SOWK 459 Fall 2019 Planning: Class 12

Location: CBC Campus - Tuesday T-336 & SWL-220
Time: Tuesdays and Thursdays from 5:30-8:15
Week 12: 11/04/19 — 11/10/19
Reading Assignment: DeCarlo (2018) chapter 11 and 12
Topic and Content Area: Quantitative Research Methods
Assignments Due: Assignment 02: reading quiz for chapters 11 and 12 are due at 5:30 PM prior to class via My Heritage
Other Important Information: N/A

Types of Research Design

Quantitative Designs

  • Experiment
  • Survey
  • Program evaluation*
  • Secondary data*

Qualitative Designs

  • Interview
  • Focus group

Survey Design

Strengths

  • Cost-effectiveness
  • Generalizability
  • Reliability
  • Versatility
  • Longitudinal designs are great

Limitations

  • Inflexibility
  • Lack of depth
  • For cross-sectional designs, difficulty with time order
  • Phone, mail, internet, and in-person surveys all have issues

Writing Quantitative Survey Questions

  • Questions are based on operational definitions (But also include other variables and characteristics)
  • Concise, easy to understand
  • Address the “most knowledgeable people” about a topicThink back to sampling
  • Clear wording (Double negatives, double-barreled questions and answers, jargon, slang)
  • Neutral wording (Leading language, social desirability)
  • Pretesting is key

Writing Quantitative Survey Questions

  • Closed-ended questions (Mutually exclusive and exhaustive response options)
  • Fence-sitters and floaters
  • Filter questions, Matrix questions
  • Group your questions by theme
  • Ordering is important, though tricky
  • Think about the time needed to complete the questionnaire
  • Look professional

Bridges Program Parent Questionnaire

Show examples of…

  • Questionnaire
  • Data Collection
  • Report

Group Activity - Survey Creation

Create a 5-10 question survey which addresses the topic of “study skills,” though the specific research question is up to you…

  • Include questions and answers
  • Follow best practices listed in the book
  • Don’t ask anything sensitive

Group Activity - Data Collection

Gather data from all of the class

Group Activity - Debrief

  • What questions worked well? Didn’t work so well?
  • What research questions could we answer?
  • What would univariate analysis look like here?
  • What bivariate relationships could we explore? Multivariate?
  • What would you do differently, if you could?
  • Setting? Format?

Basic experimental design

Classic Experimental Design

  • Experimental and control groups
  • Random assignment
  • Pretest and posttest

Variations

  • Posttest only (testing effects)
  • Solomon four group design
  • Using a comparison group

Quasi-Experimental Design

  • Nonequivalent comparison group design (true experiment, without random assignment)
  • Natural experiments
  • Ex post facto control group
  • Time series
  • Matching (Individual and Aggregate)

Pre-Experimental Design

  • Static group comparison
  • One-shot case study
  • One-group, pre/posttest

Severe limitations

Logic of Experimental Design

  • Internal vs. external validity
  • Replication
  • Threats to validity
    • Noncomparable groups
    • Selection bias
    • Placebo effect
    • Researcher effects

Analyzing Quantitative Data

  • Response rates and nonresponse bias
  • Importance of creating a codebook

Quantitative Data Analysis

  • Univariate analysis
    • Measures of central tendency
    • Frequencies
  • Bivariate analysis
    • Chi-square, t-test, ANOVA, and correlation
  • Multivariate analysis
    • Regression, MANOVA