Daniel J. O’Keefe
Professor
Department of Communication Studies
Northwestern University

RESEARCH OPPORTUNITIES FOR STUDENTS

        My research is focused on synthetic research concerning persuasion, and in particular on meta-analytic reviews of persuasion effects research.  (For a more detailed statement of my research interests, click here.)  Meta-analytic methods are quantitative methods for summarizing a set of existing studies relevant to some specific research question--questions such as “what is the relative persuasive effectiveness of one-sided and two-sided messages?” or “what factors influence the effectiveness of the door-in-the-face influence strategy?”
        Briefly expressed, conducting a meta-analytic review involves identifying and retrieving relevant research studies (with lots of library detective work), analyzing each individual study (extracting relevant statistical information, classifying the study into categories of interest), computing meta-analytic statistics over the collection of studies (meta-analyzing the set of studies), and preparing the results for presentation (e.g., in a publication).
        Meta-analytic research offers many opportunities for collaborative work involving both undergraduate and graduate students.  I have several current meta-analytic projects at various stages of development, and it can be easy for a student to join a project that suits the student’s interests and background.  If you’re interested in learning more, get in touch with me.  The easiest and most dependable way is email: d-okeefe@northwestern.edu.

Daniel J. O’Keefe home page
Department of Communication Studies
School of Communication
Northwestern University