Early course topics
“Students who take morning classes get higher grades than students who take evening classes.” The time of classes is this type of variable.
What is the independent variable?
If my sample looks like the population I’m studying in all important ways, I can say that it is this.
What is representative?
In an experiment, the measurement of a dependent variable before changes are introduced.
What is a pre-test?
An intensive study of a culture from the native point of view
What is an ethnography?
When two variables are associated with each other - either positively or negatively.
What is correlation?
I know someone who smoked heavily his whole life, and is in excellent health at age 100. What this true story about a single person is called.
What is an anecdote.
For this sampling method, number each member of your sampling frame and have a computer select a random group of numbers.
What is a simple random sample?
The group in an experiment that does not receive any change to the independent variable.
What is the control group?
The people you interview during the course of your field research.
Who are informants?
Measure of central tendency showing the value at which half of scores fall below, and half of scores fall above
What is the median?
Defining a concept in such a way that it can be measured or observed.
What is operationalizing?
For my study on how MSMC students are coping during the COVID emergency, I ask students in my classes to complete a survey. I have used this type of sampling method.
What is a convenience sample?
(is this a probability sample?)
When deception is used in an experiment, this must occur at the end in order to reveal to participants the true purpose of the research.
What is debriefing?
When multiple researchers code the same qualitative data and then compare notes to ensure consistency.
What is inter-rater reliability?
When subjects in a research project can’t be identified
What is anonymity?
Research that collects data during a single point in time – such as a survey distributed once.
What is cross-sectional research?
When your sample differs in any systematic way from the population you are studying.
What is sampling bias?
In an experimental design, a threat to internal validity that can occur if assignment to groups is non-random, such as by asking for volunteers.
What is selection bias?
In qualitative data analysis, the type of coding used when you first read through the transcripts to identify the themes that emerge.
What is open coding?
A panel of people who review all research proposals involving human subjects in order to protect subjects.
What are Institutional Review Boards?
If I start by examining data, and from that data build a theory, I have used this approach.
What is an inductive approach?
My class is equally divided between Seniors and Juniors. I first divide my students by class year, then select at random an equal # of participants from each group. What sampling method have I used?
What is a stratified sample?
When participants in an experiment change their behavior because they know they are being observed.
What is reactivity (or the Hawthorne Effect)?
When an ethnographer pays attention to how their own personal history & beliefs might influence how they collect and/or interpret data.
What is reflexivity?
Kay says, “Since colleges that offer internship programs have higher employment rates among their graduates, we can conclude that doing internships increases the chances that students will find a job when they graduate.” She is making this error.
What is the ecological fallacy?