SOCIOLOGY

Unit 1: Theory and Methods

Key Terms with explanation

BIAS
A tendency (either known or unknown) to prefer
one thing over another that preventsobjectivity.
Examples:
Judging agroupnegatively because of their
ethnicityor not accounting for students with
disabilitieswhen designing a test.

Framing a question on survey to ensure a desired

response

CASE STUDY
Research performed in detail on a single
individual,group, incident or community, as
opposed to, for instance, a sample of the whole
population Or
In-depth analysis of a single event, situation, or
individual.
Example:
Business related case studies.

CAUSATION
The act or process of causing something to
happen or exist
The relationship between an event or situation
and a possible reason or cause.
Example:
If a house burned due to a furnace explosion, that
is the causation.

COMPARATIVE STUDY
Comparing one thing with another of similar
position
Example:

To compare the social policies and ways of

working with those of other countries
Study by comparison has its own drawbacks.
Circumstances may not be similar. Objects
may not be similar.

CONFLICT THEORY
A theory that looks at society as a competition for
limited resources.
Examples:
Conflict

theory sees society as being made

up of individuals who must compete for
social, political, and material resources
such as political power, leisure time,
money, housing, and
entertainment.

CONSENSUS
Underconsensustheory the absence of conflict
is seen as the equilibrium state of society and
that there is a general or widespread agreement
among all members of a particular society about
norms, values, rules and regulations.
Example:

CONTENT ANALYSIS
Studying a form of communication to understand
underlying intent and meaning in a sociological
context.
Example:
Watching various TV shows from different eras to
determine how minorities are depicted.

CORRELATION

Correlation is a term that refers to the strength

of a relationship between two variables. A strong,
or high, correlation means that two or more
variables have a strong relationship with each
other while a weak, or low, correlation means
that the variables are hardly related. There are
many statistical tests that are used to determine
correlation, such as regression or a correlation
matrix.

ETHICAL ISSUES

A set of guidelines that the American Sociological

Association has established to foster ethical
research and professionally responsible
scholarship in sociology

FIELD EXPERIMENTS

Gathering data from a natural environment

without doing a lab experiment or a survey.

FOCUS GROUP

Focus groupsare a form ofqualitative research

that is used most often in product marketing
andmarketing research. During a focus group, a
group of individuals usually 6-12 people is
brought together in a room to engage in a guided
discussion of some topic.

GENERALIZATION

The amount that information from a specific

example can be generalized to apply to the
overallpopulation

GROUP INTERVIEW

The meeting where one or more questioners ask

information from two or more respondents in an
experimental or real-life situation. This method
encourages the people to interact with one other
in responding to the questions

HAWTHORNE/OBSERVER EFFECT

when study subjects behave in a certain manner

due to their awareness of being observed by a
researcher

HYPOTHESIS
an educated guess with predicted outcomes about
the relationship between two or more variables.
Or
A proposed and testable explanation between two
or more variables that predicts an outcome or
explains a phenomenon

IDENTITY

Four identity theories typically employed by

contemporary social psychologists: personal
identity, role identity, social identity, and
collective identity. Personal identity.

INDIVIDUALISM

Individualism is a social psychological term that

refers to the ways in which people identify
themselves and focus their goals. Individualism,
which is the opposite of collectivism, gives
priority to personal goals (as opposed to the goals
of a group or society). In addition, individualists
tend to define their own identities according to
their own personal behaviors and attributes.
America is a more individualistic country (we do
value individualism) whereas many Asian
countries place a greater value on collectivism.

INTERPRETIVISM

Sociologicalresearch approach that seeks indepth understanding of a topic or subject through

observation or interaction; this approach is not
based onhypothesistesting

INTERVIEWER BIAS

A partiality towards a preconceivedresponse

based on thestructure, phrasing, ortenorof
questionsaskedin the interviewingprocess.
Questions laced with interviewer bias can
influencerespondentsin such a way that it
distorts the outcome of theinterview.

INTERVIEWER EFFECT
Interview effect refers to the impact that the
artificial situation of the interview has on the
information respondents are prepared to provide,
theirattitudesand opinions.
Example:
an aggressive interviewer may intimidate a
respondent into giving answers that dont really
reflect the respondents beliefs.

LABORATORY EXPERIMENTS

Atestundercontrolledconditionsthatismadet
odemonstrateaknowntruth,examinethevalidi
tyofahypothesis,ordeterminetheefficacyofso
methingpreviouslyuntried.

LONGITUDINAL SURVEY
A longitudinal survey is one that collects data
from the same sample elements on multiple
occasions over time. OR
A study of a group of subjects that follows them
through time.

MACRO/MICRO APPROACHES
Macro Approaches:
Large-scalesociologicalanalysisof long-term
social processes such asinstitutions, social
structures, social systems, and wholesocieties.

Micro Approaches:
Small-scale sociologicalanalysisthatstudiesthe
behaviorofpeoplein face-to-face social
interactions and smallgroupsto understand what
they do, say, and think.

NON-PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION

Nonparticipant observation is a data collection

method used extensively in case study research
in which the researcher enters a social system to
observe events, activities, and interactions with
the aim of gaining a direct understanding of a
phenomenon in its natural context. As a
nonparticipant, the observer does not participate
directly in the activities being observed.

OBJECTIVITY

Judgments based on facts and undistorted by

emotions, personalbias, orprejudice.

OFFICIAL STATISTICS

Official statistics are a source of secondary data

and are easily available to sociologists as they
already exist. These statistics could be present,
the recent past or distant past.
Official statistics are the statistics produced and
published by the government and its agencies
and are collected through government surveys,
registration and record-keeping.

OPEN/CLOSED/PRE-CODED
QUESTIONS
Closed questionnaires are very structured
with the participant having a few set answers to
choose from.
Open-ended questionnaires are less
structured than closed questionnaires. There will
normally be a set number of questions, but there is
no pre-set choice of answers, so the participant can
say whatever they want. This method will often
involve an interview rather than written question.
Postal or self-complete questionnaires are
when the participant picks up or is sent a
questionnaire which they fill out themselves and
return by post or via the interne

OVERT PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION

Overt Participant Observation, as the name

suggests, involves the researcher beingopenwith
the group they are going to study. In other words,
before joining a group the researcheris likely to
inform the group's members (either personally or
through the agency of asponsor)about such
things as thepurposeof the research,
it'sscope, howlongthe research will last and so
forth.

PILOT STUDY

Apilot study,pilotproject orpilotexperiment

is a small scale preliminarystudyconducted in
order to evaluate feasibility, time, cost, adverse
events, and effect size (statistical variability) in
an attempt to predict an appropriate sample size
and improve upon thestudydesign prior to
performance of a full-scale experiment.

POSITIVISM

The doctrine that society is ordered and can be

empirically understood and measured; that
empirical knowledge gained through science is
the best method to understand the world and all
metaphysical explanations should be dismissed.

PRIMARY DATA

Primary datais information that you collect

specifically for the purpose of your research
project. An advantage ofprimary datais that it
is specifically tailored to your research needs.

QUALITATIVE DATA/RESEARCH

A set of research techniques in which data is

obtained from a relatively small group of
respondents and not analyzed with statistical
techniques

QUANTITATIVE DATA/RESEARCH

The systematic scientific investigation of

quantitative properties and phenomena and their
relationships, using statistical methods

QUESTIONNAIRES

A set of printed or written questions with a

choice of answers, devised for the purposes of a
survey or statistical study.

RELIABILITY

A measure of astudysconsistency that considers

how likely results are to be replicated if astudy
is reproduced

REPRESENTATIVENESS

Representativenessis defined as the level of

how well or how accurately something reflects
upon a sample. When a study gives a good
indication of what the whole population believes,
this is an example of a study with
goodrepresentativeness.

RESPONDENT
Any individual that answers questions during an
interview or replies to a survey.
Example:Citizens responding to an annual
census or students filling out course evaluations
at the end of a semester.

RESPONSE RATE

Response rate(also known as

completionrateor returnrate) in survey
research refers to the number of people whom
answered the survey divided by the number of
people in the sample. It is usually expressed in
the form of a percentage

SAMPLING METHODS/RANDOM/
SNOWBALLING/QUOTA/STRATIFIED
A sampling method is a procedure for selecting sample members
from a population.
Random:A sample that ensures that everyindividualin the
groupbeing studied has a equal chance of inclusion.

With stratified sampling, the researcher divides the population

into separate groups, called strata. Then, aprobability sample
(often asimple random sample ) is drawn from each group.

Quota samplingis a non-probabilitysampling

techniquewherein the assembledsamplehas the same
proportions of individuals as the entire population with respect
to known characteristics, traits or focused phenomenon.
In sociology and statistics research,snowball sampling(or
chain sampling, chain-referralsampling, referralsampling) is
a non-probabilitysampling techniquewhere existing study
subjects recruit future subjects from among their acquaintances.

SAMPLING FRAME

A sampling frame is a list of all the items in your

population. The difference between apopulation
and a sampling frame is that thepopulationis
general and the sampling frame is specific. For
example, thepopulationcould be People who live
in Jacksonville, Florida. The sampling frame
would name ALL of those people, from Adrian
Abba to Felicity Zappa.

SECONDARY DATA

Secondary datais information that has been

collected for a purpose other than your current
research project but has some relevance and
utility for your research

SEMI-STRUCTURED INTERVIEW

Asemi-structured interviewis a method of

research used in the social sciences. While
astructured interviewhas a rigorous set of
questions which does not allow one to divert,
asemi-structured interviewis open, allowing
new ideas to be brought up during
theinterviewas a result of what the
interviewee says.

SOCIAL SURVEY

A research method that collectsdatafrom

respondentsthrough a series of questions either
in the form of a questionnaire or an interview.

STRUCTURED INTERVIEW

Astructured interview(also known as a

standardizedinterviewor a researcheradministered survey) is a quantitative research
method commonly employed in survey research.
The aim of this approach is to ensure that
eachinterviewis presented with exactly the
same questions in the same order

SUBJECTIVITY

Opinions based on personal impressions that are

influenced bybiasandprejudices.

SURVEY POPULATION

The section of the population which is of interest

in asurvey.

TRIANGULATION

This is the use of two or more research methods

in a single piece of research to check the
reliability and validity of research evidence.

UNSTRUCTURED INTERVIEW

Anunstructured interviewor nondirectiveinterviewis aninterviewin which

questions are not prearranged. These nondirectiveinterviewsare considered to be the
opposite of a structuredinterviewwhich offers
a set amount of standardized questions

VALIDITY

This is concerned with notions of truth how far

the findings of research actually provide a true,
genuine or authentic picture of what is being
studied.