CHAPTER 3: Nonexperimental Designs

Question 1

do not create levels of an independent variable nor randomly assign subject to these levels

• Usually conducted in real-world setting.

Answer 1

Nonexperimental Approaches

Question 1

The degree to which a research design allows us to make causal statements.

• Laboratory experiments are potentially high in internal validity.
• An experiment has high internal validity when we can demonstrate that only the antecedent conditions are responsible for group differences in behavior.
• Allows us to draw cause-and-effect conclusions.

Answer 1

Internal Validity

Question 2

generalizability or applicability to people and situations outside the research setting.

• Field methods, social experiments
• Nonexperimental designs may have greater external validity

Answer 2

External Validity

Question 3

high degree in manipulation

Answer 3

Experiments

Question 4

low degree in manipulation

Answer 4

Non Experiments

Question 5

the extent to which researcher constraints or limits the responses a subject may contribute to the data.

Answer 5

The degree of imposition of units

Question 6

stimulus that cues an organism to perform a learned behavior.

Answer 6

Antecedent

Question 7

the description of an individual’s immediate experience.

• Using personal experience as a source of data.
• Low in manipulation of antecedent conditions and low in imposition of units.
• Can describe but not explain behavior.

Answer 7

Phenomenology

Question 8

known early phenomenologist

Answer 8

William James

Question 9

– descriptive record of a single individual’s experiences, behaviors, or both, that are kept by an outside observer.

• may also be applied to nonclinical issues such as social trends and adult morale

Answer 9

Case Study

Question 10

5 major purposes of case studies:

Answer 10

1. Source of inferences, hypotheses, and theories
2. Source of developing therapy techniques
3. Allow the study of rare phenomena
4. Provide exceptions, counter instances, to accepted ideas, theories, or practices
5. Have persuasive and motivational value

Question 11

extension of the evaluative case study.

• researchers examine differences between deviant and normal individuals to identify etiological factors

Answer 11

Deviant case analysis

Question 12

recollections of past events that are collected in the present.

• Memories are altered or reconstructed

Answer 12

Retrospective Data

Question 13

nonexperimental studies conducted in the field or real-life settings.

• Antecedent conditions are not manipulated.

Answer 13

Field Studies

Question 14

examines subjects’ spontaneous behavior in their actual (natural) environments and may obtain more representative behavior than experiments.

Answer 14

Naturalistic Observation

Question 15

subjects alter their behavior when they know that they are being observed.

Answer 15

Reactivity

Question 16

use pre rearranged strategy for recording observations in which each observation is recorded using specific rules and guidelines so that observations are more objective.

Answer 16

Systematic Observation

Question 17

behavioral indicators that can be observed without the subject’s knowledge.

Answer 17

Unobtrusive Measures

Question 18

involves field observation in which the researcher is part of the studied group.

• The researcher does not interact with research

subjects to avoid reactivity
- Pretending to be a group member

Answer 18

Participant-Observer Study

Question 19

descriptive research method in which already existing records are reexamined for a new purpose.

Answer 19

Archival Study

Question 20

• relies on words rather than numbers for the data being collected.
• Focuses on self-reports, personal narratives, expression of ideas, memories, feelings, and thoughts.

Answer 20

Qualitative Research

Question 21

set of attitudes, values, beliefs, methods, and procedures that are generally accepted within a particular discipline at a point in time.

Answer 21

Paradigm

Question 22

contemporary phenomenology; might rely on the researcher’s own experiences or on experiential data provided by other sources.

Answer 22

Empirical Phenomenology

Question 23

design of inquiry coming from anthropology and sociology in which the researcher studies the shared patterns of behaviors, language, and actions of an intact cultural group in a natural setting over a prolonged period of time.

Answer 23

Ethnography