Soc 250 Chapter 1

Front 1

Causal reasoning suggests that:

Back 1

present circumstances cause future circumstances

Front 2

A particular society takes the position that alternative views of reality are legitimate. Which view is this?

Back 2

modern

Front 3

Samantha has concluded that living in a coed residence hall makes residents more androgynous. As she continues her research, she tends to focus on events and situations that fit this pattern. Which error in inquiry is reflected?

Back 3

selective observation

Front 4

Georgette observed a few preschool children at play and saw what she thought was a pattern in all preschool children's play behavior. She committed which error?

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overgeneralization

Front 5

Van wants to use social science to help him decide if Protestantism is a better religion than Catholicism. As a methodologist, your best response would be:

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sorry, science cannot settle debates about values.

Front 6

Van says that his 48-year old Catholic uncle will marry his 23-year old atheist girlfriend next year in order to prove that the social regularity that people tend to marry people like themselves is not accurate. What is your best response as a methodologist?

Back 6

The objection that social regularities could be upset through the conscious will of the actors is not a serious challenge to social science.

Front 7

Vanesha wishes to use church attendance as a factor in her study, with the categories "none," "some," and "a lot." Church attendance and the categories are known, respectively, as:

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a variable and attributes.

Front 8

Juanita decided to study the differences among students who choose different majors. Everyone in her study, however, has chosen sociology as a major. Which one of the following can be said about her concept of choice of major?

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One of her variables isn't really a variable because it has only one attribute.

Front 9

Joe wished to explain every possible reason why his sister chose to attend State University, including personal, family, school, peer, and other types of influences. What Joe is doing is called:

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an idiographic explanation.

Front 10

The distinction between quantitative and qualitative data in social research is essentially the distinction between:

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numerical and nonnumerical data.

Front 11

Nora observed people in her Sunday School for several months and then determined if there was a pattern in the different responses of men and women. Which one of the following approaches is reflected?

Back 11

inductive

Front 12

Makita studied the literature on binge drinking and discovered a pattern between gender and binge drinking that might be logically and theoretically expected. She then did her study of college students and drinking. Which approach is reflected?

Back 12

deductive

Front 13

Barb studied coping mechanisms among first-year students by requiring them to attend a first-year seminar. Which ethical principle was violated?

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voluntary participation

Front 14

Charley did a study in the lab and he severely berated the subjects when they arrived because he wanted to examine the effect of berating on performance. Several of the subjects became very upset. Which ethical principle was violated?

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no harm to participants

Front 15

Dorsey wanted to use the results of her research on juvenile delinquents to develop a community program to reduce delinquency. What type of research is reflected in this example?

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applied

Front 16

Dunn was interested in learning more about the negotiation processes couples use when they argue. He was interested in this for its own sake and had no plans to use the results to help improve couples' lives. What type of research is reflected in this example?

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pure

Front 17

first-year, sophomore, junior, senior. examples of what?

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attributes

Front 18

A collection of 18-year old students asked about their voting patterns. What is this?

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Aggregate

Front 19

Bernardo argues that nothing is really real and that what people see is a product of their position in society. Which perspective is reflected?

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postmodern

Front 20

Igor studied students at his community college and noticed that a slim majority carried no books to class. Then he saw a new set of people in the distance and concluded before seeing them that they would definitely be carrying books to class because someone should do that, especially since he had just seen students without books. Which error in inquiry is reflected?

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illogical reasoning

Front 21

T/F: Prediction without understanding is possible.

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True

Front 22

T/F: Overgeneralization can lead to selective observation.

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True

Front 23

T/F: The objection that there are always exceptions to any social regularity means that the regularity is unreal and unimportant.

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False

Front 24

T/F: The goal in studying variables is to see how they are related.

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True

Front 25

T/F; Idiographic explanations seek to explain a class of situations rather than a single situation, typically in terms of a few important causes.

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False

Front 26

T/F: While nomothetic explanations are very useful in social scientific research, idiographic explanations are of little use.

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False

Front 27

T/F: Induction is a much better approach to theory than is deduction.

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False

Front 28

T/F: Falsification is the process by which we make our observations more explicit by using numbers.

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False

Front 29

T/F: Pure research pursues knowledge for knowledge's sake, with no concern for how it might be used.

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True

Front 30

T/F: Participation in research should always be voluntary.

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True

Front 31

The two pillars of science are (blank) and (blank).

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Logic, observation

Front 32

Social scientists study the collective behavior of many individuals, which is known as a/an (blank).

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aggregate

Front 33

The type of causal reasoning involved when explaining a single situation in terms of many possible causes is known as (blank) explanation.

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idiographic

Front 34

The approach that moves from a theoretically expected relationship to specific observations to see if the relationship exists is known as (blank) reasoning

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deductive

Front 35

Issues governing how research participants are treated falls under the (blank) of research.

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ethics

Front 36

Spurious relationships are relevant for which criterion for establishing nomothetic causality?

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The effect cannot be explained in terms of some third variable.

Front 37

The ecological fallacy is most relevant in terms of which one of the following?

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Units of analysis.

Front 38

Yugorsky studied five fifth-grade classes over three years to determine how friendship patterns established in the fifth grade affected friendship patterns in the eighth grade. He studied the same group of students over time, but not necessarily the same individuals. Which design did he use?

Back 38

cohort

Front 39

Longitudinal studies are particularly useful for addressing which criterion for establishing causality?

Back 39

time order

Front 40

Desiree did a study on the causes of juvenile delinquency. Specifically, she examined if living in a city as opposed to the suburbs caused adolescents to become more delinquent. Which purpose of research did she pursue?

Back 40

explanation

Front 41

Ricardo studied married couples in order to see if length of marriage affected the nature and quality of communication patterns. Which unit of analysis did he use?

Back 41

group

Front 42

In order to receive an honorable or dishonorable discharge from the military, you must be in the military. In terms of the discharge type, being in the military is a/an:

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necessary cause.

Front 43

T/F: Sorting out the ethical implications of a study is a purpose of exploratory study.

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False

Front 44

Cindy established that gender came before voting in her study of adults in her city, so the time order was clear. She also ruled out the effects of age, religiosity, and other "third" variables. Which criterion for causality remains for her to establish?

Back 44

That a relationship exists.

Front 45

Brunelle concluded from her study on gender and delinquency that it is not just probabilistic that men commit more delinquency, but that gender is the only relevant factor in that high levels of delinquency are always committed by men. Which false criterion for nomothetic causality is reflected in this example?

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complete causation

Front 46

Andrew studied family conflict as portrayed in the media by reading letters to advice columns. What was his unit of analysis?

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artifacts

Front 47

Andrea studied Native American women to learn more about how they cope with their minority status. What was her unit of analysis?

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individuals

Front 48

Which one of the following is the best example of reductionism?

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Roberto explained suicide entirely in terms of psychological factors.

Front 49

Felisha studied Census tracts for her study on crime but then wrote up her conclusions in terms of individuals. Example of what?

Back 49

Ecological Fallacy

Front 50

Which one of the following designs is the most likely to be used for descriptive purposes?

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cross-sectional

Front 51

Senator Robertson wants to know how voter interest in issues in his district has changed over time. Best to use would be a:

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trend study.

Front 52

Margot wants to examine how student nurses change in their orientation towards patients over the course of their three years in nursing school. She is particularly concerned with following changes within the same individuals. Best to use would be a:

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panel study.

Front 53

Nate wants to make some causal assertions in his cross-sectional study about the effects of high school involvement on violence among young adults (all the people he studied are in their early 20s). He can approximate a longitudinal study by:

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make logical inferences based on the time order of his variables.

Front 54

Attrition of study participants is most critical for which of the following designs?

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panel

Front 55

Once you have a well-defined purpose for your study and a clear description of the kinds of outcomes you want to achieve, the next step in your research design is:

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conceptualization

Front 56

T/F: Exploration is the purpose of research that involves describing situations and events.

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False

Front 57

T/F: To say that one variable causes another is to say that the first variable completely causes the other variable.

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False

Front 58

T/F: Exceptions frequently disprove a causal relationship in nomothetic explanations.

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False

Front 59

T/F:We never discover single causes that are absolutely necessary and absolutely sufficient when analyzing nomothetic relationships.

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True

Front 60

T/F: Sociobiology is a prime example of reductionism.

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True

Front 61

T/F: A panel study is a type of longitudinal study which examines the same individuals in a set of people at various points in time.

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True

Front 62

T/F: Researchers can draw approximate conclusions about processes that take place over time by using cross-sectional data.

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True

Front 63

A goal in social research in which the researcher describes situations and events is known as (blank).

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Description

Front 64

With the (blank) type of explanation, we try to find a few factors that can account for many of the variations in a given phenomenon.

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Nomothetic

Front 65

A type of cause that represents a condition that must be present for the effect to follow is known as (blank).

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Necessary cause

Front 66

A type of cause that represents a condition that, if it is present, guarantees the effect in question is known as a (blank).

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Sufficient Cause

Front 67

What or whom is studied in social research is represented by (blank).

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Units of Analysis

Front 68

Morse wants to study the role of religion in society, how it gives societies a focus, how it gives meaning to unexplainable events, and how it often connects with the political and economic institutions. Which paradigm would be best?

Back 68

structural functionalism

Front 69

Indira wants to study how people make sense of the delays they experience in their daily lives. She asked people to keep diaries about such delays and how they responded to them, particularly how they made sense of them. She also encouraged them to sometimes violate others' expectations in terms of responding to delays. Which paradigm is she using?

Back 69

ethnomethodology

Front 70

Roberto wants to study how newly engaged couples communicate with each other. He is particularly interested in how each person defines such symbols as the engagement ring, and how each person communicates the relationship to others. Which paradigm would be best?

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symbolic interactionism

Front 71

Modesto was concerned that many respected theories of stratification were based on data about men. She wanted to examine the causes and consequences of class among women, with a particular focus on how stratification systems often oppress women. Which paradigm would be best?

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feminist

Front 72

Who first coined the term "sociology?"

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Comte

Front 73

Which one of the following statements best summarizes the role of deduction and induction?

Back 73

In practice, scientific inquiry involves an alternation between deduction and induction.

Front 74

The first step in constructing a theory through the inductive method is to:

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observe some segment of social life.

Front 75

Which one of the following adapted Darwin's idea of survival of the fittest to societies and believed that society was getting better and better?

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Spencer

Front 76

Who was an early theorist concerned with how individuals interacted with one another?

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Simmel

Front 77

Dominica observed that President Bush defeated Al Gore in the presidential election. This is a:

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fact

Front 78

Frankie began his theorizing on delinquency in schools by stating that he takes it to be true that kids like to be respected by other kids. He then goes on to develop some testable relationships between delinquency and gender. His assumption that kids like to be respected is known as a/an:

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axiom

Front 79

Frankie assumed that kids like to be respected by other kids. He then developed a specific testable expectation that boys experience more pressures for delinquency than do girls. This expectation is known as a/an:

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hypothesis

Front 80

The three main elements in the traditional model of science are:

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theory, operationalization, observation.

Front 81

Which one of the following is the best example of a hypothesis?

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Older people vote more conservatively than do younger people.

Front 82

According to the traditional model of science, scientists begin with:

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theory

Front 83

Freda developed a theory and an hypothesis about adjustment to retirement as related to gender. She constructed measures for adjustment to retirement. The next step for Freda according to the traditional model of science is:

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observation (gathering data).

Front 84

The first step in deductive theory construction is to:

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pick a topic that interests you.

Front 85

The last step in deductive theory construction is to:

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reason logically from what is known to your specific topic.

Front 86

T/F: Theories help identify the more appropriate ways to view the world

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False

Front 87

Comte believed that science would replace which one of the following by basing knowledge on observations rather than on belief or logic alone?

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religion

Front 88

T/F: The feminist paradigm is politically concerned with the oppression of women in many societies.

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True

Front 89

T/F:Ultimately, we'll never know whether there is an objective reality that we experience subjectively or whether our concepts of an objective reality are illusory.

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True

Front 90

T/F: Whereas theories seek to explain, paradigms provide ways of looking at fundamental frames of reference.

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True

Front 91

T/F: Social scientists interested in explaining international relations and the intersections among the various institutions in a society would be more likely to use a microtheory than a macrotheory.

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False

Front 92

T/F:The traditional model of science typically begins with operationalization.

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False

Front 93

T/F: Experimental research is commonly use to conduct inductive theory construction.

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False

Front 94

T/F: Regardless of the theory used, there is a close connection between theory and research.

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True

Front 95

T/F: While we think of science as developing gradually, in reality scientific paradigms become entrenched until a new paradigm highlights the shortcomings of the old ones.

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True

Front 96

T/F: Concepts explain observations by means of theories.

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False

Front 97

T/F: A concept is a special kind of variable.

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False

Front 98

Social theories that focus attention on society at large are called (blank).

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macrotheories

Front 99

The person most responsible for the conflict paradigm is (blank)

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Marx

Front 100

The paradigm that examines primary groups and the looking-glass-self is (blank).

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Symbolic Interactionism.

Front 101

The paradigm that advocates breaking social rules to help learn about people's expectations and how they make sense of the world is (blank).

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Ethnomethodology.

Front 102

Universal generalizations about classes of facts are known as (blank)

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Laws