Chapter 4 Sociology:The relationship between theory and methods

Collective Conscience

The expression of a society's "collective will" which bears down on individuals, shaping their beliefs and behavioral choices

Free Will

The argument that because humans have consciousness they can make free and informed choices about their actions

Research Funding

The source of funding for academic research

Value Judgements

Judgements based solely on the values of those making a decision; value judgements are, by definition, subjective

Ethical Issues

involve beliefs about what a researcher should or should not do before, during, and after their research

Reliability

This generally refers to the effectiveness of the research approach in generating consistent data. A researcher can check the ______ of their research by repeating (replicating) the research to see if they get the same, or very similar, results

Validity

The extent to which a research method measures what it claims to measure

Representativeness

Extent to which the characteristics of a sample population accurately reflect those of the target population

Sampling Error

Anything in the research design that causes a sample to be unrepresentative of a target population

Methodological Pluralism

Combining research methodologies, such as positivism and interpretivism, in ways that allow each to complement the other to improve research reliability and validity

Triangulation

The use of two or more research methods where the weaknesses of one method, such as quantitative interview, can be offset by the strengths of another, such as qualitative participant observation, to improve overall research reliability and validity

ethics

the morality of doing something

coercion

the act or practice of compelling an individual group either intellectually, morally, or physically to do something

demand characteristics

Any aspects of a research experiment that may reveal the hypothesis being tested or that may cue participants as to what behaviors are expected

ethnographic

type of qualitative research method aimed at studying cultures or groups in a natural setting from the perspective of the subject; research is typically done through observation us usually long term

operationalization

the process of strictly defining variables into measurable factors

paradigms

a distinct set of concepts or thought patterns

social desirability

research term that describes a type of response bias that is the tendency of survey respondents to answer questions in a manner that will be viewed favorably by others

subjectivity

being influenced by personal feelings, tastes, or opinions

Weberian Theory

three-component theory of stratification in which social difference is determined by class, status, and power