Exam 5: Designing a Study

Professor Crimefighter looked at the number of arrests for drunken driving on the roads in 10 urban and 10 rural counties of Ontario.He found police made more arrests on roads in the rural counties.Professor Crimefighter concluded that people who live in rural areas are more likely to drive while intoxicated than are people who live in urban areas.Crimefighter's conclusion has the problem of

Define the following: -ecological fallacy

Variables and attributes are two different things,but they are often confused by new members of the research community.Explain the difference between a variable and an attribute.Why is it easy to confuse variable with attributes? Use an example to illustrate your answers.

Define the following: -Simpson's paradox

An error in explanation that relies on the fulfillment of an ultimate purpose is called

Define the following: -nonlinear research path

Researchers rarely explicitly define their levels and units of analysis.Nevertheless,it is important to distinguish between the two.Define "levels" of analysis,list the levels of analysis,and provide examples of what they might encompass.Likewise,define units of analysis and provide some examples of common units of analysis in sociological research.

Prime Minister Harper stated that an individual's political orientation has an effect on that individual's stand on the legalization of marijuana issue."Political orientation" was used as his

Dr.Munroe of the Quick Stop Counselling Clinic noticed that female clients with eating disorders who were counselled during the hours of 8:00 to 11:45 a.m.recovered much faster than those who were counselled from 1:00 to 5:00 p.m.She jumped to the false conclusion that time of day of counselling caused a quicker recovery.Dr.Elgin was more cautious.He noticed that all the clinic staff used the same treatment,but the clinic's female counsellors all worked at the clinic in the morning,and male counsellors worked in the afternoon.He found that the faster recovery had nothing to do with the time of day; rather,it was due to female clients responding to the treatment with female counsellors.What is Dr.Munroe's initial causal relationship called?

The first step in beginning a research project is picking a topic,but not all topics are practicable given the constraints faced by researchers.Identify the six major limitations researchers must consider when setting the scope of their research projects and outline the four steps researchers can take to narrow their topics into feasible research questions.

Define the following: -reductionism

Provide an example of a good versus a bad research question on abortion in Canada.Explain why each is an example of a good versus a bad question.

Define the following: -null hypothesis

The worldwide "Great Depression" of the 1930s was caused by Michael Moneybags,a prominent New York Stock broker,who suffered from severe paranoia and told six wealthy friends to sell their stocks no matter what the price when he heard of a European bank going bankrupt in October 1929.Which logical error in causal explanation is presented in this explanation of the Great Depression?

Define the following: -linear research path

Which of the following is an example of a bad research question?

Professor Pugsworth examined the following types of marital status: married/common-law,single-never married,widowed,separated/divorced.The types of marital status are called the professor's

In what ways do the ecological fallacy and reductionism involve problems with the units of analysis?

Define the following: -alternative hypothesis

Give an example of a spurious relationship and draw a diagram of the links among variables.