Chapter_02_Research Strategies: An Overview Flashcards
Week 2 (21 cards)
4 Forms of Research
- Basic research: generate knowledge
- Applied research: find a solution to a problem
- Evaluation research: assess the impact of interventions
- Action research: the systematic integration of theory, application, and evaluation
Quantitative Data
Numerical information
- Tries to maximize internal validity
- Logical positivism
Qualitative Data
Nonnumerical information
- Tries to maximize ecological validity
- Humanism
How does experimental design relate to John Stuart Mill’s principles of causality?
Complete control of the research situation to ensure that there can be only one explanation for the results
Experiment Controls
- SETTING
- independent variable (IV): experimental vs. control
- PROCEDURE
- group DIFFERENCES
Disadvantages of Experiment
- ARTIFICIALITY
- impossible to manipulate many variables, e.g. INDIVIDUAL differences, background
Case study research
- In-depth
- long-term
- examination of a single instance of a phenomenon
- for either descriptive or hypothesis-testing purposes
Advantages of Case Study Research
- NATURALISM
- Investigate RARE phenomena
Disadvantages of Case Study Research
- Very little or no CONTROL
- Maybe not UNIQUE case
- Researcher BIAS
Nomothetic Approach
Attempts to formulate general principles of behavior.
- experimental and correlational research to study the average behavior of large groups of people
Idiographic Approach
- addresses the needs of the practitioner, who is more interested in how a particular client behaves than in how people behave in general
Correlational research
relationships between variables that are consistent across a large number of cases
How does correlational research differ from experimental research?
without manipulating them, the passive research strategy
Advantages of the Correlational Strategy
determine if such a relationship holds up across a number of cases
Disadvantages of the Correlational Strategy
- no time precedence and cannot rule out all alternative explanations
- reverse causation
- reciprocal relationship
- third-variable problem
Cross-sectional Research
Compare groups of people who are of different ages at the same time
Advantages of Cross-sectional Research
- Quick
- Inexpensive
Disadvantages of Cross-sectional Research
- Not able to assess developmental TRENDS: how characteristics change over time
- COHORT EFFECT: The effects of these differences in experience due to time of birth
Longitudinal Research
The same group of people is followed over time
Advantage of Longitudinal Research
It possible to study developmental TRENDS
Disadvantages of Longitudinal Research
- Time consuming
- Costs
- ATTRITION
