Research Basics
These are the broad “lenses” or worldviews that guide how researchers see social reality, what questions they ask, and how they interpret data.
What are paradigms?
In a study of how work hours affect stress, the number of hours worked per week is this type of variable.
What is an independent variable?
A researcher counts how many times people check their phones in an hour and then runs statistics on the numbers. This is an example of collecting this broad type of data.
What is quantitative data?
This ethical principle means participants must be free to join or leave a study without penalties, such as losing points or benefits.
What is voluntary participation?
If a scale gives the same weight every time you step on it under the same conditions, it has a high level of this property.
What is reliability?
A research team that collects both quantitative and qualitative data at the same time for the same study is using what approach?
What is convergent design?
A sociologist wants to “paint a picture” of people who use food delivery apps—reporting their average age, gender, and work schedule—but is not trying to explain cause and effect. This is what general purpose of this study.
What is a descriptive study?
Conceptualization moves from general to specific. For example, “social class” (broad idea), “income and education” (components of the broad idea). Name the two terms in order from least specific to most specific.
What are concepts and dimensions?
A researcher asks people to tell detailed stories about their first day at college and analyzes the themes in their narratives.
What is a qualitative method?
A researcher explains the purpose of a study, how long it will take, and that participants can stop at any time before asking them to sign a form. This step ensures people understand what they’re agreeing to.
What is informed consent?
If a measure actually captures the concept it is supposed to capture—for example, a depression scale truly measuring depression rather than just stress—it has high what?
What is validity?
After one noisy lunch period, a teacher concludes that “students today are always on their phones and never talk to each other,” based on just that single observation. This is an example of what common error in everyday thinking?
What is overgeneralization?
A researcher collects many interviews about gig workers, notices patterns in how they talk about job security, and then develops a new theory of “digital precarity.” This is an example of what research resoning.
What is the inductive process?
A study looks at 50 different schools and compares their average test scores. The unit of analysis is..
What is a school?
One draw back to this method is the difficulty to replicate a study.
What is qualitative data?
A researcher realizes their study will involve interviewing teenagers and must therefore take extra care to get both teen assent and parent or guardian permission. This situation arises because teens fall into this category of participants.
What are vulnerable populations?
A researcher asks two people to review an interview transcript independently. This is an example of what type of reliability?
What is inter-rater relatability?
A researcher first runs a large survey about neighborhood safety, then follows up by interviewing a smaller group of respondents to better understand why they answered the way they did. This is an example of which general mixed methods strategy.
What is sequential explanatory design?
Instead of running their own survey, a researcher downloads an existing national health survey dataset and analyzes it to answer a new question about exercise frequency. This is an example of this kind of data use.
What is secondary data analysis?
A research team studies “workplace satisfaction.” They define it as having multiple aspects like pay, relationships with coworkers, and autonomy. Then they design specific questions to measure each aspect. This process is called what?
What is operationalization?
This qualitative analytic approach allows for a theory to be developed based on data they collect.
What is grounded theory?
A community researcher wants to interview residents about neighborhood safety and plans to keep all identifiable details—such as names, addresses, and audio recordings—secure and only accessible to the research team. This step ensures the ethical requirement that personal data be protected. The principle represents is..
What is confidentiality?
A researcher studying social economic status conducts a study collecting the person's income and where they live. This researcher should be concerned with...
What is content validity?
A researcher who is using conflict theory to examine "In what ways do tax policies reinforce class inequality?" This researcher is using the...
What is deductive process?
A qualitative researcher’s first step is to do what before spending time in a community center, watching interactions and taking field notes. This first step is called what?
Reflexivity and Bracketing
In a public health study testing whether installing free water stations in schools reduces soda consumption by students. Soda consumption is...
What is a dependent variable?
In Qualitative data process what is the process called when you gather data until no new information is received?
What is saturation?
Before starting a study, a researcher must determine whether they are collecting information directly from living individuals. This is part of evaluating whether the project involves...
What are human subjects?
If a stress questionnaire gives nearly identical scores when the same person takes it again two weeks latter, it demonstrates this type of reliability?
What is the test-retest reliability?
This unethical study conducted in the 20th century withheld treatment from black men with syphilis so researchers could observe the diseases progression.
What is the Tuskegee study?