Week 12: Quantitative Research Methods - Surveys and Quantitative Data Analysis

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