6 - Strategy and Validity

Question 1

Research strategy

Answer 1

A general approach to research determined by the kind of question the research study hopes to answer

Question 2

What are the five research strategies?

Answer 2

1. Descriptive
2. Correlational
3. Experimental
4. Quasi-experimental
5. Nonexperimental

Question 3

What are the features of descriptive studies?

Answer 3

Produce a description of individual variables as they exist within a specific group.
A list of scores obtained by measuring each individual in the group being studied.
On average, students at the local college spend 12.5 hours studying outside class each week and get 7.2 hours of sleep

Question 4

What are the features of a correlational study?

Answer 4

Produce a description of the relationship between two variables but do not attempt to explain the relationship
Measure two variables for each individual group being studied
There is a relationship between wake-up times and gpa for students, but we don’t know why

Question 5

What are the features of an experimental study?

Answer 5

Produce a cause and effect explanation for the relationship between two variables.
Crate two conditions by changing the level of one variable. Then measure a second variable for the participants in each condition
Increasing the amount of exercise causes a decrease in cholesterol levels

Question 6

What are the features of a quasi-experimental study?

Answer 6

Attempt to produce a cause and effect explanation, but fall short
Measure before/after scores for one group that receives treatment and for a different group that does not receive treatment
The treatment may cause a reduction in smoking behaviour, but the reduced smoking may be caused by something else

Question 7

What are the features of a nonexperimental study?

Answer 7

Produce a description of the relationship between two variables but do not attempt to explain the relationship
Measure scores for two different groups of participants or for one group at two different times
There is a relationship between gender and verbal ability. Girls tend to have higher verbal skills than boys, but we don’t know why.

Question 8

What are the different line types of relationships between variables?

Answer 8

Linear relationships include the following:

1. Curvilinear
2. Positive
3. Negative

Bar graph is nothing

Question 9

What goal do nonexperimental and correlational research studies share?

Answer 9

Both are designed to demonstrate a relationship exists between two variables but don’t try to explain it
Correlational uses one group of participants and measures two variables for each individual
Nonexperimental compared groups of scores, measuring only one variable for each individual

Question 10

What factors are involved in research design?

Answer 10

1. Group versus individual
2. Same individuals versus different
3. Number of variables included

Question 11

What factors are involved in determining procedures?

Answer 11

1. How variables will be manipulated
2. How many individuals will be involved
3. How individual participants or subjects will proceed through the course of study

Question 12

1. What is external validity?

2. What threatens it?

Answer 12

1. The extent to which we can generalize the results of a research study to people, settings, times, measures, and characteristics other than those used in that study:
2. Generalization study to population
3. One study to another
4. Study/lab to real world
5. Any characteristics of a study that limits the ability to generalize the results from a study.

Question 13

1. What is internal validity?

2. What threatens it?

Answer 13

1. Ability to produce a single, unambiguous explanation

2. Any factor that allows an alternative explanation

Question 14

What are the factors in generalization across subjects’ threat to external validity?

Answer 14

1. Selection bias
2. College students
3. Volunteer bias
4. Participant characteristics
5. Cross-species generalizations

Question 15

What are the factors in generalization across features of a study’s threat to external validity?

Answer 15

1. Novelty effect
2. Multiple treatment interference
3. Experimenter characteristics

Question 16

What are the factors in generalization across features of the measures’ threat to external validity?

Answer 16

1. Sensitization
2. Generality across response measures
3. Time of measurement

Question 17

What are extraneous variables?

Confounding variables?

Answer 17

Any variable in a research study other than the specific variables being studied

An extraneous variable that changes systematically with the two variables being studied. A able provides an alternative explanation for the observed relationship between the two variables and therefore is a threat to validity

Question 18

What are types of confounding variables?

Answer 18

Environmental
Individual differences: assignment bias produces groups of indivs with noticeably diff chars
Time-related variables
Assignment bias

Question 19

What is assignment bias?

Answer 19

Occurs when the process used to assign different participants to different treatments produces groups of individuals with noticeably different characteristics

Question 20

What are experimental artifacts?

Answer 20

1. Experimenter bias (minimized by single and double blinds) expectations influence outcome
2. Demand characteristics
3. Reactivity
4. Exaggerated variables