Powerpoint #2 - Studying Social Life

Question 1

What are the 5 Standards of Scientific Knowledge?

Answer 1

1. Empirically Testable
2. Falsifiable
3. Reproducible
4. Valid
5. Generalizable

Question 2

How does sociology differ from natural sciences?

Answer 2

1. Subjective Experience
2. Reactivity
3. Ethics

Question 3

What is Subjective Experience?

Answer 3

-understanding one’s actions comes with understanding what the actions mean to them

Question 4

What is Reactivity?

Answer 4

-how someone responds to research by changing their behavior (intentionally/unintentionally)

Question 5

What is the Hawthorne Effect?

Answer 5

unintended effects on behavior produced when people are aware they are being studied

Question 6

What is the Research Process?

Answer 6

THEORY–(deductions)–>
HYPOTHESIS–(sampling measurements)–>
DATA–(statistics)–>
EMPIRICAL GENERALIZATIONS–(conceptualization)

Question 7

What is reliability?

Answer 7

whether or not a variable/results are consistent over time

Question 8

What is validity?

Answer 8

whether or not the variable measures what we think it measures

Question 9

When is reliability/validity increased?

Answer 9

• when you ask things people are reasonable expected to know
• when you ask things people want to answer correctly (avoid social desirability bias)
• when you ask things that are quick and easy to answer

Question 10

What is a convenience sample?

Answer 10

sampling people who are easy to find

Question 11

What is a quota sample?

Answer 11

a sample including specific numbers of cases falling into various subcategories

Question 12

What is a probability sample?

Answer 12

*random sample

a sample in which each case has a chance to be in the sample

Question 13

What are 3 common types of statistics?

Answer 13

1. Descriptive Statistics
2. Measures of Association
3. Tests of Significance

Question 14

What are Descriptive Statistics?

Answer 14

summarizing the distribution of a sample (ex. mean, median, average)

Question 15

What are Measures of Association?

Answer 15

examining the relationship between variables

Question 16

What are Tests of Significance?

Answer 16

whether or not a result could occur by chance

Question 17

Association vs. Causality

Answer 17

just because one variable is associated with another doesn’t mean that they caused each other

Question 18

What are the two types of research?

Answer 18

1. Quantitative

2. Qualitative

Question 19

What is Quantitative research?

Answer 19

• emphasizes numbers, countable things, and statistical analysis
• deduces theories/tests hypotheses
• may use social surveys, experiments, and systemic observation

Question 20

What is Qualitative research?

Answer 20

• emphasizes more verbal/descriptive information
• exploratory rather than confirmatory, developing new theories rather than testing hypotheses
• use participant observation and historical/comparative methods

Question 21

What are Observational Studies?

Answer 21

watching subjects to see how they behave

Systemic vs. Participant

Question 22

What are Systemic Observations?

Answer 22

formal/quantitative method of observation, may use set of codes, code event, and statistically analyze results
-reactivity must be considered

Question 23

What are Participant Observations?

Answer 23

researcher participates in/is directly involved in lives of those he/she is studying
-often used for the interactionist perspective

Question 24

What is an ethnography?

Answer 24

detailed descriptive account of summarizing/interpreting culture/subjects studied

Question 25

What are the researcher roles in a participant observation?

Answer 25

1. A true insider
2. A researcher acting as an insider
3. An outsider

Question 26

What are Social Surveys?

Answer 26

gathering information by asking people questions

-may be objective or subjective

Question 27

What is social desirability bias?

Answer 27

when respondents answer questions in ways that make them appear to have socially desirable traits

Question 28

What is a spurious relationship?

Answer 28

two variables are related and appear to have a direct causal connection, but actually both of the variables are affected by a third variable

Question 29

What is an operational definition?

Answer 29

a description of procedures used to measure a concept n sufficient details that someone else could perform the same procedure and get a similar result

Question 30

What does being empirically testable mean?

Answer 30

it should be possible to gather data that will show the assertion/theory to be true or false

Question 31

What does being falsifiable mean?

Answer 31

it should be possible to specify predictions/assertions which, if found to be untrue in an empirical test, would cause us to reject the theory/proposition

Question 32

What does it mean to be reproducible?

Answer 32

others should be able to perform similar studies and obtain similar results

Question 33

What does it mean to be valid?

Answer 33

the knowledge should accurately reflect reality

Question 34

What does it mean to be generalizable?

Answer 34

the ability to draw conclusions about a larger group or about other groups