Deck 2: Methods

Question 1

Which of the following is most difficult to do in social science research?

A) say that two things change at the same time
B) establish that something is the cause of something else
C) argue that two things are related
D) propose a relationship between two variables

Answer 1

B

Question 2

Which of the following explains the deductive approach to research? The researcher:

A) makes some observations and develops a theory based on these observations.
B) develops some hypotheses to explain a correlation observed between two variables.
C) starts with a theory,forms hypotheses,makes observations,and then analyzes the data.
D) develops some hypotheses that lead to a theory about human behavior.

Answer 2

C

Question 3

Elizabeth would like to conduct a study to determine how women define spousal abuse and the meanings they attach to their experiences.What research method will Elizabeth most likely use?

A) quantitative
B) inductive
C) qualitative
D) deductive

Answer 3

C

Question 4

Paula begins to notice that there are patterns to where people sit on the bus,and these patterns differ depending on whether the rider is male or female.Based on these observations,she generates a theory about the behaviors of men and women.This is an example of which kind of research approach?

A) deductive
B) inductive
C) quantitative
D) a case study

Question 5

What type of research describes people's behavior in rich detail and focuses on the meanings people give to their actions?

A) intuitive
B) qualitative
C) quantitative
D) correlational

Question 6

A variable that is thought to cause a change in another variable is called the:

A) dependent variable.
B) independent variable.
C) spurious variable.
D) inductive variable.

Question 7

Researchers start in different places on the research cycle.Point 1 indicates a/n ________ approach to research; point 2 indicates a/n ________ approach to research.

A) theoretical; empirical
B) deductive; inductive
C) philosophical; experimental
D) qualitative; quantitative

Question 8

If Kate begins her research with a theory,then forms hypotheses and makes some observations,what approach is she using?

A) independent
B) dependent
C) inductive
D) deductive

Question 9

A variable that is thought to be influenced by another variable is known as the:

A) dependent variable.
B) independent variable.
C) key independent variable.
D) spurious variable.

Question 10

Andy hypothesized that the stress created during economic downturns would increase the probability of spousal abuse.Stress would be considered the ________ variable,and spousal abuse would be considered the ________ variable.

A) dependent; independent
B) key; affected
C) moderating; dependent
D) independent; dependent

Question 11

Which of the following is an example of a quantitative research project?

A) conducting a survey about how often people attend church
B) interviewing people about the role of religion in their lives
C) observing how people behave and interact with each other in a church setting
D) participating in a weekly Bible study meeting for 12 months to understand its importance in people's lives

Question 12

Selena wants to study the bond between pets and their owners.She chooses between the two major methodological approaches to research and decides to view and collect data in a numerical form.Which of the two major methodological approaches did she choose?

A) qualitative
B) quantitative
C) traditional
D) experimental

Question 13

The two broad methodological approaches social scientists use to gather data about the social world are:

A) deductive and inductive.
B) qualitative and quantitative.
C) implicit and explicit.
D) correlational and causal.

Question 14

Which of the following describes a research problem that sociologists have to deal with?

A) Most important topics in sociology have already been researched sufficiently.
B) It is too difficult to test most hypotheses in sociology.
C) A sociologist is part of the very subject he or she is studying.
D) The causes of social behavior are usually obvious and don't require research.

Question 15

Professor Clayton hypothesizes that travel to other countries increases students' abilities to do well in advanced sociology classes.Which variable is the independent variable?

A) Professor Clayton
B) travel to other countries
C) the research methods
D) students' abilities

Question 16

Some factors are called moderating variables because they:

A) affect the relationship between an independent and a dependent variable.
B) interfere with the dependent variable but not the independent variable.
C) diminish the validity of the study.
D) can act as either independent or dependent variables.

Question 17

A sociologist finds a strong relationship between education and income.If he only assumes that the amount of education people receive directly causes them to earn a certain income,and not that a family's income can determine educational attainment,he is forgetting to consider:

A) luck.
B) reverse causality.
C) correlation.
D) deduction.

Question 18

Norm is interested in whether pet owners are more likely than those who do not own pets to have healthier lifestyles (e.g.,exercise regularly,drink moderately,and refrain from nicotine use).By comparing the numbers he gathers on both groups,Norm will most likely be using what type of research method?

A) quantitative
B) inductive
C) speculative
D) qualitative

Question 19

When one factor is said to influence another factor,it is called:

A) correlation.
B) association.
C) causality.
D) mediation.

Question 20

Which of the following factors is needed to establish causality?

A) validity
B) time order
C) spuriousness
D) the deductive approach

Question 21

You may do a study of college wrestling and use your experience as a student-athlete to access wrestling spaces,athletes,and coaches.Considering how your past opportunities and privileges influence your study and its findings is:

A) opportunism.
B) experimenter effects.
C) reflexivity.
D) common sense.

Question 22

How could you operationalize the variable "academic achievement"?

A) use overall GPA as a precise measure
B) observe student study habits before a big exam
C) send a survey to professors asking their thoughts on what good students do to learn
D) study three hours outside of class for every hour spent in class

Question 23

Which of the following is an example of a negative relationship?

A) A diet high in fat greatly increases an individual's risk for obesity and other chronic diseases.
B) The less fat an individual consumes,the lower his or her risk of heart disease.
C) As nicotine consumption increases,the risk for cancer increases.
D) As the number of people vaccinated against measles increases,the occurrence of measles decreases.

Question 24

A qualitative researcher who assumes everything he observes would have happened exactly the same way if he wasn't there observing lacks:

A) generalizability.
B) reflexivity.
C) validity.
D) reliability.

Question 25

Ethnographer Mitchell Duneier spent five years hanging out with booksellers on the streets of Manhattan.His role as both researcher and participant provides a great example of the importance of:

A) maintaining firm boundaries between the role of researcher and the role of participant.
B) staying true to the ethical principles of the scientific method in our research.
C) critically assessing how our role as researchers may affect the people we study.
D) maintaining distance from those we study so that our results are not contaminated.

Question 26

The likelihood that a researcher will obtain the same result using the same measures the next time he or she tests a hypothesis is:

A) validity.
B) reliability.
C) response rate.
D) generalizability.

Question 27

In social research,a hypothesis is best described as a(n):

A) educated guess.
B) proposed relationship between two or more variables.
C) description of why a particular social phenomenon occurs.
D) explanation for why two variables are correlated.

Question 28

Sandra wants to study how students in their senior year of high school prepare for college.She starts by visiting an elite boarding school nearby.Sandra knows that to make general claims about seniors preparing for college,she will need to:

A) randomly select from the population she wants to generalize to.
B) return to the high school next year to study the new seniors.
C) be aware of her intentions,so the study will be valid and reliable.
D) visit more schools so that her sample is representative of the group she wants to generalize to.

Question 29

Juanita is a graduate student studying male prisoners.She carefully considers how her gender,age,and education may affect the prisoners and their responses to her.Juanita is practicing:

A) reflexivity.
B) comparative research.
C) content analysis.
D) operationalization.

Question 30

Shamus Khan used his status and privilege to study how:

A) racial exclusion works at golf clubs.
B) national wealth influences individual success at the Olympics.
C) gender shapes prison experiences.
D) students are trained at an elite private school.

Question 31

The extent to which a researcher can claim that his or her findings are applicable to a larger population than was studied is known as:

A) validity.
B) reliability.
C) causality.
D) generalizability.

Question 32

The more consistent the results given by repeated measurements,the higher the ________ of the measurement procedure.

A) reliability
B) validity
C) efficiency
D) correlation

Question 33

Interpretive sociologists examine meanings attached to behaviors.This most commonly leads them to use which of the following approaches to research?

A) quantitative
B) qualitative
C) deductive
D) scientific

Question 34

Jill wants to know more about how democratic a society is.When she begins her study,she defines the level of democracy as the proportion of people who are able to participate in popular elections.With this definition,Jill has ________ the variable "level of democracy."

A) constructed
B) hypothesized
C) causally connected
D) operationalized

Question 35

After consistently burning dinner for a month,John found out that his oven's temperature gauge was giving readings that were 50 degrees cooler than the oven's actual temperature.John's oven thermometer can be said to be:

A) valid but not reliable.
B) reliable but not valid.
C) neither reliable nor valid.
D) both reliable and valid.

Question 36

Sandra is doing research to determine how common cheating is among students at Duke University.The student body at Duke will serve as her:

A) dependent variable.
B) population.
C) random sample.
D) hypothesis.

Question 37

Because they are an accessible population,undergraduate students are sometimes used in sociological research.In relation to the concept of generalizability,this tendency could represent a potential defect in research because:

A) college undergraduates do not have the right to refuse without suffering negative consequences.
B) the experiences of college undergraduates do not provide a legitimate empirical resource.
C) college undergraduates are not a subset of the general population.
D) college undergraduates are not typical of the public at large.

Question 38

Positivist sociologists tend to use which of the following types of methodological approaches?

A) quantitative
B) qualitative
C) feminist
D) scientific

Question 39

A testable statement about the relationship between two or more variables is called a(n):

A) operationalization.
B) reliability.
C) hypothesis.
D) natural experiment.

Question 40

A strong study establishes validity because it is important that the researcher:

A) measure what he or she intends to measure.
B) generalize to a broader population.
C) conduct research in an ethical manner.
D) apply the research findings in a way that benefits the research population.

Question 41

________ is generally the best method available to the social scientist interested in collecting original data to describe a population too large to observe directly.

A) Survey research
B) Content analysis
C) Comparative research
D) An experiment

Question 42

Harry's study compared how the posts on Craigslist of "men seeking women" differed from the posts of "women seeking men." What method was Harry using when he catalogued the traits mentioned in posts?

A) historical methods
B) comparative research
C) content analysis
D) interviews

Question 43

Charles is a sociologist studying a population of gay fathers in the United States.He interviews 200 men in his data collection.These 200 men constitute what researchers call a:

A) census.
B) case study.
C) sample.
D) participant observation.

Question 44

Which of the following methods involves collecting data from written reports or other artifacts in order to discover patterns in behaviors or attitudes dating to an earlier time period?

A) experiments
B) audit studies
C) panel surveys
D) historical methods

Question 45

What is an important difference between correlation and causation? Which is harder to establish,and why? Use an example to explain your answer.

Question 46

A type of longitudinal study in which the same sample of respondents is tracked over a long period of time is known as:

A) an experiment.
B) participant observation.
C) the historical method.
D) a panel survey.

Question 47

You conduct a study of romantic love among college students.You ask one student to participate,and she says she is annoyed and offended that you asked her.You have caused her harm,but does this level of harm constitute an ethics violation?

A) No,because this harm is not physical.
B) No,because this harm is not greater than that which people encounter in everyday life.
C) Yes,because researchers should not annoy or offend people.
D) Yes,because in her subjectivity,this constitutes harm.

Question 48

The main reason that achieving high response rates and limiting selection bias are so important is that they:

A) increase generalizability.
B) decrease generalizability.
C) increase validity.
D) decrease validity.

Question 49

Roger Brubaker's study analyzed notions of citizenship in both France and Germany.His method of research is known as:

A) comparative research.
B) a case study.
C) an experiment.
D) content analysis.

Question 50

Which of the following is one of the golden rules of ethical conduct in social research?

A) Always remain completely objective and neutral.
B) Never interact directly with research subjects.
C) Do no harm.
D) Never debrief.

Question 51

Compare and contrast qualitative and quantitative research methods.List and explain two points of comparison (similarity).List and explain two points of contrast (difference).

Question 52

Jackson is using newspaper articles dating from the early 1950s to study unofficial attitudes toward working women post-World War II.Jackson is using what research method?

A) experimental
B) content analysis
C) comparative research
D) historical methods

Question 53

Define hypothesis.State a hypothesis of your own using,for example,the variables weight and eating habits or access to healthful foods and eating habits.Identify the independent variable (X).Identify the dependent variable (Y).

Question 54

A sociologist studies children at a day care center.She must get approval from an ethics board because children are a ________ population.

A) qualitative
B) census
C) protected
D) total

Question 55

The General Social Survey (GSS)is replicated yearly with a new sample of 2,000 respondents.This is an example of:

A) an experiment.
B) participant observation.
C) a repeated cross-sectional survey.
D) a census.

Question 56

Which of the following might be an advantage of participant observation research?

A) The researcher has considerable control over the conditions of the research.
B) The researcher can uncover what people do rather than simply what they say they do.
C) The researcher maintains objectivity by staying in the "white coat" role.
D) It is a useful method for studying large and diverse populations.

Question 57

When cities such as Detroit requested adjustment of census data,why did this research issue become a political battle? Because:

A) an institutional review board took the case to federal court.
B) federal dollars are tied to census study results.
C) it is women,children,and minorities who are most often undercounted.
D) the mayor of Detroit had a PhD in sociology.

Question 58

If a sociologist collects data on only one high school in a study of the effectiveness of its parent-teacher association,he or she is using which of the following research methods?

A) experiment
B) case study
C) panel survey
D) content analysis

Question 59

Research subjects have a right to know that they are participating in a study and what the study consists of.This is known as:

A) involuntary participation.
B) informed consent.
C) manifest content.
D) latent content.

Question 60

A potential shortcoming of survey research is that surveys:

A) tend to focus more on what people do than what they say.
B) rely on people's honesty and willingness to cooperate.
C) cannot reflect the total population.
D) cannot be used on large populations.

Question 61

A sociologist is interested in understanding the ways in which inmates experience prison and the effect prison has on their post-sentence employment prospects.Describe a study design (that is,a methodological approach)that would address this question.List two advantages of this design.List two disadvantages of this design.

Question 62

Create a hypothesis about the relationship between student engagement in college and academic performance.Identify the independent and dependent variables.Operationalize these variables.Justify the validity of your operationalization.

Question 63

List two of the elements that Sandra Harding proposed as essential to feminist methodologies.Explain how one of them would influence a study about violence in society.

Question 64

Describe one significant difference between white coat effects and reflexivity in social research.Offer one reason why awareness of white coat effects is important.Offer one reason why reflexivity is important.

Question 65

The instructor of an introductory sociology class asks his students to fill out a questionnaire that he hopes to analyze and eventually publish.He tells the students that if they choose not to fill out the questionnaire,they will have points deducted from their next test.
Which golden rule(s)of research does this situation violate? How could this ethical breach cause harm,and to whom? Revise the study,offering one suggestion of how the instructor could handle the situation in a more ethical manner.