Ninth Edition CoverGraziano & Raulin
Research Methods (9th edition)

Chapter 6 Fill-in-the-Blank Questions
Field Research
Naturalistic and Case-Study Research

Now that you have familiarity with the new key terms of this chapter, it is time to begin using the terms in the context of the chapter material. See if you can fill-in-the-blanks in the following discussions. To get the correct answer, click on the blank.

  1. The term ________ ________ applies to a group of methods that range from ________ to _______ constraint. They all focus on observing ________ ________ behavior under ________ conditions--that is, observing ________ in the field. Lower constraint research methods allow us to observe the behavior of participants in a flexible way, thus allowing us greater freedom to pursue questions raised by our observations. __________ research is carried out in the participant's natural environment. The focus is usually on the natural flow of behavior of the participants. __________-__________ research is somewhat more constrained in that the researcher does interact with the participant and will manipulate the environment in order to create situations for the participant to respond to. In the low-constraint research methods, the controls are mostly on the __________. As we move along the continuum of constraint, the constraints are placed more and more on the __________ in order to specify and delimit the behavior to be observed.

  2. Naturalistic research can come in many forms. Charles Darwin's research, which eventually lead to his theory of __________-__________, involved the naturalistic observation of animals, plants, and geological formations during a five-year voyage. The behavior of animals has been studied in natural settings in attempts to understand the nature of these beings. Studying animals in their natural environment is called ________. Jane Goodall's studies of the __________  have given us a new appreciation for the sophisticated social development of these animals. But, naturalistic research can also be used to study human behavior. Adeline Levine studied the reactions of residents of the __________-__________ neighborhood--a neighborhood that was seriously threatened by the presence of toxic wastes. __________ investigated the patient's experience of being admitted to a mental hospital by having confederates feign a mental disturbance and observe the reaction that hospital staff had to them. Finally, Phillip Davis's observations of corporal punishment of children in public settings is another example of ________ ________. All of these investigations used naturalistic observation techniques to illuminate new areas of study.

  3. In case-study research, the focus is often on the intensive study of one participant. __________ used case-study methods to study the relationship of developmental experiences to later psychopathology. On the basis of his observations, he formulated his psychoanalytic theory. Piaget studied the __________ of children, again formulating a very persuasive theory on the basis of his observations. E. L. Whitmer used ________ ________ research to study ________ with learning problems. Finally, Katherine Phillips's investigations of ________ ________ ________ relied extensively on case-study methodology to formulate hypotheses about this puzzling disorder.

  4. Low-constraint research is useful for studying many kinds of problems. It is certainly appropriate when the researcher is interested in the natural __________- __________-__________ in natural settings. It is useful when the research area is __________ and unexplored. It can demonstrate the feasibility of new research or treatment techniques. It is also an appropriate technique to use when one is interested in the behavior of a __________ participant and does not want to generalize the findings to a larger population. One of the more overlooked uses for low-constraint research is the contribution that it can make to the __________ of research findings. It is often useful to verify that results obtained from laboratory studies are also observed in natural settings.

  5. Low-constraint research can provide us with useful information, but it is important to appreciate the limits of the methods. First, naturalistic and case-study methods can provide us with new __________ information. This information can form the basis for later __________. Evidence from low-constraint research can be used to __________ a general proposition, although it cannot be used to __________ a general proposition. Low-constraint research can establish the existence of certain kinds of relationships among variables. For example, it can establish the existence of __________ among variables such as; "given that X occurs, then Y is very probable."

  6. The inferences we are able to make with confidence will vary depending on the level of constraint. At the highest constraint level (experimental research), the research hypotheses focus on __________ questions. At the __________ level of constraint, the research hypotheses are focused on differences between groups. At the correlational level, the hypotheses are focused on the __________ and strength of a __________ between two or more variables. Finally, at the naturalistic and case-study levels of constraint, the research hypotheses are focused on identifying __________. It is important to realize that __________ inferences cannot be drawn on the basis of the observed contingencies between variables obtained from low-constraint research.

  7. In naturalistic and case-study research, there are two ways in which a researcher can make observations. As a(n) __________ observer, the researcher would seek to be invisible to the participants, not responding in any way to the participants' actions. As a(n) __________ observer, the researcher becomes a part of the environment that he or she is observing. Being a(n) __________ observer has the advantage of allowing the observer to manipulate his or her behavior to create interesting situations. Making the researcher less obtrusive to participants can reduce __________-__________. Other approaches have been used to make the observation less obtrusive. __________ measures are measures that are not obvious to the people being observed and, therefore, are less likely to affect their behavior. One type of unobtrusive measure is the __________- __________, which is an already existing data set such as the census data. Using unobtrusive measures raises the ethical issue of __________- __________. In order to justify such measures the researcher needs to show that: (1) __________ measures would not work, (2) significant information will be gained from the study, and (3) no significant __________ of harm or embarrassment to the participants exists.

  8. Although sampling issues are most relevant in higher constraint research, three sampling issues must be considered in low-constraint research: sampling of _________, sampling of __________, and sampling of __________. The issue in sampling of participants is the concept of __________ and its relationship to generalizability. We __________ the findings when we assume that what we observed in the sample of participants would also be observed in other groups of participants from the population. However, we cannot safely generalize the findings if the sample is not __________ of the population. The issue of representativeness also applies to the sampling of __________. In low-constraint research, when we are often not sure what behaviors to expect from participants, it is especially important to sample behavior from as many different situations as possible. For example, if we were studying animals in the wild, we would want to observe behavior in many different settings, at different times of day, and during different seasons in order to develop an understanding of how these variables might affect behavior. Finally, it is important to take an adequate sample of __________. If a researcher relies on only a single observation of a participant's behavior, the researcher might conclude that this is the way the participant always behaves, when, in fact, the participant's behavior may actually show considerable variability.

  9. In low-constraint research, the analysis of the data often involves __________ the observations to permit the researcher to count the frequency of certain categories of behavior.

  10. Although low-constraint research is useful, it does have its limitations. One limitation is poor __________, which can severely limit the generalizability of the results. Another limitation is poor __________, which can result from the use of flexible observation procedures that make it difficult to repeat the procedures exactly. One of the biggest limitations is that low-constraint procedures are not powerful enough to allow strong inferences to be drawn from the data. Drawing a __________ inference from simple observed contingencies between variables is an example of a logical error known as the __________-__________-__________ fallacy. Finally, it is important to realize the limitations of the observer in low-constraint research. Because of the flexible way in which observations are made in low-constraint research, it is very easy for experimenter __________ or experimenter bias to affect the quality of the data. Finally, it is often tempting to __________ data from low-constraint research, drawing conclusions that are not justified. All of these limitations must be appreciated by the researcher if low-constraint research methods are to be an effective and useful tool in scientific research.