Exam 2: How Sociologists Do Research

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

What steps should sociologists take to ensure a representative sample for their research?

How does sociological research relate to ideas and experience? Illustrate your answer with an example.

Describe the strengths and limitations of experimental research in social sciences.

The right to privacy is an ethical consideration when doing research on human subjects.

Which of the following terms refers to a carefully controlled artificial situation that allows researchers to isolate hypothesized causes and measure their effects precisely?

At what level of experience do patterns occur?

A spurious relationship is one in which the control variable causes both the independent and dependent variables to change.

What underlying methodological principle is reflected in Comte's preferred name for sociology, "social physics"?

In the 1970s, a sociologist observed sexual encounters in public washrooms without revealing his identity to participants.What would have been the researcher's best attempt to minimize the invasion of the participants' privacy?

According to the textbook's discussion of concepts and variables, which of the following best describes the term "alienation"?

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?

What does a quantitative research process begin with?

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

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

Which concept is referred to in the following question: "Would another researcher interpret or measure the phenomenon in the same way"?

A testable hypothesis is a product of the process of induction.

What political movement has forced sociologists to consider issues such as the division of labour in the household, violence against women, and the effects of child-rearing responsibilities?

Describe the scientific and political reasons for and against the discontinuation of the mandatory long-form census in Canada.

Outline three types of unscientific thinking, providing examples of each.