Chapter 2 InQuizitive Quiz
While (1)____ is most closely associated with value-free sociology, pre-existing values are not the only reason a sociologist might be biased. The notion of (2)____ can be skewed by the direction and focus of prior research. Additionally, the concept of (3)____ suggests that researchers can also influence those who are being studied.
1.) Basic Research 2.) Objectivity 3.) Reactivity
Before collecting data, social researchers must identify a (1)_____ from which to select their (2)_____. After that, if they want to interview (3)_____, sociologists must first get (4)_____, which means that participants agree to be interviewed and know what they are getting into.
1.) Target population 2.) Sample 3.) Respondents 4.) Informed consent
What process involves conducting a group of interviews at the same time?
A focus group
What is the definition of a hypothesis?
A proposed relationship between two variables
A sociologist fields a survey that collects data on where high school students apply to college. After some preliminary analysis, he attempts to use his data to create a new program that will encourage low-income students to apply to more rigorous colleges that may be a better fit for them. The researcher hopes that the program will increase the percentage of low-income students who attend elite colleges. What type of research is this?
Action research
A sociologist wants to examine how black men have been portrayed in television shows in the past year. What type of study should she conduct to examine this research question and compare the portrayal of black men across different television shows?
Content analysis
A team of sociologists is commissioned to study the effects of lighting levels and amount of time for breaks on workers' productivity in an office setting. Before the study begins, office workers are told why the researchers are there. When the team analyzes their data, they find that no matter what they do, productivity levels go up while they are physically present. When the team is not physically present, productivity levels return to normal. What is the likely explanation of these findings?
Correct choicethe Hawthorne effect
Which of the following are examples of the experimental method?
Correct: - A researcher deliberately drops a wallet in a public place and observes the reactions of passersby. - A researcher compares the attitudes of two focus groups after each group watches a corporate training video. One video has sexist content and the other does not. Incorrect: - A researcher poses as a store clerk and documents several varieties of shoplifting behavior over a period of time. - A researcher sifts through data about divorce rates and gas prices, looking for a correlation.
A sociologist conducts an experiment to see how watching a documentary on young men in gay relationships affects individual attitudes toward gay marriage. The sociologist creates two control groups; one is all female and one is all male. The control groups do not watch the video and only answer a survey. The two experimental groups (one is all female and one is all male) watch the video first and then answer the survey. Which of the following are the dependent variables in this experiment?
Correct: - attitudes toward gay marriage. Incorrect: - exposure to a video on young men in gay relationships - answering a survey - sex/gender
Suppose a sociologist wanted to study a global community of online gamers who all play the same multiplayer game. Which of the following activities could realistically be part of the research?
Correct: - online interviews - becoming a player and observing interactions in real time - analyzing player statistics, such as time played and level achieved Incorrect: - In-person interviews
A sociologist includes the following interview question in his research: "Most people now believe gay marriage should be legal. How do you feel about gay marriage?" Which of the following categories should we use to classify this research question?
Correct: - open-ended question - leading question Incorrect: - closed-ended question - double-barreled question
A simple random sample is also which of the following?
Correct: - probability sample - sample Incorrect: - spurious sample - representative sample
Identify each question as open-ended or closed-ended.
Open-ended: - How do you feel about the public education system? - What do you think about the current economic standing of the United States? Closed-ended: - How many children do you have? - What is your political affiliation?
A sociologist creates a questionnaire but is not sure if the questions will be suitable for the research hypotheses she wants to test. What type of study should she conduct to test the validity of her survey?
Pilot Survery
If a sociologist is worried that his presence is affecting interactions between the people he is studying, he is concerned with ________.
Reflexivity
A sociologist thinks he has discovered a very interesting and unique finding. His data show a correlation between children's shoe size and their reading test scores. He thinks that children with bigger feet must be smarter. When he tells a colleague about his finding, the colleague suggests that both shoe size and reading test scores are correlated with a child's age. Thus, the original correlation between shoe size and reading test scores must be ________ .
Spurious
What can modern ethical guidelines or codes of ethics adopted by professional associations for different academic disciplines trace their origins back to?
The Nuremberg Code
A sociologist wants to study racial discrimination in hiring, and decides to either distribute a survey asking employers about their hiring methods, or conduct an experiment that involves sending fake resumes to employers to see who gets an interview. Which method would best examine racial discrimination in hiring and why?
The experiment because the researcher can isolate the effect of race by creating otherwise identical resumes.
Value-free sociology suggests that sociologists should not allow their personal beliefs to influence their research.
True
Other existing sources research might come from data that is naturally generated by people's involvement on the Internet. Nicholas Christakis, Jason Kaufman, and Andreas Wimmer were some of the first researchers to use Internet data from what major website?
A question using a Likert scale format could not be a closed-ended question.
False
If two variables are correlated, a change in one must directly produce a change in the other.
False
What is one of the biggest problems with non-academic uses of research methods?
It often has a lack of rigorous standards.
Which of the following does your textbook suggest to be the most common of all non-academic uses of sociological methods?
Market Research
Who coined the phrase "value-free sociology"?
Max Weber
Which of the following measurement methods would yield results that can be generalized to the student population of a large university?
Correct: - Comprehensive school records are used to randomly select a sample group of 100 students who will fill out a short questionnaire. - School records are used to select 100 students from different categories (male and female, white and non-white, etc.) in numbers that mirror the overall student population. These students will fill out a short questionnaire. Incorrect: - Five students are randomly selected for in-depth interviews, each lasting half an hour. - Students passing by a campus booth are invited to fill out a questionnaire; several hundred do so.
Which of the following areas may present ethical concerns for individuals conducting social science research?
Correct: - Deception - Confidentiality Incorrect: - Reactivity - Unobtrusive measures
Which of the following are negative questions?
Correct: - Do you not have any male teachers? - Which of the following courses did you not take last semester? Incorrect: - How many teachers have you seen during office hours? - How many courses do you need to graduate next year?
Which of the following are double-barreled questions?
Correct: - Do you support raising taxes to provide additional childcare subsidies to the poor? - When was the last time you ate pizza and what were the toppings you had on it? Incorrect: - How many times per week do you read? - On a scale of 1 to 5 (where 1 equals strongly disagree and 5 equals strongly agree), how much do you support the current president's policies?
Identify each research method as either qualitative or quantitative
Correct: - Each person at a gathering of academics is invited to talk about his or her political views. - An observer takes notes on the nonverbal behavior of members of a focus group for car commercials. Incorrect: - Each person in a sample group is recorded as being either a United States citizen or a citizen of another country. - The number of people in a large gathering is recorded.
Which of the following are disadvantages of ethnographic research?
Correct: - Ethnographic research suffers from a lack of replicability. - Ethnographic research often is not representative of a larger part of society. Incorrect: - Ethnographic research is not very rich in detail. - Ethnographic research often doesn't capture a full range of expression from the respondents.
Which of the following are advantages of existing sources research?
Correct: - Existing sources research allows researchers to work with information they could not obtain on their own. - Existing sources research allows researchers to use the same data that has been used for previous research and thus has high replicability. Incorrect: - Existing sources research allows researchers to avoid the unpredictable intrusions of the real world. - Existing sources research allows researchers to gain the context and interpretations of the original messages.
Which of the following are disadvantages of existing sources research?
Correct: - Existing sources research does not allow researchers to understand the interpretations of the original messages. - Existing sources research does not allow researchers to answer all questions. Incorrect: - Existing sources research has low replicability. - Existing sources research may have low validity because respondents are dishonest.
Which of the following are disadvantages of experimental research?
Correct: - Experiments are applicable only to certain types of research that can be constructed and measured in a controlled setting. - Experiments are not applicable when researchers want to study complex processes and interactions. Incorrect: - Experiments do not allow researchers to select their sample based on desired characteristics. - Experiments often include personal bias that can stem from the researcher's own prejudice.
Which of the following are advantages of experimental research?
Correct: - Experiments have high replicability. - Experiments can avoid the unpredictable intrusions of the real world. Incorrect: - Experiments are applicable to all types of research and can be used with most research questions. - Experiments allow researchers to work with information that they could not obtain on their own.
Which of the following are disadvantages of interview research?
Correct: - Interview respondents are sometimes difficult to talk to and other times try too hard to be helpful. - Interview research may lead to conclusions that cannot be applied to a larger group. Incorrect: - Interviews do not often allow respondents to speak their own words and reveal their own thoughts, feelings, or beliefs. - Interview research often suffers from personal bias from the researcher involved.
Which of the following are advantages of interview research?
Correct: - Interviews may help the researcher dispel certain preconceptions and discover issues that might have otherwise been overlooked. - Interviews allow respondents to speak their own words and reveal their own thoughts, feelings, and beliefs. Incorrect: - Interview research has been a pioneer in methodological innovation. - Interview research is nearly always representative of the groups it captures.
Which of the following are differences between participant observation and autoethnography?
Correct: - Only in autoethnography are the feelings and actions of the researcher a focal point of the study. Incorrect: - Only in participant observation is the researcher a member in the social setting. - There are no differences; the two terms are interchangeable.
Which of the following are advantages of survey research?
Correct: - Survey research is less concerned with interviewer or observer bias. - Survey research is usually quick and economical. Incorrect: - Survey research never has sampling problems - Surveys may help the researcher dispel certain preconceptions and discover issues that might have been otherwise overlooked.
Which of the following are disadvantages of survey research?
Correct: - Survey research often doesn't capture a full range of expression from the respondents. - Survey research may have low validity because respondents are dishonest. Incorrect: - Survey research has low reliability. - Survey respondents are sometimes difficult to talk to and other times try too hard to be helpful.
Which of the following statements apply to typical survey research?
Correct: - Survey research uses closed-ended questions. - Survey research is quantitative in nature. Incorrect: - Survey research uses only Likert scale questions. - Survey research focuses on the micro level.
A sociologist begins participant observation of a group of community college students in the hopes that she can learn more about how young people form new relationships. This group of students is diverse (in terms of race, gender, and age) and includes a Jewish woman, an older white man, and a middle-aged black woman. However, the community college they go to in Colorado, is not diverse. When the sociologist temporarily joins the faculty to teach an ethnography class, she is asked to hang out with the students and teach them more about ethnography in a small group setting. She quickly begins to see many of the group members as her friends, and participates in social events with them. Which of the following concepts from research methodology might be problematic for this study?
Correct: - representativeness - replicability - reflexivity Incorrect: - Bias
Which of the following are the two basic goals of social scientists when conducting experiments?
Correct: - to attempt to control for all possible variables except the one under investigation - to develop precise tools with which to observe, record, and measure their data Incorrect: - to set up two groups in a way so that they know who receives the experimental treatment and what the outcome should be in advance - to create a perfect experiment where a control group is unnecessary
Which of the following are examples of existing sources research?
Correct: - using data collected during the administration of the SAT - finding newspaper stories about community leaders Incorrect: - giving your fellow classmates a survey about their knowledge of different types of research methods - Interviewing respondents about the necessity of the U.S. Census
Match each item to the correct concept.
Hypothesis: "Teenagers are more susceptible to internet advertising than young adults." Variable: Age Operational definition: total number of advertisements clicked on by an individual each day
A sociologist thinks he has discovered a very interesting and unique finding. His data show a correlation between children's shoe size and their reading test scores. He thinks that children with bigger feet must be smarter. When he tells a colleague about his finding, the colleague suggests that both shoe size and reading test scores are correlated with a child's age. In this case, which of the following is the correct classification for the child's age?
Intervening correlation