Midterm- Research

Question 1

what is the research process

Answer 1

1. define research problem
2. review existing literature
3. make the problem more precise
4. work out an accurate research design
5. do the research
6. interpret the results
7. report/publish findings

Question 2

key difference between sociological research and normal research

Answer 2

sociological research must properly frame research (ask specific questions) and qualify our findings (admit the limitations and make suggestions for further follow up research)

Question 3

survey pros and cons

Answer 3

used to ask people questions, quant
pros: generalizable
cons: predetermined variables needed

Question 4

ethnography pros and cons

Answer 4

observation of phenomenon, qual
pros: deep understanding
cons: not generalizable

Question 5

historical/comparative historical method pros and cons

Answer 5

archival, demographic, quantitative data (could be quant or qual)
pros: trends and comparison
cons: few and unique cases

Question 6

qualitative vs quantitative

Answer 6

qualitative:
will achieve a deep, complex understanding of some phenomenon, but doesn’t lend itself to generalization across different cases
quantitative:
based on correlations among well defined variables to establish the causation of several independent variables on some outcome dependent variable, tends to be narrow and focused but also generalizable across similar cases

Question 7

random sample vs. representative sample

Answer 7

representative: random sample of people that are representative of a specific group
random: sample of randomly collected people designed to represent population as a whole