Deck 2: The Vocabulary of Science, and Doing Social Research

Question 1

Which of the following statements about variables is not true:

A) They represent concepts of interest to the researcher.
B) They have more than one attribute.
C) They are thought to influence or be influenced by some other thing(s).
D) They may be positive or negative.
E) They may be independent or dependent.

Answer 1

They may be positive or negative.

Question 2

In a study that focused on the influence of gender on occupation,

A) gender is the positive variable.
B) gender is the negative variable
C) gender is the dependent variable.
D) gender is the independent variable.
E) none of these

Answer 2

gender is the independent variable.

Question 3

A student who majors in sociology is more likely than a student who majors in something else to vote in national elections. In this hypothesis, the independent variable is

A) the student's major.
B) whether the student votes in national elections.
C) attending college.
D) the gender of the student.
E) cannot be determined from the hypothesis.

Answer 3

the student's major.

Question 4

The term, _____________ variable is used to indicate a cause.

A) dependent
B) independent
C) control
D) spurious
E) any of the above, depending on the situation

Question 5

When there is a negative relationship between two variables, it means that

A) the relationship between the two variables is opposite of what the researchers expected.
B) the researcher found no relationship between the two variables.
C) a high score on one variable is associated with a high score on the other.
D) a low score on one variable is associated with a low score on the other.
E) a high score on one variable is associated with a low score on the other.

Question 6

The hypothesis that older people tend to have less fear of death than younger people,

A) is not empirically testable.
B) posits a negative relationship between age and fear of death.
C) posits a positive relationship between age and fear of death.
D) posits a controlled relationship between age and fear of death.
E) none of these

Question 7

Some researchers discovered that there is a negative relationship between the driver's age and speeding. Thus, they were not be surprised to find out that

A) older people drive more frequently than younger people.
B) younger people receive more speeding tickets than older people do.
C) the cars that older people usually drive cost more and thus can go faster than the cars that younger people drive.
D) younger people are less likely to receive speeding tickets than older people.
E) there is no relationship between age and speeding.

Question 8

The hypothesis that highly educated people tend to have more children than people with less education do,

A) is not empirically testable.
B) posits a negative relationship between education and number of children.
C) posits a positive relationship between education and number of children.
D) posits a spurious relationship between education and number of children.
E) none of these

Question 9

In Sweden, qualified observers have noted that there is a strong positive association between the number of storks present and the birth rate of human infants in particular areas. Most sociologists would regard this finding as

A) proof that storks bring babies to parents in Sweden.
B) spurious.
C) as undermining the theory that babies come from cabbage patches.
D) dysfunctional.
E) negative.

Question 10

The hypothesis that crime rates tend to increase as the weather grows warmer and decrease as the weather grows colder,

A) is not empirically testable.
B) posits a negative relationship between the temperature and the crime rate.
C) posits a positive relationship between temperature and the crime rate.
D) suggests that the temperature is the dependent variable.
E) none of these

Question 11

Consider the following statements, then indicate which "summary" (given below) is accurate.
• Independent variables are treated as the "cause"
Of dependent variables.
• Variables have varying attributes.
• Sometimes a particular variable may be independent and sometimes it may be dependent.
• A hypothesis may be . Summaries

A) Each statement is true.
B) Some statements are .
C) Each statement is false.

Question 12

The hypothesis that Catholics are more likely than Protestants to go to heaven,

A) is not empirically testable
B) posits a negative relationship between religion and going to heaven.
C) posits a positive relationship between religion and going to heaven.
D) posits a spurious relationship between religion and going to heaven.
E) none of these

Question 13

In science, the first direct step in measuring a variable is creating a

A) formal induction.
B) informal induction.
C) operational definition.
D) scale.
E) questionnaire.

Question 14

The New Hampshire state legislator who concluded that increases in the crime rate were caused by increases in the number of kindergartens,

A) influenced state officials to reduce the number of kindergartens.
B) misused official statistics.
C) made up his own data.
D) confused "association" with "causation."
E) used qualitative rather than quantitative data.

Question 15

In sociological research, the term Hawthorne Effect refers to

A) the discovery by Juanita Hawthorne that everyone in society is a "naive researcher."
B) the fact that factory owners must pay higher wages to get employees to work harder.
C) one type of cultural shock which usually starts with serious ethnocentrism.
D) the fact that merely being a subject in a research project can affect someone's behavior.
E) the most serious possible consequence of unobtrusive research.

Question 16

In sociology, quantitative research methods

A) can be traced back to the work of Emile Durkheim.
B) follow a natural science model.
C) focus on gathering data that can be expressed in numbers.
D) are used by many researchers.
E) all of these

Question 17

In sociology, qualitative researchers

A) use methods that can be traced back to the work of Emile Durkheim.
B) seek to gain an interpretative understanding of the social world.
C) assume social data can be treated in much the same way as data about the physical world.
D) tend to focus on the use of existing statistics.
E) all of these

Question 18

Which of the following statements about surveys is not true?

A) Surveys may be administered in person, or in writing.
B) Surveys can be used to gather data from a large number of people.
C) Surveys are good ways to gather demographic data.
D) Surveys are good ways to gather data about people's actual behaviors.
E) Surveys are good ways to gather data about people's attitudes.

Question 19

Researchers who use observational techniques

A) may be known to the subjects of their research.
B) may ask questions of the subjects of their research.
C) may be unknown to the subjects of their research.
D) may ask no questions of the subjects of their research.
E) all of these

Question 20

The major weakness of the survey technique is that

A) it can't be used to obtain reliable data from large numbers of people.
B) it can't be used to obtain reliable demographic information.
C) it can't be used to obtain reliable information about people's behavior.
D) it can't be used to obtain reliable information about people's attitudes.
E) it's too expensive to find appropriate samples.

Question 21

Bob O'Brien wishes to know what people like or dislike about scary movies. Given his interest, which research method should Bob use?

A) experiment
B) survey
C) use of existing statistics
D) participant observation
E) accretion measures

Question 22

Jan Dunham wants to know whether men are more likely to violate norms than women are when they are drinking. Given her interest, which research method should Jan use?

A) experiment
B) survey
C) use of existing statistics
D) erosion measures
E) accretion measures

Question 23

To what radio stations do people listen in their cars? One sociologist researched this by having auto mechanics throughout the city keep track of where people's radios were tuned when they brought their cars in for service. This is an example of

A) experimental research.
B) unobtrusive research.
C) complete observational research.
D) participant observer research.
E) none of these

Question 24

Jessica Dowe wants to know whether teachers on playground duty interact more with boys or with girls. Given her interest, which research method should Jessica use?

A) experiment
B) survey
C) use of existing statistics
D) observation
E) accretion measures

Question 25

A sample is ________ when every individual in the population has the same chance of being included.

A) purposive
B) mathematically valid
C) random
D) experimental
E) rational

Question 26

In sociology, the concept of triangulation means

A) to do research with as many different methods as possible.
B) to do research with technologically sophisticated survey equipment.
C) to focus on three specific topics ("tri-variables")
D) to use so-called triangle statistical techniques as part of the analysis.
E) to chose research methods whose strengths and weaknesses are complementary.

Question 27

John Howard Griffin was a white man and a journalist. In the 1950s, to discover what it was like to live life as an African American, Griffin shaved his head and dyed his skin black, and traveled throughout the deep South playing the role of an unemployed black male. A sociologist would call this research method

A) too dangerous.
B) participant observation.
C) an experiment.
D) unethical.
E) triangulated.

Question 28

As a result of her research into the causes of the Challenger disaster in 1986, sociologist Diane Vaughn discovered

A) a small group of engineers who sabotaged the fuel tank of the space shuttle.
B) executives who illegally hired a foreign contractor to supply parts at a cheaper price.
C) politicians that pressured NASA to launch before the space shuttle was ready to fly.
D) that NASA had a culture that had come to accept flaws as normal and acceptable.
E) All of the above

Question 29

Which of the following would be an unlikely goal of an ethnographer?

A) Finding surprises
B) Understanding the world from other people's points of view
C) Testing a specific hypothesis
D) Earning people's trust

Question 30

A hypothesis is neither because it has nothing to do with empirical reality.

Question 31

A variable must have more than three attributes in order to be useful in social research.

Question 32

A particular variable is always either dependent or independent, regardless of the circumstances.

Question 33

Operationalizing a variable means transforming it into something that can be observed and measured.

Question 34

Qualitative researchers in social science follow the natural science model of research whenever possible.

Question 35

The best way to gather demographic information about a large number of people is to do a survey.

Question 36

The term "Hawthorne effect"
has to do with the notion that people's behavior may be affected when they are being studied using any obtrusive research method.

Question 37

The term "triangulation"
refers to a research strategy in which the weaknesses of a particular method are compensated for by the use of other methods that don't share those weaknesses.

Question 38

As a general rule, the more diverse a population is, the larger the sample must be in order to be representative.

Question 39

Diane Vaughn's investigation of the 1986 Challenger explosion concluded that the disaster was just a freak accident.

Question 40

For each of the following hypotheses, identify and operationalize the dependent and independent variables.
H₁: The more education you have, the more likely you are to vote in national elections.
a. independent variable: _______________________________________
operationalize this variable:
b. dependent variable: ________________________________________
operationalize this variable:
H₂: The higher your yearly income, the less likely you are to die of undiagnosed heart disease.
a. independent variable: ____________________________________________
operationalize this variable:
b. dependent variable: ______________________________________________
operationalize this variable:
H₃: Blacks and Asians are more likely to die while awaiting organ transplants than whites are.
a. independent variable: ___________________________________________
operationalize this variable:
b. dependent variable: _______________________________________________
operationalize this variable:
H₄: The lower your income, the higher your chances of being audited by the IRS.
a. independent variable: __________________________________________
operationalize this variable:
b. dependent variable: ___________________________________________
operationalize this variable:

Question 41

Create your own hypothesis using the following two variables: age and marital happiness. Explain your reasoning.

Question 42

A friend makes the following claim: "Statistics prove that as the number of television sets owned by the population increases, so too does life expectancy. Therefore, watching television increases life expectancy."
Explain how you would refute your friend's assertion.

Question 43

A friend makes the following claim: "Statistics show that the average life expectancy for a country's population is associated with per capita computer ownership. Therefore, owning computers helps people live longer."
Explain how you would refute your friend's assertion.

Question 44

Pick XXX pairs of words from the following list. Define the terms in each pair. Provide an example with each definition. (In your answer, make sure to indicate which terms you are defining!)
Definitions

Question 45

Was there one question that you were just sure would be asked on this exam but wasn't? There must have been one thing that you studied and then didn't find on the exam. In any case, take advantage of this opportunity to write your own question; create at least five answer categories, and indicate the correct answer.
____________________________________________________________________
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a. ____________
b. ____________
c. ____________
d. ____________
e. ____________