The Scientific Method Cat 1.
The scientific method begins with this step where a sociologist identifies what they are curious about.
What is selecting a topic and defining the problem?
The principle that ensures sociologists do not allow personal bias to influence their research.
What is value neutrality?
This method involves asking respondents questions either face-to-face or via questionnaire.
What is a survey?
This type of sampling ensures every case in the population has a known chance of being selected.
What is probability sampling?
These are characteristics that sociologists can measure and that change across groups or over time.
What are variables?
This refers to using multiple methods or data sources to strengthen the validity of research findings.
What is triangulation?
Sociologists often do this to understand existing knowledge on a topic before starting their own research.
What is reviewing the literature?
The type of logic where one event directly causes another.
What is causal logic?
This form of research uses open-ended questions and focuses on understanding small groups or communities.
What is qualitative research?
An example of this non-random sampling method is asking a friend to refer others for a study.
What is snowball sampling?
This type of variable is what researchers predict will change due to another factor.
What is a dependent variable?
This is the process of refining an abstract concept into something measurable in a study.
What is operationalization?
This speculative statement is formed to predict the relationship between two variables.
What is formulating a hypothesis?
This describes the extent to which a research measure consistently provides the same results.
What is reliability?
The research design where a sociologist joins a group to understand its operation better.
What is participant observation?
This method involves systematically coding and analyzing documents such as newspapers or TV shows.
What is content analysis?
The factor that sociologists believe causes changes in the dependent variable.
What is an independent variable?
The concept that a sociologist must avoid influencing their data or participants with personal views.
What is objectivity?
Sociologists do this to ensure that their research findings are objective and replicable.
What is using the scientific method?
This ensures that the measures in a study reflect the actual phenomenon being studied.
What is validity?
This research design involves the deliberate manipulation of variables in a controlled setting.
What is an experiment?
This is the main advantage of ethnography, as it provides detailed information about specific groups.
What is yielding in-depth insights?
This term describes the connection between two variables where a change in one is related to a change in the other.
What is correlation?
The ethical obligation to ensure participants are not harmed during research.
What is do no harm?
After collecting and analyzing data, sociologists use this step to finalize their study.
What is developing the conclusion?
The step of refining abstract concepts into measurable terms to ensure clarity in research.
What is a survey?
This refers to using data that has already been collected by others.
What is secondary analysis?
The unintended influence that observers can have on subjects during an experiment.
What is the Hawthorne effect?
This occurs when the expected relationship between variables is not supported by the research data.
What is a null result?
The study of symbols and their meaning in human interaction is called this.
What is symbolic interactionism?