Research Methods in Psychology International 9Th Edition By David G. Elmes – Test Bank

 

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CHAPTER 5

OBSERVATIONS IN PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH

 

Synopsis

The main goal of the chapter is to provide an overview of the observational procedures that are used in psychology. The chapter focuses on descriptive research: naturalistic observation, case studies, surveys, and meta-analysis. The modes of observation are discussed in detail here because they receive little attention elsewhere in the book. After outlining some of the advantages associated with descriptive research, we discuss problems arising from researcher bias and participant reactivity.

 

Outline

DESCRIPTIVE OBSERVATION METHODS

Naturalistic Observations

The Case Study

Survey Research

ADVANTAGES OF DESCRIPTIVE OBSERVATIONS

SOURCES OF ERROR IN DESCRIPTIVE RESEARCH

APPLICATION: Difficulties of Observation

REACTIVITY IN DESCRIPTIVE RESEARCH

Naturalistic Observation

Case Studies

Surveys, Interviews, and Tests

SUMMARY

KEY CONCEPTS

EXERCISES

SUGGESTED RESOURCES

WEB RESOURCES

LABORATORY RESOURCE

PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION: Remembering the 9/11 Terrorist Attacks

 

New to This Edition

• Chapter Organization: This chapter was Chapter 4 in the previous edition.

 

• Updated Examples: A new figure (Figure 5-2) has been added as a sample ethogram. A brief discussion on dolphin communication has been added to the section on ethograms. The work of Brazleton on infant development has been expanded and brought up-to-date. New work on the effects of PCBs on development is discussed in the section on testing neonates. Finally, Neisser & Hyman (1981) has been updated to Neisser & Hyman (2000).

 

• Updated & Additional References: The reference to Oltmanns, Neale, & Davison (1999) has been deleted and replaced with the updated reference of Oltmanns, Neale, & Davison (2006) in the section on case studies. Orzech (2005) was added as the reference for the new Figure 5-2.

 

 

Information on the Dolphin Communication Project (2009) was added to the section on ethograms. Brazleton & Nugent (1995) and Sagiv, et al. (2008) were added as references on the section on neonates to expand and make the information more up-to-date.

 

Definitions of Key Concepts

Anthropomorphizing is the attribution of human characteristics to a non-human animal.

 

A case study is a detailed examination of the behavior of one individual (or, alternatively, a small number of individuals).

 

Demand characteristics are the various pressures that are exerted on participants by the researcher (e.g., expectation of obedience); the term is an older, more specific term for reactivity.

 

Descriptive observations are observations of the type, quantity, and frequency of particular behaviors, and do not try to provide causal explanations of those behaviors.

 

A deviant-case analysis compares two similar cases that differ in outcome in the hopes of fostering inferences about the cause(s) of behavior.

 

A behavior’s ecological function is how the behavior helps the organism adapt to the environment.

 

Ecological validity refers to the degree to which the research setting reflects the critical characteristics of the corresponding situation in the real world, which will impact whether or not research results can effectively be argued to generalize.

 

An ethogram is an inventory of behaviors performed by one species of animal.

 

Ethology is the study of naturally occurring behavior, which often takes place in the wild.

 

In a forced-choice test the observer must answer a given question by choosing between some fixed numbers of alternatives. In survey research these tests can be used to minimize reactivity by equating the choices in terms of social desirability.

 

Interobserver reliability refers to the degree of consistency in the categorization of behavior across observers, as indicated by a correlation coefficient.

 

Motivated forgetting refers to the active process of distorting memories to match one’s current beliefs.

 

Naturalistic observation is a descriptive method of gathering data that involves the systematic notation of an animal’s behaviors and their frequency.

 

In participant observation the researcher/observer also acts as a participant in order to permit more detailed observations (by being closer to actual participants) while reducing reactivity.

 

In a random sample each member of a population has an equal likelihood of being selected for participation.

 

Reactivity generally refers to the ways in which a participant could respond to the research setting that could influence, and potentially confound, results (also see demand characteristics).

 

A replication is a repetition of an earlier study in order to determine if a finding can be duplicated, and in some instances, extended to handle new variables or theoretical considerations.

 

Response acquiescence, or yea-saying, is a type of response style where the participant tends to respond “yes” regardless of the nature of the question.

 

Response deviation, or nay-saying, is a type of response style where the participant tends to respond “no” regardless of the nature of the question.

 

Response styles are habitual ways in which a participant may respond to a researcher’s questions, habits that could reflect personal views or expectations.

Retrospective evidence is obtained from looking back into the past, which makes the data susceptible to forgetting and interference from other memories (as can occur in case studies).

 

Social desirability is a type of response style where the participant tends to respond to questions in a way that the participant deems to most strongly agree with societal norms or goals.

 

Subject (participant) roles refer to the different ways that a participant can respond to the research setting, which could differentially influence their data.

 

A survey collects detailed information (in the form of direct answers to a question, or series of questions) from a (large) number of individuals.

 

Unobtrusive measures are observations of the results or outcomes of behavior, and therefore represent indirect measures of the behavior(s) of interest.

 

Unobtrusive observations are made without the participant’s awareness, and are thus less susceptible to reactivity than when the participant knows that he/she is being observed.

 

The volunteer problem refers to the fact that volunteers tend to differ from non-volunteers in a number of ways (e.g., intelligence, education level) that could influence reactivity and limit the generalizability of obtained results.

 

 

Answers to Exercises

1. Note: Student reports of meta-analysis results should tend to be more detailed. The following is provided as an example because it applies to survey methods.

 

http://www.gudono.com/metostat/adv%20survei%20tech.pdf

Chiu, I., & Brennan, M. (1990). The effectiveness of some techniques for improving mail survey

response rates: A meta-analysis. Marketing Bulletin, 1, 13-18.

The meta-analysis examines several articles from business, psychology and sociology journals for response rates to mailed surveys as a function of preliminary notification and/or follow-up messages. When practical, preliminary notification by telephone is preferred, increasing response rates by 30 percent (versus 15 percent for notification by mailed letter). Follow-up letters also increased response rates by almost 30 percent (as opposed to 15 percent for less personalized postcards). No evidence directly examined whether or not preliminary notification was more or less effective than follow-up approaches. One study (Kephart and Bressler, 1958) did directly compare the effect of a follow-up letter on response rates with the combined effects of preliminary notification and follow-up letters, finding that no additional contribution was made by preliminary notification. The authors suggest that either preliminary or follow-up approaches are sufficient in isolation, and favor the use of follow-up letters with mailed surveys.

 

2. Assume that a researcher hypothesizes that there is greater imitation of an athlete’s movements by spectators at more violent sporting events (e.g., boxing or hockey) than at less violent sporting events (e.g., tennis or baseball). This hypothesis could not be studied in the laboratory because of the required settings, the respective sporting events. However, the hypothesis does lend itself to naturalistic observation, perhaps by unobtrusively filming sets of spectators during the events.

Assume that it is hypothesized that the poor test scores of a particular school-aged child are due to attention deficit disorder. Although some experimental conditions could be completed to help form the basis of a diagnosis, evaluation of the hypothesis eventually would require a full case study for the child, including treatment-outcome analysis (e.g., a comparison with test scores after drug treatment).

 

A president’s administration may commonly adhere to the hypothesis that there is strong public support for current foreign policy. Since many participants from different locations are required to obtain a fairly representative sample, the question cannot be effectively evaluated in the laboratory. However, support for the policy could be determined through a telephone or electronic mail survey.

 

The possibility that errors in reporting presented combinations of color and shape occur only under conditions of maximal stimulus uncertainty (i.e., when many objects are presented, or when several feature values are used in an experiment) cannot be addressed in a single series of experiments. Evidence from one set of experiments does not preclude the role of other possible stimulus factors (e.g., the perceptual similarity of particular colors or shapes). However, a meta-analysis of the visual search literature will reveal a more variable set of stimulus conditions, thereby permitting at least a partial evaluation of the hypothesis.

 

 

3. [Special Exercise]. An advantage of the face-to-face method is that you know that the participants have a reasonable understanding of what they are supposed to do and how they are supposed to try to answer a particular question. An obvious disadvantage relates to reactivity–participants may not be willing to say certain things aloud to the researcher. Essentially, therefore, the survey lacks anonymity. If the students write down answers, then it is easier to assure anonymity. The students are less likely to be embarrassed about saying particular things aloud. A disadvantage with paper and pencil tests is that it is often very hard to monitor what the respondents are doing. They may not understand or they may goof off, both of which are less likely with the face-to-face method.

 

Suggestions for Discussion

Problems with Surveys. Although many students initially conceptualize surveys as one of the most straightforward methods, the chapter presents several common problems that plague survey research. One way to demonstrate these problems in either large lectures or small seminars is to outline a hypothetical survey situation and have students brainstorm about possible pitfalls of the project. The hypothetical survey tends to be most effective in revealing problems if it is proposed in a single, public location at a particular time of day (e.g., midday in a local shopping mall). The hypothetical survey also should concentrate on a topic that is considered either highly personal or taboo (e.g., sexual activity or religious beliefs). The location and time will make the sample less representative of the general population, and the likelihood of individuals completing the survey can be used to address the volunteer problem. The volatile topic should result in reactivity, such that participants will respond in the manner that is deemed socially desirable. Once definitions of the student-generated problems are provided, then the hypothetical survey could be used to initiate further brainstorming on ways to improve validity (e.g., construction of forced-choice items, increasing the number of locations and times for data collection, and the use of filler items).

 

Application: Difficulties of Observation. While not explicitly stated, the problems Pavlov’s statements reveal about objectivity in descriptive observations primarily have to do with anthropomorphizing. The dangers of such biases, and ways to avoid them, could be discussed by first outlining the methods and conclusions from other empirical examples. Students then could generate possible instances of anthropomorphizing from the examples, as well as alternative methods that could reduce the contribution of such biases to the results.

One strong example is from the original work on language acquisition by primates using American Sign Language (e.g., Terrace, 1979), where observers differed widely in the attribution of a motor response as a particular sign or as spontaneous, naturally occurring behavior. These methodological limitations do not apply to current approaches, which rely on conditioned button-press responses relating to potential lexical entries (such as those used to study latent learning in Kanzi, a Bonobo ape; Savage-Rumbaugh, 1990).

 

Psychology in Action: Remembering the 9/11 Terrorist Attacks. The text’s example of surveys (i.e., flashbulb memories) and their associated problems initially provides several potential survey questions to assess memories for the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

 

 

Instructors (with either small or large classes) could reveal some fundamental issues in the development of surveys by first asking students to independently answer the provided survey items, and then to take a minute to personally question/evaluate the validity of their own answers. From these evaluations a list of potential concerns/sources of error could be generated by students in classroom discussion (e.g., delay to recall, reactivity, etc.). As a possible additional exercise, students could be asked to independently generate alternative survey questions that address some of the problems that have previously been introduced.

 

Langston (2011), Research Methods Laboratory Manual for Psychology. Chapter 2 of the manual discusses naturalistic observation. The target article discusses the detection of staring and presents a detailed example of naturalistic observation that can motivate discussion or fulfillment of a laboratory component. Suggested projects include collection of observations for alternative demonstrations of staring detection (with examples from the literature), and the identification of factors that may influence why people believe in the staring phenomenon.

Chapter 3 of the manual discusses survey research. An extended example of survey work is provided within the target article, which focuses on the problem of personal validation when evaluating claims. Suggested laboratory projects include replications of the original study or partial replications with variations.

 

Experimental Dilemma

A social psychologist interested in the effects of alcohol abuse conducted the following study. He mailed questionnaires to the homes of workers who had been laid off from a local automobile plant. The surveys were mailed at various time intervals and the workers were asked to fill them out anonymously and return them. Information about the amount of alcohol consumption before and after the layoff was obtained. Fifty percent of the surveys were completed and returned during the course of the research. The researcher found a very high positive relation between alcohol consumption and duration of unemployment. In his report the researcher stated that, “the conditions of unemployment produce a tendency for people to increase their intake of alcohol.”  If you were the editor in charge of deciding whether this work should be published, what would your judgment be?  Explain.

            Answer. The work should not be published for several reasons. Because the researcher received replies from only have of the participant pool, the responses may not be reliable, and they may not representative of the population. The people who do not drink might be uncooperative, which would make the sample biased. The statement that unemployment produces an increase in alcoholic consumption is much too strong. We do not have the internal validity to make such a statement. It could be that excessive “leisure time” allowed the workers to have more time to indulge in alcohol. The researcher probably should have examined similar workers who had not been laid off as a comparison to the unemployed. Further, the researcher could wait until some workers had been rehired to examine consumption before, during, and after unemployment. Both of the last two procedures are quasi-experimental and would enhance the internal validity of the procedure.

 

Suggested Readings

Blasko, D. G., Kazmerski, V. A., Corty, E. W., & Kallgren, C. A. (1998). Courseware for

observational research (COR): A new approach to teaching naturalistic observation. Behavior Research Methods, Instruments & Computers, 30(2), 217-222.

The article describes an inexpensive ($30), interactive software package that can be used to teach students how to obtain and analyze observations of behavior (in humans and non-human animals) from brief video recordings. The software also permits an evaluation of interobserver reliability across observations.

 

Wilson, J. (2005). Some things social surveys don’t tell us about volunteering. In Omoto, A. M. (Ed.), Processes of community change and social action. The Claremont symposium on applied social psychology (pp. 11-27). London: Psychology Press.

This book chapter discusses research specifically targeted at understanding  the nature of the volunteer. The author reviews how the reliance on traditional survey approaches has resulted in distorted views of volunteering, and suggests (using multiple examples from research) ways in which survey methods can be further improved to permit a more thorough evaluation of volunteering.

 

Ware, M. E., & Brewer, C. L. (Eds.). (1999). Handbook for teaching statistics and research methods (2^nd ed.). London: Psychology Press.

This book is intended as a broad-based guide to issues in research design and analysis. The articles in the section entitled “Demonstrating systematic observation and research design” provide classroom and laboratory demonstrations that teachers could use to reinforce concepts from lecture/discussion, several of which pertain to observational research. Included is a description of computer coding and analysis of observations from videotape across an array of psychological research disciplines, a guide to building an ethogram (in laboratory mice), as well as a demonstration of misinterpretations of observed behavior (in the rat). One particularly simple and effective demonstration seeks to evoke biased observations by having students estimate a confederate’s performance of a task before and after the apparent consumption of alcohol, which actually is an act of deception.

 

Suggested Web Sites

http://www.norc.org/projects/bydivision/statistics+and+methodology/florida+ballots+project.htm

This page summarizes one major research project for the National Organization for Research at the University of Chicago, to archive and evaluate reliability for the November 2000 presidential ballot count from the state of Florida. The site should prove particularly useful to students as a demonstration of problems (e.g., variability in data coding) that are associated with observational methods. A detailed description of methods is included, including how measures of interobserver reliability were obtained. Also included is NORC’s entire data set and analyses.

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.socialresearchmethods.net/

This is the homepage for Bill Trochim’s (Cornell University) Web Center for Social Research Methods. The site includes an extensive on-line textbook, the Research Methods Knowledge Base, which represents a valuable additional resource for several methods issues, including observational approaches. One section of the Knowledge Base (http://www.socialresearchmethods.net/kb/survey.htm) should help reinforce several fundamental aspects of survey research. The section outlines how to prepare questionnaires, as well as how to prepare and conduct interviews. Included are considerations for question construction (wording) and response format, as is a table with an extensive checklist of advantages and disadvantages of survey methods. Additionally, on the homepage, links are provided to detailed, student-generated tutorials on methods issues (see Research Methods Tutorials), including how to design and conduct observational field research.

 

http://www.wadsworth.com/psychology_d/templates/student_resources/workshops/resch_wrk.html

In addition to the Surveys section of the Wadsworth Research Methods Workshops site that is indicated at the end of the chapter, there also is a related, but separate segment devoted solely to Designing a Survey. This segment reviews the importance of both the sequencing and structure of survey items (including when to use open-ended questions), as well as the impact of visual presentation on survey responses (including the nature of directions to the participant, plus reading level). Students are given practice in making survey design decisions, and can compare their responses to an approach derived from the textbook.

 

Another segment of the site entitled Operational Definitions actually contains a lot of information about observational research. Relevant discussion topics include the pros and cons of observational approaches using an extended example where observations are collected during social hours before professional business meetings. Students are able to compare their own general approach for the provided example against a textbook approach, including decisions about what to observe and how to record such observations. Also provided is more introductory information about types of surveys, the form of survey items and their content, as well as corresponding reliability and validity issues. In this latter section students are given some practice in generating survey items for the provided research example.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TESTBANK

 

MULTIPLE CHOICE

 

1. Ethology is a refined form of:

a.	a case study
b.	a survey
c.	naturalistic observation
d.	relational observation

 

 

ANS:  C                    PTS:   1                    REF:   Descriptive Observation Methods

MSC:  WWW

 

2. Assume that you are conducting a naturalistic observation of eating habits in the dining hall. During the lunch hour, you use a table (like an ethogram) to note the occurrence of particular behaviors. What problem poses the biggest threat to obtaining a complete and valid set of observations?

a.	Your attention is limited, so you may miss some important demonstrations of the target behaviors.
b.	It is difficult to define a small set of easily categorized behaviors to observe.
c.	You cannot make unobtrusive measures in this environment.
d.	You cannot reduce the demand characteristics of the research environment.

 

 

ANS:  B                    PTS:   1                    REF:   Descriptive Observation Methods

 

3. Let us assume that you wish to study aggressive social behaviors in college students immediately before and after the lunch hour. You decide to watch the entrance of a dining hall from a more remote location, and simply categorize the behaviors that you observe (along with a frequency count of those behaviors). This can most accurately be described as an example of which observational approach?

a.	naturalistic observation
b.	Survey
c.	case study
d.	deviant-case analysis

 

 

ANS:  A                    PTS:   1                    REF:   Descriptive Observation Methods

 

4. Dr. No sees two depressed patients with a shared subset of symptoms. One patient gets better with treatment, the other, worse. Dr. No thus decides to study the details of their therapy to determine a basis for the difference in treatment outcomes. This approach can most accurately be described as an example of which type of observational study?

a.	case study
b.	deviant-case analysis
c.	naturalistic observation
d.	Survey

 

 

ANS:  B                    PTS:   1                    REF:   Descriptive Observation Methods

 

 

 

5. Testing an elderly colleague to compare to P.Z., the amnesiac, is an example of:

a.	Ethology
b.	construct validity
c.	a protocol
d.	deviant-case analysis

 

 

ANS:  D                    PTS:   1                    REF:   Descriptive Observation Methods

 

6. Assume that a clinician is seeing a client who is not responding to the treatment program. With the hope of determining what factor(s) might be responsible for this lack of improvement, the clinician compares notes from therapy sessions against those from another client with similar characteristics and symptoms, but who responded positively to the treatment. This is an example of ____.

a.	naturalistic observation
b.	a case study
c.	a survey approach
d.	a deviant-case analysis

 

 

ANS:  D                    PTS:   1                    REF:   Descriptive Observation Methods

 

7. Assume that you are conducting an observational study on the effect of caffeine intake on speaking rate. In this study, you decide to collect responses to questionnaires from a group of instructors and college students who vary in the daily intake of caffeine. This is an example of ____.

a.	naturalistic observation
b.	a case study
c.	a survey approach
d.	a deviant-case analysis

 

 

ANS:  C                    PTS:   1                    REF:   Descriptive Observation Methods

 

8. Which of the following is closest to a random sample?

a.	matching the percentages of males/females to the general population
b.	having everyone in the world complete a survey
c.	testing the first 100 individuals that enter the laboratory
d.	relying on volunteers to complete a survey study

 

 

ANS:  C                    PTS:   1                    REF:   Descriptive Observation Methods

 

9. The ecological function of behaviors refers to:

a.	what function they seem to serve the organism.
b.	how behaviors are measured in a flexible fashion.
c.	how inexpensive naturalistic observation is.
d.	the degree to which behaviors observed in research approximate behaviors observed in the real world.

 

 

ANS:  A                    PTS:   1                    REF:   Advantages of Descriptive Observations

MSC:  WWW

 

 

10. Which of the following research approaches could most effectively be argued to be more ecologically valid than the listed alternatives?

a.	Conducting a survey to determine relative alcohol consumption between college-age men and women
b.	Examining student attitudes about pre-marital sex via an in-person interview
c.	Evaluating types of aggressive behavior in children by viewing videotapes of school playground activity
d.	Assessing recognition memory for non-words relative to abstract line drawings

 

 

ANS:  C                    PTS:   1                    REF:   Advantages of Descriptive Observations

 

11. One advantage of descriptive observation studies is that they:

a.	maximize the chance of showing an effect.
b.	reveal interactions between variables.
c.	provide the greatest ecological validity.
d.	require the fewest participants.

 

 

ANS:  C                    PTS:   1                    REF:   Advantages of Descriptive Observations

 

12. One advantage of observational research methods is that:

a.	researchers can make causal statements about relationships between variables.
b.	conditions and results can be easily replicated.
c.	they are free of researcher bias.
d.	they provide greater ecological validity.

 

 

ANS:  D                    PTS:   1                    REF:   Advantages of Descriptive Observations

 

13. A problem that is associated with descriptive observations is that they:

a.	cannot be influenced by subject (participant) roles.
b.	often lead to anthropomorphizing.
c.	have internal validity.
d.	can never be obtained as unobtrusive measures.
e.	are always retrospective in nature.

 

 

ANS:  B                    PTS:   1                    REF:   Sources of Error in Descriptive Research

 

14. Reactivity refers to the problem of:

a.	the participants’ behavior being influenced by being observed
b.	the influence that the expectations of the researcher have on the results
c.	participants misinterpreting the instructions provided by the researcher
d.	what happens when a researcher does not provide proper aftercare for participants

 

 

ANS:  A                    PTS:   1                    REF:   Reactivity in Descriptive Research

MSC:  WWW

 

 

 

 

15. Which of the following decisions would be most appropriate for a researcher interested in reducing a participant’s potential reactivity to the presence of the researcher?

a.	Make unobtrusive observations.
b.	Restrict the experiment to the laboratory setting.
c.	Repeat the test using another set of participants.
d.	Increase the number of participants.

 

 

ANS:  A                    PTS:   1                    REF:   Reactivity in Descriptive Research

 

16. A reporter decides to try to learn more about Hollywood celebrities by evaluating the contents of their garbage cans. In this way he can conduct research without celebrity awareness. This example can most accurately be described as an example of ____.

a.	unobtrusive observation
b.	an unobtrusive measure
c.	participant observation
d.	response acquiescence

 

 

ANS:  B                    PTS:   1                    REF:   Reactivity in Descriptive Research

 

17. A newspaper reporter decides to research the prevalence of alcohol on a local college campus by going under-cover as a student on the campus who is solely interested in partying. This could best be described as an example of ____.

a.	unobtrusive measures
b.	unobtrusive observations
c.	participant observation
d.	participant roles

 

 

ANS:  C                    PTS:   1                    REF:   Reactivity in Descriptive Research

 

18. In order to better observe the behavior of mountain gorillas, Fossey (1972) had to figure out a way to get closer to them. Ultimately, she mimicked their behaviors until the gorillas accepted her presence. This is an example of ____.

a.	unobtrusive observation
b.	participant observation
c.	unobtrusive measures
d.	response style or set

 

 

ANS:  B                    PTS:   1                    REF:   Reactivity in Descriptive Research

 

19. Reactivity in the form of ____ is a problem in case studies.

a.	ordinary forgetting
b.	motivated forgetting
c.	corroboration
d.	retrospection

 

 

ANS:  B                    PTS:   1                    REF:   Reactivity in Descriptive Research

 

 

INSTRUCTIONS: Match each characteristic problem with its corresponding observational study for the next two questions.

 

20. response style

a.	case study
b.	deviant-case analysis
c.	Survey
d.	naturalistic observation

 

 

ANS:  C                    PTS:   1                    REF:   Reactivity in Descriptive Research

 

21. can only attend to a limited number of behaviors

a.	case study
b.	deviant-case analysis
c.	Survey
d.	naturalistic observation

 

 

ANS:  D                    PTS:   1                    REF:   Descriptive Observation Methods

 

22. All of the following are advantages of observational studies EXCEPT the idea that such studies:

a.	often can provide more ecologically valid measures of behavior.
b.	are relatively flexible in their procedures relative to experiments.
c.	are inexpensive to conduct.
d.	are free of demand characteristics, particularly surveys.

 

 

ANS:  D                    PTS:   1                    REF:   Reactivity in Descriptive Research

 

23. Response style or set is most commonly a problem for which type of observational study?

a.	naturalistic observation
b.	case study
c.	survey
d.	deviant-case analysis

 

 

ANS:  C                    PTS:   1                    REF:   Reactivity in Descriptive Research

MSC:  WWW

 

24. Response style refers to:

a.	reactivity in case studies
b.	selective remembering and forgetting
c.	a habitual way of asking questions
d.	reactivity in interviews and surveys

 

 

ANS:  D                    PTS:   1                    REF:   Reactivity in Descriptive Research

 

 

 

 

 

25. Each of the following is an example of response sets except:

a.	response acquiescence
b.	response deviation
c.	social desirability
d.	forced-choice responses

 

 

ANS:  D                    PTS:   1                    REF:   Reactivity in Descriptive Research

MSC:  WWW

 

26. A solution to response styles forces the participant to:

a.	choose between a desirable and an undesirable alternative
b.	select response acquiescence or response deviation
c.	select a socially undesirable alternative on the survey or test
d.	choose between two equally good or two equally bad alternatives

 

 

ANS:  D                    PTS:   1                    REF:   Reactivity in Descriptive Research

 

27. Which option below would be the most effective method for combating response styles/sets in a survey?

a.	Use random sampling.
b.	Provide incentives for completion of the survey.
c.	Replicate the survey results with a different sample population.
d.	For a given survey item, work to make the alternative answers equally desirable.

 

 

ANS:  D                    PTS:   1                    REF:   Reactivity in Descriptive Research

 

28. If you want your results to apply to the general population, you should:

a.	not use just volunteer participants
b.	not use random sampling procedures
c.	not use paid participants
d.	pay only participants who don’t volunteer

 

 

ANS:  A                    PTS:   1                    REF:   Reactivity in Descriptive Research

 

29. The effective use of surveys is often complicated by:

a.	the fact that it is difficult and expensive to obtain a representative sample of respondents.
b.	the fact that participants often respond how they think the researcher expects them to respond.
c.	the reliance on volunteers, which can limit the generalizability of results.
d.	all of the above concerns.

 

 

ANS:  D                    PTS:   1                    REF:   Reactivity in Descriptive Research

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

30. One way to handle the problem of non-respondents in research is to:

a.	use volunteer respondents exclusively
b.	allow your respondents to use the telephone or mail in their answers
c.	get a random sample of the entire population that is available
d.	pay all participants equally

 

 

ANS:  C                    PTS:   1                    REF:   Reactivity in Descriptive Research

 

TRUE/FALSE

 

1. An ethogram is a relatively complete survey of attitudes.

 

ANS:  F                    PTS:   1                    REF:   Descriptive Observation Methods

 

2. Interobserver reliability has to do with the degree to which different participants demonstrate the same behaviors in a research study.

 

ANS:  F                    PTS:   1                    REF:   Descriptive Observation Methods

 

3. Case studies can be considered to represent a form of naturalistic observation, and thus should be subject to all the disadvantages of that approach.

 

ANS:  T                    PTS:   1                    REF:   Descriptive Observation Methods

 

4. Reactivity to surveys is typically eliminated by obtaining a random sample.

 

ANS:  F                    PTS:   1                    REF:   Descriptive Observation Methods

 

5. Some memory researchers have argued that studies involving the recall of novel events are more appropriate than laboratory studies involving the recall of less concrete material (e.g., nonsense syllables) because only the former approach reflects memory for items with a clear ecological function.

 

ANS:  T                    PTS:   1                    REF:   Advantages of Descriptive Observations

 

6. The primary problem unique to descriptive research is that it does not permit the assessment of relations among events.

 

ANS:  T                    PTS:   1                    REF:   Sources of Error in Descriptive Research

 

7. Pavlov, the famous psychologist and physiologist, found it difficult to study conditioned reflexes objectively.

 

ANS:  T                    PTS:   1                    REF:   Sources of Error in Descriptive Research

 

 

 

 

8. The term demand characteristics is currently and typically used to refer to the various roles that participants may assume in response to the research setting.

 

ANS:  F                    PTS:   1                    REF:   Reactivity in Descriptive Research

 

9. Unobtrusive measures and unobtrusive observations are the same ways of reducing reactivity.

 

ANS:  F                    PTS:   1                    REF:   Reactivity in Descriptive Research

 

10. Unobtrusive measures are indirect observations of behaviors.

 

ANS:  T                    PTS:   1                    REF:   Reactivity in Descriptive Research

 

11. Motivated forgetting in case studies refers to the active way in which a person reconstructs his or her past.

 

ANS:  T                    PTS:   1                    REF:   Reactivity in Descriptive Research

 

12. The retrospective nature of memories presents a potentially serious problem for the researcher who relies upon unobtrusive observations.

 

ANS:  F                    PTS:   1                    REF:   Reactivity in Descriptive Research

 

13. The validity of answers on personality tests and on surveys often is threatened by response styles.

 

ANS:  T                    PTS:   1                    REF:   Reactivity in Descriptive Research

 

14. A habitual tendency to answer questions in the negative reflects a common form of response set that is typically referred to as response deviation.

 

ANS:  T                    PTS:   1                    REF:   Reactivity in Descriptive Research

 

15. Using volunteers in your research means you are likely to have unmotivated and unintelligent people.

 

ANS:  F                    PTS:   1                    REF:   Reactivity in Descriptive Research

 

SHORT ANSWER

 

1. Discuss the advantages of descriptive research.

 

ANS:

Answer not provided.

 

PTS:   1

 

 

 

 

2. Outline some of the disadvantages of descriptive research.

 

ANS:

Answer not provided.

 

PTS:   1

 

3. Indicate the ways in which people might react to being in a descriptive research project. Pinpoint some ways of minimizing the reactivity.

 

ANS:

Answer not provided.

 

PTS:   1

 

4. What major obstacles must a researcher overcome when relying on surveys? How might a researcher address these concerns?

 

ANS:

Answer not provided.

 

PTS:   1

 

5. What are the various methods that a researcher might choose to rely upon in order to reduce reactivity in a naturalistic observation study?

 

ANS:

Answer not provided.

 

PTS:   1