Exam 20: Research Methods

Correlation is the same thing as causation.

Students who work at part-time jobs get lower grades than those who do not work. In methodological terms, what kind of variable are students' grades?

Which of the following methods did Scarce's ethnographic account of salmon, biology, and the social construction of nature rely on the most?

When discussing her research project on family violence, Serena says that she will utilize official police statistics and data from Statistics Canada as her main source of data. Tom pointed out to her that she may have a problem with validity of her findings. Why would Tom say this?

Which of the following is the most important difference between social science and natural science?

Fatima meets with an immigrant woman without legal status to discuss a potential research project. The immigrant talks about her daily life and how she works without being identified by the authorities. However, Fatima is frustrated to hear how the immigrant was able to come to this country without going through the legal procedures that Fatima's parents had to go through. According to the text, why should Fatima NOT study this immigrant?

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?

What are explanation and understanding, and why are they important in the social sciences?

Kamal told the researcher he believes children should exercise every day, using the example of playing in the park. However, during that week, Kamal took his child to the park only three times. This example shows the potential for discrepancy between which of the following?

Measuring people's attitudes is a good way to study their behaviour.

According to research outlined in the text, which of the following statements concerning the relationship between education, income, and gender is true?

What grounds listed below are often used in criticizing social research that uses official statistics as its main source of data?

In analyzing a contingency table, it is more useful to compare raw numbers than standardized percentage figures.

How is ethnography best defined?

Theresa has studied the social life of chimpanzees for 10 years. She claims that chimpanzees are antisocial with other mammals, based on her observations in the wild. However, another researcher argues that this statement cannot be made, based on which of the following arguments?

What does the term external validity mean in relation to experimental research?

Which of the following assertions would best explain the concept of falsification in science?

Random-digit-dialling procedures for telephone survey research will allow for accessing households with unlisted telephone numbers.

We must be cautious in generalizing the results of laboratory experiments to nonlaboratory situations. What concept below is used in explaining the extent to which experimental findings remain valid in nonlaboratory situations?

Robert had just purchased a Volkswagen Beetle, and when he went to the insurance company was told he would have to pay higher premiums because it was red in colour. When asked to explain, the insurance agent said the company had accident history data that demonstrated red cars were involved in three times as many accidents. Robert analyzed the data and found that the red cars were predominantly high-speed sports cars. When he pointed this out, the insurance company readdressed its pricing policy. What did Robert discover?