Chapter 2 Flashcards
Approaches to sociological research that draw on objective and statistical data and often focusing on documenting trends, comparing subgroups, or exploring correlations
Quantitative methods
Approaches to sociological research that often rely on personal and collective interviews, accounts, or observations of a person or situation
Qualitative methods
Ideas or educated guesses about a given state of affairs, put forward as bases for empirical testing
Hypotheses
The diverse methods of investigation used to gather empirical material. Most common in sociology include fieldwork and surveys
Research methods
The firsthand study of people using observation, in-depth interviewing, or both. A.k.a. fieldwork
Ethnography
A method of research in which the researcher takes part in the activities of the group or community being studied
Participant observation
A method of sociological research in which questionnaires are administered to the population being studied
Survey
The people who are the focus of social research
Population
A trial run in survey research
Pilot study
A small proportion of a larger population
Sample
A sample from a larger population that is statistically typical of that population
Representative sample
Studying a proportion of individuals or cases from a larger population as representative of that population as a whole
Sampling
Sampling method in which a sample is chosen so that every member of the population has the same probability of being included
Random sampling
The ways of calculating averages
Measures of central tendency
The measure of the degree of correlation between variables
Correlation coefficients
A statistical measure of central tendency, or average, based on dividing a total by the number of individual cases
Mean
The number that appears most often in a given set of data
Mode
The number that falls halfway in a range of numbers
Median
A way of calculating the spread of a group of numbers
Standard deviation
The range or distribution of a set of figures
Degree of dispersal
A research method by which variables can be analyzed in a controlled and systematic way, either in an artificial situation constructed by the researcher or in a naturally occurring setting
Experiment
Research that compares one set of findings on one society with the same type of findings on other societies
Comparative research
Factual inquiries carried out in any are of sociological study
Empirical investigation
