Exam 1: Science, Society, and Social Research

Which of the following is a component of science:

Internal validity is also referred to as causal validity.

Explain what generalizability is and why it is important to consider when doing social research. Provide an example of a hypothetical study that shows sample generalizability as well as cross-population generalizability.

Social science is best defined as the:

Consider the argument made by Putnam's Bowling Alone, as described in Chapter 1. Are Putnam's conclusions consistent with your own casual observations about how social ties have weakened in the United States? List three of your own observations that are either consistent with or contradict Putnam's conclusion. Describe how you might propose descriptive research to test whether your observations hold up to scientific criteria. In addition, be specific about the types of errors in everyday reasoning that might apply to your casual observations.

Social science avoids illogical reasoning by:

A researcher asks five questions of a sample of community residents to find out how much they fear crime and whether their level of fear was influenced by a recent well-publicized murder in the community. Explain what the three dimensions of validity would refer to in this study and why they are important.

The extent to which a researcher's sample is representative of the population that it was drawn from is called:

Which of the four "challenges" are the most difficult for social science to overcome? Review each of the four and evaluate the relative difficulties they create. Answer in terms of a specific research area, such as understanding homelessness, crime, or adaptations to communities or work organizations.

Through systematic sampling and measurement, social science can overcome selective and inaccurate observation.

Researchers can rely on gender as disclosed in forums when identifying differences in usage patterns between men and women.

A study of the effects of television violence on children was conducted at a local elementary school. Children were randomly selected from the fourth grade and shown a 10-minute cartoon with violent content. The children were then sent to the playground with other children. Children who were shown the cartoon displayed more aggression in their play than the children who did not see the cartoon. These findings supported the researchers' hypothesis that viewing television violence causes aggressive behavior. The design of this study makes it likely that the researcher's conclusion about the hypothesis has:

When the findings of a study accurately represent empirical reality, the results are said to be valid.

Generalizability refers to the ability of a study to inform us about persons, places, or events that were not directly studied.

When the state approved stronger penalties for drunk driving, including the automatic suspension of driving privileges, the number of highway deaths related to drunk driving decreased. This observation suggests which kind of social research?

A researcher believes girls are more preoccupied with the way they dress than boys. Due to this assumption, he focuses his observations only on girls and their interactions with their friends, neglecting how boys present themselves to others. This is an example of:

A measure is valid when it:

You are working for a community development organization in a city with high rates of unemployment, poverty, high school attrition, and juvenile delinquency. Your organization wants to begin an afternoon computer training program for young people. Explain how descriptive, exploratory, explanatory, and evaluation research can all be used to help start and later maintain this program.

Researchers want to look at the impact of school policy on physical education and health classes on childhood obesity. To do this, they would perform what type of research?