CH1 The Art and Science of Social Research Flashcards
The scientific study of the social lives of individuals, groups, and societies; mission is to teach us how to understand behaviors, beliefs, and feelings of others and to answer key questions about the human condition
Sociology
The study of large scale social systems (e.g. political or economic systems)
Macrosociology
The type of sociology that studies personal concerns and interpersonal interactions
Microsociology
The extent to which results or conclusions based on one population can be applied to others
Generalizability
Our capacity to make our own choices and act autonomously
Agency
the patterned social arrangements that may constrain (or facilitate) our choices and opportunities
Social Structures
A distinctive viewpoint (by C. Wright Mills) that recognizes our personal experiences are shaped by macrosocial and historical forces; teaches us that “personal issues” maybe public issues that have social roots and are shared by others
Sociological imagination
a theoretical tradition emphasizing that our overlapping identities and group memberships are critical to our life experiences
Intersectionality
Study of societies and cultures, often with a non-western focus; emphasizes influence of culture on social behavior
Anthropology
principle where scholars refrain from making judgments about practices they observe and instead adopt the viewpoint of the community being studied
Cultural relativism
Study of individual behaviors, attitudes, emotions, and their causes: focuses on individual differences (i.e. personality, intelligence, motivation, and biological and neurological differences)
Psychology
Study of past events, social movements, or cultural patterns; seeks to understand and document particular details of an event or sequence of events
History
Study of production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services; assumes humans are highly rational and guided by incentives
Economics
Study of policies, laws, diplomacy, and processes of government institutions, political parties, and political behavior; relies on qualitative and quantitative measures to inform its research and analysis
Political Science
research that seeks to answer theoretically informed questions or resolve fundamental intellectual puzzles about social behavior
Basic research
research that seeks to answer a question or concrete problem in the real world or to evaluate a policy or a program
Applied research
research methods that collect and analyze data that enable rich description in words or images
Qualitative methods
research methods that rely on data that can be represented by and summarized into numbers
Quantitative methods
general research approach that uses more than one method in a single study
mixed-methods approach
a study in which data are collected in only one point in time
cross-sectional study design
a type of longitudinal study where data are collected at multiple time points, but from different subjects at each time point (aka trend design)
repeated cross-sectional study design
a type of longitudinal study where data are collected on the same subjects at multiple time points
panel design
the systematic process of asking and answering questions in a rigorous and unbiased way
scientific method
scientific method steps
1) identify question
2) form hypothesis
3) gather data
4) analyze data
5) draw conclusion
three conditions for question formulation
1) social importance
2) scientific relevance
3) feasibility
the goal of being objective and not biased by personal ideologies
value-free
the way research is influenced by perspectives, values, social experiences, and viewpoint of the researcher
Subjectivity
the process of attending systematically to the context of knowledge construction, esp to the effect of the researcher, at every step of the research process
Reflexivity
quantitative or qualitative research that documents or describes trends, variations, and patterns of social phenomena
Descriptive research
mostly qualitative research that tends to answer questions of how with the goal of exploring precisely how particular processes and dynamics unfold
Exploratory research
research that explains the causes and effects of social phenomena, and addresses quesitons of why
Explanatory research
logical groupings of attributes
variables
values, characteristics, or qualities that describe people or things
attributes
a variable with values that are presumed to cause or determine a dependent variable
independent variable
a variable assumed to depend on or be cause by another
dependent variable
an approach to explanation in which we seek to exhaust the idiosyncratic causes of a particular condition of event (i.e. listing all the reasons you chose to attend your college); focus on the specific details and characteristics of that individual or situation. It’s like zooming in with a microscope to see the tiny details of one thing.
idiographic
an approach to explanation in which we seek to identify a few causal factors that generally impact a class of conditions of event (i.e. listing 2 or 3 key factors that determine college choice)
nomothetic
the logical mode in which general principles are developed from specific observations; begins with data and leads to theory
induction
the logical mode in which specific expectations of hypotheses are developed on the basis of general principles; begins with theory, leads to conclusion
deduction
