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COMM 250 Agenda - Week 6
Housekeeping
• Today: C1, TP3a Due
• Give TP3a to your TA NOW (set in the aisle)
• Put C1 in your folder at end of class
• Next Week: RAT3
• RP1 – You download a survey, and use it to conduct
an interview
Lecture
• Finish RQs & Hypotheses, Operationalizations
• Surveys: Demographic, Scale items
• ITE6 – Multiple Parts
Review of: In-Class Team Exercise # 5
1) Create 2 Hypotheses (One 1-Tailed, One 2-Tailed)
• Relate the concepts: “regular exercise” and
“health”
2) Create a specific, measurable Operational
Definition of each concept
3) Which is the IV, which the DV?
4) Propose 2 (likely/possible) “Intervening
Variables”
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Deliverable: a written version of the above
Correlation & Causality
Correlation
• Two variables are related (as one varies, the
other varies predictably)
Causation
3 “Necessary & Sufficient” Conditions:
• Two variables must be shown to be related
• The IV must precede the DV in Time
• The relationship cannot be due to another
variable (an “Intervening” or “Confounding”
variable)
In-Class Team Exercise # 6a - Part I:
First Do as Individuals, then produce a Team Version:
1) Create 2 Hypotheses (One 1-tailed, one 2-tailed)
• Relate “socializing” with “success in college”
2) Create a specific, measurable Operational Definition
of each concept
3) Which is the IV, which the DV?
4) Can you think of 2 “Intervening Variables?”
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Surveys
“Survey” is a General Research Methods
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Questionnaires (opinion polls, market research,
evaluation research)
Field research (often qualitative)
Interviews, Focus Groups (often qualitative)
Questionnaires
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Self-administered – Hard-copy, E-mail
Self-administered – Web-based
Interview – in person
Interview – telephone
Types of Questions
• Demographic Questions
• Age, Gender, Race, Income, Education, etc.
• Factual Questions
• Do you own or have your own cell phone?
• Behavior (infrequently, frequently)
• How often do you use a cell phone and drive?
• I use my cell phone while driving.
• Attitudes (agree, disagree)
• Driving while using a cell phone should be banned.
• Driving while using a cell phone is dangerous.
In-Class Team Exercise # 6 - Part II:
First Do as Individuals, then produce a Team Version:
Create 3 demographic questions for a survey:
• Gender, Age, and Education
Rules - You should:
• Assume this is a “self-administered” questionnaire
• Choose the exact wording you would use
• Design “Multiple Choice” (not “Fill in the Blank”)
• Assign numbers to each value/level of each variable
Deliverable: a written version of the above
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Types of Questions
• Demographic Questions
• Age, Gender, Race, Income, Education, etc.
• Factual Questions
• Do you own or have your own cell phone?
• Behavior (infrequently, frequently)
• How often do you use a cell phone and drive?
• I use my cell phone while driving.
• Attitudes (agree, disagree)
• Driving while using a cell phone should be banned.
• Driving while using a cell phone is dangerous.
Choosing Questions
2 Types of Questions
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Open-ended (Fill in the blanks)
Closed (Multiple Choice: Y/N, a,b,c,d,e, 7 pt. scales)
Multiple Choice Questions
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Mutually Exclusive
Exhaustive
Scale Questions
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Even / Odd number of values (3 or 4? 5,7 or 6?)
Total number of values (3-5-7-9 or 4-6-8-10?)
Label each point on the scale, or use “anchors” ?
Open-ended vs. Closed Questions
Open-ended Items (“Fill in the Blanks”)
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Useful for “exploratory” data collection
ADV: Respondents (Rs) aren’t “led” by some list of available
choices / opinions
DISADV: Requires much more work - to quantify, researcher
must categorize and “code” responses
Closed-ended Items (“Multiple Choice”)
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Useful when all of the available responses are known
ADV: 1) Easier to quantify, and 2) Rs are reacting to the same
stimulus materials (some list of choices)
DISADV: 1) Researcher may miss some important
reasons/options
Multiple Choice Items
The Options (possible values) in MC Items
should be:
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Mutually Exclusive
Exhaustive
Consistent
Linear (follow in a logical order)
Clear and concise
Limited in number (so the researcher can make sense
of them)
In-Class Team Exercise # 6 - Part III:
Example of a BAD Item
Which of the following describes your CURRENT living situation?
1) Married, no kids
5) Divorced
2) Married, 1-3 kids at home
6) Divorced, 1-3 kids at home
3) Married, 3 or more kids
7) Divorced, 3+ kids at home
at home
8) Unmarried, but have kids
4) Unmarried
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a)
b)
What mistakes make this a bad item?
How would you fix this problem?
Deliverable: a written answer to a & b
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Solution
Example of a BETTER Item
Which best describes your CURRENT living situation?
1) Married, no kids
5) Divorced, 1-3 kids at home
2) Married, 1-3 kids at home
6) Divorced, more than 3 kids at home
3) Married, more than 3 kids
7) Unmarried, no kids
at home
8) Unmarried, 1-3 kids at home
4) Divorced, no kids
9) Other (Please specify: ______________ )
Solution
Example of a Better APPROACH
What is your marital status?
1) Single
2) Married
3) Divorced
4) Widowed
How many children do you have? ___ ___
How many CHILDREN currently live with you? ___ ___
How many other ADULTS currently live with you?
___ ___
Scale Items
Even / Odd Number of Values
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Even - no midpoint - forces users to choose
Odd - has a midpoint - allows a “neutral” response
(I prefer Odd)
Number of Values
3-5-7-9 or 4-6-8-10 point scales:
• 3-4 is simple but may not allow “discrimination”
• 9-10 is usually overkill
• 5-6-7 is usually best
• (I prefer 7)