comm research

any kind of communication that can be documented

• K = #agree/#possible - 1/n
• _______________________

       1-1/n

>.70

• 1. definition problems
• 2. coding rules
• 3. coder drift

• 1. public/private
• 2. mediated/non-mediated
• 3. scripted/unscripted

•    2M
•  _______

N1 + N2

• 1. good definitions
• 2. clearly defined coding rules
• 3. test inter-relater reliability often

• 1. mutually exclusive
• 2. exhaustive
• 3. equivalent

• - less biased & more comprehensive than surveys
• -unobtrusive
• -less expensive to make errors

• -limited to recorded information
• -validity problems
• -coding can be too simplistic
• -assuming there is a uniform relationship between symbols and meaning

only method that implies causality

• 1. IV + DV are correlated
• 2. IV comes before DV
• 3. Rule out alternative explanations

• - ability to isolate the experimental variable and effect over time
• -experiments don't involve large number of subjects and can be replicated many times

• -artificiality
• -little likelihood situations will occur in real life

neither experimenter nor anyone who comes in contact with the participants has knowledge of whether they are in control group or experimental group

subject to exact same conditions as experimental group, except without the IV

• each participant has an equally likely chance of being in control or experimental group
• gives assurance that each group is equivalent

rather than random assignment, experimenters predict what variables might affect the DV and account for those in the group assignment

• testing the DV before and after IV is administered
• gives researchers a baseline to compare effects of IV

asks participants after the study if the independent variable actually meant what it was intended to

experimenter unconsciously treats subjects differently if they know the purpose of the study, affecting how participants behave

if researchers/observers know which subjects are in experimental/control group, what they see may be biased

traits of the researcher affect behavior/data of subjects

participant's responses are influenced because they are aware of being observed

participants are primed by the test to respond in a certain way

subjects naturally change over time during the study regardless of the independent variable

participants drop out before the study is complete

when subjects are allowed to choose their groups, the groups will not be the same to begin with

participants influence one another's behaviors

one group compensates for missing experimental condition by working harder

sense of not progressing causes control group to give up

a historical effect occurring outside the study affects the outcomes

unreliable scale yields unreliable results

outliers/extremes will naturally test closer to mean on posttest

• maxi: maximize IV
• con: control for third/extraneous variables
• mini: minimize error variance

• - make conditions the same for control & experimental group
• -double-blindness
• -random selection
• -manipulation check

• 2 control and 2 experimental groups
• 1 experimental and 1 control are pretested

significance of the probability that the stats are due to sampling error, measures statistical significance

average

measures dispersion of statistics, higher =more dispersed data

the extent to which two variables are related, the extent of agreement/consistency, shows reliability of results

examines the difference between two groups, will two groups with same IV vary on DV?