Tell when to use a Pearson’s correlation, the possible research hypotheses for this statistical model, and when correlation can be used to test each type of Research Hypothesis (attributive, associative and causal). 1. A Pearson's correlation is used when you want to find a linear relationship between two variables. It can be used in a causal as well as a associativeresearch hypothesis but it can't be used with a attributive RH because it is univariate. 2. Pearson's correlation should be used only when there is a linear relationship between variables. It can be a positive or negative relationship, as long as it is significant. Correlation is used for testing in Within Groups studies. A possible research hypothesis for this statistical model would be that there is a positive linear relationship between variables. Another possible research hypothesis would be that there is a negative linear relationship. If there is no linear relationship between the variables, then we would retain the null hypothesis. 3. Pearson's correlation should be used when there is a significant effect. (p > .05) When there is a relationship between two variables. There can be a positive or negative correlation. It cannot be used when we retain the null hypothesis because then there is no relationship. It can be used if the null is rejected. 4. A Pearson's correlation is used when two quantitative variables are being tested in the RH. This cannot test attributive RH, but can associative and causal. The...
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...University of Phoenix Material Week 1 Assignment Worksheet Matching Match the following descriptions to the correct perspective: 1. ___B.___ perspective focuses on how learning experiences affect behavior, and focuses on behavior that is observable. 2. __E___ perspective focuses on the effect of unresolved conflicts from childhood, and how those conflicts unconsciously shape behavior. 3. __D___ perspective focuses on free will, conscious choices, and self-awareness, and views humans as distinct individuals with unique characteristics. 4. ___C__ perspective examines the mental processes used to obtain knowledge, and focuses on how information is processed, stored, retrieved, and manipulated. 5. __A___ perspective focuses on how factors like age, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, and income level influence behavior, attitudes, and mental processes. A. Sociocultural B. Behavioral C. Cognitive D. Humanistic E. Psychodynamic Table Provide a description of the function of the structures or hormones listed. |Structure |Hormone(s) released (if applicable) |Description or function | |Frontal lobe |CRH Corticotropin-releasing hormone |Helps with decision making | |Somatosensory cortex |CRH |Sensory receptive area for the sense of touch...
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...the reasons why some sociologists chose not to use experiments when conducting research (20) There are two types of experiments; laboratory and field experiments. Laboratory experiments are tests carried out in an artificial controlled setting whereas field experiments take place in a natural setting. Sociologists such as interpretivists don't tend to use experiments as they include lots of theoretical, practical and ethical problems. A theoretical problem for laboratory experiments is generally that they fail to achieve a high level of validity. Validity is whether the research measures what it is set out to measure. As labs are an artificial setting, it can cause unnatural behaviour to occur. Also field experiments have a lack of control over variables so to gain true validity would be hard. However in contrast, other sociologists such as positivists disagree and are in favour of laboratory experiments. This is because there can be careful control over experimental conditions allowing other researchers to be able to replicate the study in order to get similar results increasing the reliability as well. A practical issue for why experiments are not always used is that lab experiments can only study small scale samples. This makes it very difficult to investigate large scale social phenomena such as religions or voting patterns. This overall reduces the representativeness of the experiments in labs. Furthermore, experiments overall can’t be used to study the past. It is impossible...
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...CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODS IN I/0 PSYCHOLOGY Learning Objectives Some students may have already had a course in, or an introduction to, research methodology before taking the I/O course. However, it is important that students become familiar with the contents of this chapter because: a) Quantitative methods are central to I/O psychology; b) Understanding research methods is a difficult subject for most students; c) Research methods are often quickly forgotten; d) Several topics relevant to I/0 psychology may not have been covered in previous courses. After studying the material in this chapter the student should be able to: 1. Understand and describe the characteristics of a good research question. 2. Explain each of the major concepts of research design including: variables, setting, generalizability, control, confounding, random assignment, and random selection. 3. Explain what a research design is; Describe different types of research designs as well as list their advantages and disadvantages. 4. Define the basic concepts of measurement. 5. List and describe the types of reliability. 6. Discuss the different ways of assessing validity. 7. Define basic concepts of descriptive statistics. 8. Explain the difference between descriptive statistics and inferential statistics. 9. Explain basic concepts in inferential statistics, especially statistical significance. 10. Report the nature and purpose of meta-analysis. 11....
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...you are going to bend and adapt the rules, you need to understand the rules in the first place. Empirical Science is based purely around observation and measurement, and the vast majority of research involves some type of practical experimentation. This can be anything, from measuring the Doppler Shift of a distant galaxy to handing out questionnaires in a shopping center. This may sound obvious, but this distinction stems back to the time of the Ancient Greek Philosophers. Cutting a long story short, Plato believed that all knowledge could be reasoned; Aristotle that knowledge relied upon empirical observation and measurement. This does bring up one interesting anomaly. Strictly speaking, the great physicists, such as Einstein and Stephen Hawking, are not scientists. They generate sweeping and elegant theories and mathematical models to describe the universe and the very nature of time, but measure nothing. In reality, they are mathematicians, occupying their own particular niche, and they should properly be referred to as theoreticians. Still, they are still commonly referred to as scientists and do touch upon the scientific method in that any theory they have can be destroyed by a single scrap of empirical evidence. The Scientific Method Relies Upon Data The scientific method uses some type of measurement to analyze results, feeding these findings back into theories of what we know about the world. There are two major ways of obtaining data, through measurement and...
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...PY 354-Introduction to Psychological Research Spring, 2013 This exam will evaluate how well you understand the material in the class so far. It covers the information presented in Chapters 1-4 of the McBride text, as well as the course notes that I have provided. You may use your book, notes, or outside resources to help you with your exam, but you may NOT consult with each other. Also, do not simply copy/paste information from any source…put things into your own words and use your own examples!!! Evidence of copy/paste or other forms of plagiarism will result in a score of 0 for the exam. If you use an outside source, cite it properly and provide an APA style reference list at the end of your exam. (100 points) Part A: Research Scenarios—Read each scenario carefully. At times, I may ask for a definite answer and at other times, a potential answer. Each scenario is worth 10 points. A researcher wants to examine the effects of LSD on complex learning in rats. One group of rats was given a very small dose that would be unlikely to cause any behavioral effects. The second group of rats was given a larger dose of the drug. Both groups of rats then ran through a complex maze several times. 10/10 a. What is the independent variable (s) and is it a true or subject variable: The independent variable would be the different amounts of LSD given to the rats. This is a true variable. b. What is the dependent variable(s): The dependent variable is the time...
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...The True Experiment Research Design A Clinical Research Study Juna Jean Kaplan University | There are so many different sciences in the world. Each one requires research in order to understand the reasons behind behaviors, illnesses, chemical reactions and so much more. True experiments help to test a theory or a drug and its effectiveness while explaining its effects in nature. Testing a new drug and its effectiveness would help scientists to understand, verify, or confirm the benefits of a drug. There are several other research designs that could be used to establish this result however a true experiment is the strongest. I thought of using the quasi-experiment but that design focuses primarily on the cause a treatment has on an entire population. There is little to no sampling involved and there are a great number of threats to the studies internal and external validity. The true experiment allows the research to be confident in the results because there is less threat to the validity of the study. For instance, the researcher is allowed to do random assigning where he places the participants of the study using a procedure like having them play rocks, paper, scissors (Zechmeister, Zechmiester & Shaughnessy, 2001). True experiments are made up of four key ingredients that strengthen its validity. The independent variable, the dependent variable, random assignment and the groups, both treatment and control group. The independent variable is the intervention...
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