Term
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Definition
1) Asking questions
2) Learning something new about the world
(It’s structured, organized, and systematic in it’s form.) |
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Term
| Describe some advantages and disadvantages of the alternatives of social research |
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Definition
Advantages: authority- simpler/ Tradition- trust and parents/ Common sense- helps us function, normally based on our survival/ Media- helps us see, it's a window
Disadvantages: authority- can form to an elite group and use it to their power/ tradition- limited/ Common sense- differs from person to person, all relative/ Media- isn't always right, exaggerates |
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Term
| Name and describe five alrernatives to socail research |
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Definition
1) Authority (gaining knowledge from people of authority in this world, teachers, police, etc.)
2) Tradition (knowledge passed down from generation to generation
3) Common Sense (logical)
4) Media (mass media, films, movies, TV...)
5) Personal Experience (often very powerful and rely on it more than research) |
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Term
| Identify and explain four errors of personal experience |
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Definition
1) Overgeneralization (taking one case and applying it to everything or everyone)
2) Selective Observation (intentionally or unintentionally seek out info that confirms what we already know and ignore info that contradicts what we know)
3) Premature Closure (reinforces the first two issues, from these small cases and observations we think we already know so we don't need to be open minded)
4) Halo effect (we tend to automatically think people from Harvard are genius, or people in positions of authority) |
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Term
| Define and describe the 5 Norms of the Scientific Community |
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Definition
1) Universalism: work being judged on the basis of scientific merit
2) Organized Skepticism: taught to question and challenge everything
3) Disinterestedness: refers to a kind of detachment in order to be open to new ideas
4) Communalism: refers to the fact that scientific knowledge should be shared and has to be in order to have people evaluate it
5) Honesty: expected to tell the truth! You can confidentiality, but the huge norm is truth |
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Term
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Definition
| - looking at an anonymous paper, don't know who wrote it to avoid bias or prejudice |
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Term
| Define emiprical evidence |
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Definition
| - refers to observations that people experience through the sense- touch, sight, hearing, smell, and taste |
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Term
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Definition
| - a public relations term used to criticize scientific research, even if it is conducted properly, that produces findins that a group opposes |
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Term
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Definition
| - the ideas, rules, techniques, and approaches that the scientific community uses to create and evaluate knowledge |
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Term
| Define scientific attitude |
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Definition
| - a way of thinking about and looking at the world that reflects a commitment to the norms and values of the scientific community |
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Term
| Identify the steps involved in conducting a QUANTITATIVE research project |
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Definition
1) Choose broad topic
2) Focus research question
3) Design study
4) Collect Data
5) Analyze Data
6) Interpret Data
7) Inform Others |
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Term
| Identify the steps involved in conducting a QUALITATIVE research project |
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Definition
1) Acknowledge social self
2) Adopt perspective
3) Design study
4) Collect Data
5) Analyze Data
6) Interpret Data
7) Inform others
- Get switched around a lot |
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Term
| What are the key characteristics of basic research? Who is likely to conduct basic research and where are the results likely to appear? Who is the primary audience? |
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Definition
- it is detached, scientific, academic orientation, advances fundamental knowledge about the social world, is the source of most of the tools of social research: methods, theories, ideas
- Researchers often do basic research
- Primary audience is the scientific community |
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Term
| What are the key characteristics of applied research? Who is likely to conduct applied research? Who is the primary audience? |
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Definition
- pragmatic, activist, academic orientation, addresses a specific concern or problem, not rooted in theory
- People employed in businesses, government offices, health care facilities, social service agencies and political organizations conduct applied research
- primary audience is organizational leaders, practitioners, or policy makers |
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Term
| What are the three major types of of applied research and explain the differences? |
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Definition
1) evaluation research: is it working? 2 Types Formative Evalutaion: built in monitoring or feed back process on a particular program or policy
Summative Evaluation: happens at the end of the program
2) Action Research: type of applied research that's geared toward social action
3) Social impact Assessment: estimating the ikely consequences of a planned changed |
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Term
| Why is "acknowledging the social self" deemed more important in qualitative research than quantitative research? |
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Definition
| - Acknowledging the social self is when a researcher realizes their position in society, they begin with a self assessment about themselves |
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Term
| Identify and explain the two tools in Applied Research |
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Definition
1) Needs assessment: this is when a researcher collects data to determine major needs and their serverity/ often a step before an agency or the gov. starts to help people
2) Cost- benefit analyses: when the researcher estimates the future costs and benefits of one or several proposed actions and gives them monetary values, economists often do this, policy makers use this |
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Term
| What is the four potential complications with conducting a needs assessment? |
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Definition
1) To decide on the group to target for the assessment
2) Is that people may not express a need in a way that links it directly to policies or long- term solutions (ex. homeless people say they need houses but they really need jobs)
3) People have multiple needs, which is most important?
4) May generate political controversy or suggest solutions beyond local control (groups may not want these problems publicized) |
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Term
| Why are cost- benefit analyses often controversial or problematic? |
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Definition
| - People do not agree on what are positive and negative consequences (For example, a new road is good for better traffic for me but not for the home owners who are going to be moved for that road) |
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Term
| Explain exploratory, descriptive, and explanatory research |
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Definition
Exploratory research: primary purpose is to examine a little understood issue or phenomenon and move toward refining research on the "WHAT" question
Descriptive research:the primary purpose is to "paint a picture" using words or numbers to represent a profile,a classification of types, or an outline of steps to answer questions such as WHO, WHEN, WHERE, and HOW
Explanatory research: research in which the primary purpose is to explain why events occur and to build elaborate, extent or test theory, "WHY" |
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Term
| Define cross- sectional research |
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Definition
| - gathers data at one point in time |
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Term
| Define longitudinal research |
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Definition
| - gathers data over multiple points in time |
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Term
| Explain the differences between these longitudinal research: time- series, panel and cohort studies |
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Definition
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