RSOC 515 Quiz 2

move beyond description to investigate relationships between two or more variables and attempt to explain these relationships in cause-and-effect terms

• the most common survey design
• in which data on a cross-section of respondents chosen to represent a larger population of interest are gathered at essentially one point in time

• survey design in which data are collected at more than one point in time 
• ex. trend study, cohort study?

a longitudinal research design that attempts to assess the relative effects of age (life-course changes), period (current history), and cohort ("generations" who share the same past history)on attitudes and behaviour

• created by Don Dillman (2007)
• recommends three more widely spaced follow-ups, each of which entails new and more persuasive appeals
• first followup sent 2 weeks after original mailing of survey - consists of postcard/reminder of survey
• second followup mailed two weeks later is only sent to nonrespondents, contains a replacement questionnaire, tells respondent that they are receiving individual attention
• third followup mailed four weeks later, invokes special procedures like special mail or contact by telephone to emphasize the importance of the respondents participation

• a survey question in which two separate ideas are erroneously presented together in one question
• ex. How satisfied are you with your pay and job conditions?

• a survey question that suggests a possible answer or makes some responses seem more acceptable than others
• ex. Was John wearing a white shirt? instead of 'what colour shirt was John wearing?'

a survey question intended for a subset of the respondents, addressing only those persons for whom the question is relevant

a tendency of the respondent to answer in a certain biased direction (such as in the direction of social desireability) as a function of the content or form of survey questions

• behavioral coding
• respondent debriefings 
• interviewer debriefings
• split-ballot rests
• response analysis

a data-cleaning procedure involving checking for out-of-range and other "illegal" codes among the values recorded for each variable

procedures for determining the extent to which one may generalize beyond the data at hand

a procedure for handling missing data in which missing values are imputed from other informal, such as the sample mean or known values of other variables

a statistical method for studying bivariate (simple-regression) relationships among interval or ratio-scale variables

• direct effects: when one variable is hypothesized to affect other directly in a causal model; the total impact of one variable on another is the sum of the direct and indirect effects
• indirect effects: in a causal model, when one variable is hypothesized to affect another indirectly through one or a series of intervening variables

a traditional technique for the multivariate analysis of contingency tables that "elaborates" the relationship between the two variables by introducing a third (and sometimes additional) variable and testing the resultant causal models

a bivariate correlation or the relationship in a bivariate table; "zero-order" means that there are no ("zero") control variables

a problem that arises in multiple regression when combinations of one or two independent variables are highly correlated with each other and that renders regression results  (estimates of the coefficients) difficult to interpret

a form of causal modelling utilizing standardized regression coefficients that provides, among other things, quantitative estimates of the total direct and indirect effects of one variable on another

type of historical analysis that emphasizes the complete and accurate description of past events

the use of historical events and evidence to develop a generalized understanding of the social world

systematic analysis of the symbolic content of communications in which content is reduced to a set of coded variables or categories

any process of measurement that by itself does not bring about changes in what is being measured. In contrast, reactive measures may produce changes in behaviour because of people's awareness that they are being studied or observed