SOC110 midterm Flashcards
Is Psychology a micro-level or macro-level field of study?
Micro-level because it focuses on the behaviours of one human at a time.
Is Sociology a micro-level or macro-level field of study?
Macro-level because it focuses on societies and how they are shaped by their environment.
Give examples of Non-Empirical knowledge (6)
-Not scientific, not systematic
-Personal expériences
-Observations
-Intuitions
-Instinctive processes
-Common sense
Give examples of Empirical knowledge (2)
-Systematic and scientific methods
-Measurement, data collection and analysis
What is the definition of Sociological Research Methods?
Research methods comprise a systematic process of inquiry applied in such a manner as to learn something about our social world (Saylor Academy, 2012).
Engaging and thinking critically about the social world.
Contribute to develop, understand and shape social life.
In other words, they are a formal way to act on social issues and engage in critical thinking.
Name the 7 characteristics of sociological science.
- Empirical
- Develop generalization
- Objectivity and subjectivity
- Self-correcting
- Constantly evolving
- Never-ending
- Concerned with theory
Explain this characteristic from the 7th of sociological science (Empirical).
-Use of scientific methods
-Understanding and explaining social phenomenon
-Considering the influence of environment and living contexts
Explain this characteristic from the 7th of sociological science (Develop generalizations).
There is an acknowledgement that everyone is different, and it is impossible to study everyone; therefore, researchers can only generalize their work.
Explain this characteristic from the 7th of sociological science (Objectivity and subjectivity).
Objectivity tries to eliminate biases. Some sociologists think that it is impossible to be completely objective. They think that people are constantly influenced by their surroundings, which has an effect on the questions, the data, etc. Some think it is bad to be subjective, while others think it is good. Eg: women might be more comfortable asking questions to other women
Explain these characteristics from the 7th of sociological science (Self-correcting and Constanly evolving).
As we get new findings, they should change and, therefore, contradict old studies and knowledge.
Explain this characteristic from the 7th of sociological science (Never ending).
We can never know the whole story because so many factors can influence and interact with how people act. Therefore, we should use flexible words because any scientific knowledge could be discredited in future studies. Also, we need to be careful not to overgeneralize because most studies are done in a very specific context and with a specific population.
Explain this characteristic from the 7th of sociological science (Concerned with theory).
-How things work
-Make future predictions
What are the objectives of sociological science? (4)
-Describe and understand social phenomenon
-Discover regularities
-Develop theories
-Discover how different events are associated
What is the definition of Applied social research?
-Application of the results
-Aim to demonstrate an impact
-Connect research to action
It is really hard to achieve because Social researchers want to apply their results in social life but sometimes fall short of doing it due to inconsistencies in the translation of the findings to the targetted population.
What strategies can be used to facilitate the translation of research results into action?
-Identify an applied research purpose: eg the target of the research is homelessness and researchers want to find solution to reduce it.
-Identify those who need and who are receptive to the knowledge you want to develop
-Share your results with applied partners: Have partners that work with that specific problem or population or that have this specific problem or population. eg: If the problem is drug use, find partners that are nurses or drug users
What is the definition of Basic research?
-Contribution to develop and understand new knowledge with no applied goal
-Contributes to understand a phenomenon like concepts, underlying principles, theories
Give a famous example of Basic research
The social learning theory of Bandura
Explication: The Bobo doll experiment was created to observe the aggression and copying mechanism of children.
Findings: Children who observed aggression of the Bobo doll had more chances of also taking their frustration in an aggressive way. Those who did not see aggression against the Bobo doll were less likely to be aggressive against it.
The research had no intention of solving and changing the social world, but still found very important information about copying mechanism and aggression of children.
Name the 6 key concepts and terms
- Key concept
- Operational definiton
- Hypothesis
- Variables
- Population
- Data collection methods and tools
Explain this key concept or term from the 6 (Key concept)
Themes regarding the topic of interest
E.g., If the main topic is gender, we need to find words related to that, so men, women, and non-binary. Generally, between 2 and 4 key concepts per topic
Explain this key concept or term from the 6 (Operational definition)
Clear definition of each concept
What exactly is the concept that you study? Eg: concept of homlesness What is homelessness in my study (only people in the street or couch surfing counts?, what is the region i want to study?, does the people that once were homless count or is it only people who are currenltly homeless?)
Explain this key concept or term from the 6 (Hypothesis)
Statements to test, used to develop theories
It is mainly used in experimental research.
Explain this key concept or term from the 6 (Variables)
Dependant and independant
Dependant: the one you are measuring
Independent: variable that you manipulate and change
Often you want to look at the effect of the manipulation of the independent variable.
Explain this key concept or term from the 6 (Population)
Group of people that you are studying. You need to define the age, gender, socioeconomic status, etc.
Since it is impossible to have everyone from the target population you need a sample.
Explain this key concept or term from the 6 (Data collection methods and tools)
Refers to the tools you use to collect the data like questionnaires and surveys.
What are the nine steps to undertake research?
- Chose a topic
- Review the Literature
- Formulate the problem
- Develop the research question
- Choose and organize the research design
- Gather the data
- Analyse the data
- Interpret the data
- Communicate the findings
Explain this step to undertake research from the ninth (Choose a topic).
The topic needs to be open enough to have multiple choice and literature available but specific enough not to have too much, e.g., gender is too broad, but gender in criminal justice is specific enough.
Explain this step to undertake research from the ninth (Review the literature).
We use the key themes of our topic gender and criminal justice. If there are too many results, we need to be more precise; if not enough, we need to be less precise. The objective is to know the state of knowledge from the topic.
Explain this step to undertake research from the ninth (Formulate the problem).
What is known and what is unknown from the topic? What are the gaps in the literature? e.g., the Mental health of women in the criminal justice system might not have enough research. Therefore, you might want to know more.
Explain this step to undertake research from the ninth (Develop the research question).
e.g. How does mental health change in the criminal justice system depending on gender?
Explain this step to undertake research from the ninth (Gather the data).
You need to specify the specific tools you are going to use, such as questionnaires, specific needs regarding health services, and questionnaires about criminality. Normally, the questionnaire should have more open questions.
Explain this step to undertake research from the ninth (Choose and organize the research design).
Once you have a research question, you want to choose what type of research you want, quantitative or qualitative methods.
Explain this step to undertake research from the ninth (Analyse the data).
Use statistical tests