Ch 2 - Understanding the Research Process

Question 0

basic research

Answer 0

goal:

to describe some aspect of society and advance our understanding of it

Question 1

applied research

Answer 1

the primary goal: to directly address some social problem or need

Question 2

content analysis

Answer 2

a variety of techniques that enable researchers to systematically summarize and analyze the content of various forms of communication-written, spoken, or pictorial

Question 3

correlation

Answer 3

a relationship in which change in one variable is connected to change in another variable

Question 4

critical social science

Answer 4

research carried out explicitly to create knowledge that can be used to bring about social change

Question 5

dependent variable

Answer 5

the entity that changes in response to the independent variable

Question 6

independent variable

Answer 6

the entity that is associated with and/or causes change in the value of the dependent variable

Question 7

empirical evidence

Answer 7

data that can be observed or documented using the human senses

Question 8

field research

Answer 8

a data collection technique in which the researcher systematically observes some aspect of social life in its natural setting

Question 9

generalize

Answer 9

the ability to describe patterns of behavior of a larger population based on a sample

Question 10

Hawthorne effect

Answer 10

human beings react differently because they know they are in a study

Question 11

intensive interview

Answer 11

use open-ended questions during face to face sessions

Question 12

interpretive social science

Answer 12

an approach that focuses on understanding the meaning that people ascribe to their social world

Question 13

operationalize

Answer 13

to define the variables you are interested in studying

Question 14

positivist social science

Answer 14

assumes the social is like the natural world, characterized by laws identified through research and used to predict human affairs

Question 15

qualitative data

Answer 15

evidence that is not numerical - interviews, observations, and visual documents

Question 16

quantitative data

Answer 16

evidence that is numerical

Question 17

secondary data analysis

Answer 17

type of research that uses data from other researchers

Question 18

transparency

Answer 18

the requirement that researchers explain how they collected and analyzed their evidence and how they reached their conclusions

Question 19

value-neutrality

Answer 19

the goal of removing any personal views from the research process; part of positivist social science

Question 20

provisional knowledge

Answer 20

all truth claims are tentative and open to revision if new evidence is discovered