Deck 1: Introduction

Question 1

To say that research is empirical means it is based on ______.

A) data
B) theory
C) ethics
D) quality

Answer 1

data

Question 2

If you do a library "research paper" for a class, it is not really research in the true sense of the word because ______.

A) someone else gathered the data
B) you are not likely to produce a new analysis
C) you didn't get approval from the IRB
D) you are using someone else's ideas without their permission

Answer 2

you are not likely to produce a new analysis

Question 3

A library "research paper" is actually not research, but which component of research?

A) sampling
B) data collection
C) literature review
D) secondary data analysis

Answer 3

literature review

Question 4

Which method of data collection involves immersing yourself deeply in another culture or subculture?

A) observation
B) content analysis
C) ethnography
D) interviews

Question 5

Which method of data collection involves asking open-ended questions in order to understand their perspective on some phenomenon?

A) surveys
B) interviews
C) content analysis
D) focus groups

Question 6

Which method of data collection is best used for understanding a large number of people's opinions or attitudes on a topic?

A) interviews
B) experiments
C) surveys
D) observation

Question 7

Which method of data collection is best used to understand how a change in social conditions affects people?

A) ethnography
B) secondary data analysis
C) experiments
D) observation

Question 8

Which method of data collection consists of comparing perspectives of different groups of people in some depth?

A) interviews
B) focus groups
C) ethnography
D) experiments

Question 9

Quantitative research produces data that are analyzed ______.

A) using statistics
B) to find patterns in meaning and experience
C) through the researcher's personal interpretation
D) by altering conditions of different groups.

Question 10

Qualitative research produces data that are analyzed ______.

A) using statistics
B) to find patterns in meaning and experience
C) through the researcher's personal interpretation
D) by altering conditions of different groups

Question 11

Which of the following methods is qualitative?

A) experiments
B) surveys
C) interviews
D) secondary data analysis

Question 12

Which of the following methods is quantitative?

A) interviews
B) ethnography
C) surveys
D) focus groups

Question 13

Which of the following methods can be either qualitative or quantitative?

A) experiments
B) secondary data analysis
C) content analysis
D) ethnography

Question 14

Which of the following is an example of an applied research topic?

A) the effect of video games on levels of aggressiveness in children
B) the effect of adding peer mentors in math 101 courses on students' final course grades
C) voters' opinions about legalization of marijuana
D) women's opinions regarding gun control in the United States

Question 15

Which of the following is an example of a basic research topic?

A) ways of improving students' timeliness in turning in financial aid forms
B) evaluating how well a domestic violence shelter is meeting the needs of senior citizens who experience elder abuse
C) the effect of a school shooting on attitudes about gun control in the state following the shooting
D) the number on children being bullied in the locker rooms at the local high school

Question 16

A methodology is ______.

A) a set of ideas about how and why research should be conducted
B) a way to collect data
C) a set of ethical procedures to follow to protect participants from harm
D) a way of deciding how many people will participate in your study

Question 17

Theory is LEAST likely to be used for which of the following kinds of research?

A) qualitative research
B) quantitative research
C) basic research
D) applied research

Question 18

You are collecting data in order to see if it supports ideas that some sociologists have about how people perceive privilege. This is an example of using ______ in your research.

A) evaluation
B) ethics
C) conceptualizing
D) theory

Question 19

You decide that you want to conduct research to determine whether a theory about how people use and resist power is correct. You are using theory to ______.

A) build theory
B) test theory
C) interpret data
D) ground data

Question 20

Which of the following is the best research question, based on the guidelines for writing good research questions?

A) Does providing all homeless people in a city with apartments or tiny houses effectively eliminate homelessness in that city after 5 years?
B) How does providing homeless people in a city with apartments affect their mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual well-being in the long run?
C) How does providing homeless addicts with free apartments affect their likelihood of maintaining sobriety for 3 years?
D) What effect does an hour-long commute have on a person's perception of their family and job?

Question 21

The IRB ______.

A) enforces regulations about how participants are treated in research
B) decides which research questions may be researched, and which ones are not feasible
C) determines whether a researcher is qualified to carry out the research they propose
D) decides how many participants may be used in the study and when the research can be done

Question 22

All of the following are requirements that the human subjects committee would require in order for them to approve your research EXCEPT ______.

A) make sure you tell your participants exactly what you will ask them to do for the research
B) keep their identities secret
C) pay them for their time and participation
D) tell the participants how the information you gather will be used

Question 23

Sampling means ______.

A) to pretest your research on people similar to your participants
B) to decide who will participate in your research
C) to write a literature review, focusing on only the most important information from each existing study
D) sending a sample of your research study to the IRB

Question 24

You are conducting a survey of people who have recently moved their parents to an assisted-living facility. You decide you want to include sons, daughters, and stepchildren in Green County who have moved their parent into an assisted-living facility within the past 12 months. Because of resources, however, you cannot include every person who fits this criteria in your study. You will need to use a ______ to decide which of these people to ask to participate in your study.

A) research method
B) sampling method
C) methodology
D) theory

Question 25

You are doing research on how females tease males by threatening their masculinity. You define "threatening" as "criticizing, making fun of, joking about, laughing at, imitating in an exaggerated way, making negative comments about, drawing attention to, or reprimanding." Which component of research is this?

A) operationalizing
B) analyzing
C) conceptualizing
D) sampling

Question 26

Data analysis involves ______.

A) making interpretations of the patterns found in the data
B) reading previous research on the topic
C) judging how well the research was conducted by the criteria most appropriate to the method used
D) critiquing how well your data were collected

Question 27

What differentiates social research from writing a library report?

Question 28

How is a study's methodology different from its research method?

Question 29

Explain the difference between research method, methodology, and sampling method.

Question 30

List three things a researcher must do in order to protect their research participants from harm.

Question 31

What are the similarities and differences between focus groups and interviews?

Question 32

Explain the similarities and differences between existing statistics and secondary data analysis.

Question 33

You are conducting a study of the ways in which males get teased or hurt for acting too feminine. You have decided that for the purposes of this study, "teased" means that their behavior is explicitly joked about, laughed at, ridiculed, commented upon, criticized, judged negatively, or copied in an exaggerated way. Which component of the research process have you been engaging in?

Question 34

You decide to do a research study on the issue of technology and social relationships. Your research question is: How does engagement with social media affect the process of adjusting to college life among freshmen who have moved away from home? Is your research basic or applied? Explain.

Question 35

How do social class and religion affect infertile couples' attitudes about interracial adoption? Is this research question a qualitative or quantitative one? Is this research basic or applied? Explain your answers. What would you need to take into account to make sure that this is a feasible research question?

Question 36

Use the abstract below to answer the three questions following it:
Through an analysis of student journal entries, this study discussed how students enrolled in a course on the abolition of the prison system engaged with the possibility of, and barriers to, a world without prisons, punishment and other forms of control. We consider how students negotiate the concept of abolition as a radical justice alternative. As the journal entries showed, while students were able to understand the basic principles of prison abolition, many remained confused about how to choose between the existing system and the unknown landscape of abolition and could not see its viability or possibility as a radical alternative.
Adapted from: Chartrand, V., & Piché, J. (2019). Abolition and pedagogy: Reflections on teaching a course on alternatives to punishment, state repression and social control. Contemporary Justice Review, 22, 23-42. https://doi-org.mantis.csuchico.edu/10.1080/10282580.2019.1576129
Which research method did these authors use? Are their data qualitative or quantitative? Is their research basic or applied?

Question 37

Use the research summary below to answer the three questions following it:
This article examines relationships between experiences of ageism and four specific mental health outcomes among older adults, including whether these relationships vary depending on age, gender, and sexual orientation. A nationwide questionnaire involving 2,137 participants aged 60 years and older was conducted. Mental health variables included depressive symptoms, anxious symptoms, general stress, and positive mental health or flourishing. Results: Recent experiences of ageism were found to be strongly related to poorer mental health on all four mental health variables.
Adapted from Lyons, A., Alba, B., Heywood, W., Fileborn, B., Minichiello, V., Barrett, C., . . . Dow, B. (2018). Experiences of ageism and the mental health of older adults. Aging & Mental Health, 22, 1456-1464. https://doi-org.mantis.csuchico.edu/10.1080/13607863.2017.1364347
Are their data qualitative or quantitative? Is their research basic or applied? Explain your answers.
Adapted from Lyons,

Question 38

You want to know how men in roles traditionally deemed "women's roles" are treated, and how this compares to the treatment of men in traditionally "masculine" roles. You volunteer as an assistant to the coed cheerleading squad so that you can get an insider's view of the way the female cheerleaders interact with the male cheerleaders as well as the way they interact with the football players. Which method are you using to collect your data? Will your data be qualitative or quantitative? Basic or applied? Explain your answers.

Question 39

Social scholars have identified activist burnout--when the accumulation of stressors associated with activism become so overwhelming they compromise activists' persistence in their activism--as a threat to social movement viability. This study on the causes of burnout among racial justice activists in the United States was designed to bolster understandings of burnout and inform strategies for sustaining racial justice movements. Thirty racial justice activists who had experienced burnout described four primary burnout causes: emotional-dispositional causes, structural causes, backlash causes, and in-movement causes.
Adapted from Gorski, P.C. (2019). Fighting racism, battling burnout: Causes of activist burnout in US racial justice activists. Ethnic & Racial Studies, 42, 667-687. https://doi-org.mantis.csuchico.edu/10.1080/01419870.2018.1439981
What research method do you think the author used to conduct this research? Explain. Are the data qualitative or quantitative? Is the research basic or applied? Explain your answers.

Question 40

This study was developed by Family Voices, a national advocacy organization dedicated to promoting the well-being of children with disabilities and their families. The study collected data for 122 families in a large urban area in the northeastern United States. Non-White families reported significantly lower satisfaction. Discussion emphasizes that health care providers need to become more vigilant in providing culturally sensitive care. To enhance care practices and policies, the study advances a checklist of ten essential areas that promote culturally sensitive interactions between families of children with disabilities and their medical and non-medical health care providers.
Adapted from Zajicek-Farber, M., Long, T., Lotrecchiano,G., Farber, J., & Rodkey, E. (2017). Connections between family centered care and medical homes of children with neurodevelopmental disabilities: Experiences of diverse families. Journal of Child & Family Studies, 26, 1445-1459. https://doi-org.mantis.csuchico.edu/10.1007/s10826-017-0662-3
Which research method do you think the researchers used? Are the data qualitative or quantitative? Is the research basic or applied? Explain your answers.

Question 41

Researchers at the University of Iowa conducted a study that focuses on distracted driving. When answering verbal correct or incorrect questions, respondents who answered the questions took about twice as long to direct their eyes to a new object on a screen than those not required to respond to verbal questions or who were asked no questions at all. The research is helping us understand how even a simple conversation can affect your brain's ability to focus on the roadway.
Adapted from Lewis, R.R. C. (2017, June 8). UI study explores why cell phone use leads to distracted driving. Retrieved July 2, 2019, from https://now.uiowa.edu/2017/06/ui-study-explores-why-cell-phone-use-leads-distracted-driving
Which research method do you think the researchers used? Are their data qualitative or quantitative? Explain your answers.

Question 42

You want to know how men in roles traditionally deemed "women's roles" are treated, and how this compares to the treatment of men in traditionally "masculine" roles. You volunteer on a cancer unit at a hospital to get an insider's view of how patients, doctors, and female nurses interact with male nurses as well as how they interact with male doctors. Which research method are you using? Are your data qualitative or quantitative? Is it basic or applied? Explain your answers.

Question 43

Research on the health of transwomen is largely focused on heterosexual HIV risk, but little is known about the health of lesbian and bisexual transwomen. Researchers used data from a larger study of HIV risk and resilience conducted with transwomen aged 16 to 24 years in the San Francisco Bay Area (n=259). Prevalence and demographic characteristics of lesbian and bisexual transwomen was assessed and models were used to examine the relationship between nonheterosexual status and alcohol and drug use. The research concluded that lesbian and bisexual transwomen had greater odds of heavy episodic drinking and illicit prescription drug use compared to their heterosexual counterparts, controlling for race/ethnicity, age, income, nativity, hormone status and history of feminization procedures.
Adapted from Arayasirikul, S., Pomart, W.A., Raymond, H. F., & Wilson, E. C. (2018). Unevenness in health at the intersection of gender and sexuality: Sexual minority disparities in alcohol and drug use among transwomen in the San Francisco Bay Area. Journal of Homosexuality, 65, 66-79. https://doi-org.mantis.csuchico.edu/10.1080/00918369.2017.1310552
Which research method did the authors use? Are the research qualitative or quantitative? Is the research basic or applied? Explain your answers.

Question 44

This study aims to characterize distractions at family mealtimes and examine associations between father availability, distractions, and observed responsive feeding. Between fathers, mothers, and children, families spent almost half of the mealtime distracted. Fathers and mothers engaged in about equal amounts of distractions, and children engaged in more technology-related distractions than parents. Fathers' absence at the mealtime was associated with more child distractions and less maternal feeding responsiveness.
Adapted from Saltzman, J.A., Musaad, S., Bost, K. K., McBride, B. A., & Fiese, B. H. (2019). Associations between father availability, mealtime distractions and routines, and maternal feeding responsiveness: An observational study. Journal of Family Psychology, 33, 465-475. https://doi-org.mantis.csuchico.edu/10.1037/fam0000519
Which research method did the researchers use? Is it basic or applied? Explain your answers.

Question 45

You are interested in studying the effect of state funding of universities on college graduation rates. Which research method would you choose? Will your data be qualitative or quantitative? Explain your answers.

Question 46

You want to analyze TV commercials to see how often sex is used to sell products. Which research method would you use to do this? Will your data be qualitative or quantitative? Explain your answers.

Question 47

An architect has hired you to study the way people use space and time at the airport given the increased use of portable technologies. She will use this information in creating her design for the new airport terminal. If you were to use only ONE research method to study this, which would you use and why? Would your data be qualitative or quantitative? Would your research be basic or applied? Explain your answers.

Question 48

The management at the local organic food producer has noticed that its sales are increasing everywhere except in California, where they are actually declining. They have asked you to conduct research to understand the reasons behind this decline. Choose ONE research method you would use to study this. Explain your choice. Would your research be qualitative or quantitative? Basic or applied? Explain your answers.

Question 49

You want to understand how adults who were bullied as children dealt with the bullying, and how they perceive it to have affected all aspects of their lives today. Which ONE research method would you use to research this topic? Explain your answer.

Question 50

You want to know how the rate of suicide is affected by economic crises. Would you use existing statistics or secondary data analysis to conduct your research. Why?

Question 51

Use the example of a survey of voters' opinions on health care to explain/demonstrate the difference between a research method, a sampling method, a sample, and a sampling unit.

Question 52

Choose the research method you would use to most appropriately address the following topic:
You are going to research the effect of receiving financial aid on graduation rates.

Question 53

Choose the research method you would use to most appropriately address the following topic:
You want to know how state budget cuts are affecting students' ability to stay in school.

Question 54

Choose the research method you would use to most appropriately address the following topic:
You have been given the job of distributing federal bailout money to the communities in your state that have been hardest hit by economic recession. You need to conduct research to find out which communities are suffering most.

Question 55

You have been asked to research a proposed new policy that would change benefits for deceased veterans' wives and their children. Specifically, you want to know how people affected by the proposal react to it. Which ONE research method would you use? Explain.

Question 56

This study examined the space and meaning of two CrossFit gyms as an introduction to a broader discussion on CrossFit subculture and evolving discourses about the body, health, and fitness. Specifically, the gyms' location, layout, and open arrangement of moving bodies revealed three major themes about CrossFit space: a place that blurs the line between exercise and menial labor in an otherwise sedentary and technologized society; a place that is inclusive specifically in terms of gender, age, and ability, yet exclusive socioeconomically; and a faux-elite sporting place that inadvertently produces wild and untamed bodily movements. Results of the study suggest that CrossFit's popularity in recent years foreshadows a dramatic shift in the social function of recreational fitness toward forms of exercise that are more inclusive, and yet at the same time are more socially competitive and hierarchical.
Adapted from: Crockett, M.. C., & Butryn, T. (2018, June). Chasing Rx: A spatial ethnography of the CrossFit gym. Sociology of Sport Journal, 35, 98-107.

Question 57

We investigate the impact of conflict on the educational and health outcomes of children born years after the conflict ended by exploiting geographical variation in the intensity of the genocide that occurred during the Khmer Rouge (KR) regime in Cambodia. We find that children of individuals who were of prime marriage age during the genocide and experienced greater intensity of genocide have worse educational and health outcomes. In particular, for each standard deviation increase in the intensity of the genocide, averages childrenred during the Khmer Rouge (KR) regime in Cambodia. We find that children of individuals who
Adapted from: Islam,A., Ouch, C., Smyth, R., & Wang, L. C. (2017, June). The intergenerational effect of Cambodia's genocide on children's education and health. Population & Development Review, 43, 331 2017