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| The system of procedures that helps sociologists develop knowledge |
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| The approach to knowledge that involves using the human senses to make observations |
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| Research designed to find out what is happening to whom, when and where. |
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| Research that answers the questions "why" and "how" |
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| A generalization, a way of labeling simila things or processes |
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| concepts that refer to change across time or space, or from one person or group to another. |
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| Operationalizing the Vairiable |
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Definition
| Translating gereral concepts into specific, measurable vaiables. |
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| A tentative statement about the way in which two or more variables are related. |
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| A statement, supported by empirical evidence (i.e. evidence based on observation) , about the relationship between two or more variables |
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| A comprehensive explanation of observed relationships among variables |
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| A variable that is thought to be the cause or explanation of one or more dependent variables |
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| A variable that is thought to be the efect of one or more independent variables |
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| Correlations that are not based on casual connections |
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| REsearch in which more than two variables are involved. The search for cause and effect focuses on finding the relative importance of a number of variables that together have an overall effect |
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| The degree to which a study or research instrument actually measures what it is attempting to measure |
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| The degree to which a study or research instrument provides consistently accurate |
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| Research methods designed to study variables that can be measured in numbers |
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| Researchmethods designed to describe reality in accurate verbal terms rather than in numbers |
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Definition
| The systematic questioning of large numbers of people about their opinions, attitudes, or behavior |
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| In research the total group of people to be studied |
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Definition
| In a research study, a limited number of cases selected to represent the entire population being studied |
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| A sample chosen so that every member of the population has an equal chance of being picked for inclusion |
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| An eperiment that is designed to isolate the specific effect of the independent variable by controlling the effects of other variables that may influence the dependent variable |
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| The group into which the independent variable is introduced |
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Definition
| The group that is not exposed to the independent variable and is compared with the ecperimental group |
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| Nonparticipant Observation |
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| A research method in which the observes does not take part in the activities or social situation under study. |
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Definition
| Aresearch method in which the observer is personally involved in the social situations under observation. |
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Definition
| A detaled record of a single event, person, or social grouping |
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| The reanalysis or previously collected data |
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| A research strategy that involves examining any form of communication and applying it to a systematic coding scheme to identify issues of interest to the researcher. |
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| Research involving the comparison of several social systems or of the same social system as more than one time. |
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| Repetition of the same experiment with different population samples to test the validity of the results of the original study |
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Definition
| A case study focusing on an entire communtiy |
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Definition
| Changes in the behavior of reserch subjects resulting from their knowledge that they are being studied. |
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