Research Methods I Final
The totals in the bottom row and right-most column of a table are called _______________, or simply marginals. They are overall frequency distributions of our focal measure that do not take into account differences among the subgroups.
marginal frequencies
According to Miles and Huberman (1994), which of the following is a great way to display qualitative data visually?
matrices
The best approach is a ____________-stage process for coding and analysis.
three
What did Bronislaw Malinowski say is the goal of ethnography?
"to grasp the native's point of view, his relation to life, to realize his version of the world"
In a bivariate regression analysis examining the effect of years of education on average income the resulting equation produced for the best-fitting line is:Average income = -62,181 + (8,283 × Years of education)What statement best describes these results?
$8,283 (In this equation, $8,283 represents the slope of the line and -$62,181 represents the intercept (the value of y when x is 0). The slope of this line is called a regression coefficient, and it tells us how much average income changes as educational attainment changes by 1 year. The resulting equation, Average income = -62,181 + (8,283 ×Years of education), has a regression coefficient of $8,283.)
Trends are essentially bivariate patterns in which one of the variables is ____________ .
time
A researcher conducts a survey of 2,000 adults and finds that 915 have responded stating they are male and 1,085 have responded stating they are female. The researcher creates a dichotomous variable for "sex - female" coded "0" if a respondent said they were male and "1" if a respondent said they were male. What is the mean of the "sex - female" variable?
0.5425 FEEDBACK: The mean of the variable can be calculated as ([985 x 0] + [1,085 x 1]) / [915 + 1,085] = 0.5425
Steps of quantitative comparative analysis
1. Conduct case studies 2. Create a truth table 3. Assess the consistency of cases 4. Compare the associations
The six steps of conducting an interview study
1. Deciding whom to interview and how many people to interview. 2. Writing and pretesting the interview schedule. 3. Coding the responses. 4. Recording and transcribing the interviews 5. Conducting the interviews. 6. Analyzing and writing the results.
Steps of qualitative data analysis
1. Manage and prepare the data 2. Become familiar with and reduce the data 3. Code data for purposes of sorting and retrieval 4. Write memos 5. Build and test models 6. Write a final report, article, or book
Saturation may occur before it's expected, but some researchers suggest that a maximum of how many interviews should be set, since more than that leads to too much information?
150
Researchers can produce an overwhelming volume of field notes. According to your textbook, one week in a field site can yield as many as how many pages of field notes?
200 to 300
How many potential roles can a researcher adopt when doing fieldwork?
4
What is the relative frequency of people who say they believe in God sometimes? (Table 14.01)
4.10%
A researcher conducts a survey of 19 adults and gets the following responses for each individual's age:34, 22, 59, 61, 23, 51, 71, 34, 55, 51, 25, 68, 28, 57, 47, 62, 80, 38, 46What is the mean age in this sample?
48
As a general rule, every 1 hour of interview time takes how many hours to transcribe?
5 to 6
A researcher conducts a survey of 19 adults and gets the following responses for each individual's age:34, 22, 59, 61, 23, 51, 71, 34, 55, 51, 25, 68, 28, 57, 47, 62, 80, 38, 46What is the median age in this sample?
51
The optimum size of a focus group is how many people?
6 to 10
Every 1 hour of recorded interviews can take up to how many hours to transcribe?
8
What does it mean to say that the 95th percentile of household income is $196,000?
95% of households have incomes below $196,000
conditional mean
A conditional mean is the mean (average) of a subset of data. We apply a condition and calculate the mean for values that meet that condition. For example, in a data set that contains data on both males and females, a conditional mean might be the mean of the data pertaining to only the females in the data set.
Two researchers both conduct interviews with teenagers about their sexual activity. These researchers both publish books whose findings are at odds with each other. What concept best explains these different findings?
low reliability
Who wrote 'On the Run'
Alice Goffman
Which of the following statements does your textbook suggest is a key piece of advice for evaluating statistics?
Always consider the source
Ethnography is the principal tool of which discipline?
Anthropology
Which of the following statements about confidence intervals is true?
As sample size increases, the confidence interval narrows.
What strategy helps you think about what your data are telling you as you prepare the data with attribute and index codes?
Asking yourself "so what?" as you find particular passages interesting
Research example that best fits the role of complete participant
Cathy Small's study of college life
Which scholar developed the QCA method in the 1980s?
Charles Ragin
Research example that best fits the role of participant observer
Christine Williams's study of retail workers in toy stores
Which of the following statements about field notes is true?
Conversations should be recorded as best they can.
An example of an advocacy tale is
Deported: Immigrant Policing, Disposable Labor, and Global Capitalism by Tanya Golash-Boza
Which research example uses adductive reasoning
Diane Vaughan's examination of the Challenger disaster
Research example that best fits the role of covert observer
Don Chambliss's study of elite swimmers
Which of the following statements about QCA is true?
QCA does not specify the mechanisms of causation.
How does modeling in qualitative data analysis software differ from modeling in quantitative data analysis software?
Qualitative software cannot tell you whether a finding is even a finding.
Who wrote 'The Stickup Kids: Race, Drugs, Violence, and the American Dream'
Randol Contreras
An example of a confessional tale is
Gang Leader for a Day by Sudhir Venkatesh
One of the most famous and important books based on life history interviews is ____________ .
Glen Elder's 'Children of the Great Depression'
A team of researchers gained approval to conduct an ethnography of a local fast food restaurant as participant observers. While conducting their ethnography, the manager of the restaurant suggested that it seemed like the employees were working more efficiently than normal and "goofing off" less. Which concept might explain this scenario?
Hawthorne effect
Which of the following questions would be appropriate to address using in-depth interviews?
How do parents decide to divide household and child care duties in working-class family households?
Howard Becker suggests you should frame your questions as what kind of questions?
How?
Which of the following statements about in-depth interviews is true?
In-depth interviews are much more flexible than survey interviews.
Who wrote 'Ain't No Makin' It'
Jay MacLeod
Who wrote 'On the Fireline: Living and Dying with Wildland Firefighters'
Matthew Desmond
Which research example uses extended case study approach
Michael Burawoy's examination of a copper company in Zambia
Which of the following statements about writing the final report is true?
One major choice is whether to include case studies or not.
Which of the following statements about trends and surveying is true?
Population trends can happen solely by cohort replacement.
Dr. Jackson conducts a complete participant ethnography of factory workers in which she gets a job as on the factory line. Her coworkers see that she is intelligent and organized and asks her to serve as their union representative. She declines and instead tells her coworkers to vote for a different candidate, Marsha, who was unlikely to win the election without Dr. Jackson's support. Marsha wins the election and becomes the union representative. What concept best applies to Dr. Jackson's actions?
Reactivity
Which of the following is a technique to get interviewees to talk?
Refer to fictional interviewees to get respondents to agree or disagree with a statement.
Which of the following statements about validity and reliability is true?
Reliability is not a strong suit of ethnography.
Research example that best fits the role of covert observer
Robert Sampson and Stephen Raudenbush's study of Chicago life with video cameras
Which of the following statements about early ethnography is true?
Sociologists used ethnography to study their own society while anthropologists studied abroad.
Which of the following statements about managing and preparing qualitative data is true?
Some qualitative data analysis (QDA) software allows a research to collect and centralize multiple types of materials and data together for each respondent.
Which research example uses inductive reasoning
Sudhir Venkatesh's examination of Chicago gangs
An example of a realist tale is
Tally's Corner by Liebow
Which of the following statements about theory and research in ethnography is true?
The correct approach to the use of theory in ethnography depends on the researcher's primary goals.
Which of the following statements about ordinal and nominal variables is true?
The difference between these two types of variables is that categories within nominal variables cannot be ranked while categories within ordinal variables can.
Which of the following statements about in-depth interviewing is true?
The framing of an issue can influence individual responses to questions about that issue.
Which ethical guideline must be violated for ethnographers to take on the role of complete participant?
deception
Quantitative scholars seek to discover and understand the ____________, while qualitative researchers adopt a ____________ approach.
effects-of-causes; causes-of-effects
What type of interview question is: College decision-making visits?
unstructured interview
Which of the following statements about gatekeepers and key informants is true?
The same person can be both a gatekeeper and a key informant.
Which of the following statements about leading and argumentative questions is true?
These types of questions should be rephrased as neutral.
Which of the following statements about validity and reliability is true??
To maximize validity, in-depth interviewers probe respondents with follow-up questions to fully understand their answers.
Dr. Britt conducts an ethnography of policing in a mixed neighborhood in Chicago. In his book, he describes the interactions between neighborhood residents and police in their terms. He draws heavily upon their descriptions and understanding of the situation. Which type of focus is Dr. Britt taking?
emic
Which method was developed in the 1930s and 1940s by two Columbia University sociologists, Paul Lazersfeld and Robert K. Merton?
ethnography
can best describe people's behaviors and whether those behaviors match what those people say
ethnography
Which of the following is an important step in testing models?
examine unique cases that do not fit the conclusions
Which statement best describes the approach advocated by Timmermans and Tavory?
Use both a deductive and an inductive approach in qualitative research.
Thomas Espenshade's project on family strategies for raising children
Visual ethnography
Which ethnographer was one of the first sociologists to apply the anthropological methods of fieldwork to the modern urban community?
William Foote Whyte
Which of the following statements about recording interviews is true?
You should always check the recordings of interviews immediately after they occur.
Dr. Jackson conducts a complete participant ethnography of factory workers in which she gets a job on the factory line. Her coworkers see that she is intelligent and organized and asks her to serve as their union representative. She declines and instead tells her coworkers to vote for a different candidate, Marsha, who was unlikely to win the election without Dr. Jackson's support. Marsha wins the election and becomes the union representative. If Dr. Jackson had accepted the nomination, won the election for union representative, and then focused her efforts on improving the benefits and work conditions of her coworkers, which concept would then best apply to her actions?
going native
The strength of quantitative sociological research depends on ____________ .
good data being collected first, and then on analyzing those data
Dr. Powers wants to conduct an ethnography of Uber and Lyft drivers. She does not have a specific problem or question she wants to address from the beginning, but rather thinks the data should lead her to the most important and interesting area of inquiry. Which approach is Dr. Powers taking?
grounded theory
can help us understand how people see and understand the world and the ways in which they think about and process the social world
in-depth interviews
Which qualitative approach is least like quantitative approaches?
inductive
Which ethical guideline separates ethnographers who take on the role of complete participant and those who take on the role of participant observer?
informed consent
The key to an effective interview is a good ____________ .
interview schedule
Researchers have found that, on average, individuals' political views move slightly more conservative over time. What type of effect is this?
age effect
What type of code is like a filing cabinet label?
attribute
A survey includes the following question and answer choices:"In the past 3 months, how many total sexual encounters have you had?None1 to 2 encounters3 to 5 encounters6 to 10 encountersMore than 10 encounters"What type of variable is "total sexual encounters"?
categorical
Which type of variable cannot be displayed in a histogram?
categorical
What is the most laborious and time-consuming part of qualitative research?
coding
Which type of interview did the U.S. Census Bureau use to revise questions about race and ethnicity?
cognitive interview
Dr. Parker and her graduate students are preparing to conduct an in-depth interview study on mental health among college students. They would like to examine how the presentation of information about resources on college campuses influences whether students decide to seek treatment. The researchers plan to interview campus administrators, mental health professionals, college counselors, and students. Who are the respondents in this study?
college students
Which role runs the greatest risk of misunderstanding the situation being studied?
covert observer
Eiko Ikegami's project on autism
cyberethnography
Quantitative social research can usually be divided into three distinct phases: (1) project design, (2) ____________, and (3) data analysis.
data collection
The American Sociological Association Code of Ethics allows deception as long as there is also ____________ .
debriefing
Data availability often severely limits our ability to detect and examine period and age effects. Even if good data are available and recorded regularly, our ability to detect and examine period and age effects can be limited by changes in ____________ .
measurement
what is the mode
most frequently occurring score
What is the most difficult aspect of fieldwork?
moving from a broad topic to a research question and then to an answer
If a researcher would like to conduct an ethnography of U.S. senators, which role is most logical?
observer
Which type of interview does not require review by institutional review boards?
oral history
Which type of interview tends to be more informal and more open-ended than in-depth qualitative interviews?
oral history
Researchers have found that, on average, individuals who were alive during the September 11, 2001, attacks shifted their views to be more accepting of restraints on personal liberty in exchange for safety. What type of effect is this?
period effect
Dr. Marshall conducts an ethnography that includes interactions between judges and defendants in criminal court. She believes that it is possible to present these interactions in a neutral and unbiased way and writes her book in that fashion. What type of approach is Dr. Marshall taking?
positivist
Analytic codes include ideas that come from ____________ as well as ideas that arise from ____________ themselves.
previous research and theory; respondents
Dr. Maron is conducting an interview study of parents' opinions of local schools and their interactions with the administrators and teachers. He finds that respondents often refer to other parents in the school with off-handed or short remarks. When this happens, Dr. Maron often asks the parents to discuss how they know these other parents and how often they see each other. Which approach is Dr. Maron taking?
probing
When Monica McDermott selected Atlanta and Boston as sites in her ethnography of race relations, she chose to use ____________ .
purposive sampling
Which type of qualitative approach is similar to quantitative approaches in that it attempts to establish causality?
qualitative comparative analysis
Which of the following strategies should be used to enhance reliability?
query the intersection of analytic attributes and textual codes
Although it can be very misleading because it is extremely sensitive to outliers, a simple and informative measure of variation is the ____________ .
range
Researchers must limit how much of themselves they reveal in ethnographic research, but in order to ensure proper understanding it is important for them to establish ____________ .
rapport with research subjects
All social science research--whether quantitative or qualitative--must meet three key criteria. It should be (1) transparent, (2) logical, and (3) ____________.
rigorous
Dr. Parker and her graduate students are preparing to conduct an in-depth interview study on mental health among college students. They would like to examine how the presentation of information about resources on college campuses influences whether students decide to seek treatment. The researchers plan to interview campus administrators, mental health professionals, college counselors, and students. If Dr. Parker and her graduate students choose to interview students from as many campuses as possible, what technique are they using?
sampling for range
The two main types of in-depth interviews are ____________ .
semi-structured and unstructured
What type of interview question is: Tell me about your first college visit. What was it like?
semi-structured interview
Dr. Parker and her graduate students are preparing to conduct an in-depth interview study on mental health among college students. They would like to examine how the presentation of information about resources on college campuses influences whether students decide to seek treatment. The researchers plan to interview campus administrators, mental health professionals, college counselors, and students. If Dr. Parker and her graduate students choose to find interview subjects by asking their initial interviewees to identify friends who might want to talk about their mental health, what technique are they using?
snowball sampling
What type of interview question is: Did you visit the college you decided to attend before making your decision? (Yes, No)
structured interview
can best describe the prevalence of attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors in a population
survey research
Mary Waters' project on second-generation Americans in New York City
team ethnography
The raw data generated during qualitative research most often take the form of ____________ .
text files
Why are the early interactions of ethnographers who are outsiders so challenging?
the ethnographer must be re-socialized
confidence intervals
the range on either side of an estimate that is likely to contain the true value for the whole population
Ultimately, who or what is responsible for the generation, application, and modification of analytic codes?
the researcher
In a bivariate regression analysis, the equation for the function is written as:y = a + bxWhat does the b represent?
the slope of the line
When an ethnographer leaves the field, she may tell her subjects that they have the right to approve their portrayal in published material. However, this practice may undermine ____________.
the validity of the study
Many ethnographers focus on examinations of social class. Shamus Khan, Karen Ho, and Lauren Rivera are three ethnographers who studied which particular level of social class?
upper class
Dr. Collins is conducting an interview study of how individuals decide what neighborhood to live in. She finds that respondents are reluctant to explicitly mention race so she tells a story of a few couples who move into different types of neighborhoods and how they make their decisions. She then asks her interviewees to tell her which couple is most similar to them. Which approach is Dr. Collins taking?
use of vignettes
An early difference between ethnographic anthropology and ethnographic sociology was ____________ .
where fieldwork happens, and now is the use of different tools
