exam 1

Question 1

agency vs. structure

Answer 1

agency is our capacity to make our own choices and act autonomously (freewill). structure is the patterned social arrangements that may constrain our choices and opportunities.

Question 2

adopting a sociological imagination

Answer 2

we cannot understand human behavior by viewing individual actors as free agents who are disconnected

Question 3

basic vs. applied research

Answer 3

basic research seeks to answer theoretically informed questions or resolve fundamental intellectual puzzles about social behavior. applied research seeks to answer questions or concrete problem in the real world or to evaluate a policy or program.

Question 4

qualitative vs. quantitative research

Answer 4

qualitative research collects and analyzes data using description in words or images. quantitative research relies on data that can be represented by numbers.

Question 5

cross sectional vs. longitudinal study designs

Answer 5

cross sectional is data that is collected at one point in time. longitudinal study is data collected repeatedly over time.

Question 6

unit of analysis

Answer 6

refer to the level of social life about which we want to generalize

Question 7

starting the research process: choosing a question and setting goals

Answer 7

identify social importance, scientific relevance, and the feasibility

Question 8

purposes of theory

Answer 8

to describe
to explain
to explore

Question 9

level of abstraction in theory

Answer 9

macro-level: refers to the boradest way thinking about social life, focusing on structure, composition, and processes of society.
micro-level: refers to the most intimate way of thinking about social life; it focuses on face-to-face interaction and small group interactions
meso-level: refers to the middle-aged way of thinking about social life, focusing on the physical settings and organizations that link individuals to a larger society

Question 10

commonalities among theories

Answer 10

testable, can be quantitatively or qualitatively examined.
falsifiable
generalizable, can explain a broad class of events
probabilistic, refer to what is likely not what is definite

Question 11

use of theory in research

Answer 11

inductive approach, draw up a general understanding of social phenomenon through empirical observations.
deductive approach, translation of general theory into specific empirical analysis.

Question 12

social science theory

Answer 12

theories develop from paradigms

Question 13

paradigms

Answer 13

a broad set of taken for granted and often unacknowledged assumptions about how social reality is to be defined

Question 14

scientific paradigms

Answer 14

commonly accepted views about what direction research should take and how it should be performed

Question 15

selected sociological paradigms

Answer 15

structural functionalism
conflict
rational choice
symbolic interactionism

Question 16

the elements of theory

Answer 16

must be well articulated
well reasoned
allow researchers to move systematically from one point to the next in order to arrive at a conclusion

Question 17

concepts

Answer 17

an idea that can be named, defined, and eventually measured

Question 18

a brief history of ethical problems in research

Answer 18

the belmont report of 1979- was issued by the national commission for the protection of human subjects of biomedical and behavioral research

Question 19

the Tuskegee syphilis experiment: deliberate harm

Answer 19

1932-1972, the us public health services conducted a long term study of untreated syphilis in 400 poor African American men who had advanced syphilis. the men were not told they were infected with the disease and were under the impression they were receiving treatments but were really given placebos.

Question 20

the 1950s to 1970s: four controversial studies

Answer 20

Willowbrook

Question 21

how the IRB works

Answer 21

a committee located at an insitution where research is done that is responsible for reviewing all research involving human subjects, with the goal of protecting human subjects and preventing ethical violations

Question 22

professional codes of ethics

Answer 22

respect, benficience, and justice

Question 23

positive and negative relations

Answer 23

positive- both concepts move in the same direction, an increase in one concept leads to an increase in another.
negative- the two concepts move in opposite directions, an increase in one leads to a decrease in another and vice versa.

Question 24

mediation and moderation

Answer 24

mediation- the expected relation between two concepts is channeled through a third concept that links them to each other.
moderation- the strength of the association between two variables is made weaker or stronger by a third variable.

Question 25

spuriousness

Answer 25

an apparent relation between two concepts is actually the result of some third concept influencing both of them.

Question 26

subjective reality

Answer 26

everyone has their own unique perception of reality

Question 27

structural functionalism

Answer 27

society must be viewed as a collection of interrelated parts, each with unique role, that cone together to form a whole. Talcott Parsons