Chapter 2

Question 1

Hypothesis

Answer 1

spells out what is being investigated

• sets out the relationship between variables such as age, education, race, income, employment status, marital status
• Ideas or guesses about a given state of affairs, put forward as bases for empirical testing

Question 2

Research Designs/Methods

Answer 2

• Ethnography: Participant Observation
• The diverse methods of investigation used to gather empirical (factual) material. Different research methods exist in sociology, but the most commonly used are fieldwork (or participant observation) and survey methods. For many purposes, it is useful to combine two or more methods within a single research project.

Question 3

Ethnography

Answer 3

The firsthand study of people using participant observation or interviewing
-research design

Question 4

Surveys

Answer 4

• research design
• surveys are based upon questionnaires or interviews
• answers are collected from a sample that represents the whole population

Question 5

Participant Observation

Answer 5

a method of research widely used in sociology and anthropology, in which the researcher takes part in the activities of the group or community being studied.

Question 6

Population

Answer 6

The people who are the focus of social research

Question 7

Pilot Survey

Answer 7

a trial run in survey research

Question 8

Sample

Answer 8

a small proportion of a larger population

Question 9

Sampling

Answer 9

studying a proportion of individuals or cases from a larger population as representative of that population as a whole

Question 10

Mean

Answer 10

• average

- a statistical measure of central tendency, or average, based on dividing a total by the number of individual cases.

Question 11

Median

Answer 11

• middle value
• the number that falls halfway in a range of numbers—a way of calculating central tendency that is sometimes more useful than calculating a mean

Question 12

Correlation Coefficients

Answer 12

• variables change together

- the measure of the degree of correlation between variables

Question 13

Random Sample

Answer 13

sampling method in which a sample is chosen so that every member of the population has the same probability of being included.

Question 14

Experiment

Answer 14

a research method in which variables can be analyzed in a controlled and systematic way, either in an artificial situation constructed by the researcher or in naturally occurring settings.

Question 15

7 Steps in the Research Process

Answer 15

1. Define the problem
2. Review the literature
3. Formulate a hypothesis
4. Choose a research design
5. Do the research
6. Interpret the results (using statistics)
7. Report the results