Lecture 1/2
What are the steps of the research process?
1. Determine the research idea
2. Review & Evaluate the literature
3. Be aware of ethical issues
4. Be aware of cultural issues
5. State the research question & research hypothesis
6. Select the research approach
7. Determine how the variables are going to be measured
8. Select a population & or sample
9. Select a data collection method
10. Collect & Code data
11. Analyze & Interpret the data
12. Write the report
13. Disseminate the report
What should research questions include?
1. Express a relationship
2. Should be stated as a question
3. Lend themselves to empirical investigations
4. Should be specific (Easily know what your variables are etc)
What is a construct?
What are examples of constructs?
An idea concept or abstraction that has multiple referents which in psychology are known as "measurable variables"
EX: Happiness, well being, anger, racism etc
*Usually doesn't exist as a material entity**
What are questionnaires, surveys, scales, and tests?
Q: Self-report data collection instrument completed by research participants to measure their opinions, perceptions, and provide demographic info
Survey: Research effort in which data is collected from individuals by means of questionnaires or scales
Scales: A series of items designed to measure a construct (can stand alone or be nested within questions)
T: Standardized or researcher constructed data collection instruments designed to measure personality, attitude, achievement, performance etc
What is a sample? Sampling frame?
S: A subset of the population
EX: Age, ethnic distribution, regional representation etc
SF: A list of elements in a population
Where do we get our ideas for research studies?
- Everyday observations
- Practical issues that require a solution
- Existing research
- Theory
What is an example of a research question vs a research problem?
What is a hypothesis?
RQ EX: Is dance movement therapy an effective intervention for reducing symptoms of test anxiety?
RP EX: Test anxiety is a multidimensional problem that can lead to undue distress for the individual. The objective of this pilot study was to investigate if DMT might be an effective intervention for test anxiety
H: A declarative predictive statement about the relationship among variables
What's the difference between a conceptual and operational definition and examples?
C: The specific theoretical meaning or an abstract dictionary type definition for the construct
EX: Joy refers to the high-arousal emotion felt when the environment signals an imminent improvement in resources, and one must expend energy to acquire reward
O: Defining a concept by specifying precisely how it is measured or manipulated in a particular study
EX: Use a scale-dispositional positive emotions scale
What is reliability? What are the types of reliability?
R: CONSISTENCY & STABILITY of the scores from the measurement instrument
*easier to determine than validity*
Test Retest: Consistency of a group of individual scores on a test over time (Pearson R efficient)
Equivalent forms/Alternate forms: Consistency of a group of individual scores on 2 VERSIONS of the same test (Pearson R efficient)
Internal consistency/Interitem: Consistency with items on a test measuring a single construct (Coefficient alpha/Cronbach's alpha)
Interrater: The degree of consistency or agreement between 2 or more scorers judgers observers or raters (Intraclass Correlation Coefficient)
What is nonprobability sampling? What are types?
Nonprobability: The probability of an element being selected is unknown & we have no guarantee that each element has an equal opportunity of being included in the sample
C: Involves selecting elements, participants, objects, primarily on the basis of their availability
Q: Research sets quota the #'s of people needed to meet quotas
S: Research participants are asked to identify other potential research participants who have a certain inclusion characteristic
P: Researcher specifies the characteristics of the pop. of the interest and then locates individuals who have those characteristics.
What is a theory?
1. A logically organized set of propositions (claims, statements, assertions) that serves to DEFINE events or concepts DESCRIBE relationships among events, and EXPLAIN the occurrence of these events.
How is a hypothesis testable vs not testable?
T: made in reference to the research question, derived from the literature or theory, testable
NT: If concepts to which they refer to are not adequately defined or measured, If it's circular, appeals to ideas or forces that are not recognized by science
What is operationalization? What are variables?
A method used by the researcher to measure or manipulate the variables under investigation
(Must be consistent with a research question, can vary from one study to the next)
V: How we measure constructs, derived from the construct, not able to capture all that a construct encompasses
" An event, category, behavior, or attribute that expresses a construct and has different values depending on how it is used in a particular study"
What are the types of validity?
Measurement: The accuracy of the inferences, interpretations, or actions made on the basis of the scores/responses from the measurement instrument
*truthfulness of a measure*
Face: Looking at items on a scale and seeing what it's supposed to be measuring
Content: The extent to which test items have sufficient breadth to capture the full range of the construct intended to measure
Criterion: The gold standard
Predictive: Degree to which scores obtained at one time correctly predict the scores on a criterion at a later time
Concurrent: What is the relationship between the scale and the criterion at the same time
Internal Structure: Evaluating the evidence for the number of dimensions that are measure by a single measurement instrument
Discriminant: Validity evidence based on the degree to which 2 measures or different constructs are unrelated
Convergent: Validity evidence based on the degree to which focal test scores correlate with independent measures of the same constructs
What is probability sampling? What are the types?
Every element person, unity, object, etc of the pop/ jas an equal chance of being selected from the population
Simple R: Every element has an equal chance of being included in the sample
Systematic R: One determines the sampling interval(k), randomly selects between 1 and then selects every kth element
Stratified R: Division of pop. elements into mutually exclusive groups based on the stratification variable and then selection of a random sample from each
C:n Clusters are randomly selected from the pop. Then participants are randomly drawn from the clusters determined in the 1st stage
What should you consider in regards to feasibility before beginning a research study?
1. Time
2. Research participants
3. Expense
4. Space
5. Expertise of the researcher
6. Ethical issues
7. Culture issues
What are the 3 types of research hypotheses?
1. Directional: Specifies the type of relationship among the variables. Includes statements like higher than, better than, more than, lower than, worse than, less than
2. Nondirectional: Recognizes the relationship among the variables but does not specify the type of relationship
3. Null hypothesis: Statement of no relationship among the variables being investigated and is used in statistical analysis.
What is an item? What are open-ended items? What are close-ended items/questions? Include examples
I: A specific question or statement to which a person responds overtly (this response can be scored or evaluated)
EX: What's your zip code?
OI: Allows the participant to respond to the question or item in their own words
EX: Describe Colin Kaepernick's decision to kneel using one word
C: Dichotmas format: The person is given 2 alternatives for each item
EX: True-false, fair-unfair, yes-no
What is the multimethod approach to construct validation?
Collect data from 2 different constructs and 2 different methods. This creates coefficients that go into a multi-method matrix
How do you determine sample size?
- Examine the researcher literature to determine the size of the samples in other studies
- Statistical analysis you plan on performing
-Sample size calculator
What is a research question?
The research problem stated as a question
- Interrogative sentence or statement that asks what relation exists between 2 or more variables
What are examples of the types of hypotheses?
Directional:
1. The more time a person spends sleeping the better they will do in class
2. Dancer movement therapy may help facilitate more control over the body, therefore it may help reduce some of the physical symptoms associated with test anxiety
Nondirectional:
1. There is a relationship between the amount of time a person spends sleeping and their attention span
2. A sense of mastery over one's experiences may generalize to other situations within a person's life directly or indirectly symbolically at the body level
What is the Likert format? What are other formats?
L: A scale where the participant responds to one or several alternatives instead of just 2 alternatives to a particular item
* The most familiar and commonly used for collecting quantitative data *
Adjective checklist: The participant is given a list of adjectives and indicates whether each one is characteristic of himself or herself
Q-Sort: The participant organizes characteristics into piles
Ranking: The participant is instructed to rank alternatives
What is construct validity? What is a population?
Awareness of the inferences about the higher-order constructs from the operations (methods or tools) used to represent them
P: Collection of people, animals, plants, etc all of which can be referred to as units from which we may collect information
What are the recruitment methods?
- University participants/Subject pool
-Websites dedicated to collecting data