3: Studying the Social World

What is the difference between reliability and validity?

Reliability describes when a measurement technique repeatedly produces similar results, whereas validity describes whether a measurement technique actually measures what the researcher thinks it measures.

Which of the following statements is the best example of a researcher making a causal inference?

A researcher concludes that the health of unborn babies was negatively impacted by the high levels of stress their mothers experienced during pregnancy.

Which of the following illustrates a researcher obtaining informed consent?

A researcher helps a research subject understand the risks and benefits of participating in a study before enrolling the subject.

Which of the following scenarios depicts a researcher breaking an ethical code?

A researcher publishes the full names of study participants on her website.

__________ is the term used to describe when two factors or two social phenomena "co-vary" with each other.

Correlation

Which of the following questions should sociologists ask themselves to determine the merit and feasibility of their research questions?

Does the question connect to existing social scientific literature or studies?

What is the difference between empirical generalizability and theoretical generalizability?

Empirical generalizability means research results can be applied to a larger population, whereas theoretical generalizability means research results can be applied to larger sociological processes.

Which of the following best describes the difference between how sociologists and historians study history?

Historians are usually experts on a given time period or place, while sociologists examine variations in time and place to make sense of larger patterns.

Which of the following statements best highlights the key differences between qualitative and quantitative research?

Qualitative research relies on words, direct observations, historical records, and pictures, whereas quantitative research relies on data that are more easily subjected to statistical analyses.

Angela observes that children from poor families tend to have higher rates of lead poisoning, but she doesn't know if being poor makes people more likely to be exposed to lead, or if people who already have high levels of lead in their bodies are more likely to become poor. Which of the following characterizes what Angela knows about the relationship between poverty and lead poisoning?

There is a correlation between poverty and lead poisoning.

Tamara analyzes data from 300 randomly selected schoolchildren throughout the state of Wisconsin and finds that children from wealthy families are more likely to receive extra help from teachers than children from poor families. When asked by a reporter, Tamara claims her findings actually describe the entire population of schoolchildren in Wisconsin. This is an example of

a generalization

A researcher states that she thinks that the less sleep students get on the night before an exam, the poorer they will perform on the exam. What is this statement an example of?

a hypothesis

Which of the following correctly defines the term "sampling"?

a process of identifying which subjects to include in a study

A conclusion about how one factor is producing a change in another factor is known as a(n)

causal inference

Yumiko just filled out a form that asked her to provide information about her diet. The first question asked, "How many days per week do you consume meat? a) 1; b) 2; c) 3; or d) more than 3." Which of the following terms describes this type of question?

closed-ended survey question

A researcher claims he wants to study why England's infant mortality rate has been lower than the United States' infant mortality rate. What type of research is this?

cross-national comparison

Chip is examining data regarding the age at which people got married. He notices that in a number of cases people were reported as being over 200 years old, so he begins fixing these obvious errors. Which of the following describes what Chip is doing?

data cleaning

When researchers organize the data according to key categories and concepts, they are

data coding

After a sociologist created a line graph showing the cost of prescription medication over time, she noticed that the elderly are paying more than ever before. In this example, the sociologist created a

data display

Emilio is reviewing the data he collected from historical records about immigration in the United States. He decides to create a series of tables and flow charts in order to visually summarize patterns in the data. Based on this description, you can tell that Emilio is creating

data displays

Michael is going to conduct a study about living in a college dorm. He begins choosing only students in every third dorm room to interview. Which of the following describes this step of "choosing" in the research process?

developing a random sample

A sociologist has met with gang members and asked them to tell her what it is like to belong to a gang; however, she suspects that for various reasons these informants are leaving out details of their experiences. Which of the following methods would be most useful for learning about the behaviors and experiences of gang members?

ethnography

Before conducting research, sociologists often come up with a prediction about what might be discovered by the research. What is this prediction called?

hypothesis

Which of the following methods is best suited for learning about the thought processes of people who chose to get divorced within the past year?

in-depth interviews

What is the name of the organization that evaluates research proposals based on whether the research will potentially harm research subjects?

institutional review board (IRB)

Your professor took a sample of a population and collected data from the subjects in that sample over a period of years. What kind of data is this called?

longitudinal data

Valerie follows a group of spoken word poets around for a year in an effort to understand the inner workings of their group. Although Valerie did not randomly select the people she studies, she draws on her research findings to formulate a broader theory of human behavior. This is called

making a theoretical generalization

Sebastian completes an experiment and records the results. Anna completes the same experiment, following the same steps as Sebastian, but gets different results. This means that the experiment is

not reliable

Which of the following terms refers to original data that a sociologist independently collects?

primary-source data

A sociologist plans to study how the clothing Americans wear has become less and less formal over time. To get a sense of how clothing choices have changed over time, the sociologist examines thousands of historical photographs and carefully takes notes about where the photo was taken, when it was taken, and what the people in the photo were wearing. This study is an example of

qualitative research

The statistical analysis of data is called

quantitative research

Jennifer is studying the effects of nutrition on student performance in school. She researches a group of students and finds that students who miss breakfast often do poorly during the school day. What is the dependent variable in this scenario?

student performance

A(n) __________ is a standardized set of questions asked to a large group of randomly chosen people.

survey

Sociologists often use conceptual frameworks, which are inherited from other scholars. These conceptual frameworks are also called

theoretical traditions

A sociologist supports marriage equality, and he decides to conduct a research project on marriage laws in each state. His support of marriage equality could also be called his

values