Deck 1: Human Inquiry and Science

Question 1

How would the discussion of variables and attributes apply to physics, chemistry, and biology?

Answer 1

In terms of social research, attributes refer to the characteristics that helps in describing an object. When these attributes are joined together in a logical set, it is termed as variables. For example, farmer, lawyer, scientist are different attributes. Whereas, together they are clubbed as occupation, which is a variable.
The terms variables and attributes can be applied to different domains. For example, when considering the variable 'race', its attributes can be American, Asian, Australian, etc. Similarly, male and female are the attributes for the variable 'gender'.
While considering physics, chemistry and biology as attributes, the variable can be education or specialist. For example, a person can be specialist in any of the subjects, hence it is an attribute. Whereas, while considering from the perspective of variable, the person would be a specialist.
Similarly, while considering in terms of education, a person can be graduate with major in physics, chemistry, and biology. Hence, these would be the attributes and the educational qualification would be variable.

Question 2

Identify a social problem that you feel ought to be addressed and solved. What are the variables represented in your description of the problem? Which of those variables would you monitor in determining whether the problem was solved?

Answer 2

Social problem:
This kind a problem arises from a society. A social problem is expected to exist till the needs of the people within a community are not met. In general, people from different culture living in a particular society may face social problems. So, culture always has an impact on social groups.
Public vandalism is problem that affects society significantly. Every city or regions need to curtail the ill effects of vandalism.
For example:
Consider a community within school, i.e. community of students. Here, school always has a chance of facing vandalism from the community of students. For example, vandalism in school is the property damage, which may be caused from different groups of students.
In this type of social problem, the probable variables that accompany vandalism are physical barriers. Once the school management is able to identify the barriers, it would be very easy to develop a strategy. More often seen vandalism is, students damaging school buildings to impress their peers, and for fun.
The above variables may be monitored to check whether reduction in these variables can lead to lesser vandalism in the school. A decrease in vandalism is possible when school management is able to promote their school and create an impression on their students. This will allow the students to respect the school and avoid vandalism.

Question 3

Suppose you were interested in studying the quality of life among elderly people. What quantitative and qualitative indicators might you examine?

Answer 3

Quality of life among elderly people:
It indicates the health pattern of an elderly people. This kind of analysis gives an ideology to prioritize the medical and social care needed. Understanding the quality of life index is essential, as it helps to assess the aging of people.
It has wide range of dimensions and contexts, which includes health, fitness, social life, occupation etc. Quality of Life of elder people can be viewed from many angles and the key to the research in this aspect is in operationalizing the term 'quality of Life'.
The key qualitative and quantitative indicators, which determine the quality of life of elderly people, are classified as follows:
Observation of the qualitative and quantitative variables that affect the quality of life of the elderly can help to reach a scientific conclusion about the elderly people.

Question 4

How might social research be useful to such professionals as physicians, attorneys, business executives, police officers, and newspaper reporters?