Exploring Research

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ISBN: 9780131937833 | 0131937839
Cover: Paperback
Copyright: 1/1/2009

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The 6th edition ofExploring Researchprovides an introduction to research methods in a friendly, approachable writing style. It explores the use of electronic sources (the Internet) as a means to enhance research skills; it includes discussions about scientific methods; and it incorporates the most common types of research models in the social and behavioral sciences, including qualitative methods.It provides coverage of the research process, problem selection, sampling and generalizability; a discussion of the measurement process provides a comprehensive resource for those seeking to further their research skills. It also describes how to collect and analyze data, and provides thorough instruction on how to prepare and write a research proposal and manuscript. Principles of data analysis are exemplified using SPSS 13.x.An excellent handbook for those in the social, behavioral, and health science fields.

Preface

xix

What's New in This Edition?

xix

How This Book Is Organized

What's Special About This Book?

xxi

How to Use This Book

xxi

A Big Thanks

xxii

The Role and Importance of Research

(18)

Say Hello to Research!

(1)

What Research Is and What It Isn't

(2)

A Model of Scientific Inquiry

(5)

Asking the Question

(1)

Identifying the Important Factors

(1)

Formulating a Hypothesis

(1)

Collecting Relevant Information

(1)

Testing the Hypothesis

(1)

Working with the Hypothesis

(1)

Reconsidering the Theory

(1)

Asking New Questions

(1)

Different Types of Research

(3)

Nonexperimental Research

(3)

Experimental Research

(2)

True Experimental Research

(1)

Quasi-Experimental Research

(1)

What Scientific Method to Use When?

(1)

Basic Research Versus Applied Research

(1)

Summary

(1)

Exercises

(1)

Want to Know More?

(3)

Further Readings

(1)

Readings of Other Interest

(1)

And on the Internet ...

(1)

The Research Process: Coming to Terms

(18)

From Problem to Solution

(2)

The Language of Research

(1)

All About Variables

(3)

Dependent Variables

(1)

Independent Variables

(2)

The Relationship Between Independent and Dependent Variables

(1)

Other Important Types of Variables

(1)

Hypotheses

(5)

The Null Hypothesis

(2)

The Research Hypothesis

(1)

Differences Between the Null Hypothesis and the Research Hypothesis

(1)

What Makes a ``Good'' Hypothesis?

(1)

Samples and Populations

(1)

The Concept of Significance

(1)

Summary

(1)

Exercises

(1)

Want to Know More?

(4)

Further Readings

(1)

Readings of Other Interest

(1)

And on the Internet ...

(2)

Selecting a Problem and Reviewing the Research

(48)

Selecting a Problem

(2)

Defining Your Interests

(1)

Ideas, Ideas, Ideas (and What to Do With Them)

(1)

From Idea to Research Question to Hypothesis

(1)

Reviewing the Literature

(13)

Using General Sources

(2)

Using Secondary Sources

(1)

Using Primary Sources

(7)

Reading and Evaluating Research

(3)

What Does a Research Article Look Like?

(1)

Criteria for Judging a Research Study

(2)

Basic Principles of Ethical Research

(4)

Protection From Harm

(1)

Maintenance of Privacy

(1)

Coercion

(1)

Informed Consent

(2)

Confidentiality

(1)

Debriefing

(1)

Sharing Benefits

(1)

Ensuring High Ethical Standards

(3)

The Role of Professional Organizations

(1)

A Summary of Ethical Guidelines

(1)

Ethics and Children

(1)

Ethics Regarding On-line Research

(1)

Using Electronic Tools in Your Research Activities

(6)

Searching On-line

(1)

Searching the Web: Great Search Engines

(1)

More About Google

(4)

Using Bibliographic Database Programs

(1)

An Introduction to the Internet and the World Wide Web

(6)

Research Activities on the Net

(1)

An Introduction to E-Mail

(2)

An Introduction to News Groups

(3)

Using Mailing Lists or ListServs

(1)

Exploring the WWW

(2)

A Bit About Home Pages

(1)

Writing the Literature Review

(1)

Summary

(1)

Exercises

(1)

Want to Know More?

(3)

Further Readings

(1)

Readings of Other Interest

(1)

And on the Internet ...

(2)

Sampling and Generalizability

(14)

Populations and Samples

(1)

Probability Sampling Strategies

(6)

Simple Random Sampling

(4)

Systematic Sampling

(1)

Stratified Sampling

(1)

Cluster Sampling

(1)

Nonprobability Sampling Strategies

(2)

Convenience Sampling

(1)

Quota Sampling

(1)

Samples, Sample Size, and Sampling Error

(2)

How Big Is Big?

(1)

Estimating Sample Size

(1)

Summary

(1)

Exercises

(1)

Want to Know More?

(2)

Further Readings

(1)

Readings of Other Interest

(1)

And on the Internet ...

(1)

Measurement, Reliability, and Validity

(24)

The Measurement Process

(1)

Levels of Measurement

100

(5)

Nominal

101

(1)

Ordinal

102

(1)

Interval

102

(1)

Ratio

103

(1)

Continuous Versus Discrete Variables

104

(1)

What Is All the Fuss?

104

(1)

Reliability and Validity: Why They Are Very, Very Important

105

(8)

A Conceptual Definition of Reliability

106

(1)

What Makes Up Error Scores?

107

(1)

Increasing Reliability

108

(1)

How Reliability Is Measured

109

(1)

Types of Reliability

110

(3)

Establishing Reliability: An Example

113

(1)

Validity

113

(5)

A Conceptual Definition of Validity

113

(1)

Types of Validity

114

(2)

Establishing Validity: An Example

116

(2)

The Relationship Between Reliability and Validity

118

(1)

A Closing (Very Important!) Thought

118

(1)

Summary

119

(1)

Exercises

119

(1)

Want to Know More?

120

(3)

Further Readings

120

(1)

Readings of Other Interest

120

(1)

And on the Internet ...

121

(2)

Methods of Measuring Behavior

123

(22)

Tests and Their Development

124

(2)

Why Use Tests?

124

(1)

What Tests Look Like

125

(1)

Types of Tests

126

(15)

Achievement Tests

126

(2)

Multiple-Choice Achievement Items

128

(4)

Attitude Tests

132

(2)

Personality Tests

134

(1)

Observational Techniques

135

(3)

Questionnaires

138

(3)

Summary

141

(1)

Exercises

141

(1)

Want to Know More?

142

(3)

Further Readings

142

(1)

Readings of Other Interest

143

(1)

And on the Internet ...

143

(2)

Data Collection and Descriptive Statistics

145

(20)

Getting Ready for Data Collection

145

(1)

The Data Collection Process

146

(4)

Constructing Data Collection Forms

146

(2)

Coding Data

148

(1)

The Ten Commandments of Data Collection

149

(1)

Getting Ready for Data Analysis

150

(1)

Descriptive Statistics

151

(4)

Distributions of Scores

151

(1)

Comparing Distributions of Scores

152

(1)

Measures of Central Tendency

152

(3)

Measures of Variability

155

(2)

The Range

155

(1)

The Standard Deviation

155

(2)

Understanding Distributions

157

(5)

The Normal (Bell-Shaped) Curve

157

(1)

The Mean and the Standard Deviation

158

(2)

Standard Scores: Computing and Using z Scores

160

(1)

What z Scores Really, Really Mean

161

(1)

Summary

162

(1)

Exercises

162

(1)

Want to Know More?

163

(2)

Further Readings

163

(1)

Readings of Other Interest

164

(1)

And on the Internet ...

164

(1)

Introducing Inferential Statistics

165

(20)

Say Hello to Inferential Statistics

165

(4)

How Inference Works

165

(1)

The Role of Chance

166

(1)

The Central Limit Theorem

166

(3)

The Idea of Statistical Significance

169

(2)

Tests of Significance

171

(8)

How a Test of Significance Works

171

(1)

t-Test for Independent Means

172

(2)

How to Select the Appropriate Test

174

(1)

Some Other Tests of Significance

175

(3)

Working With More Than One Dependent Variable

178

(1)

Significance Versus Meaningfulness

179

(1)

Meta-Analysis

180

(2)

How Meta-Analyses Are Done

181

(1)

Summary

182

(1)

Exercises

182

(1)

Want to Know More?

183

(2)

Further Readings

183

(1)

Readings of Other Interest

184

(1)

And on the Internet ...

184

(1)

Nonexperimental Research: Descriptive and Correlational Methods

185

(16)

Descriptive Research

186

(5)

Survey Research

186

(5)

Correlational Research

191

(7)

The Relationship Between Variables

192

(1)

What Correlation Coefficients Look Like

193

(2)

Computing the Pearson Correlation Coefficient

195

(3)

Summary

198

(1)

Exercises

198

(1)

Want to Know More?

199

(2)

Further Readings

199

(1)

Readings of Other Interest

199

(1)

And on the Internet ...

200

(1)

Nonexperimental Research: Qualitative Methods

201

(16)

Conducting Qualitative Research

201

(1)

Research Sources

202

(3)

Documentation

202

(1)

Archival Records

202

(1)

Physical Artifacts

203

(1)

Direct Observation

203

(1)

Participant Observation

203

(1)

Focus Groups

203

(2)

Case Studies

205

(2)

Some Advantages of the Case Study Method

205

(1)

Some Disadvantages of the Case Study Method

206

(1)

Ethnographies

207

(1)

Historical Research

207

(6)

Conducting Historical Research

208

(1)

The Steps in Historical Research

209

(1)

Sources of Historical Data

210

(1)

Primary or Secondary Sources: Which Are Best?

211

(1)

Authenticity and Accuracy

212

(1)

The Limitations of Historical Research

213

(1)

Qualitative Research Tools

213

(1)

Summary

214

(1)

Exercises

214

(1)

Want to Know More?

214

(3)

Further Readings

214

(1)

Readings of Other Interest

215

(1)

And on the Internet ...

215

(2)

Pre- and True Experimental Research Methods

217

(16)

Experimental Designs

218

(5)

Pre-Experimental Designs

219

(1)

True Experimental Designs

220

(3)

Internal and External Validity and Experimental Design

223

(4)

Threats to Internal Validity

223

(2)

Threats to External Validity

225

(1)

Increasing Internal and External Validity

226

(1)

Internal or External Validity: A Trade-Off?

227

(1)

Controlling Extraneous Variables

227

(2)

Matching

228

(1)

Use of Homogeneous Groups

229

(1)

Analysis of Covariance

229

(1)

Summary

229

(1)

Exercises

229

(1)

Want to Know More?

230

(1)

Further Readings

230

(1)

Readings of Other Interest

231

(1)

And on the Internet ...

231

(2)

Quasi-Experimental Research: A Close Cousin to Experimental Research

233

(14)

The Quasi-Experimental Method

233

(2)

Quasi-Experimental Designs

235

(8)

The Nonequivalent Control Group Design

235

(1)

The Static Group Comparison

236

(1)

Single-Subject Design

236

(2)

Multiple Baseline Designs

238

(1)

Evaluating Single-Subject Designs

239

(1)

Developmental Research

240

(1)

The Utility of Follow-up Studies

241

(2)

The Role of Age in Studying Development

243

(1)

Summary

243

(1)

Exercises

244

(1)

Want to Know More?

244

(3)

Further Readings

244

(1)

Readings of Other Interest

245

(1)

And on the Internet

245

(2)

Writing a Research Proposal

247

(14)

The Format of a Research Proposal

247

(2)

Appearance

248

(1)

Evaluating the Studies You Read

249

(2)

Criteria for Judging a Research Study

250

(1)

Planning the Actual Research

251

(3)

Selecting a Dependent Variable

253

(1)

Reviewing a Test

254

(1)

Basic Information

254

(1)

General Test Information

254

(1)

Design and Appearance

255

(1)

Reliability

255

(1)

Validity

255

(1)

Norms

255

(1)

Evaluation

255

(1)

Selecting a Sample

255

(3)

Data Collection and Analysis

257

(1)

Selecting an Inferential Statistic

257

(1)

Protecting Human Subjects

258

(1)

Summary

258

(1)

Exercises

258

(1)

Want to Know More?

258

(3)

Further Readings

258

(1)

Readings of Other Interest

259

(1)

And on the Internet ...

259

(2)

Writing a Research Manuscript

261

(22)

What a Manuscript Looks Like

261

(4)

Title Page

262

(1)

The Abstract

262

(1)

Introduction

263

(1)

Method

263

(1)

Results

263

(1)

Discussion

264

(1)

References

264

(1)

Appendices

264

(1)

Author Notes

264

(1)

Footnotes

264

(1)

Table Captions

265

(1)

Tables

265

(1)

Figure Captions

265

(1)

Figures

265

(1)

Nuts and Bolts

265

(1)

References

266

(1)

Summary

266

(17)

Appendix A: An Introduction to SPSS 13.x

283

(2)

Appendix B: Sample Data Set

285

(6)

Appendix C: Answers to Exercises

291

(10)

References

301

(4)

Glossary

305

(10)

Index

315

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Exploring Research

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Table of Contents

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