Lecture - Methods

Question 1

statistics

Answer 1

give an idea about how wrong we are likely to be although their precision can produce a false sense of certainty.

Question 2

concept

Answer 2

a mental construct that represents some part of society through in simplified form

Question 3

variable

Answer 3

concept whose value changes form case to.case

Question 4

measurement

Answer 4

determining the value of a variable in a specific case

Question 5

operationalizing a verbal

Answer 5

specifying exactly what is measured in assigning a value to a variable
ex. looking at someones education and income to figure out their class

Question 6

reliability

Answer 6

consistent measurement

- repeated measurement of the same case gives the same answer

Question 7

validity

Answer 7

measuring precisely what is intended

-did you measure what you wanted to?

Question 8

Mean

Answer 8

average found by adding a series of number and dividing by the number of cases
- measurement of central tendencies

Question 9

Median

Answer 9

value that is in the middle of the number line

Question 10

Mode

Answer 10

value of the variable that occurs more frequently than any other

Question 11

standard deviation

Answer 11

measure of dispersion

• estimates how far away are the observations from the mean
  1. subtract mean from each observation and then square result
  2. ass up deviations
  3. divide sum by # of observations
  4. take the square root of result

Question 12

independent variable

Answer 12

variable that causes change in another variable

Question 13

dependent variable

Answer 13

a variable that changes due to the influence of another variable
-“hang from”

Question 14

Hypothesis

Answer 14

If (insert change in independant variable) THEN (insert change in dependent variable)

Question 15

Correlation

Answer 15

2 variables related in some way, not necessarily through cause and effect

Question 16

spurious correlation

Answer 16

casual relation is apparent between 2 variables when none exists
- 3rd , hidden variable causes both

Question 17

Scientific control

Answer 17

holding a 3rd variable constant while testing for a relationship between 2 variables

Question 18

objectivity

Answer 18

personal neutrality in conducting research

-but scientists can still be bias

Question 19

replication

Answer 19

repeating research different people in different settings to assess its accuracy
- test bias & such to hold everyone else accountable

Question 20

ethnography

Answer 20

participant - observation of human behavior
- researchers participate in the culture they study

objectivity is acknowledged as impossible

Question 21

Kenneth Good

Answer 21

studied & lived w. yanomama tribe

• ex of ethnography
• ex 2 jane goodalle

Question 22

Margret Meed

Answer 22

cultural anthropologist

- wrote “coming of age in somoa” & thought nurture had more of an impact (this is still debated)

Question 23

Nature vs. Nurture

Answer 23

does biology or culture determine human behavior - debate

Question 24

Limits of Scientific Sociology

Answer 24

• it’s complex, limiting our predictive capability
  ex. nobody predicted that feminist movement would take off like it did
• humans change their behavior when being studied
• social patterns change
• sociologist are part of the world that they study, making it objectively more difficult

Question 25

Research Method

Answer 25

strategy for systematically conducting research

Question 26

Experiment

Answer 26

allows investigation of cause and effect under highly controlled conditions

Question 27

Experimental group

Answer 27

research subjects for whom the indepentand variable changes

Question 28

control group

Answer 28

research subjects for whom the independant variable doesn't change (placebo)

Question 29

random assignment to group

Answer 29

all subjects have an equal chance of being assigned dot a group

Question 30

social experiments

Answer 30

most interesting when they show that individual behavior is caused by social factors vs. thats just how they are

Question 31

Zimbardo's stanford county prison

Answer 31

showed social factors determine wether normal people act brutally - w.in the first day the guards were brutal - stanford didn't have a control group

Question 32

Milgrim's electric shock experiment

Answer 32

-showed people in appropriate social setting, normal people will torture another person

Question 33

Brutality in prison & other institutions...

Answer 33

is a problem of poor organization rather than evil - brutality will occur whenever some people have power over others unless it's supervised or monitored to prevent it