Exam 3: Doing Sociological Research

A researcher who lives among the homeless in an effort to understand their norms is carrying out

In the discussion of the use of statistics in sociology, the text lists six "mistakes" that can be made. List and briefly describe ways in which data and research outcomes can be distorted or misrepresented, accidentally or intentionally.

Which of the following is an example of primary data?

Dr. Abadia is studying the effects of being "trolled" on subsequent replies to posts. A randomly selected half of his subjects are trolled by someone posing as a member of the online group and the other half are not. The group that gets trolled is called the _____ group.

When a researcher uses numerical analysis, she is most likely engaging in _____ research.

State a sociological research question that is of interest to you. What sort of research design would you pick to answer that question? Why?

How do sociologists know if the sample they are using is representative?

Which of the following statements about hypothesis testing is true?

Define the scientific method and explain why it is important.

Every day Mark eats in the same cafeteria on campus and notices that everyone seems to sit with the same group of people whenever they come to eat. Mark notices that people seem to be sitting with others who share traits such as race or gender and decides to explore if this is the case. What kind of reasoning does this involve?

Why is content analysis a valuable research method for sociology? What can it be used to demonstrate?

Which of these statements explains why indicator variables are necessary to study concepts?

When a researcher is measuring levels of well-being, the variables "life expectancy" and "educational attainment" are referred to as _____ because they reflect an abstract concept.

Which type of survey questions are typically analyzed qualitatively?

When multiple indicators of a single concept give similar results, it is likely that the measures are providing a _____ depiction of the concept.

In the statement "Diet determines one's life expectancy," diet is the _____ variable.

Explain what content analysis is and what types of questions it is most appropriate for. Describe the limitations of content analysis.

Any information that is found on the Internet should be trusted as a valid source for sociological research.

A benefit of participant observation is that it

Your roommate, a physics major, confidently asserts that the social sciences, including sociology, are not "real science," not like physics is. What might you say in response to demonstrate that sociology is, in fact, a science?