Deck 9: Nonexperimental Research, part 1: Observational, archival, and Case-Study Research

Question 1

As part of a research project on factors promoting group leadership,a psychology graduate student joins a campus social club.This is an example of ____ research.

A) naturalistic-observation
B) participant-observer
C) case study
D) archival

Answer 1

B

Question 2

The hermeneutic approach

A) seeks reasons, not causes
B) seeks causes, not reasons
C) avoids interpretation
D) Both b and c are true

Answer 2

A

Question 3

All of the following are true of nonexperimental research except:

A) No attempt is made to manipulate an independent variable.
B) The researcher cannot assign subjects to groups.
C) Data collection procedures often compromise some degree of control.
D) The researcher is unable to specify the probability of a subject being included in the sample.

Answer 3

D

Question 4

In a study of the relation between creativity and intelligence,a researcher administers a creativity test to fourth,sixth,and ninth grade students whose intelligence has just been measured.This is an example of ____ research.

A) correlational
B) archival
C) survey
D) case study

Question 5

A major disadvantage of observational research is that

A) standardized observational instruments are not very reliable
B) only overt behaviors can be observed
C) observers may make biased reports
D) the presence of the observer may affect the behavior that is to be observed

Question 6

A news magazine sends a questionnaire to a representative sample of voters to determine voting preferences in an upcoming election.This is an example of ____ research.

A) survey
B) naturalistic
C) observational
D) archival

Question 7

What makes nonexperimental research correlational is that it

A) computes a correlation between two variables
B) requires a scattergram of two variables for interpretation
C) determines a cause-effect relationship between two variables
D) does not manipulate an independent variable

Question 8

Which one of the following scenarios best demonstrates the concept of hermeneutics?

A) A parole officer obtains urine specimens from several parolees and has them analyzed for evidence of substance abuse.
B) Guards in a prisoner-of-war camp analyze the out-going mail of prisoners to determine if an escape attempt is being plotted.
C) A supervisor of graduate student teachers administers a questionnaire to students to determine the effectiveness of student-teachers.
D) The director of a day care center observes and records the interactions among the children to identify potentially aggressive ones.

Question 9

Which one of the following scenarios best demonstrates the use of physical trace measures?

A) Researchers examine the drawings of a group of four and five year old children for evidence of trauma or sexual abuse.
B) A researcher compares the final exam scores of two groups of college freshman students enrolled in two separate reading courses.
C) A classroom reading teacher examines the books on her classroom reading shelf for signs of wear to see what ones are read most.
D) Researchers blind to experimental conditions observe and record the behavior of two groups of schizophrenic patients who have been given two different experimental drugs.

Question 10

Nonexperimental research sometimes has to forfeit ____ in return for obtaining the data

A) Money
B) Control
C) Variability
D) Analysis

Question 11

Which one of the following methods of analysis requires the least interpretation?

A) manifest content
B) latent content
C) physical trace
D) hermeneutics

Question 12

Participant-Observer research is most appropriate when:

A) little is known about the group
B) studying a group that is isolated from the population
C) the group's behavior is generally not accessible to public scrutiny
D) all of these

Question 13

The concept of hermeneutics is concerned with

A) finding better ways to record behavior
B) finding better ways to observe behavior
C) interpreting themes as opposed to causes
D) interpreting reasons as opposed to causes

Question 14

If a researcher is observing how students in two already existing classes at a college learn,then the researcher has not ____ participants to groups.

A) Assigned
B) Delegated
C) Correlated
D) Manipulated

Question 15

Naturalistic observation is also called ____ research

A) unobtrusive
B) nonreactive
C) participant-observer
D) Both a and b are true.

Question 16

A researcher decides to go through police records in an effort to find out whether there is any evidence of racial profiling.What research technique is being used?

A) Participant-Observer
B) Survey
C) Archival
D) Case Study

Question 17

Collett and Marsh (1974)videotaped instances when two people met in a hallway to avoid collision.This type of research is called

A) naturalistic-observation
B) participant-observer
C) case study
D) archival

Question 18

A study of existing records is called ____ research

A) survey
B) naturalistic
C) observational
D) archival

Question 19

Because researchers using Naturalistic observation make an effort not to intrude upon the behavior that they are studying,this methods is sometimes called

A) Unobtrusive
B) Unethical
C) Reactive
D) Participant

Question 20

In a comparison of the social interaction patterns of gorillas,a scientist spends several months observing and recording behavior of gorillas in each group of her samples.This is an example of ____ research.

A) participant observation
B) naturalistic observation
C) survey
D) case study

Question 21

Many case studies result from

A) Problems that must be studied quickly, or else the chance to study them is lost
B) Studies of magnetic resonance imaging
C) Careful assignment of participants to groups
D) Careful reading of police records

Question 22

A major limitation of archival research is that

A) most archival data are nonscientific
B) archival data are not always factual
C) records and data are often difficult to obtain
D) biases may be present in the records or data

Question 23

The main problem with using a camcorder to record your observations electronically is

A) You must review your records in real time
B) Camcorders are too expensive
C) Camcorders are unethical
D) Animals can smell camcorders

Question 24

In comparison to those that use experimental techniques,observational researchers often use a process of testing hypotheses that is more

A) Formal
B) Flexible
C) Deductive
D) Analysis driven

Question 25

Alex the parrot's remarkable facility for language was reported in a journal article.What type of research technique was used?

A) Archival
B) Participant-Observer
C) Survey
D) Case Study

Question 26

Case-study research

A) is the study of an existing situation
B) requires examining factual information in existing records
C) follows a standardized format
D) is typically well planned in advance

Question 27

The manifest content of a text is

A) found by objective measure
B) found by subjective interpretation
C) a less reliable measure than its latent content
D) is always preferable to latent content analysis

Question 28

Theory development in observational or archival research

A) should be more formal and deductive than other research
B) is to be avoided in favor of gathering data and generating hypotheses
C) should be done before the data are collected
D) None of these are true.

Question 29

The term procedure

A) means the same as method
B) includes the design of the study
C) describes the logical plan of the study
D) describes the steps in carrying out the design

Question 30

Recording methods in nonexperimental research can present a number of problems because

A) There are no hypotheses in nonexperimental research
B) Hypotheses are too formally defined in nonexperimental research
C) You may not know how to define instances of what you're looking for
D) Hypotheses are too deductively generated in nonexperimental research

Question 31

A first hand story reflecting the meaning experienced by the teller is called a

A) survey
B) participant-observer study
C) narrative case study
D) naturalistic observation study

Question 32

An effective method of increasing the reliability of content analysis is to

A) use a standardized coding scheme
B) use a single coder to interpret the data
C) use two or more coders to interpret the data
D) a and c

Question 33

The protocol of a study is

A) the exact steps in dealing with a participant
B) the safeguards taken to keep the participant from feeling awkward
C) another way to describe the procedure
D) another word for the proposal

Question 34

The step of changing a procedure to a protocol involves

A) Going from a logical plan to a practical one
B) Reviewing the literature
C) Analyzing the data
D) Explaining results

Question 35

Which of these is not advisable in making field notes?

A) Be systematic.
B) Record everything you can.
C) Make use of recording devices.
D) All of these are advisable

Question 36

In case-study investigations,the researcher:

A) generally uses a single, reliable method of data collection
B) usually establishes the problem and hypothesis in advance
C) investigates a real-life problem within its real-life context
D) establishes clear boundaries between the phenomenon and the context in which the phenomenon takes place

Question 37

When a researcher reads a passage of text and codes it for a particular theme,the researcher is actually coding for

A) Latent content
B) Manifest content
C) Validity
D) Reliability

Question 38

If you are performing an content analysis in which the analysis is to count the frequency of the occurrence of the word,"kiss" in a given text,you are actually coding for

A) Latent content
B) Manifest content
C) Validity
D) Reliability

Question 39

The principle characteristic of case studies is that they examine

A) Past records that are often publicly available
B) Individual instances of some phenomenon
C) The differences between groups
D) The results of questionnaires

Question 40

David Phillips (1977)analyzed all motor vehicle fatalities in California in an effort to see whether some of them might actually be suicides.What research technique was he using?

A) Archival
B) Participant-Observer
C) Survey
D) Case Study

Question 41

A researcher is interested in the possible relationship between delinquency in junior high school students and family instability as evidenced by divorce.How would one go about investigating such a relationship? What else besides divorce might contribute to delinquency and be correlated with divorce?

Question 42

What is the difference between manifest and latent content analysis? When is it appropriate to use these different methods?

Question 43

What is the hermeneutic approach to research,and how does it differ from the general approach to understanding behavior?

Question 44

Discuss some of the problems of dealing with archival data,such as police records.Under what conditions would such data be preferable to performing an experiment?

Question 45

Explain why it is vital to guard the integrity of the data through careful recording and handling.

Question 46

A pilot study

A) is mostly for inexperienced researchers
B) is required for all studies
C) helps find the bugs in a design
D) reduces the credibility of the later study because the researcher has tested the design in advance