Chapter 4

Question 1

3 most common purposes of research

Answer 1

1. Exploration

• To explore a topic
• Researcher examines a new interest or subject is relatively new

2. Description
   - Describe situations and events
   - Answer who, what, where, when
3. Explanation:
   o Clarifying how or why an event occurred
   - Answer how and why
   - most compelling research

Question 2

3 reasons for exploration

Answer 2

1) To satisfy researcher curiosity and desire for better understanding
2) To test feasibility of undertaking a more extensive study
3) To develop the methods to be employed in any subsequent study

Question 3

Unit of analysis vs Units of Observation

Answer 3

Unit of analysis
o Object of the study’s interest
o The thing that are the object of study

Units of Observation
o Kinds of objects from which evidence is collected

Question 4

find UOA and UOO

students who do their homework do better in French class

Answer 4

o UOA and UOO are both the individual

Question 5

find UOA and UOO
\: grade 10 math class with male teachers do better than those taught by females

Answer 5

o UOA class UOO individual

Question 6

individual data vs aggregate data

Answer 6

Individual data
a. Evidence gathered that are about specific individuals

Aggregate data
a. Evidence gathered that are collections of individuals

Question 7

Types of units of analysis 4( but there is more)

Answer 7

individuals
- university students, gays, autoworker, Canadian voters, single parents, pro athletes, certain criminals in a gang

groups
- - Ex: gangs, high income families, age, race, education of parents, married couples, cities, regions

Organizations
- Ex: corporations, church congregations, universities, academic departments, and supermarkets

• Social artifact
  o ; any product of human activity
• Ex: books, pomes, paintings, cars, buildings, songs scientific discoveries, students excuses for missing exam, divorces, sporting events

Question 8

Causes: vs causality

Answer 8

Causes:
o Reasons leading to an outcome

causality
particular form of relationship between variables

Question 9

Criteria for nomothetic causality

Answer 9

The variables are correlated

a. Change in one variable causes change in another
b. Correlations are rarely perfect
c. Researcher decide how strong correlation is for connection to be casual

2. The cause occurs before the effect
   a. Independent variable must come before the dependent variable
   b. Ex what came first the chicken or the egg?
   i. Can become complicated
3. Connection between the variable is nonspurious
   a. Cannot be a phony relationship j
   b. Observation may fool us
   c. Sometimes there is a third or control variable effecting both

Question 10

False criteria for nomothetic causality

Answer 10

Complete causation
o Nonthetic approach seeks to find a small set of most prominent contributing causes that generally produce a specific outcome
o Are probabilistic and incomplete
o Nothing is ever 100% one way

Exceptional cases
o Exceptions do not disconfirm casual relationships

Majority of cases
o Casual relationships can be true even if they do not apply in majority of cases
o As long as they are more likely than those who are supervised to become delinquent, we say there is a casual relationship

Question 11

necessary vs sufficient

Answer 11

Necessary condition
 A condition that must be present for outcome to occur
 Ex: need to take uni courses to get a degree
• But just taking the courses does not mean you get the degree
 Ex: being female is a necessary condition of being pregnant but just being a woman do not mean you will get pregnant

Sufficient condition
 Condition that when present produces a specific outcome
 Ex: skipping an exam is sufficient for failing it
• Thought students could fail other ways

Question 12

difference in casual logic in idiographic and nomothetic (traditional science)

Answer 12

Nomothetic
 use outsiders point of view
 emphasis on variables and large samples allow researcher gain an outsider view
 wants to see the forest

Ideographic use insiders view
 Wants to see the trees
 Aims to provide detailed understanding of what it is like to be part of a particular event or community
 Insider appreciation

Question 13

Techniques used in constructing idiographic explanations

Answer 13

o Situate your case(s)
 Need to know the context
 Should lean as much as you can about historical and contemporary context
o Focus on types of activities rather than types of people
 Paying close attention to what is actually occurring rather than labelling actors
o Pay attention to the explanation offered by the people living the social processes you are studying
 Needed to gain an insider approach of what is going on
 Do not think you understand the situation better than those living there
o Compare case with similar situations
o Rely on analytic induction
 Process for understanding events that relies on grounding concepts in empirical observation and progressively sharpening them thorough iteration

Question 14

Cross-sectional studies

Answer 14

• Deals with a single time frame

- A study based on observations representing a single point in time constructed with a longitudinal study

Question 15

Longitudinal studies

Answer 15

• Study involving the collection of data at different points in time
• Contrasted with cross-sectional study

Question 16

3 types of longitudinal studies

Answer 16

Trend
 Researcher who examine changes in population over period of time
 Ex: Canadian Census

Cohort
 When researchers examine specific subpopulation (cohorts) as they change over time
 Based on age, group, people born in WWII
 Ex: people surveyed every 10 years from great depression

Panel
 Examines the same set of people each time for years
 Ex: interview same voters each month for election campaign
 Issue
• Panel attrition
o Some respondents who responded in first wave may not in second