Appendix B

Question 1

empirical inquiry

Answer 1

looking to the world for evidence with which it can test its claims

Question 2

research questions

Answer 2

queries about the world that can be answered empirically

Question 3

data

Answer 3

systematically collected sets of empirical observations

Question 4

sociological theory

Answer 4

empirically based explanations and predictions about relationships between social facts

Question 5

sociological research methods

Answer 5

scientific strategies for collecting empirical data about social facts

Question 6

negative correlation

Answer 6

as one variable changes, the other changes in the other direction

Question 7

correlation

Answer 7

observed relationships between variables

Question 8

causation

Answer 8

when a change in one variable produces a change in the other

Question 9

spurious

Answer 9

caused by a third variable

Question 10

generalizable

Answer 10

attributable to the whole population from which the sample was drawn

Question 11

academic literature

Answer 11

the empirical and theoretical writing that scholars have previously produced

Question 12

positive correlation

Answer 12

as one variable changes, the other changes in the same direction

Question 13

peer review

Answer 13

research articles are sent to academic journals whose editors solicit feedback from other researchers with related expertise

Question 14

informed consent

Answer 14

ensuring that the participants understand what their participation entails

Question 15

confidentiality

Answer 15

keeping their participation and contributions private

Question 16

vulnerable populations

Answer 16

groups that are at a relatively high risk of being harmed if they are included as research subjects

Children or undocumented immigrants

Question 17

institutional review board

Answer 17

panels of professionals that evaluate research proposals to ensure that they comply with all the moral principles outlined in codes of ethic

Question 18

research ethics

Answer 18

a set of moral principles that guide empirical inquiry

Question 19

content analysis

Answer 19

Documents that social construct are not just in our head

Cannot be used to infer what content creators intended or what audiences take away

Question 20

field experiments

Answer 20

Enables researchers to make causal claims about everyday life

Can’t reveal the processes by which one variable causes another

Question 21

ethnography

Answer 21

allows in-person looks at how social life works

Findings only shed light on the field sites under study

Question 22

in-depth interview

Answer 22

Good at understanding how people experience and think about their lives

Assumes people’s interpretations are reliable

Question 23

surveys

Answer 23

Collects data that is generalizable, attributable to the whole population

Cannot be used to infer why variables correlate with one another

Not good at answering why

Question 24

10 steps of sociological research

Answer 24

Choose a topic or theory to investigate
Conduct a review of the existing academic literature
Write a research question
Design a methodology
Operationalize the variables
Ensure that the research design is ethical
Collect the data
Evaluate data for quality
Analyze the data
Write a report for publication

Question 25

what is a sociologists primary goal?

Answer 25

To describe and theorize

Question 26

operationalization

Question 27

human subjects research