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

Chapter 13 Essay Questions
A Second Look at Field Research:
Field Experiments, Program Evaluation,
and Survey Research

  1. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of conducting experiments in field settings.

  2. Define two types of quasi-experimental designs. Describe the characteristics of each. Give at least one example where each design would be appropriate for testing a causal hypothesis.

  3. Describe the process of program evaluation. What problems are faced by a program evaluator that are unlikely to be faced by a laboratory researcher?

  4. Under what conditions can the interrupted time series design be used. 

  5. What are two major problems when non-equivalent groups are compared?

  6. Explain why naturalistic research (see Chapter 6) cannot answer questions of causality.

  7. Naturalistic research is the focus in Chapter 6, and higher-constraint research in naturalistic (field) settings is the focus in this chapter. How do the research designs discussed in Chapter 6 and those discussed here differ?

  8. Why would we want to conduct experiments in field settings?

  9. What is the importance of program evaluation?

  10. What are the major difficulties in doing program evaluation?

  11. You are the teaching assistant in this course, and you have to explain to the class that there are important tradeoffs in doing highly controlled experimental research in the laboratory, rather than doing research in field settings. What are the trade-offs? 

  12. Survey research is one of the fastest growing areas of research in the social sciences. What are the strengths and weaknesses of this research procedure? What specific issues must be addressed by the researcher in any successful survey?