ch 2 Flashcards
cross-sectional designs
A research design in which data are collected at a single point in time.
quasi-experiment
A research design that resembles an experiment but does not meet all the requirements and therefore does not exhibit complete internal validity.
idiographic
An approach to understanding that seeks specific, unique knowledge about a person or group, typically concerning interpretations or meanings held by the persons studied
nomothetic
An approach to explanation that utilizes general laws and principles, which are said to apply to some population beyond the people studied.
research design
The term used in this book to refer to a framework for the collection and analysis of data. The choice of research design reflects the goals that the researcher hopes to achieve (for example, generalization, establishing causality, or producing empathetic understanding)
Quantitative researchers often explain a phenomenon in terms of proposed causes and effects that are expressed in
laws and principles
Quantitative researchers often explain a phenomenon in terms of proposed causes and effects that are expressed in
- correlation
- time order
- non spuriousness
qualitative is idiographic and they usually involve a detailed “story” or description of the people studied that is based on
empathetic understanding
interview schedule
A collection of questions designed to be asked by an interviewer; always used in a structured interview.
The word “spurious” means
false or illegitimate.
Nomothetic explanation is to ________ investigation as idiographic explanation is to ________ investigation
quantitative; qualitative
true experiments are fairly ____ in sociology
rare
The greatest strength of experiments is that they can in some instances be effective in
establishing causation (sometimes referred to as internal validity), especially when they are used to isolate the effects of a small number of factors
If experiments may be strong in establishing causation, why do social researchers not make more use of them?
an experiment manipulates an independent variable (a proposed cause of some phenomenon) to determine its influence on a dependent variable (the proposed effect).
The problem is that many of the independent variables of concern to social researchers cannot be manipulated.
reason why experiments are so rare in sociology
reason why experiments are so rare in sociology
eason why experiments are uncommon in sociology is that many of the things of interest to sociologists—gender roles, political preferences, the formation of social movements, and so on—have
complex, long-term causes that cannot be easily simulated in experiments.
why experiments are not great for social
even where social scientists are successful in using experiments to identify causal variables, the perceptions and feelings of the participants—which provide information vital to a full understanding of the phenomenon in question—are usually not examined in depth
field experiments
A study in which the researcher directly intervenes in and/or manipulates a natural setting to observe what happens as a consequence
experimental group
A research design that rules out alternative explanations of findings deriving from it (in other words, that possesses internal validity) because it involves (a) both an experimental group, which is exposed to a treatment, and a control group, which is not, and (b) random assignment to the two groups
history
This refers to events other than the manipulation of teacher expectations that might have caused the spurters’ scores to rise
Testing
This threat refers to the possibility that participants may become more experienced at taking a test or sensitized to the aims of the experiment as a result of the pre-test. The presence of a control group, which presumably would also experience the same things, diminishes this possibility.
Instrumentation.
This threat refers to the possibility that changes in the way a test is administered can account for an increase (or decrease) in scores between a pre-test and post-test; for example, perhaps the teachers know their students better or are more friendly the second time they give the test. Again, if there is a control group, the people in that group should be affected as well
Mortality
some people will leave the experiment before it is over: for example, some students might move to a different school, or experience a long-term illness. Since this problem is likely to affect the control group too, it may not make a difference to the results
maturation
Quite simply, people change over time and the ways in which they change may have implications for the dependent variable. The spurters might have improved anyway as they got older, regardless of the effect of teacher expectancies. But the control group would also mature, so maturation effects cannot explain the differences between it and the experimental group
selection
When participants are not assigned randomly to the experimental and control groups, variations between them in the post-test may be due to pre-existing differences between the two groups
whether the variables used in the study have been adequately measured. This refers to the matter of
measurement validity
whether the experimental manipulation really worked. In other words, was the identification of some schoolchildren as spurters enough to create the conditions needed for the hypothesis about teacher expectations to be tested?
external validity and
generlaizaibilty
The representativeness of the study participants
To what social and psychological groups can a finding be generalized? Can it be generalized to a wide variety of individuals who differ in ethnicity, social class, religion, gender, and type of personality?
the effects of the study
Can the results of a study be applied to other settings
history effects
Can the results of a study be applied to other settings
the effects of pretesting
s a result of being pre-tested, people in an experiment may become sensitized to the experimental treatment, with the result that their responses are affected as they become more test-wise. Consequently, the findings may not be generalizable to groups that have not been pre-tested, and, of course, in the real world people are rarely pre-tested.
reactive effects produced by the experimental arrangements.
People are frequently, if not invariably, aware of the fact that they are participating in an experiment. Their awareness may influence how they respond to the experimental treatment; for example, they may react by behaving in a socially acceptable manner rather than sincerely and spontaneously, which could affect the generalizability of the findings.
replicibilty
A study is replicable if others are able to repeat it and get the same results
Clairborn failed to replicate Rosenthal and Jacobson’s findings, casting doubt on the external validity of the original research and suggesting that the first two threats to external validity referred to earlier in this chapter may have limited the applicability of the findings.
main advantages of laboratory over field experiments is the
researcher’s greater control over the research environment
it is easier to randomly assign participants to different experimental conditions in the laboratory than in a real-life situation, which enhances the researcher’s ability to establish
nomothetic causation
laboratory experiments also suffer from a number of limitations. arise from
shortcomings arise from low external validity
the treatment effects may be unique to the people in the study;
others may not act in the same way
Quasi-experiments have some characteristics of the experimental model but lack some of the features that
help establish causaution
“natural experiments,” in which
experiment-like conditions are produced by naturally occurring phenomena or changes brought about by people not doing research
in natural experiments, it is usually impossible to
randomly assign participants to experimental and control groups. The absence of random assignment casts doubt on any causal inferences, since the groups may not have been equivalent on all relevant characteristics before the independent variable was introduced.
Quasi-experimental designs have been particularly prominent in what study
evaluation research
evaluation research examines the effects of
organizational innovations such as a longer school day or greater worker autonomy in a plant
Quasi-experiments are also used to evaluate the effectiveness of
institutional policies.
A major challenge in evaluation research, particularly in Canada, is
finding appropriate ways to assess government programs and services that affect Indigenous people.
research involving Indigenous participants has been fraught with
exploitation and cultural insensitivity, and the residential schools system in Canada is an example of a program that illustrates in a very tragic way what can go wrong if Indigenous perspectives are ignored
At the heart of the experimental design is a
logic of comparison which is used to isolate the causal influence of a particular variable—a goal to which researchers using other designs may also aspire
The advantage of such comparisons is that they
permit a better understanding of the phenomenon in question than would be possible if it were examined under one condition alone
Which of the following terms pertains to research outcomes that sufficiently demonstrate a causal relationship between the variables of interest?
Internal validity correct
Yea and Kevin are sociological researchers interested in whether increases in income cause increases in happiness. Positive psychology research indicates this relationship holds up to a point; however, previous studies have not adequately attended to intervening variables of interest to sociologists like gender and ethnicity. What is/are Yea and Kevin’s dependent variable(s)?
Happiness
In experimental notation, T denotes
timing of the observation.
