Beginning Behavioral Research: A Conceptual Primer, 6th Edition

PREFACE

 

PART I     Getting Started

 

CHAPTER 1     Behavioral Research and the Scientific Method

Preview Questions

Why Study Research Methods and Data Analysis?

What Rival Alternatives Are There to the Scientific Method?

What Is Empirical Reasoning?

How Is Empirical Reasoning Used in Psychological Science?

How Do Extra-Empirical Factors Play a Role?

What Does Behavioral Science Encompass?

What Do Methodological Pluralism and Theoretical Ecumenism Connote?

How Does Research Go From Descriptive to Relational to Experimental?

What Are the Characteristics of Good Researchers?

Summary of Ideas

Key Terms

Multiple-Choice Questions for Review

Discussion Questions for Review

Answers to Review Questions

 

CHAPTER 2     Creative Ideas and Working Hypotheses

Preview Questions

What Is the "Discovery Phase" of Scientific Inquiry?

What Are Hypothesis-Generating Heuristics?

What Belongs in My Research Proposal?

How Can I Do a Literature Search?

How Should I Go About Defining Variables?

What Identifies "Good" Theories and Working Hypotheses?

What Is Meant by Independent Variable and Dependent Variable?

Summary of Ideas

Key Terms

Multiple-Choice Questions for Review

Discussion Questions for Review

Answers to Review Questions

 

CHAPTER 3     Ethical Considerations and Guidelines

Preview Questions

How Do Ethical Guidelines in Research Function?

What Is Informed Consent, and When Is It Used?

How Are Ethics Reviews Done and Acted Upon?

What Are Obstacles to the Rendering of "Full Justice"?

How Can a "Relationship of Trust" Be Established?

How Do Scientific Quality and Ethical Quality Intertwine?

Is Deception Ever Justified?

What Is the Purpose of Debriefing, and How Do I Do It?

How Is Animal Research Governed By Ethical Rules?

What Are My Ethical Responsibilities When Writing Up My Research?

Summary of Ideas

Key Terms

Multiple-Choice Questions for Review

Discussion Questions for Review

Answers to Review Questions

 

PART II     Observation and Measurement

 

CHAPTER 4     Strategies of Systematic Observational Research

Preview Questions

What Is Meant By Systematic Observational Research?

How Do Researchers Simultaneously Participate and Observe?
What Can Be Learned By Quantifying Observations?

How Is a Content Analysis Done?

How Are Raters or Coders Chosen For a Judgment Study?

How Are Situations Simulated in Experimental Research?

How Do I Identify Rival Interpretations and Rival Hypotheses?

What Is the Distinction Between Reactive and Nonreactive Observation?

Summary of Ideas

Key Terms

Multiple-Choice Questions for Review

Discussion Questions for Review

Answers to Review Questions

 

CHAPTER 5     Methods for Looking Within Ourselves

Preview Questions

What Are Uses and Limitations of Self-Report Measures?

What Are Open-Ended and Fixed-Choice Items?

How Are Personality and Projective Tests Used?

What Are Numerical, Forced-Choice, and Graphic Ratings?

What Are Rating Errors, and How Do I Control Them?

What Are Semantic Differentials, Likert Scales, and Thurstone Scales?

How Do I Prepare Items For a Questionnaire or an Interview?

How Are Face-to-Face and Telephone Interviews Done?

How Are Behavioral Diaries Used in Research?

Summary of Ideas

Key Terms

Multiple-Choice Questions for Review

Discussion Questions for Review

Answers to Review Questions

 

CHAPTER 6     Reliability and Validity in Measurement and Research

Preview Questions

What Is the Difference Between Validity and Reliability?

What Are Random and Systematic Errors?

What Is the Purpose of Retest and Alternate-Form Reliability?

What Is Internal-Consistency Reliability, and How Is It Increased?

What Is Acceptable Test-Retest and Internal-Consistency Reliability?

How Do I Measure the Reliability of Judges?

How Is Reliability Related To Replication and External Validity?

How Are Content and Criterion Validity Defined?

How Is Construct Validity Assessed in Test Development?

What Are Four Types of Validity in Experimental Design?

Summary of Ideas

Key Terms

Multiple-Choice Questions for Review

Discussion Questions for Review

Answers to Review Questions

 

PART III     Design and Implementation

 

CHAPTER 7     Randomized Experiments and Causal Inference

Preview Questions

What Is the Purpose of Doing Randomized Experiments?

How Is Random Assignment Accomplished?

What Are Between-Subjects and Within-Subjects Designs?

What Are Factorial Designs and Latin Square Designs?

Why Is Causality Said To Be "Shrouded in Mystery"?

On What Grounds Do Scientists Infer Causality?

What Is the Formative Logic of Experimental Control?

What Are "Preexperimental Designs"?

What Circumstances Jeopardize Internal Validity?

How Can I Control For Demand Characteristics and Expectancy Effects?

Summary of Ideas

Key Terms

Multiple-Choice Questions for Review

Discussion Questions for Review

Answers to Review Questions

 

CHAPTER 8     Nonrandomized Research and Causal Reasoning

Preview Questions

How Is Causal Reasoning Attempted in the Absence of Randomization?

What Is the "Third Variable" Problem?

How Can Causal Effects Be Studied in Nonequivalent Groups?

What Are Time-Series Designs and "Found Experiments"?

What Within-Subjects Designs Are Used in Single-Case Experiments?

How Are Correlations Interpreted in Cross-Lagged Panel Designs?

What Is the Purpose of Longitudinal Research Using Cohorts?

Summary of Ideas

Key Terms

Multiple-Choice Questions for Review

Discussion Questions for Review

Answers to Review Questions

 

CHAPTER 9     Survey Research and Subject Recruitment

Preview Questions

What Are Opportunity and Probability Samples?

What Is Meant By Bias and Instability in Survey Research?

Why Is "Bias" in Sampling Such an Elusive Concept?

How Can I Do Simple Random Sampling?

What Are Stratified Random Sampling and Area Probability Sampling?

What Did the Literary Digest Case Teach Pollsters?

What Are Point Estimates and Interval Estimates?

What Are the Benefits of Stratification?

How Is Nonresponse Bias Handled in Survey Research?

What Are Typical Characteristics of Volunteer Subjects?

How Is Volunteer Bias in Opportunity Samples Managed?

Summary of Ideas

Key Terms

Multiple-Choice Questions for Review

Discussion Questions for Review

Answers to Review Questions

 

PART IV     Describing Data and Making Inferences

 

CHAPTER 10     Summarizing the Data

Preview Questions

How Is Visual Integrity Ensured When Graphing Results?

How Are Frequencies Displayed in Tables, Bar Graphs, and Line Graphs?

How Do Stem-and-Leaf Charts Work?

How Are Percentiles Used to Summarize Part of a Batch?

How Might an Exploratory Data Analysis Be Done?

How Does Asymmetry Affect Measures of Central Tendency?

How Do I Measure How "Spread Out" a Set of Scores Is?

What Are Descriptive and Inferential Measures?

How Do I Compute a Confidence Interval Around a Population Mean?

What Is Distinctive About the Normal Distribution?

Why Are z Scores Called Standard Scores, and How Are They Used?

Summary of Ideas

Key Terms

Multiple-Choice Questions for Review

Discussion Questions for Review

Answers to Review Questions

 

CHAPTER 11     Correlating Variables

Preview Questions

What Are Different Forms of Correlations?

How Are Correlations Visualized in Scatter Plots?

How Is the Product-Moment r Calculated?

How Is the Spearman Rank Correlation Computed?

How Is "Dummy Coding" Used in Correlation?

When is the Phi Coefficient Used?

Summary of Ideas

Key Terms

Multiple-Choice Questions for Review

Discussion Questions for Review

Answers to Review Questions

 

CHAPTER 12     Statistical Significance, Effect Size, and Power Analysis

Preview Questions

Why Is It Important to Focus Not Just on p Values?

What is the Reasoning Behind Null Hypothesis Significance Testing?

What Do Type I and Type II Errors Imply in Practical Terms?

How Do I Determine, Interpret, and Report the Statistical Significance of r?

What Is the Purpose of the Binomial Effect-Size Display?

How Can I Do a Power Analysis?

How Do I Compute a Confidence Interval for an Effect Size r?

What Would Computing Killeen's p_rep tell me?

Summary of Ideas

Key Terms

Multiple-Choice Questions for Review

Discussion Questions for Review

Answers to Review Questions

 

PART V     Statistical Tests

 

CHAPTER 13     The Comparison of Two Conditions

Preview Questions

What Do "Signal-to-Noise" Ratios Have to Do With t Tests?

How Do I Compute an Independent Sample t Test?

What Can a Table of p Values for t Teach Me?

How Can I Estimate r_{effect size} From an Independent Sample t?

How Can I Estimate Cohen's d From an Independent Sample t?

How Do I Interpret Cohen's d for Independent Groups?

How Can I Maximize the Independent Sample t?

How Does a Paired t Test Differ From an Independent Sample t Test?

What Are Statistical Assumptions of the t Test?

Summary of Ideas

Key Terms

Multiple-Choice Questions for Review

Discussion Questions for Review

Answers to Review Questions

 

CHAPTER 14     Comparisons On More Than Two Conditions

Preview Questions

What Is Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), and How Are F and t Related?

How Is Variability Apportioned in a One-Way ANOVA?

How Are ANOVA Summary Tables Set Up and Interpreted?

How Can I Test for Simple Effects After an Omnibus F?

How Is Variability Apportioned in a Two-Way ANOVA?

How Do I Interpret Main and Interaction Effects?

How Is a Two-Way ANOVA Computed and a Summary Table Set Up?

How Do I Compute a Focused t or F On More Than Two Groups?

What Do r_{effect size}, r_alerting, and r_contrast tell us?

How Are Contrasts On Repeated Measures Computed?

How Are Latin Square Designs Analyzed by Contrasts?

Summary of Ideas

Key Terms

Multiple-Choice Questions for Review

Discussion Questions for Review

Answers to Review Questions

 

CHAPTER 15     The Analysis of Frequency Tables

Preview Questions

What Is the Purpose of Chi-Square (c²)?

How Do I compute 1-df Chi-Squares?

How Do I Obtain the p Value, Effect Size, and Confidence Interval?

What Is the Relationship Between 1-df c² and Phi?

How Do I Deal With Tables Larger Than 2 ´ 2?

How Does "Taking the Margins Into Account" Work?

A Journey Begun

Summary of Ideas

Key Terms

Multiple-Choice Questions for Review

Discussion Questions for Review

Answers to Review Questions

 

APPENDIX A     Communicating Your Research Findings

Research Reports and Poster Presentations

Getting Organized

Sample Research Report

Title Page

Abstract

Introduction

Method

Results

Discussion

References

End Material

Writing and Revising

Layout and Printing

Creating a Poster

 

APPENDIX B     Statistical Tables

B.1.  z Values and Their Associated One-Tailed p Values

B.2.  t Values and Their Associated One-Tailed and Two-Tailed p Values

B.3.  F Values and Their Associated p Values

B.4  c² Values and Their Associated p Values

B.5.  r Values and Their Associated p Values

B.6.  Transformations of r to Fisher z_r

B.7.  Transformations of Fisher z_r to r

 

APPENDIX C     Introduction to Meta-Analysis

The Purpose of Meta-Analysis

Comparing Two Effect Sizes

Combining Two Effect Sizes

Obtaining an Overall Significance Level

Detective-Like Probing of Reported Data

The File Drawer Problem

The Counternull Statistic

 

GLOSSARY

REFERENCES

NAME INDEX

SUBJECT INDEX