1. Content: Refers to whether a test or measure adequately samples or captures relevant material.
2. Criterion: the degree to which a test correlates with some concrete criteria in the real world
3. Construct: refers to the extent an instrument or test measures what it is supposed to measure (most relevant)
4. Internal: rule out other possible explanations for correlation between X and Y; Internal validity is concerned with the logic of the relationship between
the IV and DV
5. External: External validity refers to the extent that a causal relationship holds across variations in persons, settings, treatments, and outcomes (generalizability).
It concerns whether the relationship between X and Y can be replicated across a wide range of groups and situation
Social Psychology
10th EditionElliot Aronson, Robin M. Akert, Samuel R. Sommers, Timothy D. Wilson
525 solutions
Myers' Psychology for AP
2nd EditionDavid G Myers
900 solutions
Myers' Psychology for the AP Course
3rd EditionC. Nathan DeWall, David G Myers
955 solutions
Experience Psychology
4th EditionLaura King
320 solutions
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Terms in this set (26)
Causation
Question of cause and effect, explain why things are the way they are, some things are caused by other things, foundation of explanatory research, why is something occurring
Criteria for Causality
1. There is
a causal relationship between two variables when the cause precedes the effect in time
2. There is a causal relationship when the two variables are empirically correlated with each other, they occur together
3. There is a causal relationship when the observed empirical correlation between the two variables can't be explained by any other influences or third variable
Necessary Cause
Condition that must be present for the effect to follow
EX: It is necessary to be charged with a crime if you are to be convicted
Sufficient Cause
Condition that more or less guarantees an effect
EX: Pleading guilty to a crime is sufficient cause for being convicted. You could also be convicted by going to trial, but pleading guilty is also a sufficient cause for being convicted
Most causal relationships are probabilistic and partial, able to partly explain cause and effect in some percentage of cases we observe
Validity Threats
Reasons we might be incorrect in stating some cause produced some effect
1. Statistical conclusion validity
2. Internal validity
3. Construct validity
4. External validity
Statistical Conclusion Validity
Our ability to determine whether a change in the suspected cause is statistically associated with a change in the suspected effects, basing conclusions on a small sample size is a common threat to statistical conclusion validity, statistically significant
Construct Validity
Concerned with how well an observed relationship between variables represents the underlying causal process, generalizing from what we observe and measure to the real world things in which we are interested
EX: Is what you are observing and measuring really what is critical to the process you are studying, police supervision, is it just a matter of keeping officers in view or are there other ways of supervising that have not been observed or measured that will affect the outcome of study
External Validity
Concerned with whether research findings from one study can be reproduced in another study, are separate findings similar, often under different conditions, in federally funded research projects or evaluation projects this is a great concern, programs that can be replicated with equal success are considered best practices and have exceptional external validity
Internal Validity
Challenge causal statements that are based on some observed relationship, an observed association between two variables has internal validity if the relationship is causal and not due to the effects of one or more other variables, 3rd requirement for causality, occurs when some other variable is responsible for observed effect
Units of Analysis
Who or what is studied, appropriate unit of analysis for a given project is not always clear, often up for debate, lack of clarity about units of analysis in CJ results in part from difficulties in directly measuring the concepts we want to study, importance of specific and clear goals and objectives
1. Individuals
2. Groups
3. Organizations
4. Social Artifacts
Individuals
Social science suggests that scientific findings are most valuable when they apply to all kinds of people, CJ research focuses on specific people because of characteristics or memberships that they have (gang members*, victims, police officers), descriptive studies that have individuals as their units of analysis typically aim to describe the population that comprises those individuals
EX: Probationers, burglars
Groups
Social groups (juvenile gangs, police beats, cities, households), if we want to know why teenagers join gangs the teenager (individual) is the unit of analysis, if we want to compare gangs who deal drugs to gangs that steal cars the gang (group) is the unit of analysis
EX: Study police beats to determine if those containing schools report more drug incidents, cities
Organizations
Social or political organizations (correctional facilities, police departments, probation departments, victim service agencies)
EX: Studying federal prisons vs. state prisons to determine types of crime in each, comparing victim service agencies to determine which agency has better service provision to sexual assault victims, states
Social Artifacts
Product of social beings and their behavior, critical to action research, require information about individuals but there recorded social interaction between people is the unit of analysis
EX: Newspaper articles, police reports, criminal histories, meeting minutes, court cases, files, fatal crash incident reports
Combining Units of Analysis
Community policing evaluation:
- How do citizens feel about their community police officers? (individual)
- Did arrests increase in police beats with CP officers? (group)
- Do police departments that implement community policing have larger budgets
than those that don't? (organization)
Concerns about Units of Analysis
Ecological fallacy, individualistic fallacy, reductionism
Ecological Fallacy
Danger of making assertions about individuals as the unit of analysis based on the examination of groups or other aggregations
EX: Can't study robberies by police precinct and then use results to draw conclusions about individual residents or people who were in the precinct at the time of the robbery
Individualistic Fallacy
Opposite of ^, making assertions about the whole based on findings about an individual
EX: Media reports tourist attacked in NY does not mean that all tourists are in danger in NY, media messages may distort how people initially approach research problems in CJ
Reductionism
Overly strict limitation on the kinds of concepts and variables to be considered as causes in explaining the broad range of human behavior represented by crime and CJ policy, suggests particular units of analysis are more relevant than others, can lead to choosing inappropriate units of analysis
EX: Economists will consider only economic variables, sociologists will consider only sociological variables, economic reductionism, psychological reductionism
The Time Dimension
Time order is a requirement for causal inferences so the time dimension of a design requires careful planning
1. Cross-Sectional Studies
2. Longitudinal Studies
3. Retrospective Studies
4. Prospective Studies
Cross-Sectional Studies
Examining a cross section at one time, exploratory and descriptive studies are often cross-sectional, aim is to understand causal processes that occur over time, but their conclusions are based on observations made at only one time, don't know what happened before or after
EX: US Census or a community survey
Longitudinal Studies
Observations over a long period of time, three types:
1. Trend- Looks at changes
within some general population over time (UCR data)
2. Cohort- Examines more specific populations (cohorts) as they change over time (age group or groups of people that start or end something at the same time)
3. Panel- Observations are made on the same set of people on two or more occasions
EX: NCVS, once chosen for the sample the household stays in the sample set for three years and is questioned every six months
Problems: Costly, long time to complete, difficult to implement and maintain, panel attrition
Retrospective Studies
Asks about the past, another way of approximating observations over time
EX: Analyzing offenders' criminal histories, what percentage of abuse victims have parents who were abused?
Problems: Surveys- people forget or lie, data- records may be unavailable, incomplete, or inaccurate
Prospective Studies
Requires an examination or approximation of the future
EX: What percentage of abuse victims later abuse their children?
Retrospective vs. Prospective
Commonly done in applied research, specifically evaluation studies, goal is to analyze/measure what occurred prior to a program/policy change and then analyze/measure the same thing again after the program/policy implementation in order to show change
Research Design
Defining your problem (conceptualization), identifying units of analysis, identifying time dimensions, choosing a research method (surveys, interviews, observation, data analysis)
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