Soc chapter 3
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30 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 Participant observation | sociological research technique in which the researcher becomes simultaneously participant in and observer of that which he/she studies |
| Sir Frances Bacon | defined and elaborated on the scientific method |
| scientific method | involves several steps in a research process (observation, hypothesis testing, analysis of data, generalization) |
| deductive reasoning | type of sociological insight in which sociologist creates a research question about a focused point that is based on a more general or universal principle |
| Inductive reasoning | sociological insight that arrives at general conclusions from specific observations |
| replication study | research that is repeated exactly but on a different group of people or in a different time or place |
| Research design | overall logic and strategy underlying a research project; the details of a research design come from specific questions asked |
| quantitative research | uses numerical analysis |
| qualitative research | less structured than quantitative, allows for more interpretation and nuance in what people say and do → can provide an in-depth look at a particular social behavior |
| hypothesis | prediction/tentative assumption that one intends to test; usually formulated as an if-then statement |
| data | can be qualitative or quantitative; must be gathered for research to be research |
| variable | characteristic that can have more than one value or score. Can be straightforward or can be abstract |
| independent variable | one that the researcher wants to test as the presumed cause of something else |
| dependent variable | variable on which there is a presumed effect |
| concept | any abstract characteristic or attribute that can potentially be measured |
| indicator | something that points to or reflects an abstract concept |
| validity | degree to which a measurement accurately measures or reflects a concept |
| reliability | repeating measurement under the same circumstances gives the same results |
| Hawthorne effect | sometimes subjects have to be deceived in order to get accurate study results |
| sample | any subset of people (or groups or categories) of a population |
| population | a relatively large collection of people (or groups or categories) that a researcher studies and about which generalizations are made |
| random sample | sample population selected randomly; everyone in the population given an equal chance of being selected |
| data analysis | process by which sociologists organize collected data to discover the patterns and uniformities that the data reveal; analysis may be statistical or qualitative |
| serendipitous finding | something that emerges from a study that was not anticipated (ex: discovery of an association between two variables that the researcher was not looking for or some pattern of behavior that was outside the scope of the research design) |
| generalization | the ability to draw conclusions from specific data and to apply them to a broader population |
| controlled experiments | highly focused ways of collecting data, especially useful for determining a pattern of cause and effect |
| content analysis | way of measuring by examining the cultural artifacts of what people write, say, see, and hear |
| evaluation research | assesses effect of policies and programs on people in society |
| debriefing | when researchers reveal true purpose of an experiment only after it is completed |
| informed consent | getting agreement beforehand to participate from subjects after purposes of study explained to them |
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