Exam 2: Research Methods

As an honours sociology student,you spend considerable time preparing a survey questionnaire on the use of Internet porn sites.What is your biggest concern about conducting survey research?

Which term refers to obtaining consistent results with the same measure?

Write a proposal for a sociological research experiment.

Which statement best explains what is meant when a researcher talks about the validity of things being measured?

We must be cautious in generalizing the results of laboratory experiments to nonlaboratory situations.Which concept best explains the extent to which experimental findings remain valid in nonlaboratory situations?

Raoul had returned home after a semester at university and was excitedly talking about the experiential learning component in one class,and the small group discussions and projects of another.His grandfather interjected,"Back in my day,the professor lectured,and we took notes and then studied like crazy to memorize the right answers for the tests." Which concept explains the difference between Raoul's and his grandfather's experience?

After observing little girls at play,a researcher concluded that those girls wearing dresses acted in a more feminine manner.However,in reality,some of the girls wearing pants acted similarly.What may have influenced the researcher's erroneous finding?

What is the procedure used in experiments to assign test subjects to experimental conditions on the basis of chance?

Define and provide examples of spurious relationships.

In what kind of study do researchers attempt to closely control the research environment?

A social scientist conducts research on expectations and performance.He sets up two scenarios: one where a group does a task without any intervention and a second one where a different group is given the same task,but told to expect that the task will be difficult.The results are then measured.What kind of research has been conducted?

Describe some of the difficulties that social scientists face when doing survey research.

Tammy was extremely interested in exploring the connection between morality and the level of integration of people within a society.Whose writings should she be using in her research paper?

What is the best scientific methodology for a scientist to use to isolate a cause?

A researcher conducts a very carefully designed experiment on the relationship between time spent viewing violent video games and the incidence of violent behaviour.The researcher then generalizes these results to the broader gaming community.If the research accurately reflects behaviours in the broader gaming community,then what can be said about this experiment?

Imagine that you have been asked to conduct a research study on Internet porn website usage of university students.What research method(s)would you use and why? Discuss both the advantages and disadvantages of your selected research method(s),incorporating material from the text.

Random-digit-dialing procedures for telephone survey research will allow for accessing households with unlisted telephone numbers.

A middle-aged female who was being surveyed in a shopping mall gave her age as 38,when it was actually 46.This is an example of the problem of social desirability in surveys.

After reading the newspaper article reporting the standardized testing scores of various schools throughout the city,Sam asserted that the teachers in school A should all be fired because of the low results.Darlene asked Sam if he ever considered that school A was located in the poorest section of the city with one of the highest proportions of English as Second Language students.What was Darlene arguing?

How is ethnography best defined?