Research Methodology Midterm

Question 1

Research Methods

Answer 1

Big data, survey research, interviewing, content analysis, mixed methods

Question 2

Research interests

Answer 2

media representations, sociology of the workplace, digital media use, inequality

Question 3

Informal Observation

Answer 3

Occurs when we make observations without any systematic process for observing or assessing accuracy of what we observed.

Question 4

selective observation

Answer 4

occurs when we see only those patterns that we want to see or when we assume that only the patterns we have experienced directly exist.

Question 5

Overgeneralization

Answer 5

occurs when we assume that broad patterns exist even when our observations have been limited

Question 6

authority

Answer 6

a socially defined source of knowledge that might shape our beliefs about what is not true

Question 7

research methods

Answer 7

an organized, logical way of learning and knowing about our social world

Question 8

Ontology

Answer 8

an analytic philosophy concerning the nature of reality

Question 9

Epistemology

Answer 9

an analytic philosophy concerning how we know what we know

Question 10

Science of sociology

Answer 10

a way of knowing that attempts to systematically collect and categorize truths

Question 11

Sociology

Answer 11

• the scientific study of humans in groups
• the systematic study of social patterns

Question 12

Qualitative Data

Answer 12

systematically collecting data, non numerical-> words, images, sounds etc.

Question 13

Micro

Answer 13

-an analytic framework focusing on the smallest levels of interaction
-qualitative

Question 14

Mesro

Answer 14

-an analytic framework focusing on group interactions
- can be qualitative or quantitative

Question 15

macro

Answer 15

-an analytic framework focusing on large- scale patterns across social structures or institutions
- quantitative

Question 16

theory is…

Answer 16

• a way of explanation, a mapping out of the why and how of the social phenomenon being studied
• answers why and how questions

Question 17

functionalist perspective

Answer 17

auguste Comte, Emile Durkheim
- views society as a living organism (economy, family, politics, religion, education and other institutions have functions that allow society to survive.

Question 18

Consensus

Answer 18

functionalists see social equilibrium as needed for all social organs to work together and survive

Question 19

Conflict Perspective Prominent figures are?

Answer 19

Karl Marx, Max Weber, C. Wright Mills

Question 20

What is conflict in conflict perspective?

Answer 20

View society as characterized by conflict and struggle between groups
- interested in domination, inequality, violence

Question 21

Class Conflict

Answer 21

is the major force that moves history forward, ex. slave masters and slaves

Question 22

Feminist Theory is a what perspective

Answer 22

Conflict perspective

Question 23

True or false: Symbolic Interactionism Micro sociological?

Answer 23

true

Question 24

Inductive approach is

Answer 24

when you collect data, analyze patterns in the data, then theorize from the data

Question 25

Deductive Approach

Answer 25

Develop hypotheses based on some theory or theories, collect data that can be used to test the hypotheses, and assess whether the data collected support the hypotheses

Question 26

Complementary approaches are

Answer 26

Data, Theory, New data, New Theory

Question 27

What is a bias?

Answer 27

one view of a perspective that may cause one to neglect alternative perspectives

Question 28

what is an empirical question

Answer 28

questions that can be answered by real experience in the real world

Question 29

what are ethical questions

Answer 29

questions about which people have moral opinions and that may not be answerable in reference to the real world

Question 30

idiographic study

Answer 30

exhaustive, detailed descriptions or explanations of a singular or very small number of individuals, phenomena, or groups

Question 31

nomothetic research is

Answer 31

general, broad descriptions or explanations of many individuals, phenomena or groups

Question 32

units of analysis

Answer 32

the entity that a researcher wishes to be able to say something about at the end of his or her study; the main focus of the study

Question 33

units of observation are

Answer 33

the item(s) that a researcher actually observes, measures or collects in the course of trying something about his or her unit of analysis

Question 34

ecological fallacy happens when

Answer 34

claims are made about individuals based on group-level data

Question 35

Reductionism occurs when

Answer 35

claims about groups are made based on individual level data