Doing Research
Every good study begins with this.
What is: a specific research question or hypothesis
Data refers to _____ about _____.
What is: information, people
This process means taking a concept (ex: drug use) and turning it into a specific survey question (for example).
What is: operationalization
The number of people enrolled in your study is known as what?
What is: sample size
This software program is student-friendly and useful for analyzing quantitative (numeric) data.
What is: SPSS
This research method is useful for determining whether a program (ex: DARE), law (ex: Megan's law) or policy is effective.
What is: evaluation using (quasi)experimental design
Research Methods students begin their research study by selecting a general area that is related to...
What is: what they are interested in, career-wise or in general.
In Senior Seminar, students can choose one of two ways to acquire data for their study.
What is: download an existing database, or build an original database.
These are two types of survey questions.
What is: open-ended, closed-ended
Once a group of prospective sample members is identified, the researcher must next do this.
What is: recruit/invite the sample to participate
This software program is useful for analyzing qualitative data (words and phrases, images).
What is: Atlas Ti qualitative analysis software
This type of study is sometimes referred to as a 'super study' because it sums up all prior research on a question/topic.
What is: meta-analysis
Before plunging into conducting your own research, it is important to know this.
What is: what prior research has been conducted on the topic and/or research question
Mixed methods studies involve these two types of data.
What are: quantitative, qualitative
This term refers to how well your measures (ex: survey questions) measure what you want to know.
What is: validity
These are two approaches to sampling (one of which is methodologically stronger).
What is: random sampling, convenience sampling
Once a researcher has collected all their data (ex: surveys completed by participants), what is the next step in the research process?
What is: set up the database skeleton in SPSS, then begin analyzing data
This type of research involves looking at relationships between individuals, who are referred to as nodes.
What is: social network analysis
This essential step is how researchers/students learn about what is already known about their topic.
What is: reading
This is an online clearinghouse of existing databases, including many relevant to criminal justice.
What is: the National Archives of Criminal Justice Data.
This term refers to your measures consistently producing the same response over and over again.
What is: reliability
When discussing a person's potential involvement in a study, the researcher must first give them this.
What is: an informed consent form
In which part of SPSS does the researcher/student start when setting up a new database?
What is: the variable view
Criminal justice research, particularly the methods, has parallels with research in this other discipline.
What is: public health
A literature review for Research Methods or Senior Seminar must contain a good number of these types of publications.
What is: peer-reviewed journal articles
When working with existing data collected by someone else, this document describes the methodology including who data were collected from and what the variables are.
What is: the codebook
When measures (ex: survey questions) are put into a database along with the answers, they are commonly referred to as this.
This university committee must first review proposed research that involves collecting data from live human beings.
What is: Institutional Review Board (IRB)
These are two types of preliminary, univariate statistics that researchers/students run once all their data are entered into the database.
What are: frequencies, descriptives
The Philadelphia Birth Cohort Study is an example of a type of research method that follows people over a (long) period of time.
What is: longitudinal research
These types of publications are not appropriate for a Research Methods or Senior Seminar literature review.
What are: newspaper articles, magazine articles, Wikipedia articles, random stuff from random websites off the Internet
This type of data collection instrument involves people filling out answers to questions about their actions, feelings, and background experiences.
What is: a survey
This is the most important variable in any study, the variable that should appear FIRST in the results section of your Senior Seminar final paper.
What is: the dependent variable
What is: harm
This type of significance test(s) is useful for determining whether there is a pattern in the responses of group A (men) vs. group B (women.)
What is: crosstabs with the chi square
These are three broad areas of ethics in research that researchers/students must be mindful of.
What are: ethics of data collection, treatment of human subjects, responsibility to society