Babbie Chapter 1

Question 1

Define logical

Answer 1

It must make sense

Question 2

Define empirical

Answer 2

It must not contradict actual observation

Question 3

Define epistemology (and methodology)

Answer 3

The science of knowing (the science of finding out)

Question 4

Explain probabilistic

Answer 4

The effects of an event occur more often when the causes occur than when the causes are absent, but the effects do not always occur when the causes do.

Question 5

Explain ordinary human inquiry

Answer 5

Aiming to answer “what” and “why” questions by observing and figuring out.

Question 6

Difference between tradition and authority

Answer 6

Tradition is believing what everyone else believes, authority is believing an expert.

Question 7

How do you avoid overgeneralization?

Answer 7

Use a sufficiently large sample of observations and repeating a study to receive the same results (replication). Then one can repeat the study under slightly different conditions, to get a greater understanding.

Question 8

Explain selective observation

Answer 8

Having found a particular pattern and a general understanding, you then focus on future events that fit the pattern and not on those that don’t.

Question 9

Explain the gambler’s fallacy (illogical reasoning)

Answer 9

A streak of good or bad luck is presumed to foreshadow the opposite, however this is not true, and thus is illogical reasoning.

Question 10

Explain the premodern view

Answer 10

There is one point of view that all people in a society see as true and anyone who does not believe the same is wrong (e.g a tribe saying a spirit in a tree is evil will be that tribes belief, and anyone who says the spirit is good is wrong).

Question 11

Explain the modern view

Answer 11

There are many different beliefs and they are not right or wrong, they are simply beliefs (there is a spirit in the tree, but he is not good or evil).

Question 12

Explain the postmodern view

Answer 12

All that is “real” is just an image in each person’s mind, nothing really exists.

Question 13

Define attributes

Answer 13

Characteristics or qualities that describe an object.

Question 14

Define variables

Answer 14

Logical groupings of attributes, attributes make up variables.

Question 15

Difference between dependent and independent variables

Answer 15

Dependent variables is a variable that is caused by an independent variable. An independent variable is a variable with values that are not problematic in an analysis. A variable might be dependent in one analysis but independent in another.

Question 16

Define idiographic

Answer 16

An approach to explanation that exhausts idiosyncratic (unique, distinct) causes of an event or condition. Looking at one specific event.

Question 17

Define nomothetic

Answer 17

Seeking to identify a few causal factors that generally impact a class of conditions or events. A partial explanation for a group of events.

Question 18

Define induction

Answer 18

The logical model in which general principles are developed from specific observations.

Question 19

Define deduction

Answer 19

The logical model in which specific expectations are developed on the basis of general principles.

Question 20

Define qualitative data

Answer 20

Nonnumerical data

Question 21

Define quantitative data

Answer 21

Numerical data