Question 1

Surveys and interviews are a form of data collection that uses ______.

Accepted Answer

Surveys and interviews collect data by asking questions to gather information from respondents.

Question 2

Open-ended questions can help a sociologist understand a participant's views about family by ______.

Accepted Answer

Open-ended questions allow participants to express their thoughts and feelings in more detail, providing sociologists with in-depth answers that can reveal complex views about family. This contrasts with closed-ended questions, which limit responses to predefined options.

Question 3

Which method is least likely to be used to collect survey data?

Accepted Answer

Interviews are typically more qualitative and in-depth, rather than a method for collecting survey data, which is usually quantitative and structured.

Question 4

Who has been collecting data on social and political opinion since 1972 and makes it available to researchers at no charge?

Accepted Answer

The General Social Survey (GSS) has been collecting data on social and political opinions since 1972 and provides this data to researchers at no charge, making it a valuable resource for social science research.

Question 5

Before conducting an interview, the researcher develops questions to ask or topics to cover. This is called a(n) ______.

Accepted Answer

An interview guide is a list of questions or topics that the researcher plans to ask or cover during an interview, helping to ensure that all relevant areas are addressed.

Question 6

Interviewing several people at a time is a(n) ______.

Accepted Answer

Interviewing several people at a time is typically referred to as a focus group, a common method used in market research and other fields to gather qualitative data from participants.

Question 7

A sociologist is studying the behavior of children in a school. How would this sociologist engage in participant-observation effectively?

Accepted Answer

Participant-observation involves the researcher actively engaging in the environment they are studying. By sitting with the children and eating with various groups, the sociologist becomes a part of the setting, allowing for a deeper understanding of the children's behavior and social interactions.

Question 8

Trang was conducting research on group behavior. She sat in the bleachers and kept track in a notebook of the kinds of interactions that occurred between the members of the cheerleading squad. Trang's method of research was ______.

Accepted Answer

Trang's method of research was observation because she was watching and recording interactions without participating in the activities of the group she was studying. Participant observation involves the researcher becoming part of the group being studied, which Trang did not do. Ethnographic research refers to a detailed and comprehensive study of a culture, which is not specifically indicated here. An experiment involves manipulating variables to observe outcomes, which also does not describe Trang's method.

Question 9

Researchers not only watch interactions occurring in a study they are conducting, but also interact in the social context. These researchers are engaging in ______.

Accepted Answer

Participant-observation is a research method in which the researcher immerses themselves in the social context of the people they are studying, and observes and interacts with them in their natural setting.

Question 10

In order to get data on how gender affects student interactions during recess, Maude volunteered to teach the children playground games. Maude's research is ______.

Accepted Answer

Maude's research is participant observation because she is actively engaging with the children by teaching them games while observing their interactions.

Question 11

How would a researcher conduct an ethnographic study about people from a different culture?

Accepted Answer

Ethnographic studies involve immersive observation and participation in the daily life of the culture being studied, which typically requires traveling to and living within that culture.

Question 12

A researcher wants to set up a study to test the effects of a new energy drink on student alertness. In this case, the control group would ______.

Accepted Answer

The control group in an experiment is the group that does not receive the experimental treatment. In this case, the experimental treatment is the new energy drink. Therefore, the control group should be assigned to drink nothing or a placebo, which would not affect their alertness, allowing for a comparison to be made between the effects of the energy drink and no drink at all.

Question 13

When researchers conduct a study outside a clinical setting and manipulate conditions to observe the result, they are conducting a(n) ______.

Accepted Answer

Field experiments involve manipulating variables in a natural setting outside of a laboratory or clinical environment, allowing researchers to observe the effects of these manipulations in a real-world context.

Question 14

Abe's assignment was to watch television commercials and make a note of which ones demonstrated racial or gender discrimination. Abe was engaging in ______.

Accepted Answer

Abe was conducting content analysis, which involves systematically recording the presence of certain words, themes, or concepts within some given qualitative data (in this case, television commercials) to interpret patterns of communication or the presence of bias, such as racial or gender discrimination.

Question 15

When sociologists are collecting data, what must all researchers do?

Accepted Answer

Ethical responsibilities are crucial in sociological research to ensure the integrity of the study and the protection of participants.

Question 16

A professor conducts a study using students as participants. Some of the students wanted to drop out of the study, but the professor told them they needed to stay in the study in order to provide valid results. What was violated in this study?

Accepted Answer

Informed consent was violated because participants must be allowed to withdraw from a study at any time without penalty or coercion. Telling students they needed to stay for the results to be valid is a form of coercion, undermining the voluntary nature of participation.

Question 17

When a researcher tells his participants about the study being conducted, what they will be asked to do, and any potential harms, he is demonstrating ______.

Accepted Answer

Informed consent is a process in which researchers provide potential participants with all the information necessary about what the study involves, including its purpose, procedures, risks, and benefits, allowing them to make an educated decision about their participation.

Question 18

It was determined that the research being conducted using college students did not ensure their rights or properly protect them. Who makes this determination?

Accepted Answer

An institutional review board (IRB) is responsible for reviewing research proposals to ensure that the rights and welfare of participants are protected. This includes research involving college students.

Question 19

Qualitative methods rely on ______, while quantitative methods rely primarily on ______.

Accepted Answer

Qualitative methods primarily use words and images to gather and analyze data (e.g., through interviews, observations, and textual analysis), while quantitative methods rely on numerical data and statistical analysis.

Question 20

The distillation of raw data into useful information is known as ______.

Accepted Answer

Data analysis is the process of inspecting, cleansing, transforming, and modeling data with the goal of discovering useful information, informing conclusions, and supporting decision-making.

Quiz 3: Using Research Methods