types of social research ppt

Guide to Research Methods

About the guide

This guide will

• Introduce you to a range of research methods
• Help you think about the value and limitations of different research methods
• Identify when to use alternative research methods

You should use the guide

• After or while you establish your research questions (See the Guide to Research Questions )
• When you are completing your Research Design Framework
• When you are thinking about who you want to talk to and why (See the Guide to Sampling )

You should print or read this guide

These slides are set up so that they can be printed back to back (two/four sided) to give:

• A short hand overview about when to use each method
• A summary of the method, what it’s good for and limitations (linking to other slides in this pack)

Choosing research methods

When you need to think about which method is best in theory and in practice

Choosing Research Methods

Providing a rationale for the methods you choose to use and how you employ them.

• What are your research goals? If you are looking to influence experts or policy makers, quantitative approaches will add weight to your findings. If you are looking to understand problems, inform innovation or develop a prototype, look at qualitative methods or user research
• What are your research questions? If they begin with ‘explore’ or ‘what’ look at qualitative methods (talking). If they begin with ‘identify’ or ‘why’ look at quantitative (see guide to research questions )
• What research traditions exist? You may choose to follow or challenge them. Think about whether you want your research to be noted for its quality and robustness or creative approach and unique insights
• What are your/your teams skills? You may not be an expert in the most appropriate method so consider asking for other team members or commissioning out research
• Who are you research participants? Think about your relationship to participants (especially if you are doing qualitative research) and how they will respond to you and the method. Consider if they are often consulted or surveyed and whether if could be helpful or unhelpful to stick with their comfort zone or not.

Using online tools

When you need to decide which tools to use for research

What to think about when choosing a tool to conduct research

• What’s the cost to the research quality ? Most tools are ‘freemium’, use a basic version for free. BUT these are designed to annoy you to pay to do good research. Consider privacy settings, data access, storage and value for money. Survey tools will have no option to filter participants (if yes/no answer this q), a 10Q limit, no branding. Mapping/visualisations are published online and open source tools aren’t always user friendly
• Start with user needs, understand the context and think about everyone. Consider what technology they have, how they will access the tool and what they need to do this. Do they have internet, data, time?
• Be creative: Online tools may not be designed for research, but Google Forms, Trello, Workflowy and Slack are all valuable collaboration tools. Twitter and Facebook polls may increase participation in research. However, think about what they are missing, what they can’t do and pilot your analysis approach first
• See what’s out there: This online sheet of Applied Social Research Guides and Resources includes a list of online tools for research and evaluation to test. Those widely used for your research method or sector are likely to be the best starting point. Some tools allow you to do research (see Tags for Twitter data capture), analyse it or present it in new ways (see Raw Graph s for data visualisation)

Contents: Methods summary

• Structured Interviews : When you want to gain a broad range of perspectives about specific questions
• Semi-Structured Interviews : When you want to gain in-depth insights about broad questions
• Unstructured Interviews : When you want to gain in-depth insights about a complex research topics
• Telephone Interviews : A tool for when you want to interview people quickly and easily
• Guerilla Interviews : When you want to carry out user research or explore general perspectives quickly
• Contextual Interviews : When you want to understand actions and particular experiences indepth and in context
• Focus Groups : When you want to understand shared experiences and different perspectives
• Participant Observation : When you want to ‘learn by doing’ or observe social interactions and behaviour
• Ethnography : When you want to experience social practices, interactions and behaviour with minimal influence
• Surveys: When you want to generate numerical data about the scale of people’s opinions and feelings
• Mixed Methods: When one method cannot fully answer your main research question
• User Research : When you want to learn about the behaviours and motivations of your target audience
• Service Design Research : When you want to design a service to meet people’s needs.
• Content Analysis : When you want to understand public discourse through secondary or online data
• Workshops : When you want to engage stakeholders in research, generate ideas or codesign solutions
• Usability tests : When you want to test prototypes or learn about problems with an existing service

Find out more

How to do good…

• Applied social research: A curated online sheet of Applied Social Research Guides and Resources
• Surveys : Guide to creating questions here and here , build on existing data/questions , analysis guide
• Interviews : A nice overview here which includes how to structure an interview
• User research : The GDS for intro guides and DisAmbiguity blog
• Service design: This is Service Design Doing has great tools and formats for workshops

Inspiration for emerging research methods and creative formats for research

• Ethnography and mixed methods presented well: Ikea At Home Report
• User mapping techniques as a social research method NPC Report
• User Research to understand domestic abuse experiences and the potential for technology Tech Vs Abuse
• Using Twitter data for social research Demos
• Data visualisation as a tool for research communication - Nesta data visualisation and Women’s Aid Map
• Data journalism and data storytelling - Guardian reading the riots
• An online games to shift perspective on a social problem - Financial Times Uber Story
• Content analysis to map trends - Nesta analysed creative skills in job adverts
• Issue mapping online - networks of websites and people on Twitter - Warwick University Issue Mapping

Structured Interviews

When you want to gain a broad range of perspectives about specific questions

Also consider

Semi-structured interviews

A conversation with a set structure (a script of fixed questions) and specific purpose. Can be a method to undertake a survey or called a ‘directed’ interview.

• Asking standardised questions across many participants makes data easier to analyse and compare
• Giving participants a clear guide about what you want to learn from them
• Topics that would be too complex to capture in a questionnaire tick box/short response
• Respondents with limited time, who want to consider responses in advance or do not want to write
• The quality of the interview is less dependent on the interviewer and their rapport with the interviewee

Limitations (and how to avoid or what to consider instead)

• The structure prevents participants from bringing in other ideas (consider semi-structured interviews )
• Whilst quicker to conduct and analyse than semi-structured interviews, they are still resource intensive and only possible to do with limited numbers of people (consider questionnaires online - see surveys )

Semi-Structured Interviews

When you want to gain in-depth insights about broad questions

Participant Observation

User research

Focus groups

Semi-Structured interviews

Conversation with a structure (set of open questions) and clear purpose. Also called directed interviews.

• Exploring a range of perspectives on research questions, engaging experts and getting buy-in to research
• Gaining in-depth insights about how people feel or interpret complex issues
• Topics which are sensitive, difficult to express in writing or to articulate views about in a survey
• Allowing participants to respond in their words, framing what they see as important

Limitations

• Quality can depend on interviewer skills and put people on the spot (consider setting topics in advance)
• The set-up affects the quality of engagement and discussion (consider location, relationship with the interviewee and whether you should do a face to face or Telephone/Online interview )
• Time consuming to do, analyse and compare (consider Structured Interviews or Focus groups )
• Can lack validity as evidence (consider Surveys )
• Explore what people say, think and remember, not what they actually do (consider Participant Observation contextual interviews or User Research ) or shared perspectives (consider Focus groups )
• Easy to provide too much structure and prevent open exploration of a topic (see unstructured interviews )

Unstructured Interviews

When you want to gain in-depth insights about a complex research topics

Contextual interviews

Unstructured interviews

A loosely structured open conversation guided by research topics (also called non-directed interviews)

• Very exploratory research and broad research questions
• Letting the participant guide the interview according to their priorities and views
• In-depth and broad discussion about a person's expertise, experiences and opinions
• Participant can feel like the they are not saying the ‘right’ thing (explain technique and rationale well)
• Whilst useful for expert interviews, an unstructured approach can give the impression that the interviewer is unprepared, lacks knowledge or the research purpose is unclear (consider semi-structured interviews )
• Interviews are longer, resource intensive and only smaller numbers are possible (consider focus groups )
• Generates in-depth insights that are difficult to analyse and compare
• A lack of structure can encourage participants to focus in-depth on one thing they are positive about or know very well in-depth (consider using desk research to inform the interview topics)

Guerilla Interviews

When you want to carry out user research or explore general perspectives quickly and easily

An ‘impromptu’ approach to interviewing, often talking to real people on the street or at a key site

• Gaining immediate responses to a tool or design and insights into a problem
• Informal method means participants can be more relaxed and open
• Speaking to a lot of people, simply, quickly and cheaply about one key question
• User research and user experience of interacting with digital products
• Speaking to people for convenience (users are available in a single place and time) introduces sample bias (but you can add more targeting and profiling of participants, see the Guide to Sampling )
• The lack of formal structure can mean that you miss important questions or insights
• Findings are often unreliable and not generalisable because they rely on a single type of user
• Difficult to understand complexity or gain contextual insights

Telephone / online interviews

A tool for when you want to interview people quickly and easily

Telephone or Online interviews

A tool to conduct an interview (it is not a method in itself) which is not in person/ face to face

• Conducting interviews without the costs of travel and meeting time (often shorter)
• Expert and stakeholder interviews, when you already know the participant well or they are short of time
• Taking notes and looking up information whilst interviewing is less disruptive than in person, easy to record
• Sending informed consent information and interview questions in advance
• Can be difficult to undertake an engaging interview (hard to build rapport on the phone)
• Often need to be shorter and put alongside other meetings

What method are you using?

• Structured interviews : When you want to gain a broad range of perspectives about specific questions
• Semi-structured interviews : When you want to gain in-depth insights about broad questions
• Unstructured interviews : When you want to gain in-depth insights about a complex research topics

Further guides to Interviews : A nice overview here , including how to structure an interview

Contextual Interview

When you want to understand actions and particular experiences in-depth and in context

Ethnography

Interviews conducted with people in a situational context relevant to the research question; also known as contextual inquiry.

• Understanding what happens, experiences and emotions whilst interacting with a tool, service or event.
• Easier for research participants to show rather than explain, participants are active and engaged
• Uncover what happens, what people do, how they behave in the moment, rather than how they remember this and give meaning to these responses later.
• Open and flexible method giving depth of insights about a tool or specific interaction
• Time and resource intensive for the researcher
• Each context is unique - making it difficult to generalise from or to answer broader research questions about experiences (consider semi-structured interviews )
• The researcher influences the interactions and events (consider ethnography or participant observation )

When you want to understand shared experiences and different perspectives

Focus Groups

An organised discussion with a group of participants, led by a facilitator around a few key topics

• Gaining several perspectives about the same topic quickly
• Research contexts and topics where familiarity between participants can generate discussion about similar experiences (or different ones) which may not arise in a one to one interview
• When attitudes, feelings and beliefs are more likely to be revealed in social gathering and interactions
• Including tasks and creative methods to elicit views (e.g. shared ranking of importance of statements)
• Difficult to identify the individual view from the group view (consider semi-structured interviews )
• Group dynamics will affect the conversation focus and participation levels of different members
• The role of the moderator is very significant. Good levels of group leadership and interpersonal skill are required to moderate a group successfully.
• The group set-up is an ‘artificial’ social setting and discussion (consider Participant Observation )

Participant observation

When you want to ‘learn by doing’ and observe social interactions and behaviour

Participant observation/ shadowing

The researcher immerses themselves in lives of participants as an ‘observer’ of their behaviours, practices and interactions. A type of ethnography. The people being observed know about the research.

• Understanding everyday behaviours, interactions and practice in the context that they occur
• Gaining an intuitive understanding of what happens in practice and what this means for those involved
• Allowing research participants to show you what they do, when they can’t describe and remember this well
• Establishing topics for further investigation through more structured or focused research methods
• If explicit (shadowing for example) the research situation is still ‘artificial’
• Your audience may not respect it and can be difficult to generalise from (consider mixed methods)
• The quality of the data is dependent on the researchers’ skills and relationships with participants

When you want to experience social practices, interactions and behaviour with minimal influence on what happens

The systematic study of a group of people or cultures to understand behaviours and interactions. The researcher becomes an ‘insider’. It is a way of presenting research findings, as well as a method, which can include participant observation, document analysis and visual methods.

• When you need to be an ‘insider’ to fully access the research context (such as organisational cultures)
• Presenting how everyday behaviours, interactions and practice occur in context
• Gaining an in-depth knowledge of your research context, participants and social relationships
• When little is known about a research context or topic
• If covert (at a conference or workplace for example) it has implications for informed consent
• If explicit (shadowing for example) the researcher’s presence can affect the interactions and findings

Example use case : Ikea At Home research study to understand how people feel about their home

When you want to generate numerical data about the scale of people’s opinions and feelings

Mixed Methods

A process of systematically collecting information from a large number of different people. Responses are summarised as statistics (online surveys automate this analysis for you).

• Targeting specific types of research participant and providing data about their views
• If designed well, they can be quick, simple and non intrusive for research participants
• Findings can have more credibility than other methods because of their breadth
• Describing, measuring and understanding (a basic questionnaire)
• Statistical analysis, modelling cause and effect (large scale survey designed to represent the population)
• Can raise more questions about what happens and why, lack depth of insight (consider mixed methods )
• Hard to design well and require a lot of time upfront and data skills to analyse the results
• Low completion rates and people feel ‘over surveyed’ (consider incentives )
• Assumes people will be honest and sufficiently aware of the research context to provide credible answers.

Further information: A great guide to creating questions here and here , build on existing data/questions here

When one research method cannot fully answer your main research question

Mixed methods

Combining different methods to answer your research questions, can be a mix of quantitative or qualitative methods or both. It may mean working with different types of data, research designs or being part of a research team (covering different research disciplines)

• Overcoming the limitation of relying on a single research method or approach
• Triangulating findings (i.e. using an additional method) can give them more validity
• Accessing different types of research participants
• A more holistic understanding about how, why and the extent to which something happens
• Answering different types of research questions about frequency and perceptions
• Giving findings more validity and influence because of the range of data and insights
• Requires a broader range of skills and more time to deliver, analyse and report on
• Research design must have strong sequencing (when each method is used and analysed , why) to make the most of a mixed methods approach - not always possible in a tight timescale or short research project

User Research

When you want to learn about people’s needs, behaviours and motivations for using a service

Service Design

S emi-Structured Interviews

Usability testing

A research approach employed to understand users and their needs, motivations and behaviours, primarily to inform service design.

• User-centered design processes which look to ensure services meet the needs of their audience
• Gaining specific insights into how a person interacts with a digital tool or service
• Exploring general needs, behaviours and motivations for a specific target group using a range of services
• Focus on a tool or service can prevent wider analysis, relevance and applicability
• Research can lack credibility due to small numbers, set up, documentation (often highly specific focus)
• Can overlook those who do not use a service for a whole range of reasons

What method?

• User research involves any method which looks at who users are, the problems they face, what they are trying to do and how they use existing services. This can create user personas, user journeys and user experience maps. It largely includes qualitative research methods.

When you want to design a service to meet people’s needs, including planning, organising, infrastructure, communication and components)

A research approach employed in the activity of planning and organising of people, infrastructure, communication and material components of a service, in order to improve quality and interaction.

• Gaining a holistic picture of all components (infrastructure, people, organisations, culture) affecting how a person interacts with a service
• Service design often begins with user research but participants in research include all those involved in delivering (not just using) a service, such as employees and stakeholders in an organisation as well as looking at the context and system which affect how a service works and its effectiveness

Content analysis

When you want to understand public discourse through secondary or online data

A systematic process of classifying and interpreting documents, text or images to analyse key discourses (their meaning) or to quantify patterns (such as word frequencies). This can be done manually or it can be automated.

• Exploring the focus of messages, text or imagery and change over time
• Secondary data sources, such as archives, online social media data (such as Tweets) and news articles
• Gaining a qualitative or quantitative insights about key messages
• Focuses on public and documented interpretations of events and experiences
• Documents are not exhaustive and not all are accessible (or available online/freely)
• Qualitative coding is time intensive to manually classify, reliant on researcher interpretation
• Automated coding for key words can miss nuances and difficult to produce meaningful findings

When you want to engage stakeholders in research, generate ideas or codesign solutions

Also consider:

A tool to undertake research. It is an interactive session, often taking a full day, in which research participants sor stakeholders work intensively on an issue or question. The process can combine elements of qualitative research, brainstorming or problem solving.

• Engaging stakeholders - building empathy with and understanding of research findings
• Understanding problems or prototyping solutions, linked to user research and service design approaches
• Participatory research, allowing participants to shape agendas and outcomes
• Creative, collaborative and engaging activities to build rapport and understanding with participants
• Participatory design, enabling participants to co-design solutions which work for them
• Highly dependent on the right people attending and the facilitation skills
• Can be a lot of time and effort to coordinate a workshop effectively and analyse findings
• The immersive and collaborative environment makes it difficult to document effectively
• Collaborative solutions may duplicate existing problems or solutions

When you want to test prototypes or learn about problems with an existing service

A user research method where you watch participants try to complete specific tasks using your service. Moderated testing involve interaction with the research participant, asking them to explain what they are doing, thinking and feeling. Unmoderated testing is completed alone by the participant.

• Identify any usability issues with a digital service - for example, problems with the language or layout
• Seeing if users understand what they need to do in order to complete designated tasks
• Generating ideas to improve a prototype of existing digital service
• Assessing user experience
• Focus is not on ‘natural’ use (consider contextual interviews , participant observation , ethnography )
• Data is about a specific design and interaction with a tool at that moment
• Findings cannot be generalised or applicable more broadly to understand users and behaviours

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Social Research Methods

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Education Standards

Radford university.

Learning Domain: Social Work

Standard: Basic Research Methodology

Lesson 10: Sampling in Qualitative Research

Lesson 11: qualitative measurement & rigor, lesson 12: qualitative design & data gathering, lesson 1: introduction to research, lesson 2: getting started with your research project, lesson 3: critical information literacy, lesson 4: paradigm, theory, and causality, lesson 5: research questions, lesson 6: ethics, lesson 7: measurement in quantitative research, lesson 8: sampling in quantitative research, lesson 9: quantitative research designs, powerpoint slides: sowk 621.01: research i: basic research methodology.

The twelve lessons for SOWK 621.01: Research I: Basic Research Methodology as previously taught by Dr. Matthew DeCarlo at Radford University. Dr. DeCarlo and his team developed a complete package of materials that includes a textbook, ancillary materials, and a student workbook as part of a VIVA Open Course Grant.

The PowerPoint slides associated with the twelve lessons of the course, SOWK 621.01: Research I: Basic Research Methodology, as previously taught by Dr. Matthew DeCarlo at Radford University. 

The Practice of Social Research

Nov 12, 2014

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The Practice of Social Research. Chapter 4 – Research Design. Chapter Outline. Three Purposes of Research The Logic of Nomothetic Explanation Necessary and Sufficient Causes Units of Analysis The Time Dimension How to Design a Research Project The Research Proposal

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The Practice of Social Research Chapter 4 – Research Design

Chapter Outline • Three Purposes of Research • The Logic of Nomothetic Explanation • Necessary and Sufficient Causes • Units of Analysis • The Time Dimension • How to Design a Research Project • The Research Proposal • The Ethics of Research Design • Quick Quiz

Three Purposes of Research • Exploration • To satisfy the researcher’s curiosity and desire for better understanding • To test the feasibility of undertaking a more extensive study • To develop the methods to be employed in any subsequent study • Examples?

Three Purposes of Research • Description • Describe situations and events through scientific observation • Examples?

Three Purposes of Research • Explanation • Descriptive studies answer questions of what, where, when, and how • Explanatory studies answer questions of why • Examples?

The Logic of Nomothetic Explanation • Goal: to find a few factors that can account for many of the variations in a given phenomenon

Example: Legalization of Marijuana Idiographic Approach Nomothetic Approach • Information from parents, teachers, clergy • Previous experiences • Others? • Political orientation • Others?

The Logic of Nomothetic Explanation • Criteria for Nomothetic Causality • The variables must be correlated • Correlation – an empirical relationship between two variables such that changes in one are associated with changes in the other, or particular attributes in one are associated with particular attributes in the other. • The cause takes place before the effect • The variables are nonspurious • Spurious Relationship – a coincidental statistical correlation between two variables shown to be caused by some third variable

The Logic of Nomothetic Explanation • Nomothetic Causal Analysis and Hypothesis Testing • Hypotheses are not required in nomothetic research. • To test a hypothesis: • Specify variables you think are related • Specify measurement of variables • Hypothesize correlation, strength of relationship, statistical significance • Specify tests for spuriousness

The Logic of Nomothetic Explanation • False Criteria for Nomothetic Causality • Complete Causation • Exceptional Cases • Majority of Cases

Necessary and Sufficient Causes • A necessary cause represents a condition that must be present for the effect to follow. • A sufficient cause represents a condition that, if it is present, guarantees the effect in question. • Most satisfying outcome in research includes both necessary and sufficient causes.

Unit of Analysis • Unit of Analysis – the what or whom being studied (most often individuals in social science research). • Individuals versus Aggregates

Unit of Analysis • Individuals • Most common unit of analysis for social research • Groups • Organizations • Social Interactions

Unit of Analysis • Individuals • Students, voters, parents, children, Catholics • Groups • Gang members, families, married couples, friendship groups • Organizations • Corporations, social organizations, colleges • Social Interactions • Telephone calls, dances, online chat rooms, fights

Unit of Analysis • Social Artifacts • Social Artifact – any product of social beings or their behavior.

Unit of Analysis • Faulty Reasoning about Units of Analysis • The Ecological Fallacy – erroneously drawing conclusions about individuals solely from the observations of groups. • Reductionism – a strict limitation (reduction) of the kinds of concepts to be considered relevant to the phenomenon under study. • Sociobiology – a paradigm based on the view that social behavior can be explained solely in terms of genetic characteristics and behavior.

The Time Dimension • Cross-Sectional Study – a study based on observations representing a single point in time, a cross section of a population.

The Time Dimension • Longitudinal Study – a study design involving the collection of data at different points in time. • Trend Study – a study in which a given characteristic of some population is monitored over time. • Cohort Study – a study in which some specific subpopulation, or cohort, is studied over time. • Panel Study – a study in which data are collected from the same set of people at several points in time.

The Time Dimension • Comparing Types of Longitudinal Studies - example: Religious Affiliation • Trend Study – looks at shifts in religious affiliation over time. • Cohort Study – follows shifts in religious affiliation among those born during the Depression. • Panel Study – follows the shifts in religious affiliation among a specific group of people over time.

The Time Dimension • Approximating Longitudinal Studies • Researchers can draw approximate conclusions about longitudinal processes even when cross-sectional data is not available. • Imply processes over time • Make logical inferences • Ask individuals to recall past behavior • Cohort analysis

The Time Dimension • Examples of Research Strategies • Exploration, Description, or Explanation? • Sources of data? • Unit of analysis? • Dimensions of time relevant?

How to Design a Research Project • Define the purpose of your project – exploratory, descriptive, or explanatory? • Specify the meanings of each concept you want to study • Select a research method • Determine how you will measure the results

How to Design a Research Project • Determine whom or what to study • Collect empirical data • Process the data • Analyze the data • Report your findings

The Research Proposal • Elements of a Research Proposal • Problem or Objective • Literature Review • Subjects for Study • Measurement • Data Collection Methods • Analysis • Schedule • Budget

Chapter 4 Quiz 1. Social researchers tend to choose _____ as their units of analysis. • social interactions • social artifacts • groups • individuals • aggregates

Chapter 4 Quiz ANSWER: D. Social researchers tend to choose individuals as their units of analysis.

Chapter 4 Quiz 2. Scientific inquiry comes down to • making observations. • interpreting what you have observed. • both of the above • none of the above

Chapter 4 Quiz ANSWER: C. Scientific inquiry comes down to making observations and interpreting what you have observed.

Chapter 4 Quiz 3. A _____ is an empirical relationship between two variables such that changes in one are associated with changes in the other. • nomothetic explanation • regression analysis • correlation • spurious relationship

Chapter 4 Quiz ANSWER: C. A correlation is an empirical relationship between two variables such that changes in one are associated with changes in the other.

Chapter 4 Quiz 4. Which of these are among the purposes of research? • exploration • description • explanation • all of the above

Chapter 4 Quiz ANSWER: D. Exploration, description, and explanation are among the purposes of research.

Chapter 4 Quiz 5. What do social researchers mean when they say there is a causal relationship between education and racial tolerance? • There is a statistical correlation between the two variables. • A person’s educational level occurred before their current level of tolerance. • There is no third variable that can explain the observed correlation. • All of these choices.

Chapter 4 Quiz ANSWER: D. When social researchers say there is a casual relationship between education and racial tolerance they mean: there is a statistical correlation between the two variables, a person’s educational level occurred before their current level of tolerance, and there is no third variable that can explain the observed correlation.

Chapter 4 Quiz 6. A _____ is probabilistic and usually incomplete. • nomothetic explanation • correlation • spurious relationship • theory

Chapter 4 Quiz ANSWER: A. A nomothetic explanation is probabilistic and usually incomplete.

Chapter 4 Quiz 7. A _____ represents a condition that, if present, guarantees the effect in question. • hypothesis • sufficient cause • practical issue • necessary cause • dependent variable

Chapter 4 Quiz ANSWER: B. A sufficient cause represents a condition that, if present, guarantees the effect in question.

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