Self reports are easy to administer, low in cost, considered to provide reliable reports of a wide variety of characteristics or features.

Confidence intervals give you information about the likelihood of error in the sample vs. the population, this is called sampling error.

Sample Size has an impact on the size of the confidence limit, where the sample needs to be larger for a more narrow limit e.g., from Cozby:

Probability sampling - making use of probabilities to select specific people. E.g., simple random-using phone numbers to randomly select

Stratified random sampling - by dividing the population into groups or "strata" one randomly selects people from a given stratum.

Cluster sampling - may wish to find people in various units that exist, e.g., schools in various school district across the whole province. The districts are the clusters samples the schools.

Haphazard Sampling take whomever you can find, from what ever channels are available, such as word of mouth, subject pools, advertising,

'Snowballing' - working through social networking gradually build larger samples through clumping.

Sampling frames are used by researchers to provide definitions of populations from within which their samples arise.

Response or return rates are important as they indicate the proportion of people who agree to respond, or completed vs incomplete questionnaires

Defining Research Objectives - What is the question your are asking? What type of information can you acquire? The types of questions you ask will partially be defined by the nature of the sample but also your intended goals

What to survey? E.G.
Attitudes and Beliefs are most commonly assessed through survey questionnaires. Often such traits or styles are related to factual and demographic information that respondents can provide. Thus, when and where you are born, how much TV you watch, what kind of vacuum you own, beer drinking

Simplicity - it is best to keep questions to a simple level of comprehension. However, sometimes, when dealing with complex issues that is impossible.

Double-barreled questions - arise when two or more thoughts or ideas are being questioned at once. Again it is sometimes unavoidable best done in semantic differential. (divide and add together?)

Semantic Differential - bipolar scales for the relative comparison of two terms or ideas. E.g., good-bad, strong-weak, active-passive, introvert-

Loaded questions - leading or strong terms (negative emotional, morally judgmental)

Negative wording - can be confusing yet sometimes need to avoid positive response bias such as . . .

Yea Saying always agree; positive response bias.

Open - ended vs. fixed questions - Compare the open-ended questions about Canadian Identity and the diversity of responses vs. Agree - Disagree.

Number of response alternatives - try to keep them to a moderate level (5 - 7) not too many

Responses sets arise when respondents provide responses that are biased or altered in some form.

Types of scales can vary greatly from number to picture or check mark on a long line.

non-verbal scales - can use faces or symbols to acquire information (traffic lights, hands, ...)

Labels for response alternatives strongly agree-disagree; never, rarely, sometimes, usually, always

Rewritting & Refining

Questionnaires can be administered to groups in person, through the mail or e-mail.

Interviews can be administered over the telephone or in face to face interviews. There are possible advantages to each but they may fall prey to interviewer bias. Watch out for biases in asking leading questions and in interpreting answers or giving answers. Sometimes interviewers "look for" answers or complete thoughts for participants.

Focus groups are also a good way to survey attitudes or feelings on certain issues. Can range from 6-8 or as many as 30 people forums where issues of concern can be addressed or answered.

Experimental designs are generally used to explore questions of causality through inferential hypothesis testing. Usually it is the case that control is used to isolate possible causes.

Confounding factors occur when two or more variables or potential sources of influence or causality occur together. Experimental controls may ignore or not test important factors that might be the real causality behind the apparent influence of an independent variable.

Poor designs to avoid include having no control group or comparison. Simple correlation at best.

Regression toward the mean is a tendency for score to move towards the mean on second trials, particularly for extreme scores (high or low)

Non-equivalent control group design occurs when there are selection factors that may play a role in the outcome. E.g., when 'treatment' group is self-selected vs. the control group as in smokers, or in phone list take volunteers and others call control.

Well designed experiments attempt to account for specific possible confounding variables. Keeping K things constant or controlled while varying X factors across Y levels.

Post-test only - Group taken from population and randomly assigned to group & measure Dependent Variable. Assumes that the population is homogeneous and normally distributed
(probability functions: normal, t, X², F).)

Pre-post test - baseline studies where a first recording is done, the treatment is presented then a second recording is made. The first data record can be compared with the second or subsequent ones.

Assignment to groups is done methodically to ensure certain conditions for the study. Usually to establish 'equivalent' groups random assignment is done.

Random - can be simple random assignment using first come or even random number generators

Matched pairs or groups can also be randomly assigned to conditions. Keeping the pre-test scores as markers for pairing (high-low) can assign

Repeated Measures have advantages over equivalent groups because they are more closely the same person. "Within subjects" designs give the same or similar measures to participants, acting as their own 'controls' (like in baseline). However, ordering, practice fatigue and other factors may play a role.

Order effects - sequence of events, tests and procedures may have significant impact on the performance of the participant, tainting results