COMM 250 Agenda - Week 6

1
COMM 250 Agenda - Week 6

• Housekeeping
• Today C1, TP3a Due
• Give TP3a to your TA NOW (set in the aisle)
• Put C1 in your folder at end of class
• Next Week RAT3
• RP1 You download a survey, and use it to
  conduct an interview
• Lecture
• Finish RQs Hypotheses, Operationalizations
• Surveys Demographic, Scale items
• ITE6 Multiple Parts

2
Review of In-Class Team Exercise 5

• 1) Create 2 Hypotheses (One 1-Tailed, One
  2-Tailed)
• Relate the concepts regular exercise and
  health
• 2) Create a specific, measurable Operational
  Definition of each concept
• 3) Which is the IV, which the DV?
• 4) Propose 2 (likely/possible) Intervening
  Variables
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• Deliverable a written version of the above

3
Correlation Causality

• Correlation
• Two variables are related (as one varies, the
  other varies predictably)
• Causation
• 3 Necessary Sufficient Conditions
• Two variables must be shown to be related
• The IV must precede the DV in Time
• The relationship cannot be due to another
  variable (an Intervening or Confounding
  variable)

4
In-Class Team Exercise 6a - Part I

• First Do as Individuals, then produce a Team
  Version
• 1) Create 2 Hypotheses (One 1-tailed, one
  2-tailed)
• Relate socializing with success in college
• 2) Create a specific, measurable Operational
  Definition of each concept
• 3) Which is the IV, which the DV?
• 4) Can you think of 2 Intervening Variables?
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5
Surveys

• Survey is a General Research Methods
• Questionnaires (opinion polls, market research,
  evaluation research)
• Field research (often qualitative)
• Interviews, Focus Groups (often qualitative)
• Questionnaires
• Self-administered Hard-copy, E-mail
• Self-administered Web-based
• Interview in person
• Interview telephone

6
Types of Questions

• Demographic Questions
• Age, Gender, Race, Income, Education, etc.
• Factual Questions
• Do you own or have your own cell phone?
• Behavior (infrequently, frequently)
• How often do you use a cell phone and drive?
• I use my cell phone while driving.
• Attitudes (agree, disagree)
• Driving while using a cell phone should be
  banned.
• Driving while using a cell phone is dangerous.

7
In-Class Team Exercise 6 - Part II

• First Do as Individuals, then produce a Team
  Version
• Create 3 demographic questions for a survey
• Gender, Age, and Education
• Rules - You should
• Assume this is a self-administered
  questionnaire
• Choose the exact wording you would use
• Design Multiple Choice (not Fill in the
  Blank)
• Assign numbers to each value/level of each
  variable
• Deliverable a written version of the above
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8
Types of Questions

• Demographic Questions
• Age, Gender, Race, Income, Education, etc.
• Factual Questions
• Do you own or have your own cell phone?
• Behavior (infrequently, frequently)
• How often do you use a cell phone and drive?
• I use my cell phone while driving.
• Attitudes (agree, disagree)
• Driving while using a cell phone should be
  banned.
• Driving while using a cell phone is dangerous.

9
Choosing Questions

• 2 Types of Questions
• Open-ended (Fill in the blanks)
• Closed (Multiple Choice Y/N, a,b,c,d,e, 7 pt.
  scales)
• Multiple Choice Questions
• Mutually Exclusive
• Exhaustive
• Scale Questions
• Even / Odd number of values (3 or 4? 5,7 or 6?)
• Total number of values (3-5-7-9 or 4-6-8-10?)
• Label each point on the scale, or use anchors ?

10
Open-ended vs. Closed Questions

• Open-ended Items (Fill in the Blanks)
• Useful for exploratory data collection
• ADV Respondents (Rs) arent led by some list
  of available choices / opinions
• DISADV Requires much more work - to quantify,
  researcher must categorize and code responses
• Closed-ended Items (Multiple Choice)
• Useful when all of the available responses are
  known
• ADV 1) Easier to quantify, and 2) Rs are
  reacting to the same stimulus materials (some
  list of choices)
• DISADV 1) Researcher may miss some important
  reasons/options

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Multiple Choice Items

• The Options (possible values) in MC Items should
  be
• Mutually Exclusive
• Exhaustive
• Consistent
• Linear (follow in a logical order)
• Clear and concise
• Limited in number (so the researcher can make
  sense of them)

12
In-Class Team Exercise 6 - Part III

• Example of a BAD Item
• Which of the following describes your CURRENT
  living situation?
• 1) Married, no kids 5) Divorced
• 2) Married, 1-3 kids at home 6) Divorced, 1-3
  kids at home
• 3) Married, 3 or more kids 7) Divorced, 3 kids
  at home
• at home 8) Unmarried, but have kids
• 4) Unmarried
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• What mistakes make this a bad item?
• How would you fix this problem?
• Deliverable a written answer to a b
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Solution

• Example of a BETTER Item
• Which best describes your CURRENT living
  situation?
• 1) Married, no kids 5) Divorced, 1-3 kids at
  home
• 2) Married, 1-3 kids at home 6) Divorced, more
  than 3 kids at home
• 3) Married, more than 3 kids 7) Unmarried, no
  kids
• at home 8) Unmarried, 1-3 kids at home
• 4) Divorced, no kids 9) Other (Please specify
  ______________ )

14
Solution

• Example of a Better APPROACH
• What is your marital status?
• 1) Single 3) Divorced
• 2) Married 4) Widowed
• How many children do you have? ___ ___
• How many CHILDREN currently live with you? ___
  ___
• How many other ADULTS currently live with you?
  ___ ___

15
Scale Items

• Even / Odd Number of Values
• Even - no midpoint - forces users to choose
• Odd - has a midpoint - allows a neutral
  response
• (I prefer Odd)
• Number of Values
• 3-5-7-9 or 4-6-8-10 point scales
• 3-4 is simple but may not allow discrimination
• 9-10 is usually overkill
• 5-6-7 is usually best
• (I prefer 7)