intro paper

intro paper intro paper DESCRIPTIVE RESEARCH QUESTIONS AND DESIGNS Descriptive research is used to answer descriptive research questions: What is happening? How is something happening? Why is something happening? Examples: What is the average age at which children learn to walk? What is the association between birth order and social skills? How does self esteem differ among adolescents who differ in the timing of their puberty? Why does school climate influence student achievement? Descriptive research designs include the following: 1. Simple descriptive data are collected to describe researcher administers a survey to a random sample of autistic children in order to describe the characteristics of the population of autistic children Ex1: What percent of children are autistic? Ex2: Given the spectrum of disorders within autism, what is the range of functioning? 2. Comparative descriptive describes two or more groups for comparison researcher administers a depression inventory to popular, rejected, and neglected students Ex1: What are the depression levels of popular vs. rejected, vs. neglected students? Ex2: What is the percentage of male vs. female students who are popular? Ex3: What is the percentage of males vs. females who are depressed? Hint: It may help to think about different levels/categories of your topic and/or different subject variables. 3. Correlational describe the statistical association between two or more variables researcher measures the student-teacher ratio in each classroom in a school district and measures the average student achievement on the state assessment in each of these same classrooms. Next the researcher uses statistical techniques to measure whether the student-teacher ratio and student achievement in the school district are connected numerically; for example, when the student-teacher ratio changes in value, so does student achievement. Note: the researcher did not manipulate the student-teacher ratio, they simply measured/captured a pre-existing value. Ex1: What is the relationship between severity of autism and others’ helping behaviors (the more sever the autism the more or less others help you)? Ex2: What is the relationship between GPA and degree of popularity? EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH QUESTIONS AND DESIGNS Experimental research is used to answer causal research questions: Does something cause an effect? For example, does a low student-teacher ratio cause higher student achievement? The easiest