Deck 6: Choosing Research Designs: Balancing Ideals and Realities

Question 1

Identify a true statement about descriptive field studies.

A) They are often high in external validity because a sample of participants can be taken directly from a population of interest.
B) They are often high in internal validity because an experimenter can randomly assign participants to treatments and manipulate one or more independent variables.
C) In these studies, a researcher makes inferences about causality based upon the results from a study.
D) In these studies, a researcher sets up a situation to resemble one that is naturally occurring rather than observing participants in real-life settings.

Answer 1

A

Question 2

Which of the following is true of experimental control?

A) It allows researchers to make inferences about causal relationships between variables.
B) Studies that are high in experimental control do not allow researchers to randomly assign participants to treatments.
C) It prevents researchers from maximizing the variance of the variables.
D) Studies that are low in experimental control allow researchers to randomly assign participants to treatments.

Answer 2

A

Question 3

Which of the following research designs provides an opportunity to include the best combination of inferences about cause and generalizability that is attainable within a single study?

A) Descriptive field studies
B) Experimental laboratory studies
C) Descriptive laboratory studies
D) Experimental field studies

Answer 3

D

Question 4

The research design myth is the belief that:

A) all experiments will be flawed somehow.
B) without the replication of a research design, results mean little.
C) research design is more important than statistical tools.
D) one research design is a priori "better" than others.

Question 5

The first factor to be considered while determining the usefulness of a particular research design is the resources and costs associated with that design.

Question 6

One of the most critical requisites to be considered in a research design is:

A) to ensure homogeneity of sample.
B) to confirm the preexisting beliefs and expectations of researchers.
C) to rule out as many plausible rival hypotheses as possible.
D) to increase a researcher's credibility in the academic community.

Question 7

Which of the following is a true statement about the components of research?

A) Theory involves identifying the variables of interest in a study.
B) Measurement involves the use of statistical tools to test hypotheses.
C) Design provides the conceptual framework from which a study is structured and executed.
D) Analysis includes operationally defining the variables in a study.

Question 8

An experimental laboratory study relies upon the researcher setting up a situation to resemble one that is naturally occurring rather than observing participants in real-life settings.

Question 9

Qualitative research can be particularly useful when investigating new topics about which very little is known.

Question 10

According to the bubble hypothesis, if multiple research designs are advocated, each with different threats, the cumulative effect will result in a vague, less accurate picture of the topic under examination.

Question 11

Kerlinger's MAXMINCON principle states that:

A) the overreliance upon a specific design in a given topic area can produce an unbalanced and weak knowledge base.
B) every research design has its strengths and weaknesses and there is no perfect design.
C) an experimental research should minimize the variance of the variable or variables pertaining to the research questions.
D) an experimental research should minimize the error variance of random variables due to errors of measurement or individual differences of participants.

Question 12

Gelso's bubble hypothesis states that:

A) qualitative research design is a priori "better" than others.
B) research results are often skewed at the extreme ends of the bell curve.
C) all research designs will have some limitations.
D) if multiple research designs are used in a study, then there will be similar flaws in each design.

Question 13

A series of isolated investigations accumulates more useful knowledge bases than does a series of related investigations that build on each other.

Question 14

Mixed methods designs utilize elements from both experimental and preexperimental designs.

Question 15

Which of the following is a characteristic of descriptive laboratory studies?

A) High internal validity and high external validity
B) Low internal validity and low external validity
C) Low internal validity and high external validity
D) High internal validity and low external validity

Question 16

For a study to be truly high in external validity, the data-gathering procedures should not greatly alter routine procedures.

Question 17

Identify the pair of factors a researcher needs to consider while organizing counseling research, as proposed by Gelso (1979).

A) Internal validity and external validity
B) Volume and demographics
C) Construct validity and statistical conclusion validity
D) Objectivity and longitudinal value

Question 18

An overreliance upon a specific design in a given topic area can produce a weak knowledge base.

Question 19

Unlike qualitative designs, quantitative approaches aim to understand the research questions of interest via interviews, observation, and artifacts and typically produce rich descriptions of the data to make interpretations of meaning.

Question 20

Experimental control allows researchers to make inferences about causal relationships between variables, which is referred to as the internal validity of the study.