Research Methodology Midterm Flashcards
Research Methods
Big data, survey research, interviewing, content analysis, mixed methods
Research interests
media representations, sociology of the workplace, digital media use, inequality
Informal Observation
Occurs when we make observations without any systematic process for observing or assessing accuracy of what we observed.
selective observation
occurs when we see only those patterns that we want to see or when we assume that only the patterns we have experienced directly exist.
Overgeneralization
occurs when we assume that broad patterns exist even when our observations have been limited
authority
a socially defined source of knowledge that might shape our beliefs about what is not true
research methods
an organized, logical way of learning and knowing about our social world
Ontology
an analytic philosophy concerning the nature of reality
Epistemology
an analytic philosophy concerning how we know what we know
Science of sociology
a way of knowing that attempts to systematically collect and categorize truths
Sociology
- the scientific study of humans in groups
- the systematic study of social patterns
Qualitative Data
systematically collecting data, non numerical-> words, images, sounds etc.
Micro
-an analytic framework focusing on the smallest levels of interaction
-qualitative
Mesro
-an analytic framework focusing on group interactions
- can be qualitative or quantitative
macro
-an analytic framework focusing on large- scale patterns across social structures or institutions
- quantitative
theory is…
- a way of explanation, a mapping out of the why and how of the social phenomenon being studied
- answers why and how questions
functionalist perspective
auguste Comte, Emile Durkheim
- views society as a living organism (economy, family, politics, religion, education and other institutions have functions that allow society to survive.
Consensus
functionalists see social equilibrium as needed for all social organs to work together and survive
Conflict Perspective Prominent figures are?
Karl Marx, Max Weber, C. Wright Mills
What is conflict in conflict perspective?
View society as characterized by conflict and struggle between groups
- interested in domination, inequality, violence
Class Conflict
is the major force that moves history forward, ex. slave masters and slaves
Feminist Theory is a what perspective
Conflict perspective
True or false: Symbolic Interactionism Micro sociological?
true
Inductive approach is
when you collect data, analyze patterns in the data, then theorize from the data
Deductive Approach
Develop hypotheses based on some theory or theories, collect data that can be used to test the hypotheses, and assess whether the data collected support the hypotheses
Complementary approaches are
Data, Theory, New data, New Theory
What is a bias?
one view of a perspective that may cause one to neglect alternative perspectives
what is an empirical question
questions that can be answered by real experience in the real world
what are ethical questions
questions about which people have moral opinions and that may not be answerable in reference to the real world
idiographic study
exhaustive, detailed descriptions or explanations of a singular or very small number of individuals, phenomena, or groups
nomothetic research is
general, broad descriptions or explanations of many individuals, phenomena or groups
units of analysis
the entity that a researcher wishes to be able to say something about at the end of his or her study; the main focus of the study
units of observation are
the item(s) that a researcher actually observes, measures or collects in the course of trying something about his or her unit of analysis
ecological fallacy happens when
claims are made about individuals based on group-level data
Reductionism occurs when
claims about groups are made based on individual level data
