Operational Definition correct answers a description of how something is measured - the
operations you have to perform to get the data. Wording is very important - needs to be
specific
Conceptual Definition correct answers verbal definition of what your variable is, like a
dictionary definition, the definition needs to guide your measurements, conceptual and
operational definitions must match and be consistent with one another
people are called correct answers respondents, subjects or participants
sample correct answers group of all the respondents
sampling correct answers Process of selecting the people (creating the sample)
representative sample correct answers A sample that reflects a larger group of people
non representative sample correct answers does not represent a larger population
random sample correct answers equal chance and no bias
error correct answers sample does not perfectly represent the population
ex. Asking about a recent time period like "yesterday" is a common strategy, however, not
everyone's "yesterday" is their typical day
Quantitative correct answers numbers/ scientific questions
Qualitative correct answers empirical (observational) questions
Pierce's Four Paths correct answers TAPS
Method of Tenacity
Method of Authority
A priori method
Scientific method
Method of Tenacity correct answers stubbornly hanging onto beliefs to maintain peace of
mind, reject beliefs they already reject
Method of Authority correct answers an authority tells you what you should think/believe
(authorities are often wrong, not a great thing to believe)
A priori method correct answers how philosophy works, reasoning from cause to effect,
thinking carefully, being logical (could still be wrong, many things aren't obvious)
Scientific method correct answers the best tool that we have!!!
- Reliance on empirical inquiry
- Characterized by a particular rhetoric
- Limits and boundaries to scientific truth
, - Systematic techniques or procedures used to analyze empirical evidence in an unbiased
attempt to confirm or disprove prior conceptions
- Observation/question, research topic area, hypothesis, test w experiment, analyze data,
report conclusions = scientific method
Dialectics in research - Basic correct answers conducted to expand boundaries of knowledge
itself, learn something we didn't know, verify the acceptability of a theory, IN LAB
Dialectics in research - Applied correct answers undertaken to answer q's about specific
problems or to make decisions about particular courses of action, IN FIELD
Dialectics in research - Lab correct answers Basic in the lab is knowledge-driven,
experimental, generalizable research (nomothetic)
Dialectics in research - Field correct answers Applied is usually in the field, problem-driven,
correlational, idiographic (localized, solving a specific issue)
Dialectics in research - Inductive correct answers start with data, look for patterns, come to
conclusion BEGIN W DATA
Dialectics in research - Deductive correct answers generate a hypothesis, collect data, see
how well hyp fits to data BEGIN W HYPOTHESIS
Dialectics in research - Quantitative correct answers best for generalizing, looking for
differences among groups, statistical analysis available, observation, surveys, experiments
Dialectics in research - Qualitative correct answers open-ended probing q's, in-depth
interviews, focus groups, background info, help in problem formation, hearing from
consumers themselves
Distribution correct answers taking a set of numbers and arranging them in order
Histogram correct answers represents the scores of a variable along the x-axis (minutes per
day) The number of times that a particular score appears is represented on the y axis. These
are called frequencies
- Histograms have shapes of distribution
- Positively skewed (most scores on the left-hand side)
- Negatively skewed (most scores on the right-hand side)
- The normal distribution is evenly spread
Central tendencies correct answers - Mean: average; Mean is not the only measure of the
middle
- Median: middle score- ½ distribution scores on or above the median, and ½ on or below it
- Mode: the most frequent individual score in a distribution
A simple measure of dispersion correct answers Range and Standard Deviation
Range correct answers a simple measure of dispersion-- how far your highest and lowest
score in distribution are
- Always positive