Flashcards
Foundations of research final exam
Cards in this deck (72)
- 1What is a case study? is it typically qual or quan?An analysis of a single case/phenomenon
or country, political party, politician, political decision, conflict, in-depth
typically qualitative - 2What are the different types of cases?Debates- study of a single country as a single case
descriptive- collecting and examining data and no theory
theory testing- tests a theory - 3Debates are..?a study of a single country/area
- 4Advantages of cases?-in-depth analysis/ description
- open for replication - 5disadvantages of cases?-case selection may not be representative
-non-theoretical
- often difficult to generalize - 6What is comparative research?Comparing 2 or a few cases
-Small n-cases (n is number of cases)
-typically qualitative
-countries (Federalism in CA, US and Germany)
-provinces in a country (Pol party preferences in Alberta, ON, etc) - 7What is the most similar systems design?Similar systems/countries/cases but significant differences/variation in the issue/outcome being analyzed
- 8What are examples of most similar systems design?Similar economies and political democratic systems in CA and US. Higher union membership rates in CA than the US.
No strong Social democratic party in US in comparison to CA. - 9What is the Most Different Systems design?Dissimilar systems/cases/countries produce similar outcomes. No significant differences in the issue/outcome being analyzed in these dissimar countries/cases/systems. There is a common factor that produces the same outcome.
- 10What is an example of most Different Systems design?Revolutions in France, Russia and China. Theda Skocpol.
Healthcare systems in CA and Cuba - 11Criticisms of most Different Systems design are?Small number of cases, selection of cases, debates in political science, measurement problems/importance of context, existence of only one case/explanatory factor.
- 12What is survey research?Major method of quantitative research
-academic and non-academic (elections, government, business, opinion polls)
- participation is voluntary
-confidentiality of respondent (can't be identified) - 13Standardized/structured interviews- and questionaires?-Used in survey research
-produce standardization in the asking of questions and recording of answers
same questions are asked in the same order (translated if needed) - 14Standardized/structured interviews are benefecial because?-reduce error due to interviewer variability
-characteristics of the interviewer may influence responses given - 15What are Questionnaires?-essentially structured interviews without an interviewer
-involves filling out a form and being returned to researcher often through mail, email or online
-list of survey Q's and A's
-helpful in analyzing survey data - 16What are basic points of conducting interviews?Question should be asked as stated, answers should be recorded as exactly as possible, Q's should be asked in same order given on interview schedule.
- 17why should Questions be asked exactly as stated?small changes in wording make a big difference
- 18What are the 3 types of interview questions?close-ended- list of answers given, respondent chooses one.
open-ended
leading question- can affect answers - 19The YES PRIME MINISTER video is an example of what type of interview question?leading questions
- 20What are the types of surveys?face-to-face, telephone, online, mail.
- 21What are face to face surveys?at home or on the street, etc.
Time-consuming, costly, more representative. - 22What are telephone surveys?Can't exceed 30 mins, cheaper, quicker to administer, but many people in many countries don't have phones
- 23What are mail surveys?Sent by mail, expensive, low response rate, no interviewers needed
- 24What are online surveys?Quick to construct, cheap (survey monkey), interview doesn't have to be transcribed, high dropout rate, not everyone has internet
- 25What are omnibus surveys?surveys comprised of many small surveys. cheap. researcher can ask one or small number of questions into a larger survey
- 26What is a census?-surveys whole population, very expensive
- 27What is a population vs a sample?population- all cases about which one seeks knowledge.
EX. adult population of CA, UO students
sample- people selected for survey, used in survey research.
EX. sample of UO students, sample of adult canadians. - 28What are representative samples?A sample containing essential characteristics of the population
- 29What is a probability sample?a sample selected using a random process such that each element of the population has a known probability of being selected.
But response rates in different groups of samples can differ. need to be weighted to ensure representation. - 30What are the 4 types of non-probability sampling?Purposive, quota, snowball, and volunteer sampling.
-hard to generalize the population, and hard to be representative - 31What is purposive non-probability sampling?-Non-random participants.
example. university students - 32what is a volunteer sample?self-selected participants
- 33what is a quota sample?set quotas for specific groups
- 34What is a sampling error?errors of estimation that occur as a result of the differences between the characteristics of a sample and those of a population
- 35what is a response rate?percentage of the sample that participates in the study
- 36Sample size?it is the absolute size of the sample that matters, not the proportion of the population that it comprises.
As sample size increases, sample errors tend to decrease.
- Sample sizes can be smaller in other surveys or sample types - 37As sample size increases...sample errors tend to decrease
- 38What are the typical sample sizes in national surveys?1000, 1600, 2500
The greater the heterogeneity of the population on the characteristics of interest, the larger the sample size should be. - 39What are the types of respondent problems in survey research?Acquiescence, laziness or boredom, and social desirability
- 40Explain the 3 types of respondent problems in survey research.Acquiescence- respondent trying to please the researcher
laziness or boredom- preventing respondent from giving a genuine response
social desirability- being reluctant on providing a sincere answer if it will make them appear unlikable or bad. - 41What is the relevence of the invention of the computer?-made quantitative research easier/possible.
-gave researchers a resource to input and calculate numbers such as the mode, median, and mean. - 42Who is Atanasoff? (Eyesteelfilm) why is he important?inventor of the first computer, which helped speed up solutions of problems in mathematical physics and statistics.
- 43What are variables?provide a measurement of concepts and contain different values.
- 44What is an example of a variable-value relationship?political party prefernces in Canada variable have the following values
Conservatives
Liberals
NDP
other - 45What are the different types of variables?Nominal, ordinal and interval-ratio.
-They have different levels of measurement/types of variables
-specific level is determined by values - 46What is a nominal variable?a level of measurement describing a variable that has values that cannot be ranked in contrast to other types of variables
EX. Gender: Female, male
Pol Party: NDP, LIBERAL ETC - 47What is an ordinal variable?values we can rank-order but cannot find the average value (mean)
EX. education: high school, university, post graduate.
religiousity: very high, moderately high, moderatley low, very low - 48What are interval/ratio variables?variable whose values are rank ordered and have equal distances between adjacent values.
ex. age (years)
income ($) - 49What is a frequency distribution?percentage distribution of the variable of interest.
tables or charts that summarize the distribution of a variable.
frequency tables - 50What are the measures of central tendancy?mean- average (interval-ratio variables)
median- middle value (ordinal and interval-ratio variables)
mode- value that occurs most frequently (all types of variables) - 51What is a research hypothesis?a statement between a relationship between the independent variable and the dependent variable that we want to prove or disprove.
ex- political parties are affected by level of education - 52What is a null hypothesis?a statement of no difference between independent and dependent variable.
ex. political parties are not affected by level of education - 53what are the dependent variables and independent variables?dependent variables- a variable that depends and is affected by the independent variable.
- we are interested in explaining these independent variables- affect the dependent variable. we use this to explain the dependent variable - 54What is a cross-tabulation table?also called contingency table
- a common way to test hypotheses
-used for bivariate analyses.
most appropriate for nominal and ordinal variables
-dep var in rows
indep var in colomns - 55what are tests of statistical difference?formal and exact way to test a hypothesis.
- derived with help is advanced mathematics.
relies on inferential stats
easier to get statistically significant results in a large sample. - 56What are types of hypotheses testing?Chi Square test- for nominal and ordinal valuables. used in cross tabulation tables
T-test- for interval/ratio dependant variable and nominal independant vraiable with 2 categories
correlation analysis- interval/ratio variables
regression analysis-interval/ratio variables - 57What is statistical significance?-if a relationship between a dep and indep variable is significant and in expected direction/pattern.
-null hypothesis is false
-research hypothesis is supported - 58null hypothesis is true means?the relationship between dep and indep variable is statistically non-significant
-research hypothesis rejected - 59Measures of association?provide info about the strength of the relationship between variables and direction of association (ordinal or interval-ratio variables)
-used in cross tabulation analysis - 60Cramers V?Chi square based measure of association
- best for nominal variables
b/w 0-1 (no to perfect association) - 61Gamma?for ordinal variables
-shows direction of association
b/w -1 to 1 (perfect neg association and perfect positive association) - 62What is content analysis?analysis of patterns, themes, biases and meaning of the content
- examination and coding of documents and texts
ex. newspapers, magazines, films/tv shows, images, social media, etc
mixed- can be quan and qual - 63What is the simpsons video and example of?content analysis
- 64What things can be counted or analyzed?words, subjects and themes (manifest and latent content), positive or negative view
- 65What is coding?designing a coding schedule- the form where the data are recorded.
designing a coding manual- instructions to coders, list, categories, numbers, general guidance - 66what are the issues in devising coding schemes?-categories must be mutually exclusive, exhaustive, instructions to be clear, and pilot test will reduce risks or error.
- 67What is the significance of the massacre video example?importance of latent content
- 68Qual content analysisinductive, interpretative, Research questions, conceptuatization, coding scheme (unit of analysis), small # of cases, coding data, identifying patters, biases etc, checking coding reliability.
- 69Quan content analysis?deductive approach, research hypothesis and questions, conceptualization and operationalization (variables and unit of analysis), coding scheme, data (sample random or non random of population), coding data -human or comp, coding reliability, statistical analysis
- 70advantages of content analysis?quan form - transparent and easily replicated.
allows for longitidinal analysis, unobotrsive method, flexible, can be used with several kinds of unstructured info, overcomes social barriers to research acces. - 71disadvantages of content analysis?problems with content analysed (authenticty, credibility, representativeness), coding reliability issues (intercoder-2 vs intracoder-same), difficult to answer why questions, potential for invalid conjecture, especially in discussions of latent meanings.
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