Chapter 2

Front 1

Research Methods

Back 1

Approaches that social scientists use for investigating the answers to question.

Front 2

Quantitative methods

Back 2

Methods that seek to obtain information about the social world that is already in or can be converted to numeric form.

Front 3

Qualitative methods

Back 3

Methods that attempt to collect information about the social world that cannot be readily converted to numeric form.

Front 4

Deductive approach

Back 4

A research approach that starts with a theory, forms a hypothesis, makes empirical observations, and then analyzes the data to confirm, reject, or modify the original theory.

Front 5

inductive approach

Back 5

A research approach that starts with empirical observations and then works to form a theory.

Front 6

Correlation (or Association)

Back 6

Simultaneous variation in two variables.

Front 7

Causuality

Back 7

The notion that a change in one factor results in a corresponding change in another.

Front 8

Reverse casuality

Back 8

A situation in which the researcher believes that A results in a change in B, but B, in fact, is causing A.

Front 9

Dependent variable

Back 9

The outcome that the researchers is trying to explain.

Front 10

Independent variables

Back 10

A measured factor that the researcher believes has a casual impact on the dependent variable.

Front 11

Operationalization

Back 11

The process of assigning a precise method for measuring a term being examined for use in a particular study.

Front 12

Validity

Back 12

The extent to which an instrument measures what it is intended to measure.

Front 13

Reliability

Back 13

The likelihood of obtaining consistent results using the same measure.

Front 14

Generalizability

Back 14

The extent to which we can claim our findings inform us about a group larger than the one we studied.

Front 15

Reflexivity

Back 15

Analyzing an critically considering our own role in, and effect on, our research.

Front 16

Feminist methodology

Back 16

A set of systems or methods that treat women's experiences as legitimate empirical and theoretical resources, that promote social science for women (think public sociology, but for a specific half of the public), and that take into account the researcher as much as the overt subject matter.

Front 17

Population

Back 17

An entire group of individual persons, objects, or items from which samples may be drawn.

Front 18

Sample

Back 18

The subset of the population from which you are actually collecting data.

Front 19

Case Study

Back 19

An intensive investigation of one particular unit of analysis in order to describe it or uncover its mechanisms.

Front 20

Participant observation

Back 20

A qualitative research method that seeks to uncover the meanings people give their social actions by observing their behavior in practice.

Front 21

Surveys

Back 21

An ordered series of questions intended to elicit information from respondents.

Front 22

Historical methods

Back 22

Research that collects data from written reports, newspaper articles, journals, transcripts, television programs, diaries, artwork, and other artifacts that date back to the period under study.

Front 23

Comparative research

Back 23

A methodology by which two or more entities (such as countries), which are similar in many dimensions but differ on one in questions, are compared to learn about the dimension that differs between them.

Front 24

Content analysis

Back 24

A systematic analysis of content rather than the structure of a communication, such as a written work, speech, or film.

Front 25

Experimental methods

Back 25

Methods that seek to alter the social landscape in a very specific way for a given sample of individuals and then track what results that change yields; often involve comparisons to a control group that did not experience such an intervention.