Course Syllabus

Course Description: This course aims to provide an introduction to the different research methods to undertake empirical research in psychology and other disciplines of the behavioral science. Topics include identifying and conceptualizing potential topics into problem statements, articulating research questions and hypotheses, conducting literature reviews, selecting and designing specific research methods and techniques appropriate for answering key research questions, and develop a viable research proposal.



Course Objectives:

1. Encourage students to think critically about the fundamental concepts of the research process and how psychological research conducted

2. Develope information literacy and technology skills to retrieve and synthesize information and critically evaluate published psychological research

3. Provide understanding of the different research designs and data gathering techniques to bring evidence and find answers to the problem

4. Develop students ability on how to prepare a research proposal based and supported by existing research



Course Learning Outcomes:
At the end of this course, students should be able to:

1. Demonstrate an understanding of the foundations of empirical research in behavioural science.

2. Develop an ability to think critically about research and critically evaluate empirical research reports.

3. Understand and critically evaluate various research methodologies used by psychologist.

4. Design a research proposal with an appropriate research methods and techniques.

5. Develop skills in research proposal writing



Course Stucture

Class activities include interactive lecture presentations and tutorial sessions with online activities via recommended readings that underscore the research process in behavioral sciences. Evaluation of students' performance include assessment methodologies such as annotated list of bibliographies relevant to their topics and reviews of weekly acitivities and online learning portfolio of each group.

Friday, January 21, 2011

Week Six

Week 6:   Unobtrusive Measures of Behavior


MULTIPLE-CHOICE

1.   Studies that use content analysis to analyze archival data involve:
      A.  only quantitative analysis.
      B.  only qualitative analysis.
      C.  both quantitative and qualitative analyses.
      D.  neither quantitative nor qualitative analysis.

2.   When doing content analysis coders should be blind to all but one of the following. Which one should they not be blind to?
      A.  main hypothesis of the study
      B.  operational definitions of descriptive categories and units of measurement
      C.  source of the messages
      D.  immediate context surrounding the message to be coded

3.   Researchers conducted an archival study in which the examined race relations on TV. They included programs with a story line and all commercials, but they excluded documentaries, news broadcasts, and sports shows. Which characteristic of the researchers’ sample is likely to be most affected by these decisions?
      A.  representativeness
      B.  homogeneity
      C.  stability
      D.  internal validity

4.   Precise operational definitions are most critical at which of the following stages of the analysis of archival data?
      A.  identifying a relevant archival source
      B.  sampling selections from the archival source
      C.  coding the archival records
      D.  analyzing the coded archival records

5.   The problem of selection bias in survey research, in which the researcher’s procedures determine who is likely to be included in a sample, is similar to the problem of _______ in research using archival records.
      A.  selection threat
      B.  spurious relationships
      C.  selective survival
      D.  selective deposit.

6.   When individuals are not aware of the presence of an observer, as when data from physical traces or archival records are analyzed, the observation is described as:
      A.  reactive.
      B.  unobtrusive.
      C.  spurious.
      D.  a natural treatment.

7.   The problem of reactive measurement is _________ when unobtrusive observation is used.
      A.  decreased
      B.  increased
      C.  unchanged
      D.  eliminated

8.   One of the advantages of using data found in records and documents is that these data are likely to be:
      A.  unbiased.
      B.  valid.
      C.  nonreactive.
      D.  reliable.

9.   Convergent validity in survey research, used to establish the construct validity of a measure, is similar to the use of ___________ to establish the validity of findings from research employing unobtrusive measures.
      A.  converging evidence
      B.  spurious relationships
      C.  natural treatments
      D.  archival data

10. A researcher who is studying the relationship between temperature and aggression does laboratory experiments with animals and does archival research using police records. This researcher is using the:
      A.  congruent tests approach.
      B.  multimethod approach.
      C.  omnimeasures approach.
      D.  bidirectional methods approach.

11. The remnants, fragments, and products of past behavior that can provide unobtrusive (nonreactive) measures of behavior are called:
      A.  subtle traces.
      B.  archival traces.
      C.  physical traces.
      D.  anecdotal traces.

12. The degree to which a young child's dolls show signs of wear might indicate which dolls the child likes best. This potential physical trace measure would be classified as a:
      A.  controlled use measure.
      B.  archival record.
      C.  physical product.
      D.  natural use measure.

13. The distinction between natural-use traces and controlled-use traces is similar to the distinction between:
      A.  correlations and spurious relationships.
      B.  observations without intervention and observation with intervention.
      C.  quantitative analyses and qualitative analyses.
      D.  physical traces and archival records.

14. Research studies have examined evidence of past human behavior including works of art, models of cars, and bumper stickers to test various hypotheses. This source of unobtrusive measures is called:
      A.  physical products.
      B.  human artifacts.
      C.  cultural evidence.
      D.  use effects.

15. How is the validity of a finding best established in studies that use physical trace measures such as the lost letter technique to study how honest people are?
      A.  when the results confirm the hypothesis tested in the study
      B.  after the findings have been verified through independent sources of evidence
      C.  on the basis of the uniformity with which physical traces are laid down and survive over time
      D.  only when the physical trace measure has been used in prior research

16. One potential source of unobtrusive (nonreactive) measures of behavior is the records and documents recounting the activities of individuals, or of institutions, governments, or other groups. This source of data is called:
      A.  documentary data.
      B.  demographic data.
      C.  survey data.
      D.  archival data.

17. When an analysis of archival data involving penalties to sports teams and laboratory experiments manipulating the color of a jersey that a participant wears both show a relationship between wearing black and aggressiveness, then the findings of both types of studies have increased:
      A.  external validity.
      B.  internal validity.
      C.  reliability.
      D.  reactivity.

18. Studies have been done to determine if parental divorce has an impact on children’s mortality rate by examining the archival data from a longitudinal study of gifted children that was done by Terman beginning in 1921. This research illustrates the use of archival data to assess the:
      A.  reliability of archival data.
      B.  external validity of a treatment.
      C.  effect of a natural treatment.
      D.  validity of archival data.

19. A researcher uses archival records to whether divorce rates in a city change following major catastrophes (e.g., hurricane, terrorism). This represents the use of:
      A.  physical traces.
      B.  natural treatments.
      C.  qualitative data analysis.
      D.  a multimethod approach.

20. A technique is used to analyze various kinds of messages such as written communications, TV and radio programs, speeches, and films. The technique involves drawing inferences by objectively identifying specific characteristics of messages. The technique is called:
      A.  inferential coding.
      B.  psycholinguistics.
      C.  quantitative indexing.
      D.  content analysis.

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