Deck 1: Doing Social Research

Question 1

A tendency to assume that a person or source with a strong reputation or in a high-status position is automatically correct,instead of carefully evaluating the quality of information offered,is called

A)selective observation.
B)skepticism.
C)the halo effect.
D)premature closure.
E)the scientific method.

Answer 1

C

Question 2

Sara finds religiosity fascinating-all aspects of all religions-and wants to study them.However,in sitting down to design a study,Sara finds herself overwhelmed by the magnitude of her subject.What step should Sara take before attempting to design her study?

A)Collect preliminary data
B)Reflect on her faith
C)Focus research question
D)Inform others
E)None of the above

Answer 2

C

Question 3

Briefly describe each of the steps involved in conducting a research project.Discuss how "fixed" the steps are and the implications of this for a person undertaking research.

Answer 3

The steps are: select topic → focus question → design study → collect data → analyze data → interpret data → inform others
The steps are not "fixed";in practice,you rarely complete one step totally before moving on to the next one.
The process is an interactive one in which the steps blend into each other.
Implications: what you do in a later step may stimulate a reconsideration and slight adjustment about your thinking in a previous step.

Question 4

Describe the following types of errors: premature closure,overgeneralization,selective observation,and halo effect.

Question 5

The majority of the scientific community's core members are employed in

A)private industry.
B)think-tanks.
C)universities.
D)the public sector.
E)not-for-profit organizations.

Question 6

What is the scientific community and who belongs to it?

Question 7

Describe the differences between exploratory,descriptive,and explanatory research.

Question 8

Which best summarizes the main goal of descriptive research?

A)Advance knowledge about an underlying process or complete a theory
B)Develop techniques and a sense of direction for future research
C)Give a verbal or numerical (e.g.,percentages)picture
D)Extend a theory or principle into new areas or issues
E)Provide evidence to support or refute an explanation

Question 9

Explain how you would distinguish a qualitative from a quantitative social research study,and identify four quantitative and four qualitative date collection techniques.

Question 10

Identify and briefly explain what is entailed by two quantitative data collection techniques and two qualitative data collection techniques.

Question 11

__________ is a special case of authority,which is derived from the way things have been.

A)Tradition
B)History
C)Common sense
D)Personal experience
E)Selective observation

Question 12

Explanatory research is

A)research in which a researcher seeks to test theories and addresses the question of why events or patterns occur in social reality.
B)a technique developed by economists in which the positive and negative consequences of something are estimated,given a dollar value,then balanced against one another.
C)evaluation research after the program or policy being evaluated ends.
D)evaluation research throughout the program or policy being evaluated.
E)research into a new area that has not been studied and in which a researcher develops initial ideas and a more focused research question.

Question 13

Roger works at a retirement home and is very familiar with its residents,all of whom are 65 years of age or older.Roger observes that residents between 65 and 74 years of age are the unhappiest,residents between 75 and 84 years of age are moderately happy,and residents between 85 and 100 years of age are the happiest.Rogers concludes that people,in general,grow happier as they age.The error Roger committed is called

A)the error of overgeneralization.
B)the error of selective observation.
C)the error of illogical reasoning.
D)the error of inaccurate observation.
E)Roger did not make any errors.

Question 14

What is the purpose of academic social research?

A)It solves social problems and finds which policies are best.
B)It improves social programs so they become more effective.
C)It invents new taxonomies and jargon.
D)It creates fundamental knowledge about how the social world works.
E)It predicts what future society will be like.

Question 15

Don,having heard worrisome news reports about chicken farming,wonders if he should stop feeding chicken to his children.Don solicits the advice of his friend Kent,who is a nutritionist,and Kent advises Don to continue feeding his children chicken.Don follows Kent's recommendation.On what basis did Don make his decision to include chicken in his childrens' diet?

A)Authority
B)Tradition
C)Media myth
D)Personal observation
E)Objective authorization

Question 16

How does a panel study differ from a time-series study?

Question 17

Below are five of the seven steps of a research project in scrambled order.Of the five listed below,which one is supposed to be third in the sequence?

A)Interpret findings
B)Collect data
C)Design study
D)Focus project.
E)Analyze the data

Question 18

What is the difference between academic and applied social research?

Question 19

Give an example of a cohort study,describing what features of it make it a cohort study.

Question 20

What is social research? What are some alternative sources of knowledge? What distinguishes social research from these alternatives?

Question 21

Researchers have discovered that when the closure of a manufacturing facility is announced,worker productivity briefly dips and then rises to higher levels than before the announcement was delivered.To better understand why productivity rises in manufacturing facilities after closure announcements,Tikvah Mindorff took a position as a welder inside a manufacturing facility that was in the process of shutting down and carefully observed her fellow workers and their situations.What kind of data collection technique has Tikvah employed in her research?

A)field research
B)historical research
C)experimental research
D)survey research
E)content analysis

Question 22

All of the following characterize academic research,EXCEPT which one?

A)The main concern is with the internal logic and rigour of research design.
B)The objective is to contribute to policy and/or program change.
C)Success comes when results appear in a scholarly journal.
D)Research problems and participants are selected with a great deal of freedom.
E)The highest standards of scholarship are sought.

Question 23

Which of the following statements is NOT true of tradition as an alternative source of knowledge?

A)It is a special case of authority.
B)It may begin as simple prejudice.
C)It means that you believe something to be true because “it’s the way things have always been.”
D)It can become distorted as it is passed on,to the point where it is no longer true.
E)It is the same as common sense.

Question 24

In an effort to identify new ways to attract attention to the sport of road bicycle racing,Andrew Hunt recruits fifty participants and divides them into groups of five.Each group is shown clips of a road bicycle race and then asked to discuss the aspects of the race footage they enjoyed,the aspects of the race footage they did not enjoy,and the likelihood that they would opt to watch a road bicycle race,given the opportunity,in the future.What kind of data collection technique has Andrew Hunt's employed in his research?

A)academic research
B)experimental research
C)qualitative interview research
D)focus group research
E)survey research

Question 25

In 2010,Professor Dennis Wrong decided to conduct a study of 1000 persons who were married in 1946 to 1948 and were still married.He believed that the social climate,returning veterans,and other changes around the end of World War II affected the decision to marry and what occurred in their first year of marriage.Most likely,Dennis was conducting which type of study?

A)Case study
B)Panel
C)Cohort
D)Time-series
E)Cross-sectional

Question 26

All of the following statements apply to surveys,EXCEPT which one?

A)Researchers ask all respondents the same questions.
B)Surveys are primarily associated with quantitative research.
C)Researchers systematically manipulate situations and conditions.
D)Researchers use surveys in descriptive or explanatory research.
E)Researchers can generalize results from surveys to larger groups.

Question 27

Define the following:applied social research

Question 28

All of the following characterize applied research,EXCEPT which one?

A)Doing research is usually part of a job assignment and sponsors/supervisors who are not professional researchers will judge/use the results.
B)Success is based on whether sponsors/supervisors use the results in decision-making.
C)The primary concern is with the internal logic and rigour of the research design,so a research study attempts to reach the absolute norms of scientific rigour and scholarship.
D)The driving goal is to produce practical payoffs or uses of the results.
E)Research problems one can explore are limited by the demands and interests of employers or sponsors.

Question 29

Katherine Keene,a hospital administrator,heard a lot about gay men getting HIV and AIDS.She watched the male patients at her hospital admitted for AIDS.She thought they all looked like homosexuals as did almost all their male visitors.In fact,at Katherine's hospital,60 percent of the HIV-positive male patients were heterosexual and 80 percent of their visitors were neighbours,co-workers,or immediate family members.She most clearly made which type of error?

A)Selective observation
B)Premature closure
C)Overgeneralization
D)Inattention
E)None,she made no error.

Question 30

Define the following:academic social research

Question 31

All of the following characterize exploratory research,EXCEPT which one?

A)Exploratory research has few guidelines to follow.
B)Exploratory research illuminates understudied areas.
C)Exploratory research rarely yields definitive answers.
D)Exploratory research tends to be qualitative.
E)Exploratory research documents causes,tests theories,and provides reasons.

Question 32

What precipitates premature closure?

A)the scientific community deprioritizes investigations of a topic for political or cultural reasons
B)the subjects of a panel study decline continued participations in the research,or are no longer suitable candidates for the research
C)the subjects of a case study decline continued participations in the research,or are no longer suitable candidates for the research
D)a researcher feels he or she has the answers and does not need to listen,seek information,or raise questions any longer
E)a researcher is forced to conclude an investigation due to financial,temporal,or other practical constraints on the research process

Question 33

A type of data-collection technique that most closely follows the logic and principles of natural science,in which researchers create situations and examine their effects on participants,is called

A)content analysis.
B)experimental research.
C)survey research.
D)field research.
E)historical comparative research.

Question 34

Joe Foss studied gender differences in attitudes toward mathematics and science among 45 Grade 1 students.Over the next 12 years,he studied the same 45 children when they were in Grades 5,8,and 12.This is which type of research?

A)Case study research
B)Cross-sectional research
C)Time-series research
D)Panel study research
E)Action-oriented research

Question 35

Existing statistics research

A)is the examination of numerical information from government documents or official reports.
B)is most frequently used for descriptive research.
C)is done by asking people questions using a written questionnaire.
D)allows a researcher to discover features in the content of large amounts of material that might otherwise go unnoticed.
E)may be time consuming if the researcher does not carefully consider the meaning of what he or she finds.

Question 36

Which of the following are the two major approaches or orientations to social research methods?

A)Micro and macro
B)Qualitative and quantitative
C)Explanatory and exploratory
D)Applied and academic
E)Cross-sectional and longitudinal

Question 37

Which of the following techniques is used by both qualitative and quantitative researchers?

A)Content analysis
B)Existing statistics
C)Field research
D)Focus groups
E)Historical comparative research

Question 38

Who coined the term "public sociology"?

A)Emile Durkheim
B)Herbert Gans
C)Statistics Canada spokesperson
D)Michael Burawoy
E)Wilkinson

Question 39

Which of the following terms denotes oorganizations composed of a body of experts in a field that are often motivated by particular advocacy goals?

A)panels
B)scientific community
C)think tanks
D)applied social researchers
E)academic social researchers

Question 40

There are various ways in which acquiring knowledge might address the topic of climate change.The statement "David Suzuki says that climate change is one of the most serious environmental threats facing the world today" is an example of what source of knowledge?

A)Personal experience
B)Media myth
C)Tradition
D)Authority
E)Common Sense

Question 41

Define the following:descriptive research

Question 42

Define the following:historical research

Question 43

Define the following:longitudinal research

Question 44

Define the following:case-study research

Question 45

Define the following:cross-sectional research

Question 46

Define the following:public sociology

Question 47

Define the following:cohort study

Question 48

Define the following:existing statistics research

Question 49

Define the following:content analysis

Question 50

Define the following:panel study

Question 51

Define the following:focus group

Question 52

Define the following:empirical evidence

Question 53

Define the following:overgeneralization

Question 54

Define the following:premature closure

Question 55

Define the following:explanatory research

Question 56

Define the following:field research

Question 57

Define the following:experimental research

Question 58

Define the following:halo effect

Question 59

Define the following:data

Question 60

Define the following:exploratory research

Question 61

Define the following:qualitative interview

Question 62

Define the following:social research

Question 63

Define the following:selective observation

Question 64

Define the following:quantitative data

Question 65

Define the following:survey research

Question 66

Define the following:scientific method

Question 67

Define the following:think tanks

Question 68

Define the following:scientific community

Question 69

Define the following:qualitative data

Question 70

Define the following:time-series study