Foundations of Social Inquiry - Chapters 1 & 2 Flashcards

Flashcards reviewing key concepts from Chapters 1 and 2 of Foundations of Social Inquiry lecture notes, covering research strategies, epistemologies, ontologies, and research designs.

What are definitions within the components of a sociological theory?

Statements that specify what key terms in a theory mean, such as defining attachments as stable bonds between people who are fond of each other.

What is a deterministic relational statement?

A relational statement asserting that two variables are always connected in a specific, constant manner, such as a $1\%$ decrease in the population aged $15-25$ producing a corresponding shrink in the crime rate.

How do middle-range theories differ from grand theories?

Middle-range theories are limited in scope and can be tested directly with empirical evidence, while grand theories are general, abstract framework views of the world such as structural functionalism or critical theory.

What is the key structural difference between deductive and inductive research?

Deductive research starts with a theory and deduces hypotheses to test through empirical data, whereas inductive research begins with data collection and generates theory as an outcome.

What is Grounded Theory?

The practice of deriving theories interactively from qualitative data collected during research.

What are the core principles of Positivism in social science?

It applies natural science methods, relies on empiricism (sensory observation), utilizes deduction for hypothesis testing, and holds that science can and must be value-free.

What is the primary objective of Interpretivism?

To grasp the subjective meaning of human actions and understand social reality from the empathetic perspective of the social actors themselves.

According to George Herbert Mead, how does individual self-concept develop?

An individual's self-concept emerges through an appreciation of the perceptions of others within symbolic interactionism.

What is the distinction between Objectivism and Constructionism in ontology?

Objectivism posits that social reality exists independently for scientists to discover, whereas constructionism asserts that reality is constructed and there are no absolute facts, only interpretations.

What are the typical epistemological and ontological alignments of quantitative research?

Quantitative research generally aligns with a natural science/positivist epistemological orientation and an objectivist ontological stance.

What are the three main positions regarding values in social research?

1. Research should be value-free. 2. Research cannot be value-free, so values must be made explicit (reflexivity). 3. Value commitment is desirable to direct and interpret research.

Why are gatekeepers influential in social research settings?

Gatekeepers control access to organizations and participants, often influencing study questions, focus, time allocated, and interpretation of findings based on organizational risks and costs.

What three criteria must be satisfied to establish a nomothetic explanation?

Correlation, proper time order, and non-spuriousness.

What defines an idiographic explanation?

A rich description seeking to explain a specific person or unique event, typical of qualitative research, without attempting to generalize to unstudied groups.

How do independent and dependent variables relate in experimental design?

An independent variable is manipulated to determine whether it produces a causal effect on the dependent variable, which represents the observed outcome.

What is Internal Validity?

The degree to which a study accurately establishes a causal relationship between variables without interference from rival explanations.

According to Cook & Campbell (1979), what are history, testing, and instrumentation threats to internal validity?

History refers to external events occurring after treatment that alter outcome; testing is pre-test influence on post-test scores; instrumentation involves changes in how measurement instruments are administered.

What do mortality, maturation, and selection threats represent in internal validity?

Mortality is subject dropout; maturation refers to biological or psychological aging over time; selection involves initial pre-existing differences between treatment and control groups.

What is Measurement Validity or Construct Validity?

The extent to which an operational indicator accurately measures the theoretical concept it was designed to evaluate.

What are the threats to external validity identified by Cook & Campbell (1979)?

Unrepresentative participants, specific experimental setting effects, history/time period limitations, pre-testing sensitivity, and reactive effects (subjects acting unnaturally in experimental situations).

What characterizes a Quasi-experiment?

A design resembling an experiment that lacks full control or random assignment (such as natural experiments produced by naturally occurring phenomena), making internal validity harder to establish.

What are the core properties of a Cross-sectional Design?

Data is collected at a single point in time without variable manipulation to detect patterns of association between variables, demonstrating correlation rather than causation.