Discussion Questions
What essential characteristics distinguish a true experiment from other research designs? What ethical problems do you see in conducting experiments with humans?
“Experiments are studies involving intervention by the researcher beyond that required for measurement. The usual intervention is to manipulate some variable in a setting and observe how it affects the subjects being studied (e.g., people or physical entities). The researcher manipulates the independent or explanatory variable and then observes whether the hypothesized dependent variable is affected by the intervention” (Cooper & Schindler, 2011, p. 208). The text also explains that in other forms of research the researcher has to accept things as they are, and in an experiment the researcher is able to manipulate the variables to see how things are changeable (Cooper & Schindler, 2011).
Ethical problems that I see that conducting research can have are possibility of the human having a bias towards the experiment, or the researcher influencing the person being experimented on. Another ethical problem could be confidentiality of both the researcher and the person being experimented on.
What is survey research? What are the advantages and disadvantages of using surveys to collect data? Describe a research situation where survey research is appropriate and explain why.
Survey research “is a measurement process used to collect information during a highly structured interview—sometimes with a human interviewer and other times without” ” (Cooper & Schindler, 2011, p. 242-243).
Some of the advantages of these surveys are they are relatively quick in conducting each survey and is less expensive than other forms of research.
Some of the disadvantages of these surveys are the error rate of both the researcher and the person being surveyed. Often times the person being surveyed may be in a hurry and not be completely honest when doing the survey. I know I have been guilty when I get a
“Experiments are studies involving intervention by the researcher beyond that required for measurement. The usual intervention is to manipulate some variable in a setting and observe how it affects the subjects being studied (e.g., people or physical entities). The researcher manipulates the independent or explanatory variable and then observes whether the hypothesized dependent variable is affected by the intervention” (Cooper & Schindler, 2011, p. 208). The text also explains that in other forms of research the researcher has to accept things as they are, and in an experiment the researcher is able to manipulate the variables to see how things are changeable (Cooper & Schindler, 2011).
Ethical problems that I see that conducting research can have are possibility of the human having a bias towards the experiment, or the researcher influencing the person being experimented on. Another ethical problem could be confidentiality of both the researcher and the person being experimented on.
What is survey research? What are the advantages and disadvantages of using surveys to collect data? Describe a research situation where survey research is appropriate and explain why.
Survey research “is a measurement process used to collect information during a highly structured interview—sometimes with a human interviewer and other times without” ” (Cooper & Schindler, 2011, p. 242-243).
Some of the advantages of these surveys are they are relatively quick in conducting each survey and is less expensive than other forms of research.
Some of the disadvantages of these surveys are the error rate of both the researcher and the person being surveyed. Often times the person being surveyed may be in a hurry and not be completely honest when doing the survey. I know I have been guilty when I get a
References: Cooper, D. R., & Schindler, P.S. (2011). Business research methods (11th ed.). Retrieved from The University of Phoenix eBook Collection database