SOC150

Selective Observation

Occurs when we see only those patterns that we want to see or when we assume that only the patterns we have experienced directly exist.

Informal observation

Occurs when we make observations without any systematic process for observing or assessing accuracy of what we observed.

Overgeneralization

Occurs when we assume that broad patterns exist even when out observations have been limited.

Authority

A socially defined source of knowledge that might shape our beliefs about what is true and what is not true.

Research Methods

An organized, logical way of learning and knowing about our social world.

Ontology

Referring to one's analytic philosophy of the nature of reality. Shapes her or his beliefs about the nature of reality, or what "is."

Epistemology

The study of knowledge (how we know what we know). Shapes her or his beliefs about how we know what we know, and the best way(s) to uncover knowledge.

Applied research

Refers to sociology that is conducted for some purpose beyond or in addition to a researcher's interest in a topic.

Public sociology

Refers the application of sociological theories and research to matters of public interest.

. Qualitative methods

Ways of collecting data that yield results such as words or pictures.

Quantitative methods

Data that can be represented by and condensed into numbers.

Evaluation research

Research that describes or identifies the impact of social policies and programs.

Micro level

Study small groups and individual interactions

Meso level

A term used to analyze the relationships among issues, individuals, and groups as viewed from a community, or local, perspective

Macro level

A wide-scale view of the role of social structures within a society

Social constructionism

Truth as varying, socially constructed, and ever-changing, reality is created collectively and that social context and interaction frame our realities.

Positivism

Objectivity, knowability, and deductive logic; society can and should be studied empirically and scientifically.

Critical

Power, inequality, and social change; social science can never be truly value-free and should be conducted with the express goal of social change in mind.

Postmodernism

Inherent problems with previous paradigms; truth in any form may or may not be knowable.

Structural functionalism

Interrelations between parts of society; how parts work together.

Conflict theory

Who wins and who loses based on the way that society is organized.

Symbolic interactionism

How meaning is created and negotiated though interactions.

Paradigms

Shape our everyday view of the world.

Inductive approach

Involves beginning with a set of empirical observations, seeking patterns in those observations, and then theorizing about those patterns; begins by collecting data that is relevant to his or her topic of interest

Deductive approach

Involves beginning with a theory, developing hypotheses from that theory, and then collecting and analyzing data to test those hypotheses; starts with a social theory that they find compelling and then test its implications with data.

Complementary approaches

Using both an inductive approach and deductive approach employed together for a more complete understanding of the topic that a researcher is studying.

Explanatory Research

Research that answers "why" questions; research that aims to explain why particular phenomena work in the way that they do.

Exploratory Research

Usually conducted when a researcher has just begun an investigation and wishes to understand his or her topic generally.

Descriptive Research

Research that aims to describe or define the topic at hand.

Idiographic Research

Exhaustive investigations.

Nomothetic Research

General investigations

Applied Research

Scientific study that aims to solve practical problems.

Basic Research

Pure research that aims to confirm an existing theory or to learn more about a concept or phenomenon.

Causality

The idea that one event, behavior, or belief will result in the occurrence of another, subsequent event, behavior, or belief; cause and effect.

Qualitative Study

Acquisition of an idiographic (individual case studies) understanding of the phenomenon that you are investigating; the goal is generally to understand the multitude of causes that account for the specific instance the researcher is investigating.

Plausibility

In order to make the claim that one event, behavior, or belief causes another, the claim has to make sense; the goal may be to understand the more general causes of some phenomenon rather than the idiosyncrasies (particularities) of one particular instance.

Quantitative Study

A nomothetic understanding of the phenomenon that he or she is investigating.

Temporality

Whatever cause you identify must precede its effect in time.

Spuriousness

An association between two variables appears to be casual but can in fact be explained by some third variable.

Casual Correlation

1. The relationship must be plausible.

2. The cause must precede the effect in time.

3. The relationship must be non spurious.

Independent Variable

The experimental factor that is manipulated; the variable whose effect is being studied.

Dependent Variable

The outcome factor; the variable that may change in response to manipulations of the independent variable.

Unit of Observation

Determined by the method of data collection that you use to answer that research question; the item you actually observe.

Unit of Analysis

Determined by your research; the item you wish to be able to say something about at the end of your study.

Units of Analysis that sociologists use

1. Individuals

2. Groups

3. Organizations

4. Social phenomena

5. Policies and principles

Ecological Fallacy

When claims about one lower-level unit of analysis are made based on data from some higher-level unit of analysis; ie. claims are made of individuals, but only group-level data has been gathered.

Reductionism

When claims about some higher-level unit of analysis are made based on individual-level data.

Hypothesis

A statement, sometimes but not always casual, describing a researcher's expectation regarding what he or she anticipates finding.

Triangulation

A combination of multiple and different research strategies; issuing multiple research strategies in a single research project, allows researchers to take advantage of the strengths of various methods and at the same time work to overcome some of each method's weaknesses.

Measurement

The process by which we describe and ascribe meaning to the key facts, concepts, or other phenomena that we are investigating.

Three categories of things that social scientists measure

1. Observational terms

2. Indirect observables

3. Constructs

Constructs

Abstract things that behavioral scientists measure.

Observational terms

Things that we can see with the naked eye simply by looking at them.

Indirect observables

Require relatively more subtle, complex, or indirect observations for things that cannot be observed directly (reports, court transcripts, criminal history records). Terms whose application calls for relatively more subtle, complex, or indirect observations, in which inferences play an acknowledged part. Such inferences concern presumed connections, usually causal, between what is directly observed and what the term signifies.

Masculinity

A national culture attribute that describes the extent to which the culture favors traditional masculine work roles of achievement, power, and control. Societal values are characterized by assertiveness and materialism.

Conceptualization

A process that involves coming up with clear, concise definitions.

Operationalization

Spelling out precisely how a concept will be measured.

Measurement process

Generally involves going from a more general focus to a narrower one, but the process does not proceed in exactly the same way for all research projects.

Reliability

A matter of consistency.

Validity

A matter of social agreement.

Ordinal level

Can be rank ordered, though we cannot calculate a mathematical distance between those attributes.

Interval level

Measures meet all the criteria of the two preceding levels, plus the distance between attributes is known to be equal.

Ratio level

Attributes are mutually exclusive and exhaustive, attributes can be rank ordered, the distance between attributes is equal, and attributes have a true zero point.

Indexes and typologies

Allow us to account for and simplify some of the complexities in our measures.

Reify

Consider an abstract concept to be real.

How can research methods improve our ways of listening to the news?

It helps us systematize potential sources of bias according to outlet.

Which type of sociological research is geared towards generating knowledge for its own sake?

Basic Research

What is a widely shared source of knowledge for non-sociologists?

Widely shared common-sense.

If our aim is to improve the Canadian mandatory educational system, which is not an example of selective observation?

We look at all K-12 schools operating in Canada.

What is an example of qualitative research?

A researcher talks to people about the difficulties they encounter when getting to transit each morning.

How does a sociologist come to know the world?

By means of systematized observations justified by a rationale.

What is an example of ontology in action?

Deciding whether we are using scientific or religious principles to understand our data.

What is a job particularly suitable for those who know about sociological research?

Marketing trends analyst.

After we've conducted interviews with GTA's single mothers about their time management. Which one of these research reports is an example of overgeneralization?

Canadians single mothers do not have enough time to find well paying jobs.

Which one is not a way of knowing?

Methodological Informality

Which paradigm questions the existence of truth as such?

Post-modernism

A symbolic interactionist would most likely study?

How fathers negotiate and understand their parental responsibilities in interaction with other family members.

A researcher is interested in the relationship between language use and ethnic identity. Which one of these is an example of research at the micro level?

Interviews with individuals about the effects of speaking their mother tongue on their identity and dating preferences.

A researcher is interested in the relationship between language use and ethnic identity. Which one of these is an example of research at the meso level?

A nationwide survey to look at correlation between ethnic identity and mother tongue.

Which paradigm posits truth is changeable, contingent upon its social context, created by both individuals and groups?

Social constructionism

According to structural functionalist what is the main role of institutions?

An interrelated set of mechanisms that provide social stability.

Fill the blanks with the appropriate responses:

A paradigm is about ___ something occurs, whereas a theory about ___ something occurs.

why; how

A researcher is interested in the relationship between language use and ethnic identity. Which one of these is an example of research at the macro level?

Studying the impact of national language policies on minority ethnic groups globally.

In sociology topics can be studied at three levels of analysis. Which one is not commonly used?

Mezzo

Which one is not one of the main social scientific paradigms?

Negativism

Table

Statistical Sign