Chapter 4- Textbook Flashcards
1
Q
What is research?
A
A systematic approach to gathering data using an agreed upon set of methods.
2
Q
What does the kind of research questions you ask depend on?
A
The theoretical perspective from which you are working.
3
Q
What is a researchers working from a functionalist perspective interested in?
A
The smooth functioning of society
4
Q
What is a researcher working from a conflict theorist perspective concerned with?
A
Concerned with the struggle over scarce resources by different groups in society and how elites control the less powerful
5
Q
What types of theory are both functionalists and conflict theorists considered? What types of questions do they ask?
A
macrosociological and therefore ask “large” questions
6
Q
What type of perspective is microsociological? What kinds of questions do researchers working from this approach ask?
A
Symbolic interactionists and are interested in face-to-face encounters and the meaning that people use to facilitate social life.
7
Q
What are feminist researchers generally interested in?
A
Examining issues pertaining to gender and inequality
8
Q
What are queer theorist researchers interest in?
A
Troubling–that is, problematizing–taken-for-granted concepts such as the term normal. They seek to expose these concepts as socially constructing and regulatory.
9
Q
What will the method you use depend on?
A
The research questions you ask.
10
Q
What are the two main approaches to social research?
A
Quantitative (numerical data) and qualitative (non-numerical data)
11
Q
What does conducting and analyzing research quantitatively involve?
A
Converting aspects of social life into numbers and determining whether a significant relationship exists between sets of numbers.
12
Q
What does conducting and analyzing research qualitatively involve?
A
The focus is on rich detail. More in depth.
13
Q
Does qualitative research use large or small samples?
A
small
14
Q
What are the research instruments with qualitative research?
A
The researchers themselves
15
Q
What are the main techniques of data collection with qualitative research?
A
interviewing and observation
16
Q
Which is more expensive to carry out, quantitative or qualitative research?
A
qualitative
17
Q
What are the two systems of reasoning?
A
Inductive logic and deductive logic
18
Q
What is inductive logic?
A
A system of reasoning that moves from data to the formation of a theory
19
Q
What is deductive logic?
A
A system of reasoning that moves from theory to the formulation of hypotheses for testing.
20
Q
What system of reasoning do researches working from a qualitative approach often use?
A
inductive
21
Q
What system of reasoning do researchers working from a quantitative approach often use?
A
deductive
22
Q
What are the 9 steps of the research process?
A
1) Begin with an areas of interest
2) Conduct a search of the scholarly research
3) Develop a specific research question
4) Choose your research method
5) Decide where, when, and with whom you will get your information
6) Submit an ethical review application
7) Collect your data
8) Analyze your data
9) Write up your research and share it with others
23
Q
What is a hypothesis?
A
A tentative statement about a particular relationship (between objects, people, or groups of people) that can be tested empirically.
24
Q
What do you have when you begin a quantitative study?
A
A theory that you want to test. You would use a hypothesis to investigate the theory.
25
What are variables?
Characteristics of objects, people, or groups of people that can be measured. Used in quantitate studies.
26
What are independent variables?
Can be varied or manipulated by researchers?
27
What are dependent variables?
The reaction (if one occurs) of the participants to this manipulation (of the independent variable).
28
What is a operational definition?
Description something that allows it to be measured.
29
What is validity?
The accuracy of a given measurement. If a measurement is valid, it means that it is accurately measuring the concept.
30
What is reliability?
The consistency of a given result. Are your results reliable? Do you consistently get the same results. Researchers want to be confident that their results are consistent over time.
31
How are reliability and validity interconnected?
Researchers must have a reliable measurement before they can be confident that they have a valid measurement.
32
Can a measurement be reliable but not valid?
A measurement can be reliable (yield consistent results) yet not be valid (not accurately measure the concept).
33
What is a correlation?
A measure of how strongly tow variables are related to each other.
34
What is causality?
Relationship in which one variable causes a change in another variable.
35
What is spurious correlation?
A false correlation between tow or more variables, even though it appears to be true.
36
What is a research population?
A groups of people that a researchers wishes to learn something about.
37
What is a sample?
A subset of the larger research population.
38
What do random samples enable?
Researchers to make generalized claims.
39
When can the sample be said to apply to the larger population?
If the sample is representative of the larger population being studied.
40
What size of studied are best to use in qualitative studies? Why?
Small samples because they do not allow the researcher to generalize to a larger population, but these studies yield in-depth, detailed data not typically seen in larger quantitative studies?
41
What are research methods?
Strategies used to collect data.
42
What is a survey?
A research method in which respondents answer pre-set questions.
43
When are surveys often used?
Large-scale research projects.
44
What ist he most extensively used method for data collection in the social sciences?
Surveys
45
What are the three main types of surveys?
1) self-administered questionnaires
2) telephone surveys
3) in-person surveys
46
What are self-administered questionnaires? What type of research are they used in? What type of question (open or closed)?
They can be mailed to prospective participants at relatively little cost and are used mainly in quantitative research. Questions often list several possible answers (closed-ended questions) and the respondent is asked to check off one answer per question.
47
What are telephone surveys? What is the advantage? What types of questions (open or closed)?
Telephone surveys work in much the same way as questionnaires--a researcher asks respondents questions over the telephone and provides a list of possible questions if closed-ended questions are being used. If the questions are open-ended, the researcher notes the respondents' answers.
The advantage of a telephone survey over a mailed survey is that respondents can talk with the researcher directly if they have any questions or require clarification before answering a particular question.
48
What are in-person surveys? What is the advantage? Who may they be particularly useful for?
In-person surveys are similar to telephone surveys. Again, the advantage is that the researcher can provide clarification or answer questions for the respondent. In person surveys may be particularly useful for people who may have difficulty completing a mailed survey.
49
What are interviews?
Involve a researcher asking a series of questions of participants; they may be structured, semi-structured, o unstructured depending on the kinds o information the researcher is hoping to gather.
50
What types of interviews do qualitative researchers typically use?
semi-structured or unstructured
51
What types of interviews do quantitative researchers use?
structured usually
52
What are semi-structured interviews?
approach the interview with a set of questions but are also open to the interviewees introducing topics that they think are important.
53
What is an unstructured interview?
begins without any predetermined questions being set by the interviewer, the idea is for the interview to proceed conversationally
54
Harare structured interviews
each and every respondent is asked the same questions in the same order with no room for deviation
55
What types of relations are interviews imbued with?
relations of power
56
Who is there an unequal relationship between with interviews?
interviewer and interviewee
57
What type of power do interviewers have?
select what is studied, who is studied, which data are reported, how the data are reported, and ultimately influence what is knowable.
58
What does the location of a interview affect?
what is reveal in a study but also who is able to reveal
59
What is participant observation?
Active participation by a researcher in a research setting; combines observation and participation in daily-life activities of research subjects (also known as fieldwork).
60
What type of research method is participant observation and what process does it use?
- qualitative
| - induction
61
In what way is participant observation meant to me informal?
Researchers want the research to unfold before them rather than have a preconceived, rigid plan in place before "entering the field".
62
What are the three types of participant observation?
covert, semi-covert, or open
63
What is covert research?
people in the research setting are not informed of the researchers status, they do not know that they are being observed for the purposes of a research project
64
What is semi-covert research?
involves revealing the nature of your study to only some of the people involved
65
What is content analysis?
A research method involving the analysis of texts--which may include magazines, newspaper, television programs, movies, blogs, and so forth. A text can be "printed, visual, aural, or virtual"
66
What type of research method is content analysis?
It can be quantitative, qualitative, or a combination of both.
67
What is a quantitative approach to content analysis?
You will be measuring your variables by counting in order to answer your research question.
68
What is a qualitative approach to content analysis?
Interested in a thematic analysis. Will consider what themes underlie the material under study. Fewer predefined categories directing the researchers attention. More concern is focused on how a topic is presented rather than on how many times a topic is addressed.
69
What is secondary analysis?
A research method involving analysis of existing data. Archival research is well suited not only for studying past events but also for examining trends over time.
70
Where are archives sound?
Not only in university libraries but also in government bodies and churches. As well, particular social clubs may maintain information records, minutes of meetings, and so on. Newspaper, magazines, and other periodicals are also archived.
71
What is the advantage and disadvantage of secondary analysis?
The information already exists, the researcher simply has to access it. It is often a less expensive form of research than having to collect primary data. The disadvantage is that the researcher is restricted to whatever information has already been collected and recorded. Silences or gaps in the data are then important to note.
72
What is participatory action research (PAR)?
Research that combines an action-oriented goal and the participation of research subjects. It brings together two approaches.
73
What is action research?
Designed to effect change, which may come in the form of a new social policy, modifications to an existing policy, or other changes to the lives of disadvantaged people. There is no commitment to involve members of the concerned groups or population in the design and implementation of the research project.
74
What is participatory research?
Does not necessarily have an action component, but it does invite concerned individuals to be part of a project's design and execution.
75
What are the two components of a PAR project?
An action component and a collaborative component.
76
What are multiple research methods? What are two main classifications?
Sometimes researchers use more than one research method in a single project. There are two main classifications associated with multiple research methods; mixed methods and triangulation.
77
What are mixed methods?
An approach in which both quantitative and qualitative procedures are used. Advocates say that no one research method is the best and that all methods have limitations. Biases inherent in particular methods are neutralized by the use of multiple approaches.
78
What is triangulation?
An approach in which more than one research method is used in an attempt to more fully understand an area of study. Gives researchers a fuller picture. They are able to blend different ways of understanding tr move from generalities to specifics.
79
What is the difference between triangulation and mixed methods?
In triangulation, all data from a particular project could be generated from more than one qualitative method or more than one quantitative method--there is no expectation that the data will necessarily include both quantitative and qualitative data.
80
What approach do conflict theorists use? What method? What kind of questions do they ask?
Conflict theorists tend to use a macro approach in examining particular relationships and happenings in society. They would use a quantitative method. Asks a question with a wide-reaching scope.
81
What approach do symbolic interactionists use? What method? What are they interested in?
Working from a micro approach, they would use a qualitative method, and would be interested in face-to-face interactions and the meanings that people use to negotiate social life.
82
When using a combined micro and macro approach, what does the method need to be in line with?
the proposed project
83
What are the seven distinct problems sexism in research identified by Margrit Eichler?
1. Androcentricity- a vision of the world in male terms
2. Overgeneralization- researchers include only one sex in their study but present their findings as being applicable to both men and women. Over specificity occurs when sex-specific terms are sed in situations that are relevant to both sexes
2. Gender insensitivity- gender is ignored as a socially important variable
4. Double standard- employs different means to evaluate or measure the same actions, qualities, or circumstances
5. Sex appropriateness- specific instance of double standard that occurs when human traits or attributes are assigned only to one sex or the other and are treated as more important for the sex to which they have been assigned
6. Familism- a problem derived from gender insensitivity. It occurs when families are taken as the smallest unit of analysis in situations where specific individuals within those families are responsible for particular actions or experiences.
7. Sexual dichotomism- an extreme form of double standard that occurs when the two sexes are treated as completely separate and distinct social and biological groups
84
What is the purpose of ethical principles?
Guide researchers' actions during all phases of a research project.
85
When was the Tri-Council Policy on Ethics Involving Human subject adopted? Which three government research funding bodies was it adopted by?
- 1998
1) the Canadian Institutes of Heath Research
2) the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
3) the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
86
What is one of the main principles of current research ethics? How is this principle upheld?
- Respect for others
| - Upheld through current practices of informed consent
87
What must every person who takes place in a research project understand?
- His or her obligations in the study (how much time is required what is required, etc.)
- The risks or harms that may e faced as a result of participation (emotional trauma, social embarrassment)
- The benefits that may be realized (a greater understanding of some aspect of his or her life)
- His or her rights (freedom to end participation without penalty)
- They must vulgarly agree to such participation
88
What is the intention of ethical guidelines?
To ensure that researchers will balance the risks people are subject to in the course of their involvement in a research study and the benefits of the study to the wider community. The risks to participants should not outweigh benefits to the scientific community and to wider society.
89
What are the concerns that current ethical guidelines face?
- Inflexible
- Monolithic
- Paternalistic
- Protectionist
- Unsuitable to certain kinds of research
- Make research difficult for particular social groups, namely those that would be understood as vulnerable and/or marginalized
90
When were ethical policies and practices originally developed?
As a result of WWII. The Nuremberg Code was established in 1949 to outline ethical standards for research involving human subjects. It details 10 principles for ethical research. It does not specifically address patent-physician relationships in the context of research.
91
Why was the Declaration of Helsinki established?
To established guidelines that take into account the relationships between patient and physicians. The Declaration's primary purpose was to place the interest of the individual patient before the interests of society (via research).
