Soc. 361 - Exam 1

Social research motives

-1. Policy motivations -policy guidance and program management needs can stimulate numerous research projects -ex: government agencies, elected officials, and private organizations seeking better descriptions of social ties in the modern world so that they can identify unmet strains in communities, deficits in organizations, or marketing opportunities; public officials may need info for planning zoning restrictions in neighborhoods; law enforcements agencies may seek to track the connections between gangs and the effect of social cohesion of the crime rate; military leaders may seek to strengthen unit cohesion -2. Academic motivations -questions about changing social relations have stimulated much academic social science -the desire to understand better how the social world works is motivation enough for many social scientists -3. Personal motivations -some social scientists who conduct research on social ties feel that be doing so they can help improve the quality of communities, the effectiveness of organizations, or the physical and mental health of many social groups -they may become interest in social ties as a result of exposure to problems in the social problems in the social world, personal experiences, etc. -p. 13

Variable

-a characteristic or property that can vary - take on different values or attributes -the hypothesis proposes a relationship between two or more of these -independent variable = a variable that is hypothesized to cause, or lead to, variation in another variable; the proposed influence -dependent variable = a variable that is hypothesized to vary depending on, or under the influence of, another variable; the effect or consequence -direction of association = a pattern in a relationship between two variables - the values of variables tend to change consistently in relation to change on the other variable; the direction of association can be either positive or negative -positive = when one variable increases, the other increases; when one variable decreases, the other decreases -negative = as one variable increases, the other decreases; vice versa -p. 51

Research circle

-a diagram of the elements of the research process, including theories, hypotheses, data collection, and data analysis -the process of conducting research designed to test explanations for social phenomena involves moving from theory to data and then back to theory -often used in explanatory research -p. 50

Institutional review board (IRB)

-a group of organizational and community representatives required by federal law to review the ethical issues in all proposed research that is federally funded, involves human subjects, or has any potential harm to human subjects -research = a systematic investigation designed to develop or contribute to generalizable knowledge -human subject = a living individual about whom an investigator conducting research obtains data through intervention or interaction with the individual or just identifiable private info -IRB's at universities and other agencies apply ethical standards that are set by federal regulations but can be expanded or specified by the institution's IRB and involve all research at the institution irrespective of the funding source -the IRB has the authority to require changes in a research protocol or to refuse approve a research protocol if it deems human subject protections in adequate -consent forms must include contact information for the IRB and the IRB has the authority to terminate a research projects that violates the procedures the IRB approved or that otherwise creates risks for human subjects -Office of Protection From Research Risks, National Institutes of Health = the office in the US Department of Health and Human Services that provides leadership and supervision about the protection of the rights, welfare, and well-being of subjects involved in research conducted or supported by DHHS, including monitoring IRBS; monitors IRBs, with the exception of research involving drugs (US Food and Drug Admin does that) -regulations require that IRBs include at least 5 members, with at least one non-scientist and one from outside the institution -must be sufficiently qualified though the experience and expertise of its members, including race, gender, and cultural backgrounds and sensitivity to such issues as community attitudes, to promote respect for its advice and counsel in safeguarding the rights and welfare of human subjects -when research is reviewed concerning populations vulnerable to coercion or undue influence (like prisoners), the IRB must include a member knowledgeable about that population -sensitivity to community attitudes and training in human subject protection procedures is required -every member of an institution with an IRB must submit a proposal to their IRB before conducting research with people; the proposal must include research instruments and consent forms, as well as enough detail about the research design to convince the board that the potential benefits outweigh any risks ; IRBs usually require that researchers complete a training program about human subjects (CITI) -new regulations have exempted low perceived risk studies; research about educational procedures in an educational setting; education tests, survey procedures, interview procedures, or observation of public behavior; research involving benign behavioral interventions in conjunction with the collection of info from an adult subject through verbal or written responses -other projects must be reviewed before the full IRB (must show that risks to subjects are minimized, risks to subjects are reasonable in relation to anticipated benefits, and selection of subjects is equitable, informed consent, safeguards for vulnerable populations) -IRB board can also serve as a privacy board that ensures researchers' compliance with HIPAA -p. 87-88

Theory

-a logically interrelated set of propositions about empirical reality -helps us make sense of many interrelated phenomena and predict behavior or attitudes that are likely to occur when certain conditions are met -helps social scientists decide which questions are important to ask about the social world and which are trivial -focuses a spotlight on the particular features of the social world where we should look to get answers, how these features are related to each other, and what features can be ignored -we can understand particular behaviors and orientation better if we consider how they reflect broader social patterns; our answers to general questions will help shape the research questions that we ask and the methods that we use -building and evaluating theory is one of the most important objectives of social science -explains the relationships between phenomenon; answers "why"; are testable through empirical observation -not all research tests theory, but all research has a relationship to theory -since social theories are abstract and can summarize different empirical observations, we can apply the same theory to other contexts and make predictions -should be able to explain multiple, specific empirical observations about social processes; is useless if it can only explain why a specific person chose to perform a specific behavior -p. 33;Ch. 2/3 PP

Achievement of valid results

-a main ethical principle -commitment to is the necessary starting point for ethical research practice -we have no business asking people to answer question, submit to observations, or participate in experimental procedures if we are simply seeking to verify our preexisting prejudices or convince others to take action on behalf of our personal interests -if we approach our research projects objectively, we can honestly represent our actions as potentially contributing to the advancement of knowledge -Milgram/the shock study: -he made a strong case in his article and book that he was committed to achieving valid results - to learning how and why obedience influence behavior; he tied his motivations to the Holocaust horrors -according to him, every step in the experiment was carefully deigned to ensure that subjects received identical stimuli and that their responses were measured carefully -he made every effort to convince readers that the particular conditions (setting at Yale, worthy purpose to advance knowledge, voluntary participations of the subjects) of his experiment created the conditions for achieving valid results -not all social scientists agreed that his approach could achieve valid results -Diana Baumrind critique: rejected that his experiment could be generalized from the lab setting; argued that he constructed a set of conditions so internally inconsistent that they could not occur in real life -other critiques: -Milgram understated the experimenter's efforts to get the subjects to comply, overstated the subjects' level of obedience, never publicized one condition in which subjects refused to give strong shocks when the learner was a friend, and did not acknowledge that even those classified as obedient were looking for a way to get out of the experiment -his claim that the results were replicated in similar experiments was only partially true -the experiment location at Yale with the emphasis on a contribution to science influenced many participants -p. 71-74

Honesty and openness

-a main ethical principle -scientists need to be open in disclosing their methods and honest in presenting their findings -research distorted by political or personal pressures to find particular outcomes or to achieve the most marketable results is unlikely to be carried out in an honest and open fashion -articles and reports must include a methodology section, research instruments, or websites/addresses where more information can be obtained; many disciplines offer written guidelines for how one should document the procedures associated with research projects -Milgram/the shock study: he presented his research in a way that would signal is adherence to the goal of honesty and openness (detailed study procedures, introduction to participants, learning task procedures, the shock, the administration of the shock, instructions for participants, feedback from participants, etc.) -the act of publication itself is a vital element in maintaining openness and honesty; others can review and question study procedures and so generate an open dialogue with the researcher; utilizing journals widely available to social scientists results in a more comprehensive presentation of study procedures and a more thoughtful discourse about research ethics -Gina Perry critique of the Milgram shock study: misleading statement by Milgram about participants' post-experiment debriefing about adherence to the treatment protocol, about the extent of participants' apparent distress, and about the extent of support for his favored outcome -openness about research procedures and results goes hand in hand with honesty in research design and in research reporting -despite the need for openness, some researchers may hesitate to disclose their procedures or results to prevent others from building on their ideas and taking some of the credit or to make their procedures seem more acceptable or their findings more impressive -conflicts of interest = when a researcher has a significant financial stake in the design or outcome of his or her own research -receiving speaking fees, consulting fees, patents or royalties, and other financial benefits from organizations that could be affected by research conclusions may lead researchers to distort their decisions and findings so as to protect these financial benefits -many medical schools have regulation that prohibit their staff/researchers from accepting any tangible benefits from pharmaceutical companies -federal research funding agencies and journal editors require disclosure of possible conflict of interest so that others can scrutinize the extent to which these conflicts may have lessened researchers' honesty and openness -experimental research suggests, though, that disclosure does not reduce trust in advice from people who have disclosed a conflict of interest -p. 74-75; Ch. 2/3 PP

Protection of research participants

-a main ethical principle -several standard concerning the treatment of human subjects are emphasized in federal regulations and the ethical guidelines adopted by many professional social science organizations: -1. research should cause no harm to subjects -2. participation in research should be voluntary; therefore, subjects must give their informed consent to participate in the research and researchers must disclose their identity -3. researchers should avoid deception, except in limited circumstances -4. anonymity or confidentiality must be maintained for individual research participants unless it is waived voluntarily and explicitly -5. scientists must consider the uses of a research project so that its benefits outweigh any foreseeable risks -p. 75-76

Benefits outweigh risks

-a main ethical principle -although many scientists believe that personal values should be left outside the lab, some feel that it is proper and even necessary for scientists to concern themselves with the way their research is used -Milgram/the shock experiment: was concerned about the phenomenon of obedience precisely because of its implications for people's welfare; connected to Nazis, Vietnam War, American Indian depopulation, Japanese internment, etc. -Sherman and Berk domestic violence study: cautionary take about the uses of science; despite cautioning police department not to adopt mandatory arrest policies based solely on the Minneapolis experiment, the results were publicized by the media and encouraged many jurisdictions to change their policies; now knowing that the policy did not hold up in every city tested, it is unclear whether the changes were beneficial -social scientists who conduct research on behalf of specific organizations may face additional difficulties when the organization, instead of the researchers, controls the final report and the publicity it receives; if organizational leaders decide that particular research results are unwelcome, the researchers' desire to have the findings used appropriately and reported fully can conflict with contractual obligations; researchers can often anticipate such dilemmas in advance and resolve them when the contract for research is negotiated or they may simply decline the research altogether; often such problems are ignored by a research who needs to have a job or needs to maintain particular personal relationships; this cannot be avoided entirely, but it is always important to acknowledge the source of research funding in reports and to consider carefully the sources of funding for research reports written by others -**the potential for withholding a beneficial treatment from some subjects also is a cause for ethical concern; ex: Sherman and Berk domestic violence study; required the random assignment of subjects to treatment conditions and thus had a potential of causing harm to the victims whose batterers were not arrested; however, the justification for the study design is that researchers didn't know before the experiment which response to the dv complaint would be most likely to deter future incidents (benefits outweigh risk) -in some projects, the safety of the researchers and their staff also requires consideration; research in some social settings about organized crimes, and in some countries involving insurgent movements and military abuses, have resulted in researchers being killed, injury, or arrested; interviewers or observers may also suffer emotional reactions to harm done to others, including those they interview; every research project should begin with careful consideration of whether researcher and staff safety may be an issue; if it is, a safety protocol must be developed in which procedures for ensuring safety are spelled out -p. 85-87

Concept

-a mental image that summarizes a set of similar observations, feelings, or ideas -ex: binge drinking -to make this useful in research, we have to define it -vary in their level of abstraction and this, in turn, affects how readily we can specify the indicators pertaining to the concept; ex: the concrete concept of age could have a concrete indicator of "years since birth"; binge drinking requires a little more thought; ex: an abstract concept such as social status may have indicators such as level of esteem in a group, extent of influence over others, level of income and education, number of friends -do not necessarily vary; gender may be an important concept in a study of influences on binge drinking, but it isn't a variable in a study of members of a frat; we won't be able to study differences between males and females and their drinking habits; here, gender will not be a variable, but a constant - a number that has fixed value in a given situation; a characteristics or value that does not change -p. 104, 110-112

Constant

-a number that has fixed value in a given situation; a characteristics or value that does not change -discussed in relation to how concepts do not necessarily vary -p. 112

Direction of association

-a pattern in a relationship between two variables - the values of variables tend to change consistently in relation to change on the other variable; the direction of association can be either positive or negative -positive = when one variable increases, the other increases; when one variable decreases, the other decreases (two variables move in the same direction) -negative = as one variable increases, the other decreases; vice versa (two variables move in the opposite direction) -p. 51; Ch. 2/3 PP

Research question (social)

-a question about the social world that is answered through the collection and analysis of firsthand, verifiable, empirical data -it is not a question about who did what to whom, but a question about people in groups, about general social processes, or about tendencies in community change -three stages of formulation: 1.Identifying one or more questions for study -may emerge from own experiences/interests/troubles, the research literature (often the best source; which often ends with unresolved issues and suggestions for additional research), social theory, pragmatic/practical sources 2. Refining the questions -commitment to the time and effort for some research questions may seem overwhelming and lead to paralysis; the best way to avoid these issues is to develop a research question gradually 3. Evaluating the questions -evaluating the best candidate against the criteria for a good social research question: feasibility (given the time and resources available), social importance, and scientific relevance ->feasibility = must be able to conduct the study in time, with the available resources, available access to people or groups, limitations on what one person can accomplish, constraints of schedule, skill level, and ethics ->social importance = because of the effort and resources needed in social research, it is hard to justify it unless it is important to other people and will make a difference for society (even if that just means helping people understand a problem they consider important) ->scientific relevance = research questions should be grounded in social science literature; turn to the literature to fins out what has already been learned and where there is room for additional research -should be anchored in sociology: sociologists think about how groups of people interact and about how individuals fit into larger shared systems of thought, resource distribution, and power, among other things -does not document an expectation about how two variables are related (which is what a hypothesis does) -usually associated with qualitative data, but you may use these for any method in your proposal -is anchored in a discipline, deals with a narrow topic, and is answered with empirical data; different than a research topic which is a broad subject area -research topic (broad): how does technology influence health outcomes? -this (narrow): how does news media coverage of breaches in electronic health record systems shape the public's privacy and security concerns of these systems? -p. 30-33; Ch. 2/3 PP

Mutually exclusive

-a question's response choices are this when every case can be classified as having only one attribute (or value) -p. 118

Exhaustive

-a question's response choices are this when they cover all possible responses -researchers may need to offer at least one option with room for ambiguity, such as "other, please specify" -p.118

Scientific paradigms

-a set of beliefs that guide scientific work in an area, including unquestioned presuppositions, accepted theories, and exemplary research findings -Kuhn argued that most of the time, one scientific paradigm is accepted as the prevailing wisdom in a field and that scientists test ideas that make sense within the paradigm -Normal science = the gradual, incremental research conducted by scientists within the prevailing scientific paradigm -some, however, view conflict, functionalist, and symbolic interaction theories as alternative paradigms -p. 35

Science

-a set of logical, systematic, documented methods for investigating nature and natural processes; the knowledge produced by these investigations -allows others to inspect and evaluate its methods, and thus develops a body of knowledge that is continually refined on the basis of empirical evidence -p. 10

Generalizability

-a social research standard -exists when a conclusion holds true for the population, group, setting, or event that we say it does, given the condition that we specify -the extent to which a study can be used to inform us about persons, places, or events that were not studied -two aspects: 1. Sample generalizability = exists when a conclusion based on a sample, or subset, of a larger population holds true for that population; the most common meaning of generalizability 2. Cross generalizability/external validity = exists when findings about one group, population, or setting hold true for other groups, populations, or settings; ex: Sherman and Berk domestic violence study could not achieve this because the people in different locations responded differently -a key concern in research design; because we can never be sure that our findings will hold under all conditions, we should be cautious in generalizing to populations or periods that we did not sample -p. 59-60

Causal validity/internal validity

-a social research standard -exists when a conclusion that A leads to or results in B is correct -refers to the truthfulness of an assertion that A causes B -social scientists are frequently concerned with this because most research seeks to determine what causes what -p. 60-61

Measurement validity

-a social research standard -exists when a measure measures what we think it measures -do our measurements capture what is intended accurately? -the first concern in establishing the validity of research results -ex: if we seek to describe the frequency of domestic violence in families, we need to develop a valid procedure for measuring domestic violence -the first step in achieving this is to specify clearly what it is we intend to measure (ex: providing a clearly definition of intimate partner violence and each type of violence included in it) -then, you can specify the questions to be asked to measure the variable (such as intimate partner violence incidents) -must consider other issues like underreporting, making up, etc. -p. 58-59; Ch. 2/3 PP

Validity

-a social research standard -the state that exists when statements or conclusions about empirical reality are correct -often difficult to achieve -three types: measurement validity, generalizability, and casual/internal validity -p. 57-58

Authenticity

-a social research standard -when the understanding of a social process or social setting is one that reflects fairly the various perspectives of participants in a setting -the goal of this is stressed by researchers who focus attention on the subjective dimension of the social world -exists when descriptions of the social world mirror how participants, not scientists, see or experience social life -is one of several different standards proposed by some observers as uniquely suited to qualitative research; it reflects a belief that those who study the social world should focus first and foremost on how participants view that social world, rather than on developing a unique social scientists' interpretation of that world; emphasizes the need for recognizing that what is understood by participants as reality is a linguistic and social construction of reality -ex: Moe viewed her domestic violence shelter female participants to have this in their interviews -p. 61; Ch. 2/3 PP

Sample generalizability

-a social research standard and one of two aspects of generalizability -exists when a conclusion based on a sample, or subset, of a larger population holds true for that population -the most common meaning of generalizability -p. 59

Cross generalizability/external validity

-a social research standard and one of two aspects of generalizability -exists when findings about one group, population, or setting hold true for other groups, populations, or settings; ex: Sherman and Berk domestic violence study could not achieve this because the people in different locations responded differently -p. 59

Rational choice theory

-a social theory that explains individual action with the principle that actors choose actions that maximize their gains from taking that action -assumes that people's behavior is shaped by practical cost-benefit calculations -specific deterrence theory = applies rational choice theory to crime and punishment; arresting spouse abusers will lessen their likelihood of reoffending by increasing the costs of reoffending; crime doesn't pay as much -p. 34

Functionalism

-a social theory that explains social patterns in terms of their consequences for society as a whole and that emphasizes the interdependence of social institutions and their common interest in maintaining the social order -Durkheim (organic solidarity = interdependence of people similar to that of organs in the body) -crime is explained as occurring because it is functional for society to delimit the boundaries around acceptable behavior -p. 35

Symbolic interaction theory

-a social theory that focuses on the symbolic nature of social interaction - how social interaction conveys meanings and promotes socialization -labeling theory = uses a symbolic interactionist approach to explain deviance as an offenders' reaction to the application of rules and sanctions; claims that once the offender is labeled as deviant by undergoing arrest, other people treat the offender as deviant and he or she is then more likely to act in a way that is consistent with the label deviant; claims that the act of punishment stimulates more of the very behavior it was intended to eliminate (opposite of deterrence theory) -p. 34

Conflict theory

-a social theory that identifies conflict between social groups as the primary force in society; understanding the bases and consequences of the conflict is key to understanding social processes -Marx and Engel (conflict drives social change) -focuses on basic conflict between different social groups in society and how groups attempt to exercise domination to their own benefit -focuses attention on the conflicting interests of groups rather than on the individuals' concerns with maximizing their self-interest -as applied to crime, conflict theory suggests that laws and the criminal justice system are tools of the upper classes to maintain their dominance over lower classes -p. 34

Procedural justice theory

-a social theory that predicts that people will obey the law from a sense of obligation that flows from seeing legal authorities as moral and legitimate -asserts that individuals who are arrested will be less likely to reoffend if they are treated fairly, irrespective of the outcome of their case, because fair treatment will enhance their view of legal authorities as moral and legitimate -focuses out attention on how authorities treat people rather than just on what decisions the authorities make about people -p. 34

Empirical generalization

-a statement that describes patterns found in data -ex: in this case, the empirical generalization was consistent with the hypothesis that the researchers deduced from deterrence theory; the theory thus received support from the experiment -an element of the research circle -in regard to descriptive research, it begins with data and proceeds only to the stage of making this (the end of descriptive research) -p. 52, 56

Avoid deception in research, except in limited circumstances

-a subset of the main ethical principle of protection of research participants -Deception = used in social experiments to create more "realistic" treatments in which the true purpose of the research is not disclosed to participants, often within the confines of a laboratory -subjects are misled about research procedures to determine how they would react to the treatment if they were not research subjects -is a critical component in many social psychology experiments, partly because of the difficulty simulating real-world stresses and dilemmas in a lab setting -ex: fake shocks in the Milgram experiment were necessary because they could not let participants use real shocks, but it would not have made sense to order the subjects to do something that they didn't find to be so troubling -other examples: injecting volunteers with adrenaline, but told it was a vitamin supplement, faking seizures to test helpfulness, sending "customers" to browse high-end stores to test racial profiling, using virtual reality to repeat the Milgram experiment -the new federal regulations relax concerns about deception of the type often used in lab experiments in social psychology; deception is authorized in research where the subject is informed that he or she will be unaware of or misled regarding the nature or purposes of the research -p. 83-84

Avoid harming research participants

-a subset of the main ethical principle of protection of research participants -can be difficult to interpret in specific cases and harder to define in an agreeable way to all social scientists -Milgram/the shock study: it generated extraordinary tension (physical manifestations like sweat, trembling, stuttering, seizures, etc.) -critique: from Baumrind's perspective, this disturbance was potentially harmful because it could alter a subject's self-image or ability to trust adult authorities in the future -Milgram: follow-up survey showed that 83.7% were very glad or glad to have been in the experiment, 15.1% were neither sorry nor glad, and 1.3% were sorry or very sorry to have participated; interviews by a psychiatrist a year later found no evidence of any traumatic reactions -critique: the psychiatrist did not disclose that of 780 participants, only 140 were invited for an interview, and only 32 of those accepted the invitation; thus, Milgram's argument that the central moral justification for allowing the experiment is that is was judged acceptable by those who took part in it, does not hold up -Milgram: reported that he attempted to minimize harm to subjects with post-experimental procedures to assure that the subject would leave the lab in a state of well-being; stated that a friendly reconciliation was arranged between subject and victim and an effort was made to reduce any tensions that arose from the experiment -critique: the "dehoaxing" was brief and did not disclose the deception to most participants; most participants did not receive a letter informing them of the nature of the experiment until almost a year had passed; Baumrind argued that students who have participated in deception experiments report a decreased trust in authorities - a harm in itself; Perry found psychological harm, including feelings of shame that had persisted since the experiment and that debriefing never occurred for some participants and was very limited for almost all (participants told that the shocks were not harmful afterward, but not that the shocks were fake) -Zimbardo prison simulation study = the famous prison simulation study at Stanford university by psychologist Philip Zimbardo, designed to investigate the impact of social position on behavior - specifically, the impact of being either a guard or a prisoner in a "total institution"; widely cited as demonstrating the likelihood of emergence of sadistic behavior in guards; termination after six days to avoid harming subjects -p. 76-78

Privacy and confidentiality

-a subset of the main ethical principle of protection of research participants -the researcher's commitment to that standard should be included in the informed consent agreement -procedures to protect each subject's privacy (such as locking records and creating special identifying codes) must be established to minimize the risk of access by unauthorized persons -statements about confidentiality, though, must be realistic; laws allow research records to be subpoenaed and may require reporting of child abuse; a researcher may feel compelled to release information if a health or life-threatening situation arises and participants need to be alerted -the standard of confidentiality does not apply to observation in public places and information available in public records -the one exception to come of these constraints is that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) can issue a Certificate of Confidentiality = a certificate issued to a researcher by the National Institutes of Health that ensures the right to protect from legal subpoenas information obtained about high-risk populations or behaviors - except child abuse or neglect; protects researchers from being legally required to disclose confidential information; is intended to help researchers overcome the reluctance of individuals engaged in illegal behavior to sign a consent form or to risk exposure of their illegal activities; researchers who are focusing on high-risk populations or behaviors including crime, substance abuse, sexual activity, or genetic information can request this; crimes such as child abuse or neglect must still be reported, and in some states, elder abuse too -Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) = congressional legislation passed in 1996 that creates stringent regulations for the protection of health care data; applies to oral, written, and electronic information that relates to past, present, or future physical or mental health or condition of an individuals; requires that researchers have valid authorization for any use or disclosure of protected health information from a health care provider; waivers of authorization can be granted in special circumstances -p. 85

Obtain informed consent

-a subset of the main ethical principle of protection of research participants -to be informed, consent must be given by the persons who are competent to consent, have consented voluntarily, are fully informed about the research and know who is conducting the research, and have comprehended what they have been told to do -full disclosure of everything that could possibly affect a given subject's decision to participate is not possible, and therefore cannot be ethically required -the researcher's action and body language should help convey his or her verbal assurance that consent is voluntary -the language of the consent form must be clear and understandable to the research participants and yet sufficiently long and detailed to explain what will actually happen in the research -lengthy consent forms: can reduce willingness to participate in research and perhaps influence their responses if they do agree to participate; can also be difficult to understand when it discusses issues like medical treatments and side effects; the new federal human subject regulations adopted in 2017 include a requirement for an initial concise explanation in consent forms that is intended to improve participant understanding -key information in consent forms includes identification of the consent as voluntary participation in research, its purposes and expected duration and procedures, and reasonably foreseeable risks and benefits, as well as alternative treatments -the process and possibility of obtaining this must consider the capacity of prospective participants to give informed consent: -children cannot legally give consent to participate in research (they must be given the opportunity to give or withhold their assent to participate, usually by a verbal response, and the guardian must give written informed consent) -special protections for other populations who are likely to be vulnerable to coercion or undue influence, including prisoners, individuals with impaired decision-making ability, and educationally or economically disadvantaged persons -obtaining informed consent also becomes more challenging in collectivist communities (usually non-Western cultures) in which leaders or the whole group are accustomed to making decisions for individual members; researchers may have to develop a relationship with the community before individuals can be engaged in research -subject payments create another complication for achieving this; although payments to participants can be a reasonable way to compensate for time and effort, payments also serve as an inducement to participate; if the payment is a significant amount in relation to the participants' usual income, it could lead people to set aside their reservations about participating in a project -p. 79-82, 83

Hypothesis

-a tentative statement about empirical reality, involving a relationship between two or more variables -the specific expectation deduced from the more general theory -this is what the researchers actually test, not the complete theory itself -proposes a relationship between two or more variables = a characteristics or property that can vary - take on different values or attributes -documents an expectation about how two variables are related (unlike a research question) -development of these are typically limited to research with a quantitative orientation -p. 51

Independent variable

-a variable that is hypothesized to cause, or lead to, variation in another variable; the proposed influence -p. 51

Dependent variable

-a variable that is hypothesized to vary depending on, or under the influence of, another variable; the effect or consequence -p. 51

"Value-conscious" orientation to social research

-an alternative research orientation -belief that the real object of science is to benefit man and a science which fails to do so is lifeless -p. 21

Qualitative methods

-an alternative research orientation -methods such as participant observation, intensive interviewing, and focus groups that are designed to capture social life as participants experience it rather than in categories predetermined by the researcher; these methods rely on written or spoken words or observation that do not often have a direct numerical interpretation and typically involve exploratory research questions, inductive reasoning, and orientation to social context and human subjectivity, and the meanings attached by participants to events and to their lived -more often used when the motive for research is exploration -ex: interviewing residents to describe incidents that shape how they perceive the police, or asking patients to describe their views of doctors. -no numbers attached to what they say, but as researchers we could create them (e.g., count the number of times the residents or patients use the word "trust" in their responses). -we compare the different ways people talk about phenomenon and numbers we may attach to them -p. 19/Ch. 1 PP

Quantitative methods

-an alternative research orientation -methods such as surveys and experiments that record variation in social life in terms of categories that vary in amount; data that are treated as quantitative are either numbers or attributes that can be ordered by magnitude -most often used by the motives for research are explanation, description, or evaluation -ex: the number of police arrests, the level of job satisfaction a worker reports. -we can make comparisons based on ranking, such as which race is more likely to be arrested, or which race is more likely to be satisfied with their job -p. 19/Ch. 1 PP

Applied research

-an alternative research orientation -research conducted using the scientific method and addressing immediate, practical concerns, such as determining whether one program or policy has a more desirable impact than another -evaluation research and research motivated by practical concerns -p. 20

Basic science

-an alternative research orientation -research conducted using the scientific method and having the goal of figuring out what the world is like and why it works as it does -p. 20

"Value-free" orientation to social research

-an alternative research orientation -the positivist and postpositivist philosophies consider value considerations to be beyond the scope of science -their view is that an empirical science cannot tell anyone what he should do, but rather what he can do, and under certain circumstances, what he wishes to do -the idea is that developing valid knowledge about how society is organized, or how we live our lives, does not tell us how society should be organized or how we should live our lives; the determination of empirical facts should be a separate process from the evaluation of these facts as satisfactory or unsatisfactory -the idea is not to ignore value considerations, but to hold them in abeyance during the research project until results are published -belief that science is not interested in making the world a better place to live, it is interested directly in one thing only, to discovering new knowledge -p. 20-21

Inaccurate observation

-an error in reasoning about the social world -an observation based on faulty perceptions of empirical reality -observations that are simply inaccurate -ex: look around the room and think there are 14 people, but there are really 17 -often occur in casual conversation and in everyday observation of the world around us -ex: we see a patient crying in front of a male doctor and think it's because the male doctor was mean. What we didn't see is the doctor telling the patient they have cancer -this bias influences how we collect evidence -p. 7-8/Ch. 1 PP

Selective observation

-an error in reasoning about the social world -choosing to look only at things that are in line with our preferences or beliefs -a common mistake in learning about the social world -ex: when inclined to criticize individuals or institutions, it is too easy to notice their every failure -ex: we think men are better doctors, so we overlook observations of women doctors who are just as competent -this bias influences how we collect evidence -p. 7/Ch.1 PP

Resistance to change

-an error in reasoning about the social world -the reluctance to change our ideas in light of new information; may occur for several reasons: -1. Ego-based commitments = it can be difficult to admit that we were wrong once we have staked out a position on an issue -2. Excessive devotion to tradition = too much devotion to tradition can stifle adaptation to changing circumstances; when we distort our observations or alter our reasoning so that we can maintain beliefs that "were good enough for my grandfather, so they're good enough for me", we hinder out ability to accept new findings and develop new knowledge -3. Uncritical agreement with authority = if we do not have the courage to evaluate critically the ideas of those in positions of authority, we will have little basis for complaint if they exercise their authority over us in ways we don't like; ex: possible that uncritical agreement with compute industry authorities led to so many utopian visions for the future of the internet -ex: we find evidence that women and men make equally competent doctors, but we assumed that there would be a difference and refuse the evidence anyway -this bias influences our conclusions/responses to research questions -p. 9-10/Ch. 1 PP

Illogical reasoning

-an error in reasoning about the social world -when we prematurely jump to conclusions or argue on the basis of invalid assumptions -ex: with the knowledge that only 13% of American households reported not using the internet, and you jump to the conclusion that those people think that the information revolution is a waste of time (when, in fact, it is likely mostly due to poverty) -ex: we conclude that women doctors are better than male doctors because we assume that women are just better at taking care of people than men -this bias influences our conclusions/responses to research questions -p. 9/Ch. 1 PP

Overgeneralization

-an error in reasoning about the social world -when we unjustifiably conclude that what is true for some cases is true for all cases -we only have the ability and inclination to interact with a small fraction of the individuals who inhabit the social world, but we easily overgeneralize to all or most people -ex: assuming that most people don't like jury duty, when in fact 75% view it as a privilege -ex: we observe one woman doctor who is great at taking care of patients and one man doctor who is not, and we conclude that women are better doctors. -this bias influences our conclusions/responses to research questions -p. 8-9/Ch. 1 PP

Pseudoscience

-claims presented so that they appear scientific even though they lack supporting evidence and plausibility -are not always easy to identify, and many people believe them -ex: half of Americans believe in astrology even though it has been found to be baseless -p. 13

Scientific approach

-designed to reduce greatly potential sources of error in everyday reasoning -the central element of this is investigating phenomena in the world by testing ideas about them with observations (empirical data) of those phenomena -many scientists accept other elements as important to it: -1. Falsifiability = scientific ideas can be put to a test and potentially shown to be false -2. Theoretical = science seeks general explanations for phenomena -3. Empiricism = science focuses on phenomena in the real world that can be observed directly or indirectly -4. Objectivity = the foal of science is objective assessment of evidence (freedom from bias); a commitment to "intersubjectivity" or accepting as scientifically trustworthy only evidence that receives support from other scientists -5. Community = scientific research is conducted in a community of scientists who share and challenge each other's findings and beliefs -6. Simplicity = a proposed explanation is preferred over others if it is simpler -p. 10-11

Closed-ended (fixed-choice) question

-discussed in relation to constructing questions, which is a measurement technique -a survey question that provides preformatted response choices for the respondent to circle or check -respondents are offered explicit responses from which to choose -most surveys of a large number of people contain primarily this type of question, which are easy to process with computers and analyze with stats -respondents are more likely to answer the questions that the researchers really wants them to, reduces ambiguity/makes it easier for respondents to answer -however, can also obscure what people really think if the choices do not match their thoughts and some respondents will choose response choices that do not apply to them to simply give an answer -response choices should be mutually exclusive and exhaustive -Mutually exclusive - a question's response choices are mutually exclusive when every case can be classified as having only one attribute (or value) -Exhaustive - a question's response choices are exhaustive when they cover all possible responses; researchers may need to offer at least one option with room for ambiguity, such as "other, please specify" -p. 118

Open-ended questions

-discussed in relation to constructing questions, which is a measurement technique -a survey question to which the respondent replies in his or her own words, either by writing or by talking -without explicit response choices -are preferable when the range of responses cannot adequately be anticipated -can lessen confusion about the meaning of responses involving complex concepts -in qualitative research, open-ended questions are often used to explore the meaning respondents give to abstract concepts (ex: mental illness) -should be reviewed for clarity before they are used -any attitude or behavior less likely to be reported if it must be volunteered in response to this type of question -p. 119

Observations

-discussed in relation to measurement/a measurement technique -can be used to measure characteristics of individuals, events, and places; may be the primary form of measurement or may be supplemental -can be used as indicators for some concepts (ex: police interaction, unconscious facial expressions when listening to male and female presentations, apparentness of mental illness in people at a homeless shelter) -direct: observing police-citizen interactions (but wouldn't they behave differently if they know you're watching?) -indirect: observing behind a one-way mirror (they're unlikely to change behavior, but isn't this creepy?) -is often the method of choice for measuring behavior in natural settings, as long as it is possible to make those observations -avoids the problems of poor recall and self-serving distortions that can occur in surveys and allows measurement in a context that is more natural than an interview -however, it can be distorted; observers do not see or hear everything and what they do see is filtered by their own senses and perspectives; also, the presence of an observer may cause people to act differently than they would otherwise -p. 119-120; Mod. 3 PP

Questions

-discussed in relation to measurement/a measurement technique -the most common and probably most versatile operation for measuring social variables -we associate questions with survey research, but questions are also often the basis of measures used in social experiments and in qualitative research -even though questions are straightforward and efficient ways of measurement, facts about events, level of knowledge, and opinions of any sort can result in misleading or inappropriate answers -memories and perceptions can be limited and some respondents may give misleading answers -all questions proposed for study must be screened carefully for their adherence to basic guidelines and then tested and revised until the researcher feels some confidence they will be clear to the intended respondents and likely to measure then intended concept -single questions are very popular -multiple questions may increase reliability and are almost always preferred, but we are limited by time and money -can be designed with or without explicit response choices 1.Closed-ended (fixed-choice) question - a survey question that provides preformatted response choices for the respondent to circle or check -respondents are offered explicit responses from which to choose -most surveys of a large number of people contain primarily this type of question, which are easy to process with computers and analyze with stats -respondents are more likely to answer the questions that the researchers really wants them to, reduces ambiguity/makes it easier for respondents to answer -however, can also obscure what people really think if the choices do not match their thoughts and some respondents will choose response choices that do not apply to them to simply give an answer -response choices should be mutually exclusive and exhaustive -Mutually exclusive - a question's response choices are mutually exclusive when every case can be classified as having only one attribute (or value) -Exhaustive - a question's response choices are exhaustive when they cover all possible responses; researchers may need to offer at least one option with room for ambiguity, such as "other, please specify" 2.Open-ended questions - a survey question to which the respondent replies in his or her own words, either by writing or by talking -without explicit response choices -are preferable when the range of responses cannot adequately be anticipated -can lessen confusion about the meaning of responses involving complex concepts -in qualitative research, open-ended questions are often used to explore the meaning respondents give to abstract concepts (ex: mental illness) -should be reviewed for clarity before they are used -any attitude or behavior less likely to be reported if it must be volunteered in response to this type of question -p. 118-119; Mod. 3 PP

Deception

-discussed in relation to the subset avoid deception in research except in limited circumstances within the main ethical principle of protection of research participants -used in social experiments to create more "realistic" treatments in which the true purpose of the research is not disclosed to participants, often within the confines of a laboratory -subjects are misled about research procedures to determine how they would react to the treatment if they were not research subjects -is a critical component in many social psychology experiments, partly because of the difficulty simulating real-world stresses and dilemmas in a lab setting -ex: fake shocks in the Milgram experiment were necessary because they could not let participants use real shocks, but it would not have made sense to order the subjects to do something that they didn't find to be so troubling -other examples: injecting volunteers with adrenaline, but told it was a vitamin supplement, faking seizures to test helpfulness, sending "customers" to browse high-end stores to test racial profiling, using virtual reality to repeat the Milgram experiment -the new federal regulations relax concerns about deception of the type often used in lab experiments in social psychology; deception is authorized in research where the subject is informed that he or she will be unaware of or misled regarding the nature or purposes of the research -p. 83-84

Certificate of confidentiality

-discussed in relation to the subset maintain privacy and confidentiality within main ethical principle of protection of research participants -a certificate issued to a researcher by the National Institutes of Health that ensures the right to protect from legal subpoenas information obtained about high-risk populations or behaviors - except child abuse or neglect -the one exception to confidentiality constraints is this; protects researchers from being legally required to disclose confidential information -is intended to help researchers overcome the reluctance of individuals engaged in illegal behavior to sign a consent form or to risk exposure of their illegal activities -researchers who are focusing on high-risk populations or behaviors including crime, substance abuse, sexual activity, or genetic information can request this -crimes such as child abuse or neglect must still be reported, and in some states, elder abuse too -p. 85

Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)

-discussed in relation to the subset maintain privacy and confidentiality within main ethical principle of protection of research participants -congressional legislation passed in 1996 that creates stringent regulations for the protection of health care data -applies to oral, written, and electronic information that relates to past, present, or future physical or mental health or condition of an individuals -requires that researchers have valid authorization for any use or disclosure of protected health information from a health care provider -waivers of authorization can be granted in special circumstances -p. 85

Debriefing

-discussed in relation to the subset obtain informed consent within the main ethical principle of protection of research participants -a researcher's informing subjects after an experiment about the experiment's purposes and methods and evaluating subjects' personal reactions to the experiment -experimental research whose research design requires some type of subject deception try to get around this problem by withholding some information before the experiment begins but then doing this at the end -the researcher explains to the subjects what happened in the experiment and why, and then responds to their questions -a carefully designed debriefing procedure can help the research participants learn from the experimental research and grapple constructively with feelings elicited by the realization that they were deceived -in some cases, debriefed subjects who disclose the nature of the experiment to other participants can contaminate results (apparently, this is why Milgram delayed the debriefing significantly, which then decreases the ability to lessen harm resulting from deception) -p. 82

Tearoom trade

-discussed in relation to the subset obtain informed consent within the main ethical principle of protection of research participants -the study by sociologist Laud Humphreys of men who engaged in homosexual behavior in public facilities, including subsequent later interviews in their homes after recording their license plate numbers; widely cited in discussion of the need for informed consent to research -Humphreys decided that truly informed consent would be impossible to obtain -when later visiting their homes, he claimed that he was interviewing them as a part of a larger study of social issues -concluded that the men were, for the most part, suburban men whose families were unaware of their sexual practices -criticized by many for failing to obtain consent -p. 82-83

Ethical principles - tensions

-ex: you interview men who were sexually abused as children to understand the long-term effects of abuse -ethical problem: these men may feel embarrassment and suffer additional psychological harm if their identified by others in your research study (breaks ethical principle #3 protecting research participants) -solution: when you refer to the men in your reports about the findings, you use pseudonyms; you also use pseudonyms to refer to any locations that could be used to identify them (like their hometown or workplace) -solutions can introduce new ethical problems. -new ethical problems: -other scientists should be able to replicate what you did and therefore need details about your study sample (breaks ethical principle #2 honesty and openness) -without identifying information on the men, scientists are unable to determine whether your findings are specific to just men who live in a certain city and thereby valid for only a specific population (breaks ethical principle #1 achieving valid results) -who decides the "best" solution to these problem? An impartial third-party, such as the Institutional Review Board

Milgram's obedience experiments

-experiments began in 1960 at Yale University by psychologist Stanley Milgram to determine the likelihood of people following orders from an authority despite their own sentiments; widely cited as helping to understand the emergence of phenomena such as Nazism and mass cults -involved teacher, learner, and words to learn; if the learner got a word wrong, they were shocked (fake) by the teacher who believed it was real and experienced high stress -40 adults volunteered for the experiment, administered an average level shock of 24.53 (a level of about extreme intensity shock and close to danger) -almost 2/3 complied with the experimenter's demands all the way to the top of the scale -p. 70

Constructionists

-extend interpretivism and emphasize the importance of how different stakeholders in a social setting construct their beliefs -often associated with qualitative research methods -Ch. 1 PP

Belmont report

-guidelines developed by the US National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research in 1979 for the protection of human subjects -widely publicized unethical cases convinced many observers that formal review procedures were needed to protect research participants, so they created this -established three basic ethical principles for the protection of human subjects: 1. Respect for persons - the ethical principle of treating persons as autonomous agents and protecting those with diminished autonomy in research involving human subjects that was included in the Belmont Report 2. Beneficence - the ethical requirement of minimizing possible harms and maximizing benefits in research involving human subjects that was included in the Belmont Report 3. Justice - the ethical principle of distributing benefits and risks of research fairly in research involving human subjects that was included in the Belmont Report -p. 71

Research topic

-is a broad subject area -different than a research question, which is anchored in a discipline, deals with a narrow topic, and is answered with empirical data -this (broad): how does technology influence health outcomes? -research question (narrow): how does news media coverage of breaches in electronic health record systems shape the public's privacy and security concerns of these systems? -Ch. 2/3 PP

Inductive research

-often involve qualitative methods and exploratory research: researchers begin by observing social interaction or interviewing social actors in depth and then developing an explanation for what has been found -the researchers often ask questions like "what is going on here? How do people interpret these experiences? Why do people do what they do?" -rather than testing a hypothesis, the researchers are trying to make sense of some social phenomenon and may even put off formulating a research question until after they begin to collect data, with the idea to let the question emerge from the situation itself -explanations developed inductively from qualitative research can feel authentic because we have heard what people have to say in their own words and we have tried to see the social world as they see it -explanation derived from qualitative research will be richer and more finely textured than they often are in quantitative research, but they are likely to be based on fewer cases from a limited areas and thus we cannot assume that the people studied in the setting are like others or that other researchers will develop similar explanations from the observations -because we do not initially set up a test of a hypothesis according to some specific rules, another researcher cannot come along and conduct the same test -p. 54-55

Reasoning

-one of four processes we engage in when learning about the social world; can involve an everyday error -about the connections between different things we have observed -p. 6

Generalizing

-one of four processes we engage in when learning about the social world; can involve an everyday error -from what we have observed to other times, places, or people -p. 6

Reevaluating

-one of four processes we engage in when learning about the social world; can involve an everyday error -look again at our understanding of the social world on the basis of these processes -p. 7

Observing

-one of four processes we engage in when learning about the social world; can involve an everyday error -through our senses; seeing, hearing, feeling, tasting, or smelling) -p. 6

Descriptive research

-one of four types of social research projects -research in which social phenomena are defined and described -is often the primary focus of the first research about some issue -we know a phenomena exists and want to know: Who? What? Where? When? How? (everything but 'Why') -ex: what is the level of particular types of social ties in America? What social and cultural patterns characterize disadvantaged neighborhoods? -measurement and sampling are central concerns of this research -survey research is often used for it and some comparative research also has a descriptive purpose -research question example: Comings and goings on Facebook? -p. 14/Ch. 1 PP

Evaluation research

-one of four types of social research projects -research that describes or identifies the impact of social policies and programs -seeks to determine the effects of programs, policies, or other efforts to affect social patterns, whether by government agencies, private nonprofits, or for-profit businesses -it is a type of explanatory research because it deals with cause and effect, but it differences because it focuses on one type of cause: programs, policies, and other conscious efforts to create change -does a social policy or program cause a phenomena to exist? -research question example: Does high-speed internet access change community life? -p. 17/Ch. 1 PP

Exploratory research

-one of four types of social research projects -research that seeks to find out how people get along in the setting under question, what meanings they give to their actions, and what issues concern them -goal is to learn what is going on here and to investigate social phenomena without explicit expectations -uses methods that capture large amounts of relatively unstructured information or that take a field of inquiry in a new direction -frequently involves qualitative methods -does a phenomenon exist? -research question example: How do Inter resources help elderly persons manage heart conditions? -p. 15-16/Ch. 1 PP

Explanatory research

-one of four types of social research projects -research that seeks to identify causes and effects of social phenomena and to predict how one phenomenon will change or vary in response to variation in some other phenomenon -ex: does the internet increase, decrease, or supplement social capital? How does the internet affect the role and use of the traditional media? -often involves experiments or surveys, both of which are most likely to use quantitative methods -why does a phenomenon exist? -research question example: What effect does internet use have on social relations? -p. 16/Ch. 1 PP

Postpositivism

-one of three social research philosophies/philosophical perspectives (also, an alternative research orientation) -a philosophical view that modifies the positivist premise of an external, objective reality by recognizing its complexity, the limitations of human observers, and therefore the impossibility of developing more than a partial understanding of reality -like positivism, it also assumes an external and objective reality, but acknowledges the complexity of reality and the limitations/biases of the scientists who study it -do not think that we can ever be sure that scientific methods allow us to perceive objective reality -Instead, they believe that the goal of science is to achieve intersubjective agreement - agreement between scientists about the nature of reality; often upheld as a more reasonable goal for science than certainty about an objective reality -tends to be associated with quantitative methods -p. 20/Ch. 1 PP

Interpretivism

-one of three social research philosophies/philosophical perspectives (also, an alternative research orientation) -the belief that the subjective meanings people give to their experiences are a key focus for social science research without assuming that social processes can be identified objectively -some qualitative researchers are guided by this -ex: how does police presence in a neighborhood influence the wellbeing of residents? This philosophy using a qualitative method would > interview residents and ask them how they view police presence and their own wellbeing -p. 20/Ch. 1 PP

Positivism

-one of three social research philosophies/philosophical perspectives (also, an alternative research orientation) -the belief, shared by most scientists, that there is a reality that exists quite apart from our own perception of it, that is can be understood through observation, and that it follows general laws -the philosophy traditionally associated with natural science and with the belief that scientists must be objective and unbiased to see reality clearly -asserts that a well-designed test of a specific prediction can move us closer to understanding actual social processes -quantitative researchers are often guided by this philosophy -ex: how does police presence in a neighborhood influence the wellbeing of residents? This philosophy using a quantitative method would > count the number of police reports in a neighborhood and examine how they relate to counts of medical diagnoses in the residents. -p. 20/Ch. 1 PP

Intersubjective agreement

-related to postpositivism, the philosophical perspective and alternative research orientation agreement between scientists about the nature of reality; often upheld as a more reasonable goal for science than certainty about an objective reality -p. 20

Conflicts of interest

-related to the main ethical principle of honesty and openness -when a researcher has a significant financial stake in the design or outcome of his or her own research -receiving speaking fees, consulting fees, patents or royalties, and other financial benefits from organizations that could be affected by research conclusions may lead researchers to distort their decisions and findings so as to protect these financial benefits -many medical schools have regulation that prohibit their staff/researchers from accepting any tangible benefits from pharmaceutical companies -federal research funding agencies and journal editors require disclosure of possible conflict of interest so that others can scrutinize the extent to which these conflicts may have lessened researchers' honesty and openness -experimental research suggests, though, that disclosure does not reduce trust in advice from people who have disclosed a conflict of interest -p. 75

Zimbardo prison simulation study

-related to the subset avoid harming research participants within the main ethical principle protection of research participants -the famous prison simulation study at Stanford university by psychologist Philip Zimbardo, designed to investigate the impact of social position on behavior - specifically, the impact of being either a guard or a prisoner in a "total institution"; widely cited as demonstrating the likelihood of emergence of sadistic behavior in guards -researchers selected apparently stable and mature young male volunteers and asked them to sign a contract to work for two weeks as a guard or prisoner in a simulated prison -within the first two days, the prisoners began to be passive and disorganized, while the guards became sadistic (verbally and physically aggressive) -fiver prisoners were soon released for depression, uncontrollable crying, fits of rage, and a psychosomatic rash -researchers terminated the study after just six days to avoid harming subjects -feelings of stress by prisoners seemed to be relieved by discussions in post-experiment encounter sessions, while follow-up during the next year indicated no lasting negative effects on the participants and some gains in self-insight -p. 77-78

Replications

-repetitions of a study using the same research methods to answer the same research question -involves journeying around the research circle again -ex: in this case, the replications were done in six more locations with some improvements; found that in some locations, there were actually long-term increases in domestic violence incidents among arrestees; rather than leading to more confidence in deterrence theory, the research result were questioning it and deterrence theory now seemed inadequate to explain empirical reality -p. 52-53

Nuremburg War Crime Trials

-shows that having an ethics code is not sufficient to ensure ethical practice -the International Military Tribunal held by the victorious Allies after WW2 in Nuremberg, Germany, that exposed the horrific medical experiments conducted by Nazi doctors and others in the name of "science" -held in 1946 -p. 70

Tuskegee study of untreated syphilis in the negro male

-shows that having an ethics code is not sufficient to ensure ethical practice -the US Public Health Service study of the "natural" course of syphilis that followed 399 (399 had it, but studied 600 total) low-income African American men from the 1930s to 1972, without providing them with penicillin after the drug was discovered to treat the illness; the study was stopped after it was exposed in 1972, resulting in an out-of-court settlement and then, in 1997, an official public apology by President Bill Clinton -there was no effective treatment for the disease at the beginning of the study and participants received free medical examples, meals, and burial insurance -deceptive from the start; the men were told they were being treated for bad blood, whether they had syphilis or not and were not asked for their consent to be studied; many were not informed of their illness and were not offered treatment after penicillin was used widely by 1947 -settlement of 10 million in 1974, apology in 1997 -p. 70-71

Federal Policy for the Protection of Human Subjects/the Common Rule

-specific regulation adopted in 1991 by the US Department of Health and Human services and the US Food and Drug Administration that were based on the principles of the Belmont Report; Revised in 2017, with new requirements in effect, January 2018 -translation of the Belmont report (guidelines developed by the US National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research in 1979 for the protection of human subjects; incudes respect for persons, beneficence, and justice) into specific regulation -this policy has shaped the course of social science research since its adoption, by requiring organizations that sponsor federally funded research (including universities) to establish committees that review all research proposed at the institution and ensure compliance with the federal human subjects requirements when the research is conducted -the revisions relaxed some requirements for social science research and made several other changes for medical and social science researchers -p. 71

Justice

-the ethical principle of distributing benefits and risks of research fairly in research involving human subjects that was included in the Belmont Report -Belmont report = guidelines developed by the US National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research in 1979 for the protection of human subjects -p. 71

Respect for persons

-the ethical principle of treating persons as autonomous agents and protecting those with diminished autonomy in research involving human subjects that was included in the Belmont Report -Belmont report = guidelines developed by the US National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research in 1979 for the protection of human subjects -p. 71

Beneficence

-the ethical requirement of minimizing possible harms and maximizing benefits in research involving human subjects that was included in the Belmont Report -Belmont report = guidelines developed by the US National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research in 1979 for the protection of human subjects -p. 71

Normal science

-the gradual, incremental research conducted by scientists within the prevailing scientific paradigm -related to scientific paradigms and Kuhn -p, 35

Social research proposal

-the launching pad for a formal research project -often have five sections: -1. An introductory statement of the research problem (clarify what it is that you are interested in studying) -2. A literature review (explain how your problems and plans build on what has already been reported in the literature on this topic) -3. A methodological plan (detail how you will respond to the particular mix of opportunities and constraints you face) -4. An ethics statement (identify human subject issues in the research and how you will respond to them in an ethical fashion) -5. A statement of limitations (reviewing the potential weaknesses of the proposed research design and presenting plans for minimizing their consequences) -example (p. 91-93) -p. 90-91

Office of Protection From Research Risks, National Institutes of Health

-the office in the US Department of Health and Human Services that provides leadership and supervision about the protection of the rights, welfare, and well-being of subjects involved in research conducted or supported by DHHS, including monitoring IRBS -monitors IRBs, with the exception of research involving drugs (US Food and Drug Admin does that) -p. 87

Measurement

-the process of linking abstract concepts to empirical indicants -we identify specific observations that we can make to track our research concept in real life -goal is to achieve measurement validity, so the measures, or indicators, must actually measure the variables they are intended to measure -can be based on activities as diverse as asking people questions, reading judicial options, observing social interactions, coding words in books, checking census data tapes, enumerating the contents of trash cans, drawing urine and blood samples, etc. -experimental researchers may operationalize a concept by manipulating its value (ex: to operationalize exposure to antidrinking messages, some subjects may listen to a talk about binge drinking while others do not) -the variables and particular measurement operations chosen for a study should be consistent with the research question and time and resource limitations should also be taken into account when considering these -p. 115-116; Mod. 3 PP

Operationalization

-the process of specifying measures that will indicate the value of cases on a variable -involves connecting concepts to measurement operations -identifying specific measurements we will take to indicate that concept in empirical reality -researchers find that the process of figuring out how to measure a concept helps improve their understanding of what the concept means; improving conceptualizations and improving operationalization go hand in hand -p. 108

Conceptualization

-the process of specifying what we mean by a term; in deductive research, conceptualization helps translate portions of an abstract theory into specific variable that can be used in testable hypotheses; in inductive research, conceptualization is an important part of the process used to make sense of related observations -concepts require an explicit definition before they are used in research because we cannot be certain that all readers will share a particular definition or that the current meaning of the concept is the same as when previous research was published -especially important to define clearly any concepts that are abstract or unfamiliar; we cannot count on others knowing exactly what we mean -we have to turn to social theory and prior research to review appropriate definitions; should understand how the definition we choose fits within the theoretical framework guiding the research -cannot judge any definition as correct or incorrect -must define other terms in the definition if necessary -p. 105

Code of ethics

-the professional code the American Sociological Association for the treatment of human subjects by members, employees, and students; designed to comply with federal policy and revised in 1997 -ASA's adopted ethical guidelines that are more specific than the federal regulations for practicing sociologists -according to the general principles, sociologists should by committed in their work to high levels of competence, to practicing with integrity, and to maintaining responsibility for their actions -they must also respect the rights, dignity, and diversity of others, including research participants, as well as be socially responsible to their communities and use research to contribute to the public good -p. 71

Indicator

-the question or other operation used to indicate the value of cases on a variable -observations that could indicate the conceptualization (ex: if the concept is social control, the indicator could be billboards condemning drunk driving, proportion of people arrested, gossiping among neighbors, etc.) -p. 110

Deductive research

-the type of research in which a specific expectation is deduced from a general premise and is then tested -involves a hypothesis = a tentative statement about empirical reality, involving a relationship between two or more variables; he specific expectation deduced from the more general theory; this is what the researchers actually test, not the complete theory itself -the hypothesis proposes a relationship between two or more variable = a characteristics or property that can vary - take on different values or attributes -independent variable = a variable that is hypothesized to cause, or lead to, variation in another variable; the proposed influence -dependent variable - a variable that is hypothesized to vary depending on, or under the influence of, another variable; the effect or consequence -direction of association - a pattern in a relationship between two variables - the values of variables tend to change consistently in relation to change on the other variable; the direction of association can be either positive or negative -positive = when one variable increases, the other increases; when one variable decreases, the other decreases; negative = as one variable increases, the other decreases; vice versa -both explanatory and evaluative studies are types of deductive research -deductive researchers show their hand or state their expectations in advance and then design a fair test of those expectations; then, the chips fall where they may and the researcher accepts the resulting data as a more or less objective picture of reality -p. 50-51

Inductive research

-the type of research in which general conclusions are drawn from specific data -begins with specific data, which are then used to develop (induce) a general explanation (theory) to account for the data -starts with data at the bottom of the research circle and then develops the theory -enters deductive research when we find unexpected patterns in the data we have collected for testing a hypothesis -anomalous findings = unexpected patterns in the data -serendipitous findings = unexpected patterns in data, which stimulate new explanations, insights, or theoretical approaches -the adequacy of an explanation formulated after the fact is necessarily less certain than an explanation presented before the collection of data and tested in a planned way; inductive explanations are thus more trustworthy if they are confirmed subsequently with deductive research -p. 53

Social science

-the use of scientific methods to investigate individuals, societies, and social processes; the knowledge produced by these investigations -they develop, refine, apply, and report their understanding of the social world in a systematic or scientific approach: -1. these research methods can reduce the likelihood of overgeneralization by using systematic procedures for selecting individuals or groups to study that are representative of the individuals or groups to which we want to generalize -2. to avoid illogical reasoning, these researchers use explicit criteria for identifying causes and for determining whether these criteria are met -3. these methods can reduce the risk of selective or inaccurate observation by requiring that we measure and sample phenomena systematically -4. These methods, because they require that we base our beliefs on evidence that can be examined and critiqued by others, lessen the tendency to develop answers about the social world from ego-based commitments, excessive devotion to tradition, or unquestioning respect for authority -p. 12

Social science - challenge for scientists

-these people face three specific challenges: 1. The objects of our research are people like us, so biases rooted in our personal experiences and relationship are more likely to influence our conclusions 2. Those we study can evaluate us even as we study them; so, subjects can tell us "what they think we want to hear" or refuse to participate in our investigations and therefore produce misleading evidence 3. Must concern themselves with the way their human subjects are treated in the course of research (subjects cannot be treated to extreme conditions like in physics or chemistry) -p. 12

Serendipitous findings

-unexpected patterns in data, which stimulate new explanations, insights, or theoretical approaches -related to the need for inductive research when unexpected patterns in the data have been found in deductive research -p. 53

Anomalous findings

-unexpected patterns in the data -related to the need for inductive research when unexpected patterns in the data have been found in deductive research -p. 53