6. List and briefly describe the five major types/focuses of evaluation. (p. 290-299) (book and lecture)
7. How do politics affect research? (lecture)
8. Be able to define key terms for this chapter. (see Key Terms)
o
Try to set it up so you can address their fears
CHAPTER 12: Reviewing, Proposing, and Reporting Research
1. What are the strengths and weaknesses of the three major types of research designs? Be
able to compare the three types of designs (p.305-307) (book)
1.
Experimental designs
a.
Strengths:
i.
Nomothetic causal hypotheses
ii.
Studies of treatment effects
iii.
Basic social psychological processes
iv.
Reduces possibilities of pre-existing differences, controlled
conditions
b.
Weaknesses:
i.
Need volunteers, so they aren’t the same as everyone else (not
generalizable)
ii.
Ethical and practical constraints
iii.
Field experiments require special access and have high costs
2.
Surveys
a.
Strengths:
i.
Generalizable for large populations
ii.
Can include a large number of variables
iii.
Easy to find reliable measures
b.
Weaknesses:
i.
Can only measure what respondents are willing to say
ii.
Standardized questions can lump together different responses,
miss details of respondents’ attitudes/feelings
3.
Qualitative methods:
a.
Strengths:
i.
Intensive measurement
ii.
Direct observation
iii.
In-depth interviewing
iv.
Can identify multiple successive events
v.
Good for new groups/ideas/concepts
b.
Weaknesses:
i.
Time consuming
ii.
Expensive
iii.
Not as many cases can be examined
iv.
Not generalizable
