Category: Writing

1. How are ex post facto and correlational research alike?
2. How are ex post facto and correlational research different?
3. If the population correlation is .32 or greater to reject
the hypothesis that the population correlation is zero with a onetailed .01
level, how many subjects do you need?

A researcher found a moderate negative correlation between
two variables of interest. She concluded that the negative correlation meant
that it would be useless to try to predict one variable from the other. Do you
agree? Why or why not?

1. A researcher wants to investigate the relationship
between class size and student satisfaction in sections of beginning psychology
at a university. Describe two research methodologies that might be appropriate
to answer this question.

A researcher is interested in anxiety and how it might
affect performance on scholastic aptitude tests. He has a clinical psychologist
assess the anxiety of subjects by ranking them from 1 through 20. Then he
administers a standardized aptitude test to each of the 20 subjects and
converts their IQ scores to ranks. Which correlation coeffi cient should the
researcher calculate for the data? Explain your answer.

1. Describe the difference between realist and critical
ethnography. Which is more appealing to you and why?
2. Explain how data analysis in qualitative and quantitative
studies differs
3. Briefl y describe the constant comparative method for
analyzing qualitative data

A state offi cial found a correlation of .65 between the
number of bars in cities in the state and the number of crimes reported in
those cities. He concluded that legislation to reduce the number of bars would
reduce crime. What would you say about the offi – cial’s conclusion?

Determine which kind of case study would be conducted in
each of the following:
a. A researcher wants to understand the dramatic decline in
behavior problems in a school district after it developed and implemented its
own character development curriculum.
b. A researcher wants to understand how elementary and
secondary school principals in a large urban district use technology in their
work.
c. A researcher wants to understand the life of a
home-schooled child.

Which correlation in each pair indicates
the greatest extent of relationship between
two variables?
a. +.80 or –.80
b. +.60 or+.85
c. +.60 or –.85
d. +.04 or –.15

1. Describe the disciplinary roots of the various approaches
to qualitative research. How might these roots infl uence how studies using
these methods are done?
2. Explain what a unit is in case study research. Give a
specifi c example of a unit you might be interested in studying.

Identify the following as
1. Characteristic of correlational research
2. Characteristic of ex post facto research
3. Characteristic of both
4. Characteristic of neither
a. Actively manipulates variables
b. Looks at differences between two or
more groups
c. Assesses the direction and strength of
association among variables
d. Produces indexes that range from
−1.00 to +1.00
e. Studies preexisting variables