Chap 2 - Research Methods

Question 1

What are the major purposes of research?

Answer 1

• Contribute to knowledge
• Solve an organizational problem
• Determine what works
• Rule out alternative explanations

Example of alternative explanation: Hawthorne effect

Question 2

What is a research question?

Answer 2

The purpose of the research, what the search is trying to answer

Question 3

What is a hypothesis?

Answer 3

Researcher’s guess about the results of a study, a tentative answer to a research question

Question 4

What are the two types of variables?

Answer 4

• Independent variable - manipulated by researcher
• Dependent variable - measured in response to the independent variable

Question 5

What is generalizability in research?

Answer 5

The extent to which research findings hold in other settings

Question 6

What is the role of control in research?

Answer 6

Helps to rule out alternate explanations

Question 7

What is randomization?

Answer 7

Eliminating systematic influences through random assignment and random selection

Question 8

What are confounds in research?

Answer 8

Occurs when two variables are intertwined and provide alternative explanations for a result

Question 9

What characterizes experimental design?

Answer 9

People differing on IV compared on DV, includes true experiments, field experiments, and quasi-experiments

Question 10

What are the advantages of survey design?

Answer 10

• Quick and inexpensive
• Good generalizability

Question 11

What are the disadvantages of survey design?

Answer 11

• Response rates can be low
• People are not always accurate or honest

Question 12

What is experience sampling design?

Answer 12

Multiple measurements per day for several days allowing within-person comparisons

Question 13

What is observational design?

Answer 13

Take observations of people while working, can be obtrusive or unobtrusive

Question 14

What are qualitative studies?

Answer 14

Observations and open-ended materials that are not quantified

Question 15

What is people analytics?

Answer 15

Systematic use of people data to make informed decisions

Question 16

What are the two types of measurement?

Answer 16

• Categorical: Numbers are labels for different values
• Continuous: Numbers indicate the amount of a variable from low to high

Question 17

What does classical measurement theory explain?

Answer 17

How random error affects measurement and why multiple items are used in tests

Question 18

What is reliability in research?

Answer 18

Consistency when the same person is measured repeatedly

Question 19

What are the types of validity?

Answer 19

• Construct validity
• Face validity
• Content validity
• Criterion-related validity

Question 20

What are measures of central tendency?

Answer 20

• Mean
• Median

Question 21

What are measures of dispersion?

Answer 21

• Variance
• Standard deviation

Question 22

What is inferential statistics?

Answer 22

Drawing conclusions about relationships and using statistical significance

Question 23

What is statistical significance?

Answer 23

Probability of finding significance by chance if the null hypothesis were true

Question 24

What are some statistical tests?

Answer 24

• Independent group t-test
• Analysis of Variance (ANOVA)
• Factorial ANOVA
• t-test for correlation

Question 25

What is meta-analysis?

Answer 25

Quantitative method for combining results across studies

Question 26

What are mediators and moderators?

Answer 26

* Mediators intervene between two variables * Moderators affect the relationship between an IV and a DV

Question 27

What is the general principle of research ethics?

Answer 27

Do no harm, protecting health and well-being of research participants

Question 28

What is informed consent?

Answer 28

A form that participants sign to indicate their agreement to participate in research

Question 29

variable

Answer 29

is any attribute or characteristic that can be **changed** or **measured** in an experiment.

Question 30

Common variables in Org research

Answer 30

abilities (intelligence) attitudes (job satisfaction) behavior (absence from work job performance (weekly sales)

Question 31

Independent Variable | what you change

Answer 31

the researcher changes or manipulates to see its effect | In a study on how sleep affects test performance, the amount of sleep is

Question 32

Dependent Variable | what you measure

Answer 32

variable that is measured or observed in response to changes in the independent variable. | In a sleep study, test scores are the dependent variable, how much sleep

Question 35

# research setting field study

Answer 35

interest naturally occur | organizations to study employee behavior

Question 36

laboratory setting

Answer 36

artificial environment; interest do not normally occur | researcher created

Question 37

Generalizability

Answer 37

results of a study or experiment can be applied to or represent people, settings, or situations beyond the original research sample | can it apply in other settings

Question 38

Control

Answer 38

he process of keeping certain variables constant so that the effects of the independent variable on the dependent variable can be clearly measured. | managing the experiment so that nothing else interferes with what you're

Question 39

Control group

Answer 39

roup in an experiment that **does not** receive the treatment or independent variable | The control group *stays the same* so researchers can see what changes h

Question 40

Hawthorne Effect

Answer 40

henomenon where people change their behavior simply because they know they are being observed or studied, rather than because of any specific experimental treatment.

Question 41

experimental group

Answer 41

does receive the treatment for comparison

Question 42

Random Assignment

Answer 42

andomly placing the participants** already in the study **into different groups (like experimental and control groups). | Flipping a coin to decide if a participant goes into the treatment or co

Question 43

Random Selection

Answer 43

choosing participants from a larger population completely at random, so everyone has an equal chance of being selected. | Drawing names out of a hat to select 100 people from a city’s population

Question 45

confounding variable

Answer 45

utside factor that affects both the independent and dependent variables | confuses the results because it may be the real cause of the effect you'

Question 46

Research Design

Answer 46

overall plan or structure for conducting a study *What they’re studying *How they’ll collect data *How they’ll test their hypothesis *How they’ll avoid bias or confounding factors | how data will be collected, measured, and analyzed

Question 47

experiment

Answer 47

researcher actively manipulates one variable (called the independent variable) to see its effect on another variable (called the dependent variable), while controlling other variables to ensure accurate results. | test to see if changing one thing causes something else to happen