Communication Research Content Outline
Introduction to Research: Science as Knowledge and Practice
Science, Reasoning, and Truth (Babbie, ch 1)
The utility of research methods to an undergraduate comm major
What is science?
Research as generator of truths
Characteristics of a valid utterance
intelligibility
truth
sincerity
authority
Comparison of science with other "ways of knowing"
Research Ethics (Babbie, ch 18)
Internal ethics — norms of science
Communality of data
Transparency of method
Intellectual honesty
External ethics — the scientist and society
Subjects
voluntary participation with informed consent
deception
privacy concerns (pp 447-448)
physical or psychological harm (pp 448-449)
Society in general
Fundamentals of Research
Building A Theory: Conceptualization
Research questions
exploratory
descriptive
explanatory
Modes of reasoning (ch 2, esp pp 51-65)
induction
deduction
Concepts
nominal definition
constructs
Variables
Types of variation
discrete
continuous
Values
categories or groups
levels, ranks, or quantities
Causality (Babbie, ch 3, esp pp 69-79)
An inference based on available information
Three criteria
temporal priority of cause to effect
measurable association between cause and effect
logical elimination of alternative explanations
Types of causes
necessary (but insufficient)
sufficient (but unnecessary)
necessary and sufficient
Relationships
Direction
positive
negative
"null"
curvilinear
Variable functions
independent
dependent
intervening
moderating
confounding
antecedent
Theories (Babbie, ch. 2)
Components
nominal definitions of concepts (extrinsic)
assertions of relationships among concepts (intrinsic)
specification of scope of theory
population
units of analysis
time
characteristics of a good theory
internal consistency (logical consistency)
external consistency (empirical consistency)
parsimony (simplicity)
explanatory power
idiographic explanation
nomothetic explanation
Hypotheses
Characteristics
emerge from theories
are empirically testable
are predictions about relationships between variables
Types
difference statements
discrete/continuous
group 1 has more/less y than group 2
association statements
continuous/continuous
as x increases/decreases, y increases/decreases
conditional statements
discrete/discrete
if i is in group 1, then i is also in group A
Designing Measures: Operationalization
Types of data
Quantitative
Qualitative
Measurement techniques
Direct observation
obtrusive
unobtrusive
Indirect observation
third-party reports
archival data
unobtrusive measures
self-report
Levels of measurement
Ratio
Interval
Ordinal
Nominal
Measurement "quality"
Reliability
Types of measurement validity
face validity
content validity
criterion-related validity
concurrent validity
predictive validity
construct validity
Obtaining Participants: Sampling
Terminology
Population/sample
Parameter/statistic
Sampling frame
Sampling unit
Random
Probability sampling
Simple random
Systematic
Stratified
Cluster
Non-probability sampling
Convenience
Purposive
Quota
Snowball
Research Designs
General Concerns in Conducting Research
Threats to internal validity (pp 240-244)
Measurement effects
measurement validity
instrumentation
testing
Subject effects
intersubject rivalry/demoralization
imitation ("contamination")
compensation
mortality
maturation
Response effects
social desirability
telescoping/incomplete recall
Researcher effects
demand characteristics
researcher-subject interactions
gender interaction
"Hawthorne effect"
Other threats
statistical regression
selection bias
history
time-order
Sources of external validity (pp 244-245)
representativeness of the sample
replicability of the design
ecological validity of the research setting
Types of Research Designs
Experiments
manipulation and control
characteristics of the "true" experiment
manipulated IV
random assignment of subjects to conditions
control of extraneous variables
designs
pre-test/post-test control group
post-test only control group
Solomon four-group
quasi-experiments (field experiments) (pp 340-345)
Surveys
basic procedure
cross-sectional
longitudinal
Questionnaire construction concerns
types of questions
open-ended
closed
formatting
question wording
loaded words
double-barrelled questions
ambiguous questions
question order
Administration concerns
medium
face-to-face
telephone
mail
response rates
Other Designs
Unobtrusive Measures
Content Analysis (Babbie, ch 12, pp 308-318)
Sampling issues
Content coding issues
Advantages and disadvantages
Analysis of Existing Statistics (pp 319-324)
Historical/Comparative Analysis (pp 325-329)
Evaluation Research (Babbie, ch 13)
Principles of Data Analysis (Babbie, ch 14 to 17)
Properties of the Normal Curve
Descriptive Statistics
frequency distribution tables
stem-and-leaf diagrams
bar charts
histograms
scatter plots
"variance graphs"
Summary Statistics (Babbie, ch 15, esp pp 370-374)
Measures of central tendency
mean
median
mode
Measures of dispersion
range
interquartile range
variance/standard deviation
Sampling Error
Uses — estimating population parameters
Calculating standard error and margin of error
Selecting confidence levels
Determining confidence intervals
Inferential Statistics (Babbie, ch 17, esp pp 420-430)
Tests of difference
chi-square
t-test for independent samples
t-test for matched samples
Tests of association
Pearson's
r
Spearman's rho
Conclusions