COMM 250 Agenda Week 3

1
COMM 250 Agenda - Week 3

• Housekeeping
• Form Teams
• Implicit and Explicit Course Agreements
• Setting Grade Weights
• Lecture
• In-Class Team Exercise 1 - Paradigms
• Quantitative Qualitative Research
• Theoretical vs. Applied

2
Setting Grade Weights

• Purpose
• Students Determine Grade Weights to Ensure Buy-in
  with Course Objectives Deliverables
• Instructions
• Each team makes 2 decisions
• The split of Grade Percentages Proportion
  Devoted to Individual, Team, Helping Behavior
• Within the Individual Component the Percentage
  for I-RATs vs. Percentage for Final Exam
• A representative from each team negotiates until
  the CLASS reaches consensus today.

3
In-Class Team Exercise 1

• 1) Two rounds of Name Calling!
• No written deliverable
• 2) Paradigms Paradigm Shifts
• Deliverable list 6 major paradigm shifts in
  society
• (List Both the Old and New Paradigms)
• Additional Team Work
• Choose a team name
• Plan TP1 Meet before Tues. (Hemlock works)
• Plan TP2 Peer Evaluation PC

4
Types of Research

• Research based in Positivism
• Objective World
• Quantitative Methods
• Researcher is a Dispassionate Observer
• Research based in Naturalism
• Subjective World
• Qualitative Methods
• Researcher is Part of the Research
• Also, Theoretical vs. Applied Research
• Theoretical Done to Further Science, Knowledge
• Applied Done to Achieve Some Tangible Outcome

5
The Philosophy of Science

• Epistemology the Study of Knowledge
• FBK relation of researcher to the topic
• Positivists independent (objective knowledge)
• Naturalists interdependent (subjective)
• What is the Nature of Knowledge?
• Is some/all knowledge absolute?
• Is some/all knowledge relative?

6
The Philosophy of Science

• Ontology the Study of Being
• FBK the nature of reality
• Positivists the world is objective
• Naturalists the world is subjective
• What is the nature of Being ?
• Beings as Passive S-R Psychology, SMCR
  Communication
• Beings as Active Constructivism, Cognitive
  Psychology

7
The Philosophy of Science

• Axiology the Study of Values
• FBK the role of values
• Positivists science can be value-free
• Naturalists science is always value-laden
• What are the nature of Values?
• Values Are there objective values? (Is there
  Truth with a capital T ?)
• Values or subjective, depends upon who is
  deciding the values

8
4 Types of Variables

• Independent influences another variable
• IV Predictor variable
• Dependent variable influenced by another
• DV Outcome variable
• Control variable one tries to control for
• Either keep constant, balance across groups,
  or extract in the statistical analysis (aka a
  concomitant variable)
• Extraneous variable not studied/interested in
• But it has some impact on the IVDV relationship

9
4 Levels of Variables

• Nominal simply categories for classification
  the numbers assigned are meaningless
• Political Party, Gender, County
• Ordinal levels are in a rank order
• US News Top 100 Grad Schools
• Lettermans Top Ten List
• Interval numbers are meaningful, no true zero
• a 7 Point Scale, Fahrenheit or Celsius
  Temperature
• Ratio numbers are meaningful, a true zero
• Height, Weight, Kelvin Temperature