Exam 2: How Sociologists Do Research

A researcher who was interested in the influence of music on job motivation assigned one group to hear music while working and another group to not hear music while working. To determine which test subject would go into which group, the researcher flipped a coin. Which process of assignment was the researcher using?

Every research project must preserve anonymity of participants.

For what reason do people who are interviewed on a particular street corner not constitute an acceptable sample of Canadian adults?

Sociologists engage in participant observation when they attempt to objectively observe a social milieu and take part in the activities of the people they are studying.

Which of the following terms refers to knowledge based on customary assumptions that may or may not be accurate?

Professor Luton's research in rural South Africa relies on a complete list of households in the study area from which she selects a few households to study more in-depth. What do the selected households represent?

Tamar has read that women often take over the role of family communicator. She formulates the following hypothesis: "Women who have recently immigrated to Canada will learn English or French sooner than men from the same families." Her hypothesis is a product of which process?

If you label all of the people seated in your classroom as "students," which process are you using?

Gaitri has conducted a study on the relationship of education and income among Canadian residents. She finds that immigrants earn less than Canadian-born people with similar education. In this example, what kind of variable is "immigrant status"?

A researcher is interested in the effect of violent media content on aggression. She is also interested to learn if men and women react identically to the same content. In this example, what type of variable is gender?

When Professor Lee states that a hypothesis is an "educated guess," what does she mean by "educated"?

An experimenter sets up a situation to observe people's behaviour when they are subjected to certain variables that she is testing. However, she begins to suspect that her presence alone is changing the behaviour of the subjects. What is this phenomenon called?

Income is not likely to be the cause of gender. Which test of causality is the relationship of these variables likely to fail?

What would be the best way to gain access to a high school youth gang you would like to do research on?

Which of the following terms refers to unverified but testable statements about the phenomena that researchers are interested in?

What is random-digit sampling?

What is the central goal of a qualitative research approach? Explain how it is achieved in the two main qualitative research methods.

If one variable changes systematically as the other changes, the variables are said to be which of the following?

Deciding which observations to link to which variables is known as operationalization.

Set up a research project in which you wish to determine the motivations for watching a popular television program. How would you conduct your research?