Exam 1: Social Science and Its Method

If the social sciences are ever going to have a united theory, it will be because people started thinking about the rules and how the various rules of the social sciences fit together.

Social scientists find statistics useful because of the:

Scientific knowledge can be roughly grouped into two major fields - humanities and language arts.

New fields of social science are evolving such as cognitive science.

One of the great problems in a democracy is getting the majority of people to reach substantial agreement on the major policies that should be followed to create a better society.

There are many different social science disciplines with varying approaches but in understanding modern problems social scientists need to know:

During the Enlightenment people began to believe that society and culture are themselves the products of history and the evolution of culture. The Enlightenment is important in the origins of:

The Enlightenment established the "three humiliations" of human beings. These include:

What is the distinction between correlation and causation? Give a hypothetical example that might occur in social research to demonstrate each.

Language is important in the communication of social scientific knowledge. Social scientists are aware that language:

The function of social science is not primarily to determine social objectives but instead to discover how our objectives can be achieved.

The saga of Hans, the Thinking Horse is an example of why a good scientist must have both skepticism and imagination.

Knowledge is made up of knowledge of human beings, including culture and products, and knowledge of the natural environment.

Which of the following is NOT one of the nine steps of scientific research outlined in your text:

To a considerable extent, the social scientist must substitute careful observation and the process of abstraction for experiments.

Some of the concerns of geography are ecology, climate, resources, and:

This is the field of human knowledge that deals with all aspects of the group life of human beings.

Social science and natural science are both scientific but different in focus because:

Educated common sense:

There is little agreement among specialists in a particular social science about what distinguishes their field from others.