SOCL 1010 - Studying Everyday Life

A simple random sample is defined as:

A sample in which every member of the population has a chance of being included.

What is a pilot study?

A smaller study used to investigate the feasibility of a larger one.

Arlie Hochschild was concerned that her sample of interviewees was too small to guarantee representativeness. How did Hochschild attempt to overcome this problem?

By comparing demographic information about her interviewees with information about her target population

What are the goals of ethnography?

To describe activities sociologists observe and to understand what those activities mean to the people involved.

If a researcher uses a social networking site like Facebook to obtain data, they are:

Using existing sources.

What is the difference between basic and applied research?

Applied research attempts to translate knowledge gained through basic research into direct, practical action.

Which of the following affect the methods used by sociological researchers?

- The time available to complete their projects -The resources and funds available -The methods they are trained in and feel comfortable with

Clifford Geertz coined the term "thick description" to define good ethnographic fieldnotes. Which of the following is NOT associated with thick description?

A comprehensive list of events.

If a researcher allows his own values and opinions to affect his analysis, he is guilty of:

Bias.

You want to conduct some sociological research on whether people on social networking sites are less likely to meet in person as a result of their online community participation. What is the next step in the sociological research method?

Conduct a literature review.

According to the scientific method, what are the steps in research, and in what order should they be completed?

Form a hypothesis, define variables, predict outcomes, collect data, analyze data.

In the 1980s, many politicians argued that listening to heavy metal music led teenagers to commit suicide. While you might find this belief silly, it is a(n):

Hypothesis

Sociologists who administer interviews can only gather data from a limited number of people because:

Interviews are too time consuming.

Survey research tends to produce quantitative data. One key advantage of this kind of data is that:

It is easy to transmit to the public.

Which of the following is a disadvantage of using ethnography as a method of social research?

It is very difficult for another researcher to repeat or replicate any particular ethnography.

Imagine that you work at a local hospital, and it's your job to design a customer-satisfaction survey. One of the most important questions concerns patient satisfaction with care received, but you don't know how to compare responses. Which of the following is a common tool that survey researchers use to standardize answers?

Likert scales.

A closed-ended question is one that:

Limits the possible responses.

After researchers conduct a series of interviews, they usually transcribe the responses. The transcription process is fairly time consuming, but it is valuable in part because it allows researchers to:

Look for patterns in their data.

According to researchers who study online social networks, how are online networks different from social networks established through traditional, real-life, face-to-face contact?

Online networks aren't different.

What do you call broad theoretical models of the social or natural world?

Paradigms

Which of the following research techniques focuses on gaining an insider's perspective of the everyday lives of subjects under investigation, often dispelling stereotypes about the group being investigated?

Participant observation.

If you observe a group in order to determine its norms, values, rules, and meanings, then what kind of research are you doing?

Qualitative research.

The sociologist Mitch Duneier wrote his ethnography, Sidewalk, about street vendors in New York City's Greenwich Village. While writing the book, Duneier was particularly concerned that the people he was studying would alter their behavior when he was present, especially since his background was very different from theirs. What do sociologists call this problem?

Reflexivity

Before beginning a research project, what will a good researcher always do?

Review the literature in order to become familiar with earlier research that relates to his topic.

A graduate student is almost done with his dissertation when he is informed that twenty years ago someone did a very similar project and already demonstrated what he had hoped to be the first to discover. What basic step of the scientific method could have saved him from this problem?

Reviewing the literature

When conducting experiments, how is the experimental group different from the control group?

The experimental group receives the independent variable, and the control group does not.

Why are respondents often more comfortable addressing sensitive subjects on surveys than in other research contexts?

They can answer in private.

The analysis of documents, such as medical records, photographs, diaries, letters, newspapers, and song lyrics, uses which of the following types of data?

Existing sources

Which of the following is an advantage of replicability in experiments?

Experiments can be performed again and again over time in order to measure change.

When do sociologists most often use statistical tools to analyze their data?

When they use experiments and surveys.