Communications Class Exam Study Guide

Topics and questions for the exam

A. The definition of a quantitative content analysis describes it as a “systematic” method of analyzing content. Among other things, systematic means that a set of rules guides the research. What issues do the rules address?

B What does it mean to say that research is replicable?

C.    What does it mean to say that a research method is empirical?

D.   What is the scientific method?

E.    Content analyses can be used both to describe a body of content and to draw inferences related to a body of content. What is the difference between description and inference?

F.    List the requirements for making a causal statement. Know the requirements well enough that you can apply them to an example.

G.    How does a researcher decide whether to offer hypotheses or ask research questions?

H.    What are the three different types of conflicts that occur in groups?

I.      List and briefly define five conflict styles.

J. What are two ways you can tell if an article is peer-reviewed?

K. What are two reasons that researchers conduct literature reviews?

L What is measurement? And what is its relationship to a classification scheme?

M. What’s the difference between a conceptual and operational definition?

N. What is reliability? What is validity? Can you give an example of both? Can a reliable classification system lack validity? Can an unreliable classification system be valid?

O. Classification systems must be mutually exclusive. What’s that mean?

P. Tell me the level of measurement for these 10 variables that are part of the content analyses being conducted in this class (10 points):

a.    An individual’s sexual orientation

b.    An individual’s marital status

c.     The valence (positive, negative, neutral) on an article >-4

d.    Age (of an individual using a dating site)

e.     Products (in advertising)

f.      Type of endorser (celebrity vs. non-celebrity)

g.    Gender of an individual

h.     Race/ethnicitv of an individual

i.      Female body type (as show in advertisements)

j. Cable TV news source (Fox News, MSNBC, CNN)