Exam 2: Research Methods in Sociological Social Psychology

In his study, titled Tearoom Trade, Laud Humphreys found that men who engaged in fleeting sexual encounters with other men in public restrooms:

Why are internal validity and external validity important? Evaluate the relative strengths of surveys and experiments, focusing on the internal validity and the external validity of the results they generate.

Which method of data collection in sociological social psychology do you think is the most ethically problematic? Why do you believe this to be the case? Should contemporary researchers be allowed to use this method of data collection? Support your position.

Suppose that you conducted a survey and found a positive correlation between drinking wine, versus drinking beer, and health. Given the results of your study, can you conclude that drinking wine instead of beer makes people healthy? Explain why this conclusion is or is not appropriate.

In comparison to the results of surveys, the results of experiments tend to be high in external validity.

List and describe the two kinds of qualitative research discussed in Chapter 2 of your textbook. When are these methods of data collection likely to be used?

What is internal validity? What would you say if someone asked you to evaluate the internal validity of a participant observational study of college students' friendships? (Note. This question may be combined with question 12 for a more comprehensive assessment of students' understanding of the nature and purpose of participant observational research.)

Qualitative research tends to be higher in validity than quantitative research.

A survey researcher can eliminate potential problems with time order by using:

The construction of grounded theory involves inductive reasoning.

Kahneman and Deaton's (2010) study, discussed in Chapter 2, suggests that increasing people's income will increase their levels of emotional well-being until they reach an annual income of ___________. After this point, further increases on income have little effect on emotional well-being.

Describe how you would conduct an experiment on the effects of a status characteristic, such as gender or education, on susceptibility of social influence. Who would you use as subjects? Why is the random assignment of subjects to different groups important within this context? Evaluate the internal and external validity of your hypothetical study's results.

What makes Moore's (1968) study of the effects of education on social influence, used to illustrate research within the group processes and structures orientation, a true experiment?

Which of the following statements about qualitative research methods is FALSE?

Zimbardo's Standford prison experiment was a true experiment because subjects were randomly assigned to the role of prison or guard. The experimental design of this study enabled Zimbardo to determine with a high degree of certainty:

Study results are reliable when they:

Debriefing is the term used to refer to the process during which:

It difficult to assess causality using survey data because:

Moore's (1968) experiment on the effects of education on social influence, given as an example of research in the group processes and structures face of sociological social psychology, shows that:

If drinking alcohol reduces college students' grades, then alcohol use is a(n):