Exam 4: Research Design, Research Ethics, and Evidence of Causation

When the results of a laboratory experiment cannot be generalized to the outside world the study is said to lack external validity.

Pretreatment measurements allow the researcher to make a before and after comparison.

A ______ is composed of subjects who receive a treatment that the researcher believes is causally linked to the dependent variable.

Measuring the dependent variable for both groups is referred to as the premeasurement phase.

All political science research should be conducted in an ethical and responsible manner.

______ means that, within the conditions created artificially by the researcher, the effect of the independent variable on the dependent variable is isolated from other plausible explanations.

A researcher studying individual attitudes divides participants into two groups and has them watch news reports in a home theater setting created in a college classroom. This is an example of a(n) ______.

Our ability to rule out worrisome alternative explanations depends upon the power of our research design.

A researcher studying the attitudes of college students on social norms posts a survey on her webpage. After receiving 150 responses she closes the survey and analyzes the results by comparing the results against those of a survey conducted in the campus library. What error has the researcher likely committed?

Which of the following occurs when some cases in the sample are more likely than others to be measured?

A researcher studying the effectiveness of Get-Out-The-Vote (GOTV) methods in a community is likely conducting a field experiment.

The more varied the values of the explanatory variable, the better.

A control group is composed of subjects who receive a treatment that the researcher believes is causally linked to the independent variable.

______ means that the results of a study can be generalized.

A researcher wishes to test the effect of media consumption on the political attitudes of 100 college students. To ensure the validity of her research she must account for rival explanations of the students' political attitudes.