Use LEFT and RIGHT arrow keys to navigate between flashcards;
Use UP and DOWN arrow keys to flip the card;
H to show hint;
A reads text to speech;
34 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
What is scientific research?
|
1. Makes descriptive or explanatory inferences
2. Uses public methods 3. Recognizes uncertainty in conclusions 4. Follows rules of inferences |
|
What common errors are there in inquiry and how do we avoid them?
|
1. Inaccurate observations: be conscious, use precise measures
2. Overgeneralization: use large samples, replicate studies 3. Selective observation: specify number and type of observations to be made, try to find deviant cases 4. Illogical reasoning: follow proven system of logic |
|
What is a theory?
|
Is:
1.logically interconnected propositions 2. derived from axioms 3. and causal mechanisms 4. that yields empirically testable hypotheses about social phenomena In comparison to paradigm: logically interconnected set of predictions about the world. |
|
What are 3 common objections to social regularities? What is the response?
|
1. Triviality . Response: common beliefs can be wrong.
2. Exceptions. Response: exceptions do not break a general pattern. 3. People can interfere. Response: Does not occur often enough to challenge social regularities. |
|
What is an attribute?
|
Characteristic or quality of a social actor (individual, family, class, group, region, organization, industry, ...)
|
|
What is a variable?
|
Logical grouping of attributes that describe the unit of analysis.
|
|
Unit of Analysis
|
Types of entities we are analyzing. (Ex. Individuals, groups, organizations & social artifacts).
|
|
What is the logic of causation?
|
Trying to find which attributes of the independent variable are associated with which attributes of the dependent variable.
|
|
Independent Variable
|
Variable not problematic in analysis but taken as a given. Presumed to determine the dependent variable.
|
|
Dependent Variable
|
Assumed to depend on another variable.
|
|
What are common Sociology dialectics?
|
1. Idiographic vs. Nomothetic
2. Inductive vs. Deductive 3. Determinism vs. Agency 4. Qualitative and Quantitative Data |
|
What is idiographic?
|
An approach to explanation in which we seek to exhaust all the causes of a single event or condition.
|
|
What is nomothetic?
|
Explanation in which we identify a few causal factors.
|
|
What is the wheel of science?
|
1. Theories lead to...
2. Hypotheses, which lead to... 3. Observations, which lead to... 4. Empirical Generalizations, which lead to... 5. Theories, which lead to... Deduction: Theories to Hypotheses to Observations Induction: Observations to Empirical Generalizations to Theories. |
|
What was the point of doing the "The Sex Life of the Whiptail Lizard" reading?
|
It was to demonstrate how paradigms clash.
David Crews occupies a space between paradigms |
|
Babbie Ch. 4
What 3 factors are most important in determining Nomothetic causation? |
1. Correlation
2. Time order 3. Nonspuriousness - the relationship is not a coincidental statistical correlation due to a third variable. |
|
Two common fallacies about units of analysis?
|
1. Ecological fallacy - assumption that something learned about an ecological unit says something about the individuals making up that unit.
2. Reductionism - strict limitation of kinds of concepts to be considered relevant to the phenomenon under study. |
|
Types of Longitudinal Studies?
|
1. Trend: given characteristic of some population is monitored over time.
2. Cohort: some specific sub population is studied over time although data may be collected from different members in each set of observations. 3. Panel: data are collected from the same set of people. |
|
Paradigm
|
Framework within which scientists think. Intellectual perspective shared by a group of scientists that guides their formulation of theories and their empirical research.
|
|
Positivism
|
1. Introduced by Auhuste Comte
2. Philosophical system grounded on the rational proof/dosproof of scientific assertions. 3. Assumes knowable, objective, reality |
|
Social Darwinism
|
1. One main proponent was Herbert Spencer.
2.Society evolves into a progressively "fitter" forms of society. |
|
Conflict Paradigms
|
1. Human behavior is attempts to dominate or avoid being dominated.
2. Proponent: Karl Marx |
|
Symbolic Interactionism
|
Human behavior is:
1. creation of meaning 2. through social interaction 3. with those meanings conditioning subsequent interactions |
|
Ethnomethodology
|
Studies:
1. creation of social structure 2. through actions & interactions |
|
Feminist Paradigms
|
View and understand society through:
1. experience of women 2. and/or examine general deprived status of women |
|
Critical Race Theory
|
Grounded in:
1. race awareness 2. Intention to achieve racial justice |
|
Postmodernism?
|
!uestions the assumptions of positivism & theories describing an objective reality.
|
|
Critical Realism?
|
Things are real in so far as they produce effects.
|
|
Normal Science
|
1. Science that falls within a paradigm.
2. No need to constantly reiterate fundamental assumptions. 3. Effectiveness & Efficiency of research increases greatly. 4. Don' invent new theories. 5. Doesn't pay attention to new sorts of phenomena. |
|
How does science evolve?
|
1. Normal science leads to...
2. Anomalies piling up, which leads to... 3. A crisis erupting, which leads to... 4. A scientific revoliton, which leads to... 5. Pres-science, which leads to... 6. Normal science, which leads to... |
|
What are the 3 major sociological paradigms?
|
1. Symbolic Interactionism - meaning created through interaction.
2. Structural Functionalism - every piece contributes to system. 3. Conflict - domination and avoiding domination/ |
|
Intersubjectivity
|
1. We all see world through individual subjectivites
2. If we agree on what we see it is objective reality 3. called the "Social Cosntruction of Reality" |
|
Social Facts
|
Things that are because everyoen agrees that they are. Ex. Money
|
|
Elements of Social Theories
|
1. Concepts/Variables - Classes of phenomena
2. Hypotheses - explanations of relationships between concepts. |