Final Exam

Question 1

Name three things that make a topic appropriate for field research.

Answer 1

1. Attitudes and behaviors that are best understood in a natural setting
2. Social processes over time
3. When the purpose of research is to capture the richly detailed picture of real life

Question 2

What is reactivity? How can this be solved?

Answer 2

The problem is that the subjects of social research alter their behavior when knowing they are being observed. The problem of reactivity can be solved by spending a long period of time with the subjects, until they are willing to involve you in their lives.

Question 3

What is the difference between emic and etic perspectives?

Answer 3

EMIC: Takes on the point of those being studies, when the researcher takes on the insiders’ viewpoint

ETIC: Maintains a distance from the insiders’ point of view purpose is to achieve more objectivity

Question 4

What is a weakness of field research?

Answer 4

Cannot generalize findings to large population

Question 5

___________ studies the ways people make sense of the world (to identify the methods through which understanding occurs)

Aims to understand how social order is formed and maintained

Answer 5

Ethnomethodology

Question 6

Who is the scholar behind ethnomethodology?

Answer 6

Garfinkel

Question 7

Using ethnography, __________ is based on the assumption that an objective social reality exists and can be observed and reported accurately.

Answer 7

Naturalism

Question 8

__________ is an inductive approach to the study of social life that attempts to generate a theory from the constant comparing of unfolding observations, by Glaser and Strauss

Answer 8

Grounded theory

Question 9

What are some guidelines for using grounded theory?

Answer 9

o	Think comparatively
o	Obtain multiple viewpoints
o	Periodically step back, think about the patterns
o	Maintain an attitude of skepticism 
o	Follow the research procedures

Question 10

True or false: case studies can be both be descriptive or explanatory

Answer 10

True

Question 11

Who created extended case method?

Answer 11

Burawoy

Question 12

Using _________, we aim to improve existing theories.

Answer 12

Extended case study

Question 13

Who was the leading scholar behind institutional ethnography?

Answer 13

Dorothy Smith

Question 14

_____________’s purpose is to uncover the institutional power relations that structure and govern those relationships

Answer 14

Institutional ethnography

Question 15

What is the major strength of institutional ethnography?

Answer 15

This approach links the “micro-level” of everyday personal experiences w/ the “macro-level” of institutions. —> starting with observing and understanding individuals’ experiences, with the attempt to discover what power relations shape these experiences

Question 16

What is participatory action research?

Answer 16

A research approach that the respondents control over the purpose and procedures of the research

There is NO distinction between the researcher and the researched

Question 17

Rubin and Rubin argue that Qualitative interview is the ____ of hearing data

Answer 17

art

Question 18

What is the difference between qualitative interview in a field research setting and qualitative interview in a one-on-one setting?

Answer 18

• Qualitative interview in field research (less structured, more difficult to record)
• Qualitative interview in one-on-one encounter (can be more structured, easier to record)

Question 19

When the researcher takes on the insiders’ viewpoint it is called…

Answer 19

Emic

Question 20

When the researcher maintains a distance from the insiders’ point of view purpose is to achieve more objectivity it is called…

Answer 20

Etic

Question 21

Field research has high _______ and low ______

Answer 21

Field research =

high validity
low reliability

Question 22

What paradigm is ethnography based on?

Answer 22

Naturalism

Question 23

T/F: when using PAR, there is NO distinction between the researcher and the researched

Answer 23

True