History & Research Research Methods Unit 1 / Learning Goal 2

III. Research Methods “What was the last big purchase that you made?”

 1) Did you shop around?  2) Did you talk to other people who had bought something similar?  3) Did you go with a “trusted” brand?

Purpose  These opening questions serve a purpose grounded in research  Once you have your research question (i.e., in the class example you are making a big purchase)

Research Begins!

Research  you seek out more information (i.e., shopping around)  you review previous research and engage in peer discussions (i.e., talking with others who have bought something similar)

 use appropriate scientific methods, like correlations, experimental designs, case studies (i.e., using the trusted brands). Research continued

Great Work, but hold up We should discuss: Statistical Significance Statistical statement of how likely it is that a study’s result occurred merely by chance

Statistics are affected by: Population In research, a population is the set of objects to be studied.

Statistics are also affected by: Sample  A sample is a subset of a population selected to represent and draw inferences about that population.  It is a research technique widely used in the social sciences as a way to gather information about a population without having to measure the entire population.

Now, back to Statistics 2 main types Descriptive vs. Inferential Statistics

Descriptive  Descriptive statistics includes statistical procedures that we use to describe the population we are studying  The data could be collected from either a sample or a population, but the results help us organize and describe data

Descriptive  Descriptive statistics can only be used to describe the group that is being studying.  That is, the results cannot be generalized to any larger group.

Inferential  Inferential statistics is concerned with making predictions or inferences about a population from observations and analyses of a sample.  That is, we can take the results of an analysis using a sample and can generalize it to the larger population that the sample represents.

Inferential  In order to do this, however, it is imperative that the sample is representative of the group to which it is being generalized.

Standard Deviation