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Research Methods FINAL
Chapters 8-12; 14-16
79
Other
Graduate
03/19/2016

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Term
In comparison to randomized experiments, ________ is a less formalized procedure designed for circumstances where random assignment would be disruptive to ordinary social behavior.
Definition
Haphazard randomization
Term
Research experiments can be implemented through:
Definition
Lab experiments, field experiments, survey experiments
Term
An analyst is interested in studying how different class scheduling systems affect students’ performance standardized tests. To do this, she should conduct an experiment that involves_____, since whole schools must be assigned scheduling systems:
Definition
Cluster randomization
Term
A researcher for a school truancy program wants to investigate and compare several possible treatments and contrast them with more than one control. The various treatments that she wants to compare are referred to as the:
Definition
Arms of an experiment
Term
The ______ in experiments represent unintended or uncontrolled human aspects of the research situation that factor into the investigator’s conclusions on the study, potentially biasing the outcome.
Definition
Artifacts
Term
A medical researcher studying a disease administers a drug to the experiment group to see if it has an effect on their symptoms, and a _______, or phony pill to the control group, which was randomly chosen to not receive the treatment.
Definition
Placebo
Term
A medical researcher for a new procedure to treat depression is worried that her control group may gain access or exposure to the treatment, either intentionally or unintentionally. This is referred to as:
Definition
Contamination
Term
True or false?
In randomized experiments, attrition refers to participants dropping out from the experiment, which can affect the estimated treatment effect.
Definition
True
Term
From an ethical standpoint, randomized experiments must ensure that there is (3 concepts):
Definition
-Beneficence
-Voluntary participation
-Informed Consent
Term
A _______ lacks random assignment and the degree of researcher control that randomized experiments have, but otherwise possess similar purposes and structural attributes.
Definition
Quasi-experiment
Term
_________ refers to policies and programs designed to provide knowledge of causation, and have led to the increased use of evidence-based programs and managerial studies.
Definition
Experimenting society
Term
Professor Smith is designing a study to test for causal evidence between after school programs and truancy. She is interested in revealing genuine causal effects, where the treatment /independent variable is exogenous, and the treatment groups are comparable, or homogenous. This is known as:
Definition
Internal validity
Term
An analyst conducts a quasi-experiment relating to education and success, and finds that while the experiment provided weaker evidence of causation, it did turn out better in terms of stronger generalizability than a randomized field experiment. This refers to:
Definition
External validity
Term
A teacher tests a group of students prior to going on a field trip to the history museum, and then again afterward to determine whether their knowledge of history increased. This is an example of a:
Definition
Before-after study
Term
A group of researchers are studying the state’s motorcycle helmet laws by tracking monthly injury rates. They examine data for several years before the new law was passed, and for the several years after it was passed. This is example of a(n) _______ study.
Definition
Interrupted time series
Term
Panel data offer researchers the advantage of:
Definition
-Repeated observations over time of the same participants
-More possible independent variable values
-More observations (larger sample size)
Term
A(n) ______ variable is a variable that causes the independent variable to change but does not affect the outcome other than through the independent variable:
Definition
Instrumental
Term
True or false? Natural and quasi-experiments tend to have significantly higher ethical problems than randomized experiments.
Definition
False
Term
_______ study is one where assignment to the treatment is based on a cut point for a single quantitative assignment variable.
Definition
Regression discontinuity
Term
Barriers in having research influence policy may include:
Definition
-Time and timeliness
-Interest groups
-Cultural and Moral Values
Term
Funders (i.e. governments, foundations, etc.) issue _________ to solicit potential researchers to conduct studies for questions that need to be answered.
Definition
Requests for proposals
Term
Common sources for research include:
Definition
-Think tanks
-Colleges/Universities
-Government
Term
Researchers must weigh in __________ in determining whether or not to conduct a research project. These include time and necessary resources to complete the project.
Definition
Opportunity Costs
Term
True or false? All countries employ the same ethical review process in evaluating scientific and social research.
Definition
False
Term
A graduate student is seeking IRB approval to conduct a simple survey of college students on the topic of on-campus restaurant selection that will not be published in a research journal but simply used for an informal website for the college’s students. The study poses minimal risk, and the IRB will likely deem it:
Definition
Not under IRB jurisdiction because not generalizable human subjects research
Term
True or false? Researchers always need to secure signed informed consent forms from subjects in all research settings.
Definition
False
Term
Ethical conduct requires that researchers keep data confidential. Researchers may achieve this by (3 ways):
Definition
-Locking a filing cabinet to protect data on paper
-Using passwords to protect data in electronic files
-Keeping data stored on a separate hard drive not accessible to anyone but the researcher
Term
A researcher is designing a study to examine how individuals with a particular injury compare with similar individuals who have not experienced the same outcome. This is known as a
Definition
Case control study
Term
Professor Smith is interested in understanding test scores for a group of students. She decides to _____ the data, or condition it by breaking it up into groups where test scores become the control variable.
Definition
Stratify
Term
A(n) _______________ is bias that results when a researcher fails to control for a common cause.
Definition
Omitted variable bias
Term
A researcher knows that learning to read comes before reciting the theme of a book. This is referred to as a(n)
Definition
Antecedent
Term
True or false? A lurking variable is one that is unseen in the background, which has the potential to bias the estimated causal relationship between variables.
Definition
True
Term
_____ are measured variables that stand in for or substitute for the unmeasured variables.
Definition
Proxies
Term
The term ______ refers to how rapidly a social or economic condition changes over time.
Definition
Rate of change
Term
In health care studies, ___________ refers to the number or share of a population that has a condition or disease, while ____________ is the rate at which new cases of a disease appear in a population.
Definition
Prevalence, incidence
Term
A ______ is a pattern of values spread out over the categories or numeric range of a variable.
Definition
Distribution
Term
The _____________ refers to how far the scores are, on average, from the mean.
Definition
Standard Deviation
Term
True or false? The mean is always the best measure of center since it captures the full range of scores.
Definition
False
Term
True or false? The variance is the square of the standard deviation, and refers to the general idea of variability in data.
Definition
True
Term
______________ is a method used to describe relationships between nominal or ordinal categorical variables.
Definition
Cross-tabulation
Term
True or false? A correlation is a measure of the strength and direction of a relationship between two quantitative variables.
Definition
True
Term
______________ uses a best-fit straight line to describe how one quantitative variable predicts another...
Definition
Simple regression
Term
If a researcher is interested in calculating a measure of how big a difference or effect is relative to the ordinary variation that the variable undergoes, then he/she should utilize the computation for ____.
Definition
Effect size
Term
In research, drawing conclusions about an unknown population parameter based upon a sample estimate is referred to as:
Definition
Statistical Inference
Term
Statistical inference is comprised of (3 things):
Definition
-Point estimates
-Precision
-Significance tests
Term
When a sampling procedure is repeated many times, drawing samples of the same size from which to make inferences of the population, a ________ is produced.
Definition
Sampling distribution
Term
The ____ tells us the typical amount of sampling error we can expect in our point estimate.
Definition
Standard Error
Term
______ _______ tell the researcher the range of values in which the true parameter that is being estimated most likely falls, based upon what is learned from the sample.
Definition
Confidence attributes
Term
True or false? Confidence intervals always reflect all sources of error.
Definition
False
Term
The _______________ is an estimate of how many subjects are needed to get the precision required for the study.
Definition
Sample size calculation
Term
Professor Smith is looking to test for differences between variables. She develops a ___ hypothesis which is a statement of no difference or no relationship, and a(n) ____ hypothesis, which indicates that there is a difference and a relationship.
Definition
Null; alternative
Term
True or false? The p value is the probability associated with a test statistic, and represents the probability of observing the sample estimate when the null hypothesis about the population is true.
Definition
True
Term
A researcher looking to test whether two categorical variables are related, as in the form of a cross-tabulation, would want to conduct a:
Definition
Chi-square
Term
In research, __________ predicts or explains a dependent variable using several independent variables.
Definition
Multiple regression
Term
A researcher is interested in whether a variable really adds predictive power. Using the ________ adjusts for the number of independent variables in the multiple regression equation.
Definition
Adjusted R-squared
Term
An agency analyst finds that her independent variable is a perfect linear combination of two more of the other independent variables. This is referred to as:
Definition
Perfect multicollinearity
Term
True or false? Categorical variables may have more than two possible values.
Definition
True
Term
A researcher is interested in determining how study habits differ for male versus female students. She gives a variable a value of 1 if the student is female, and 0 if the student is male. The researcher is using a:
Definition
Female dummy variable
Term
A researcher has coded a set of dummy variables representing multiple categories so that the regression coefficients turn out to be contrasts with a grand mean. This method is known as:
Definition
Effect coding
Term
True or false? Analysis of variance (ANOVA) is a statistical method derived from experimental research which compares the means of the dependent variable across treatment categories.
Definition
True
Term
A researcher may use a ________ for doing multiple regression with a dummy variable as the dependent variable, where the coefficients can be interpreted as the predicted probability that the dependent variable will occur.
Definition
Linear probability model
Term
Professor Smith wants to explore the relationship between study habits, socializing, and going to class. She decides to use _______ to help estimate the pattern of relationships between variables in a presumed causal structure.
Definition
Path Analysis
Term
Researchers use ________ to group many variables or indicators into a smaller set of underlying factors.
Definition
Factor analysis
Term
True or false? A limited dependent variable is one that cannot take on all possible values (such as negative values).
Definition
True
Term
________ uses data from a time series to predict future values of the dependent variables.
Definition
Forecasting
Term
____ _____ are increasingly used as part of geographic information science to identify geographic coordinates and calculate distances.
Definition
Spatial data
Term
Two researchers find that GPA and test scores among college students are only correlated because they both reflect the same _____, stronger reading and math abilities
Definition
Common causes
Term
A variable that causally comes before both the independent and dependent variables is referred to as a(n):
Definition
Antecedent
Term
A researcher finds that variable A causes a reduction in variable B, but at the same time, as variable B decreases, it causes changes in variable A. This is an example of a phenomenon that results in:
Definition
Simultaneity bias
Term
The ____ seeks to provide an idea of how the independent variable affects the dependent variable.
Definition
Causal Mechanism
Term
An ____ independent variable is one whose value is caused by variables or processes that also affect the dependent variable.
Definition
Endogenous
Term
______ refers to manipulating a cause to observe an effect, such as a health care practitioner introducing physical activities into a group of patients to study the result.
Definition
Experimentation
Term
A(n) _______________ is introduced to attempt to manipulate specific features of the environment or context in a way that is deliberately independent of and apart from other characteristics of the subjects in an experiment.
Definition
Intervention or treatment
Term
To better understand how trends in economic performance occur, Professor Smith decides to _______ (or hold constant) possible causes that may result in changes in performance.
Definition
Control
Term
True or false? Correlation is not causation.
Definition
True
Term
A researcher is interested in observing students in their natural environment to better understand how they test in classroom settings. This is known as a(n) _______________ study.
Definition
Observational
Term
An example of sources of data that may be used by researchers in an observational study would include:
Definition
-Telephone surveys
-Administrative record data
-Secondary data from large government surveys
Term
A ________ allows researchers to adjust for the effects of other variables, such as the influence of education on voting behavior:
Definition
Control variable
Term
____ seeks to find individuals or cases who are as similar as possible on relevant characteristics.
Definition
Matching
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