Exam 3: Section 1: General Issues in Research Design

The two essentials of science are ____.

Explain the difference between inductive and deductive reasoning. Give an example of each from the criminal justice literature.

Most explanatory social research uses a probabilistic model of causation.

A researcher is interested in how criminality is related to age and a large number of individuals of different ages at one point in time. This is a ____ study.

Scientific realism bridges idiographic and nomothetic approaches to explanation by seeking to understand how causal mechanisms operate in specific contexts..

When scientists consider whether causal statements are true or false, they are concerned with the validity of causal inference.

A researcher using social artifacts as the unit of analysis might be studying ____.

Individuals may be units of analysis in criminal justice research.

If a cross-sectional study can be likened to a "snapshot," and a trend study to a "slide show," then which study is most like a "motion picture?"

Traditional approaches to finding cause and effect usually try to isolate causal mechanisms from other possible influences while the scientific realist approach views these other possible influences as ____.

Ecological fallacy refers to the dangers of making assertions about large groups as the units of analysis based upon examination of individuals.

When we say something is valid, we make a judgment about the extent to which relevant evidence supports that inference as being ____.

When saying validity is "the approximate truth of an inference," the emphasis is on ____.

Research that asks people to recall their pasts is called _______________ research.

The two pillars of science are logic and _______________.

The relationship between attributes and variables lies at the heart of ____.

Scientists assess the truth of statements about cause by considering threats to ________________.

After reading current research on the causes of juvenile crime and noting that lack of opportunity, school failure, and parental neglect are often prominently mentioned, you have trouble reconciling what you read with what your personal experience. You think in particular of someone you went to high school with who, despite coming from a well-educated, wealthy family, being a star student and athlete, and having very attentive parents, carried out a series of burglaries and arsons. This illustrates the ____ fallacy.

Explanatory scientific research centers on the notion of cause and effect.

A study of violence in children's programming requires counting the number of violent acts in Saturday morning cartoons for an entire year. The unit of analysis being used for this project is the ____.