Exam 1 Flashcards
What is the purpose of social scientific methodology? / purpose
Special approach to discovering reality that proves basis for finding to be given the status reality. Science of finding out through exploration, description, explanation, and application.
How do you know what you claim to know (2 realities)
Agreement reality and experimental reality. Experimental reality = Things we consider real from direct experience. step glass you know it hurts.
Agreement reality= things we consider real because we have been told are real. ex sun sets west
Two forms of agreement reality
Traditional reality: Most people agree it is real.
Authority reality: Status of discoverer ex. teacher, researcher.
What types of errors are made in observation.
inaccurate observation, overgeneralization, selective observation, illogical reasoning, ideology and politics.
What are the 4 purposes of research
Exploration: exploring specific problem with little known about it.
Description: observes and describes
Explanation: to explain something
Application: targeted specific research. two types program evaluation / policy analysis.
Independant variable
“cause” “influencer”
Dependent variable
“effect” “cause”
Inductive reasoning
Moves from specific to general. Uses specific situations to create a theory. Develop a theory
Deductive reasoning
move from general to specific. using theoretical explanations (general) and tests them (specific) Test an existing theory
Ethics and CJ system
No harm shall be done to participants, researchers, and bystanders. That includes physical, psychological, and embarrasment. Researcher must have firm scientific grounds for conducting research which could potentialy present harm. Harm to to subjects is only justified if the potentail beneifts outweigh the potential harms.
Must have voluntary participation, anonymity, and confidentaility, and decption must be justified.
What is theory and its role in social scientific research ?
Systemic explaination for the observers facts that. relate to a particular aspect of life.
Find patterns of regularity in social life
Criteria for causality
1: Association ( correlation) x affects y
2: temporal order( timing of variables or direction of influence.
3: elimination of rival hypothesis/ explanations and variables.
Threats to casual validity
1: Statistical conclusion validity
2: internal validity
3: construct validity
4: external validity
What is statistical conclusion validity and internal validity ?
Statistical: are the two variables statistically related. Low n or basic probability theory issues.
Internal validity: rival factors are the main concern. Threat is when a third variable causes y
What is construct validity and external validity
Construct: How well do your findings reflect reality. Mostly to do with measurement issues. For example if you want to evaluate happiness levels of respondents than it should measure happy, sad, angry, ect that it accurately measures what you are tying to find.
External: do my findings apply to other populations? Generalizability.
