Chapter 8: Research Design Explained

1. You are now at the Chapter 8 section of the book's student Web site. Here you can
   1. Look over the concept map of the key terms and look at a glossary of the key terms.
   2. Test yourself on the chapter objectives
   3. Test yourself on the key terms.
      • Quick matching test
      • Download more extensive vocabulary tests (Windows program)
   4. Take the Practice Quiz (a short, general quiz over the entire chapter).
      • Take 13-item quizzes over the first part of the chapter.
        • Quiz A
        • Quiz B
      • Take 15-item quizzes over the second part of the chapter.
        • Quiz A
        • Quiz B
      • Take 9-item quizzes over the third part of the chapter.
        • Quiz A
        • Quiz B
   5. Take 8-item quizzes over the fourth part of the chapter.
      • Quiz A
      • Quiz B
   6. Review by looking at the key issues and reading the chapter summary.
2. If you are ready to draft a method section, download this tutorial on writing the method section.
3. If you want to have a better understanding of correlation coefficients, download "The Correlator".
   • Download Windows version
   • Download Macintosh version
4. Use computer tools to evaluate the reliability and construct validity of a questionnaire. To use this program, you should have given several participants your questionnaire, have calculated (a) a total score for each participant on your measure (based on adding up all the answers the participant made to your questionnaire), (b) a score for each participant that is the sum of the participant's responses to the odd-numbered items (1, 3, 5, etc.), (c) a score for each participant that is the sum of the participant's responses to the even-numbered items (2,4, 6, etc.), and (d) a score for each participant on another measure.
   • Windows version 
   • Macintosh version
5. A short (under 3 minutes) video that tells you the basics of writing questions for a survey (from the experts at the Pew Research Center).
6. If you are not sure about sampling and the different types of sampling, read this short, simple brochure.
7. See why sampling bias is a problem.
8. Practice analyzing results from a survey. You can also find out more about how to use multiple regression to analyze survey responses.
9. Use this link to use Excel to draw a random sample from a population.
10. Go through this fun, simple, and informative tutorial about how to make sense of newspaper reports of polls.
11. Read these 13  tips for making sense of election polls from 538's Harry Enten (the first 9 tips are especially valuable)
12. Take a survey (or more)--and possibly learn how to have better control over your spending at this site.
13. Get help (answers and hints) with Chapter 8 exercises.

Chapter 8 exercises

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