Instructor Resources
SAGE Journal Articles
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Chapter 1. The Purpose of Research
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Description: The author addresses criticisms of the Popper’s theory of falsifiability and provides responses to each of the criticisms.
Description: The authors examined the degree to which research articles in the field of nursing reflected qualitative, quantitative, or mixed methods. The results of a search for journal articles found that despite an increasing emphasis on mixed methods, its use in research is still relatively small.
Description: The author discusses new and past criticisms of Milgram’s obedience study ranging from the initial concerns about the ethics of the study to more recent concerns about “file drawer issues” and unpublished data that suggested people did not obey the experimenter. Additionally, the author presents a new interpretation of the findings in terms of engaged fellowship rather than obeying an authority.
Chapter 2. Formulating a Research Question
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Description: The authors discuss the importance of the research question as a pivotal part of the research planning process, providing guidance on formulating the question.
Description: The author discusses the importance of proving the null hypothesis in research looking at differences between new and standard treatments.
Chapter 3. Researching and Writing the Literature Review
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Description: The authors conducted a study where undergraduates were exposed to plagiarism identification and proper paraphrasing skills accompanied by feedback, examples, examples and feedback, or no examples or feedback. Participants in all conditions except the no examples or feedback performed better identifying plagiarism and knowledge of plagiarism.
Description: The author discusses how to read a research article and answer questions about the article that can aid in a literature review.
Chapter 4. Quantitative Designs
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Description: The authors conducted an exploratory study examining student success in urban community colleges that used student success courses. They found that the courses allow students to learn about the college, classes, and study skills.
Description: The authors discuss a teaching strategy to help students learn about random assignment using a deck of cards.
Chapter 5. Measurement Errors, Reliability, Validity
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Description: The authors report the results of a study assessing the reliability and validity of the Interpersonal Relationship Resolution Scale (IRRS), which assesses individual perceptions of violations in a relationship that resulted in interpersonal injury and their willingness to forgive such violations. The authors report on a study used to assess various forms of reliability and validity of the scale.
Description: The authors report on seven studies conducted to test the criterion-related validity of the National Police Officer Selection Test (POST), which is a standardized screening test used in the selection of potential police officers. The authors correlated scores from the POST to a variety of scores obtained during police officer training and work performance.
Chapter 6. Sampling
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Description: The author examines the usefulness of snowball samples to reach subpopulations through social networking sites. The author finds that this sampling method while disproportionately female, young, educated, and actively religious, produced similar results to national polls.
Description: The authors conducted three experiments to test whether instructions about confidentiality increase participant’s disclosure. Across the three studies, disclosure of confidentiality increased as requirements of confidentiality increased, suggesting that disclosure of confidential details and information may be a problem for subject pools.
Chapter 7. Data Collection for Quantitative Research
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Description: The author conducted interviews with Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) around the country to assess how IRBs make decisions and the conflicts they feel in altering scientific proposals. It discusses IRB concerns about maximizing benefits of a study, good enough versus perfect studies, and concerns about altering studies approved by other agencies.
Description: The author describes a classroom demonstration to help students understand what a quasi-experimental study is. By using the difference between students who attend and those who do not, the author illustrates how this self-selecting sample can undermine causality and create questions for any research findings.
Chapter 8. Secondary Data
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Description: The authors discuss the analyses that have been performed in the past on a large national secondary data set. They review what has been done before with the goal of providing insight into what other researchers could do with the data.
Description: The authors discuss some pitfalls of secondary data analysis in sociology and its contribution to a decrease in community research and a loss of research skills in community research.
Chapter 9. Entering and Organizing Quantitative Data
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Description: The author discusses issues related to missing data in research. The author focuses on the types of missing data that exists, what leads to missing data, statistical issues that arise from missing data, and choices that a researcher must make to deal with missing data. The author concludes that social sciences often choose methods that are more prone to bias and error and provides guidelines for better handling of missing data.
Description: The authors discuss the advantages and disadvantages of R as a statistical package for analyzing data. Advantages include its ability to conduct multiple types of analyses used in the behavioral sciences, cost, continual updates, and ability to create visual graphs. Disadvantages include limited supporting documentation, programming language, and handling missing data. The authors conclude that R is a viable alternative with growing popularity.
Chapter 10. Analyzing Quantitative Data
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Description: The author discusses the common measures used in salary research and how to interpret them appropriately.
Description: The authors discuss the effects of how researchers handle outliers on the subsequent analyses they conduct and offer guidelines on how to handle outliers in data.
Chapter 11. Qualitative Designs And Data Collection: Understanding What Behavior Means In Context
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Description: The authors conducted a study of graduate assistants in which they were asked about stressors they experienced and analyzed measures of stress related to a variety of stressors. They found that graduate students who reported specific types of stress scored higher on quantitative measures of those stressors. They suggest that using both qualitative and quantitative methods for assessing stress may be better than using one method only.
Description: The authors conducted a study examining the perception that individuals had of ADHD and the barriers to its use based on these perceptions using Ethnograph qualitative software.
Chapter 12. Entering, Coding, and Analyzing Qualitative Data
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Description: The author discusses the role of transcription in qualitative research and reviews its use in research over the last two decades.
Description: The author uses qualitative research to develop a grounded theory test of themes identified by women diagnosed with gynecological cancer.
Chapter 13. Results and Discussion
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Description: The author discusses the results of a survey of faculty regarding the APA writing skills of students. The author asked beliefs about the importance of 73 writing skills and the performance of students on these skills. The results of the survey found that there is a gap between specific skills that are rated as highly important and student performance on those skills.
Description: The author presents a review on how to construct tables and graphs of crime trends that can be used by researchers and the public to understand crime trends.
Chapter 14. Presenting Your Research
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Description: The author discusses the results of a survey of faculty regarding the APA writing skills of students. The author asked beliefs about the importance of 73 writing skills and the performance of students on these skills. The results of the survey found that there is a gap between specific skills that are rated as highly important and student performance on those skills.
Description: The authors discuss the longevity of the Great Lakes Regional Counseling Psychology Conference and the importance of regional conferences.