RESEARCH METHODS
BACKGROUND
Introduction to Research
Methods of Knowledge Acquisition
¤ Authority - Knowledge based on
authority may rely upon the reputation
of an individual
¤ Rationalism – The use of reasoning,
alone, to arrive at knowledge
Ex: All statistics professors are
incredible people.
Ms. D is a statistics professor.
Therefore, Ms. D. is an incredible
person.
¤ Intuition – Acquiring knowledge
through a sudden insight, the
clarifying idea that springs through
consciousness all at once as a whole.
¤ Scientific Method – Uses both
reasoning and intuition for
establishing truth. Relies on objective
assessment.
The Scientific Method
a) Ask a Question
b) Do Background Research
c) Construct a Hypothesis
d) Test Your Hypothesis by Doing
an Experiment
e) Analyze Your Data and Draw a
Conclusion
f) Communicate Your Results
The Research Process
Definition of Terms
¤ Population – The complete set of
individuals, objects, or scores, that the
investigator is interested in studying.
¤ Sample – A subset of the
population.
¤ Variable - Any property or
characteristic of some event, object,
or person that may have different
values at different times depending on
the conditions.
¤ Independent Variable (IV) - The
independent variable in an experiment
is the variable that is systematically
manipulated by the investigator
¤ Dependent Variable (DV) - The
dependent variable in an experiment
is the variable that the investigator
measures to determine the effect of
the independent variable.
¤ Data - The measurements that are
made on the subjects of an
experiment are called data.
¤ Statistic - A statistic is a number
calculated on sample data that
quantifies a characteristic of the
sample.
¤ Parameter - parameter is a number
calculated on population data that
quantifies a characteristic of the
population.
The only difference is that a statistic is
calculated on a sample and a
parameter is calculated on a
population.
Exercise!
An English teacher conducts an
experiment to determine whether the
mode of presentation affects how well
a lesson material is remembered. For
this experiment, the teacher uses
several words and passages that are
presented visually or auditorily. 100
students are selected from the
undergraduates attending the
university at which the teacher works.
The students are divided into two
groups of 50 students per group. The
first group receives a visual
presentation of the words and
passages, and the second group hears
the words and passages through an
auditory presentation. At the end of
their respective presentations, the
subjects are asked to write down as
much of the material as they can
remember. The average number of
words remembered by each group is
calculated, and the two group
averages are compared to see
