Exam 1: Science, Society, and Social Research

"Does gender have an effect on income? Do men, on average, make more than women?" These are examples of what kind of research questions?

Jason jumped to the conclusion that people who play video games all day are not athletic. This is an example of:

Which of the following is not an important goal of social research?

An advertiser claims that "four out of five veterinarians feed their own dogs CANINE GOODIES" to conclude that CANINE GOODIES is a superior dog food. Use the dimensions of validity to discuss the potential flaws in this conclusion. Discuss how CANINE GOODIES might make their claims more scientific in future commercials.

Evaluation research can be used to describe the impact of social programs.

How well the people selected to complete the General Social Survey actually reflect the larger U.S. population is a question of:

Illogical reasoning occurs when people conclude that what is true for one case is true for all cases.

The everyday error that involves the reluctance to change ideas even in light of new information is called:

Overgeneralizations occur when people conclude that what is true for some cases is true for all cases.

Both explanatory and evaluation research studies are concerned with the causes and effects of social phenomena. The difference between them is that evaluation research focuses on the:

According to Putnam's explanatory research, people "bowl alone" in the United States because which of the following has occurred in during the last few decades in the 20th century?

Use the following to answer questions 16-18: In each set, match a concept from Group A to a definition or example from Group B. -Examples of Types of Social Research Group A 1. Description 2. Evaluation 3. Explanation 4. Exploration Group B a. The quality of neighborhoods, family, and peers affect whether youths become delinquents. b. The GSS indicates that a smaller number of people spent social time with their neighbors in 1998, as compared to 1975. c. How is loyalty developed among college basketball players? d. In Netville, Ontario (where all homes were given Internet access), community relations improved among people who used the Internet.

Crime has been decreasing in most U.S. cities for the last decade. However, crime remains a critical issue in politics, in the media, and in explanations for why middle-class people do not want to live in the cities. Explain this situation by referring to all four of the errors in everyday reasoning. Propose different sources of errors in everyday reasoning that might account for continued concern about crime even in the face of evidence of declining crime rates.

In which circumstances are descriptive, exploratory, explanatory, and evaluation research appropriate? Give an example for each.

When a measure measures what we think it does, it has external validity.

Cross-population validity determines whether the findings based on a sample can be generalized to a different population than the one from which it was drawn.

Social science reduces the risk of selective or inaccurate observation by:

The everyday error that involves unjustifiably concluding that what is true for some cases is true for all cases is called:

According to the text, what steps can social scientists make to combat the four different types of everyday error? Explain your answer by using an example of a hypothetical study on drug and alcohol use among teenagers.

Write a brief explanation of the concept of validity and its three dimensions. To illustrate your explanations, describe what they would refer to in a hypothetical study of drug abuse in U.S. suburbs.