Exam 1: The Science, society, and Social Research

Mayor Politico requests an assessment of how people use city parks: who uses the parks,what activities are conducted in the parks,and when do they use the parks.The Mayor has asked for which type of research to be conducted.

Legitimate motives for social research may include all of the following EXCEPT ______.

______ is an example of pseudoscience.

Pseudoscience claims are often easily identifiable,making these statements unbelievable to the general public.

Qualitative methodology is most often driven by exploratory research.

Using the examples on Internet use and social relations found in Chapter 1,define and describe the difference between quantitative and qualitative methods in social research.How did the researchers' choice of qualitative or quantitative methods strengthen their conclusions? Weaken them? Propose another study of Internet use in which you build on one of the previous studies but using triangulated methods.

In a field experiment to observe altruistic behavior,an observer records the number of people who stopped to hold the door for a student on crutches.She reports that seven people volunteered to assist the young man,when in fact there were only five.She has made an error called ______.

The belief that reality is socially constructed and that the goal of social scientists is to understand what meanings people give to that reality is called ______.

Descriptive research ______.

Social science is defined as the use of scientific methods to investigate individuals,societies,and social processes.

Explanatory research ______.

When the state approved stronger penalties for drunk driving,including the automatic suspension of driving privileges,the number of highway deaths related to drunk driving decreased.This observation suggests which kind of social research?

The effort to figure out what the world is like and why it works as it does is known as ______.

Quantitative methods use numerical data which is presented as percentages and other statistics in order to summarize relationships among different variables.

Applied research relies on the scientific method just as basic research does.

Evaluation research and other social research motivated by practical concerns is called ______.

Mindy was recording the number of customers that visited a particular store from 2 to 4 p.m.When a large group entered at once,she accidentally recorded 8 customers instead of the 10 who entered.This is an example of what type of error in everyday observation?

Motives for social research are sometimes complementary and sometimes conflicting.List three motives for social research and write a one-sentence definition of each.Imagine that you direct a government criminal justice agency.What might motivate you to conduct research on the impact of your parole policies? How might the motives for research conflict?

Researcher X has proposed a project in which she will interview several immigrants from other countries to find out why they chose to move to the United States.This study is an example of which kind of social research?

Qualitative research methods are used most commonly in which type of research?