Week 2 Textbook Chapter 1

Question 1

What is a principle of the Scientific Method?

Answer 1

Replication: strengthens or weakens findings.

Question 2

When is a statistic considered “statistically significant”?

Answer 2

When the odds of it occurring are 1 in 20.

Question 3

Why is science more credible?

Answer 3

Science is empirical and systematic so its has a higher chance of accuracy

Question 4

What are forms of non-scientific knowledge?

Answer 4

1) appeals to authority,
2) tradition,
3) common sense,
4) legends,
5) myths,
6) personal experience

Question 5

Non-scientific knowledge: authority?

Answer 5

Experience or expertise leads to claims to knowledge. Often seen as infallible.

Question 6

Non-scientific knowledge: tradition?

Answer 6

Often we use cumulative knowledge (traditional knowledge) as a springboard to develop new theories.

May lead to provincialism: “tendency to ignore or disparage knowledge and viewpoints from a culture that is not your own.” This is inherent in traditional knowledge.

Question 7

Non-scientific knowledge: common sense?

Answer 7

“Knowledge based on ordinary reasoning commonly accepted by others in society”

ex: opposites attract

Question 8

Non-scientific knowledge: legends and myths?

Answer 8

Legends = “Stories that are related to many in a particular group and are accepted as historical and true

Myths = unproven or false collective beliefs used as evidence to justify a story idea or concept

Myth ex: hurricane victims as criminals / forensics is trustworthy and important like in CSI

Question 9

Non-scientific knowledge: Personal Experience? 4 ways it can mislead us?

Answer 9

1) Overgeneralizations: We are bad at interpreting ourselves and this leads to faulty eyewitness statements
2) Selective observations: may only notice thing that support our current opinion
3) Premature closure: mishaps in logic such as missing evidence, insufficient evidence or faulty conclusions
4) halo effect: when knowledge is created through the overgeneralization of authority figures

Question 10

What is distinct about scientific knowledge?

Answer 10

1) Prediction and explanation: based on theory
2) Systematic observation and empiricism: using our sense as predicted by theory
3) Scientific Reasoning: using rationality and logic a theory or model is created based on the findings (knowledge)
Transparency: documented process so that it can be replicated
Provisional: the outcome is analyzed for limitations and alternative explanations

Question 11

What are the limitations of ideologies?

Answer 11

Fixed and closed, appear to have certainty, dismiss contradictory evidence, cannot be proven or improved.

Question 12

Positive aspects of theories (why do we use them)?

Answer 12

1) welcome modification
2) assumed neutral and consistent
3) Allow for predictions based on set circumstances
4) not contradictory
5) falsifiable, parsimonious

Question 13

What is parsimony?

Answer 13

Explains with a few principles but doesn’t oversimplify.
“A Parsimonious theory simplifies reality and combines essential elements to promote our understanding of a social phenomenon”
*theories have

Question 14

Falsifiability?

Answer 14

• Data can be invalidated

- Required for something to be “scientific”

Question 15

Serendipity?

Answer 15

“An open mind to chance observations that are typically unassociated with the research questions under investigations but lead to new knowledge”

Must be open to unexpected findings.

Question 16

Definition: Epistemology

Answer 16

A philosophical concept that describes how we know a claim to knowledge is legitimate (process oriented)

acknowledges reality or how we know what we know.

Question 17

Definiton: Ontology?

Answer 17

Establishes what is deemed to be true (conclusion oriented).

creates a definition of reality.

Question 18

Goal of Nomothetic Research?

Answer 18

Seeks to develop rules about the norm to explain observable phenomena.

Question 19

Idiographic research?

Answer 19

Studies individuals to understand properties that differentiate them from others.

Question 20

Deductive reasoning?

Answer 20

an approach to research that moved from general to specific by taking an existing idea or theory and applying it to a situation to test whether it is true.

• general to specific
• relies on empiricism
• tested by senses

Question 21

Inductive reasoning?

Answer 21

an approach to research that goes from specific to general by using observations to formulate an idea or theory.

• specific facts to general pattern
• then create a hypothesis and theory
• used for theory creation
• more open ended

Question 22

Levels of social reality: micro, meso, macro?

Answer 22

Micro level: a theory and research focus on explaining processes that occur over a short period of time, involve a small scale setting or include only a few people in a social interaction.

Meso level : a theory and research focus on explaining phenomena that link micro and macro social processes at an an intermediate level (several months or years)

Macro: a theory and research focus on explaining phenomena that occur in large scale setting, across significant time periods or relate to impact of institutions.

Question 23

What do normative statements do?

Answer 23

Tell us whether certain acts or conditions are morally acceptable (non-scientific)

Question 24

What is positivism according to August Comte?

Answer 24

• “Positivism is a theoretical worldview that adopts the natural science model to explain and describe the social world”
• Deterministic: social reality works through cause and effect
• Reductionist: large theories are made to be testable and small
• Objective truth is patterned, ordered, and investigated with quantitative research methods
• focus on observation and measurement

Question 25

Post Positivism?

Answer 25

• Data methods and interpretations are not perfect
• Evidence is not perfect, cannot prove right or wrong, only can determine if the evidence supports the statement
• Objective claims must be separate from researchers beliefs

Question 26

6 Tenants of the positivist worldview?

Answer 26

1) purpose of research is to give scientific explanations for universal causal laws
2) a patterned and ordered reality exists and is waiting to be discovered
3) People respond to physical and external forces the same way. We can see external forces through behaviours.
4) Deterministic: behaviour is externally caused
5) the scientific method is the best claim to knowledge
6) Replications = knowledge is logical and consistent with observational fact

Question 27

Criticism of scientific research model?

Answer 27

• Is an idea not a reality
• Model is not ethical for human testing
• How can it be value free?
• Can maintain the status quo
• Doesn’t allow for multiple interpretations (subjective experiences)

Question 28

Interpretivism?

Answer 28

A worldview that sees meaning as socially constructed, action as intentional, and the goal of research as understanding how people create and maintain meaning about the world around them.

• Social reality seen as subjective and thus socially constructed and interpreted through interaction.
• Positivists focus on social reality that is external to the individual and constraints their behaviour.
• Meaning is validated by intersubjectivity: when a phenomena is understood by many in the same way
• problematic to research as if life occurs in a vacuum
• more than one reality as humans reinterpret material

Question 29

Defintion: Constructivism?

Key Constructionist beliefs?

Answer 29

a theoretical worldview that emphasises how people interpret the social world around them.

• Emphasizes the social actors definition of situations and how they produce behaviour
• interpretation based
• contextualism: behaviour must be understood in context

Question 30

Tenants of the Interpretivist worldview?

Answer 30

1) Research purpose = to understand how how people construct meaning and experience everyday experiences
2) social reality = built by individuals perceptions within interactions
3) social meaning is ongoing: patterns are not natural laws but created through interaction
4) human behaviour is a product of free will
5) Knowledge can be contradictory as common sense influences us
6) Knowledge claims are true due to intersubjectivity (provides evidence to a social actors point of view–proves their truth)
7) scientific evidence can only be interpreted in its context
8) advocates reflection (reflexivity) and analysis as part of research

Question 31

Pragmatism tenants?

Answer 31

1) Research purpose is to find what works
2) social reality is context bound
3) individuals act within social, historical and political contexts
4) human behaviour is influenced by both external forces and freedom of choice
5) approach is problem centered not a question of defining reality and laws or choosing between science and common sense knowledge
6) knowledge and truth are what works at a particular point in time
7) empirical evidence is based on actions, situations and consequences
8) theoretical assumptions and worldview determine the level of objectivity and subjectivity as well as the criteria to assess claims to knowledge

Question 32

What does Middle Range Theory do?

Answer 32

• bridges empirical evidence and abstract theories
• Use a limited set of theoretical assumptions to develop research questions which will be confirmed by empirical evidence
• Tries to be general enough to be applicable but still grounded in the real world and can be verified empirically

Question 33

What is basic research?

Answer 33

Goal: advance knowledge and theoretical understandings of a particular social phenomena

Question 34

Applied Research?

Answer 34

research that aims to address an identified concern or to solve a specific problem

Question 35

Exploratory Research?

Answer 35

research that is directed at little understood subjects or developing ideas

Question 36

Descriptive Research?

Answer 36

creates a picture or profile with words or numbers to answer, who what when where or how?

Question 37

Explanatory Research?

Answer 37

conducted to explain why something occurs and to test and refine theory

Question 38

Definition: Scientific Method?

Answer 38

A model of inquiry used to systematically create knowledge based on a set of principles and procedures.

Question 39

Definition: Halo Effect?

Answer 39

A predisposition to admire all actions and words of a person based on the perception of a distinguished quality demonstrated in the past.

Question 40

Definition: Theory?

Answer 40

A set of statements or a model based on empirical evidence and reasoning that helps to explain and predict social phenomena?

Question 41

Definition: Positivism?

Answer 41

a worldview that asserts that scientific knowledge (describes and explains observable phenomena) is the only true knowledge.

Question 42

Definition: Intersubjectivity?

Answer 42

A term that describes a situation with a meaning or definition held by more than one person and that is constructed through interactions with others.

Question 43

Definition: pragmatism?

Answer 43

The position that knowledge is a tool for organising experience and and for merging theory and practice; scientific inquiry cannot avoid the multiple theoretical foundations, perspectives and assumptions if it is to fully understand social phenomena.

Question 44

Definition: Middle Range Theory?

Answer 44

A theoretical approach (or set of statements) that create a bridge between empirical evidence and abstract theories.

Question 45

What does Methodology do?

Answer 45

Shows the ways in which reality is understood (??)

Question 46

Difference between nomothetic and idiographic research?

Answer 46

Nomothetic research seeks to develop laws or rules about the general case

whereas idiographic research is an in-depth understanding of specific historical events (and context)

Question 47

Post-Positivistic worldview:
Idiographic vs nomothetic?
Qualitative vs Quantitative?

Answer 47

Describes and explains observable social phenomena in terms of law like patterns and regularities.
Nomothetic
Quantitative

Question 48

Interpretivist worldview:
Idiographic vs nomothetic?
Qualitative vs Quantitative?

Answer 48

Investigates how we make sense of our lives and define situations as we interact with others.
Idiographic
Qualitative