Chapter 2

Question 1

Content Analysis

Answer 1

Examines existing materials such as documents, photographs and video to identify patterns, themes and meanings present.

Question 2

Control Group

Answer 2

In an experiment does not receive the treatment or intervention

Question 3

Critical Perspective

Answer 3

Assumes all social groups are vying for power and examines who benefits and who loses from the current social arrangements.

Question 4

Dependent Variable

Answer 4

Changes in response to different levels of the independent variable or variables.

Question 5

Descriptive Research

Answer 5

Describes both the social group(s) involved in the behavior(s) of interest and the behavior(s) themselves.

Question 6

Evaluation Research

Answer 6

Examines the progress of social inventions or is conducted to plan improvement to or gauge effectiveness of social policy.

Question 7

Experimental Group

Answer 7

In an experiment is the group that receives the intervention or treatment

Question 8

Explanatory Research

Answer 8

Answers the question of why. It attempts to explain the relationships of social life—for example, why more men than women die in car crashes.

Question 9

Exploratory Research

Answer 9

Is used to examine an aspect of social life not previously discovered or explored.

Question 10

Field Research

Answer 10

Studies humans in their natural settings as they go about their usual business.

Question 11

Hypothesis

Answer 11

Is a formal statement about how different variables are expected to relate to one another

Question 12

Independent Variable

Answer 12

Is thought to cause or predict changes in the dependent variable of interest.

Question 13

Institutional Review Board (IRB)

Answer 13

Is a group that reviews research protocols to ensure subjects will be ethically treated during scientific research studies.

Question 14

Interpretative Perspective

Answer 14

Looks at how people make sense of the society they both construct and inhabit

Question 15

Nonprobability Sampling

Answer 15

Is often used in social science but does not allow generalizations to be made about the larger population from which samples are drawn

Question 16

Non spuriousness

Answer 16

Is when a cause and effect relationship between two variables cannot be explained by a third variable.

Question 17

Participant Observation

Answer 17

Is where researchers participate in daily life with the people they wish to observe in order to collect data.

Question 18

Population

Answer 18

Is the entire group (usually people but can be other units of analysis, such as organizations) that we wish to understand.

Question 19

Positivist Perspective

Answer 19

Views social life from the lens of natural science and assumes society can be studied the same way the physical world is studied.

Question 20

Probabilistic

Answer 20

Is a general statement regarding the relationship between variables that is not necessarily true in all cases but is in the majority of cases.

Question 21

Probability Sampling

Answer 21

Makes sure each case or element of the population has the same chance of being selected. It allows for information learned from the sample to be applied to the population.

Question 22

Qualitative

Answer 22

Refers to a method used to collect data in the form of words and which seeks to richly describe and understand the complexity of social life

Question 23

Quantitative

Answer 23

Refers to a method used to collect data in the form of numbers and which seeks to detect patterns in social life in order to make predictions about the future

Question 24

Reliability

Answer 24

Is a measurement’s stability and consistency

Question 25

Sample

Answer 25

Is a small subset of cases drawn from the larger population of interest.

Question 26

Secondary Data Analysis

Answer 26

Is data that were collected for one purpose and were reused by other researchers for different research purposes.

Question 27

Spurious

Answer 27

Is when a cause and effect relationship between two variables can be explained away by the introduction of a third variable. For example, cotton candy sales and car crash fatalities are related—when car crashes are high, so are cotton candy sales. But the summer months are when both cotton candy sales and car crashes are highest—the season, summer causes both cotton candy sales and car crashes to increase, which means the original relationship between high cotton candy sales and car crash fatalities is spurious.

Question 28

Survey

Answer 28

Is a list of questions (called an instrument) used to collect information from people either face to face, over the phone, on paper or online.

Question 29

Unobtrusive Research

Answer 29

Does not use human subjects but instead analyzes information already collected or evidence left behind by society.

Question 30

Validity

Answer 30

Is whether a measurement is a generally acceptable way of measuring what is being investigated.