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Higher Education

Sociology, 4e: Chapter 02

Instructions: For each question, click on the radio button beside your answer. When you have completed the entire quiz, click the Submit my answers button at the bottom of the page to receive your results.

Question 1:


a) Knowledge is based on various social factors.
b) Facts are part of the real world and can be observed.
c) When making scientific observation, we do not let our biases interfere with our observations.
d) We usually use the scientific method to collect and analyze data and to draw conclusions.
e) Science gives us the best understanding of the way the world works.

Question 2:


a) impossible because nobody can separate himself or herself completely from his or her prior knowledge of the world when making observations
b) possible because languages are unbiased, accurate reflections of the world
c) possible because scientific findings should not be influenced by the emotions, thoughts, prejudices, or language of any individual scientist
d) impossible because even to make observations of the world and to record them and communicate them to others requires the use of language, which is not unbiased
e) both A and D

Question 3:


a) scientific objectivity is possible
b) science is useful because it strives for objective knowledge
c) we should abandon science or at least alter it radically because there is no ultimate truth
d) scientific findings should not be influenced by the emotions, thoughts, prejudices, or language of any individual scientist
e) science is supposed to be true, accurate recordings of the real world

Question 4:


a) Concepts
b) Hypotheses
c) Variables
d) Theories
e) Correlations

Question 5:


a) Theories
b) Hypotheses
c) Operational definitions
d) Correlations
e) Variables

Question 6:


a) ethnicity
b) age
c) years of schooling
d) annual income
e) French language

Question 7:


a) translating theories into observable ideas before they can be tested
b) relationships between variables
c) observable variables that must have a range of different values it can take on
d) theories which explain how two or more concepts are related to each other
e) constructing abstract explanations of theories

Question 8:


a) are born because the essential features of a good leader are determined at birth or at a young age
b) are bred because leadership can be taught
c) cannot improve much through leadership programs
d) can predict who will follow them
e) both A and C

Question 9:


a) They are equivalent to causes.
b) They are equivalent to effects.
c) If you wanted to investigate differences between the average earnings of men and women, then sex or gender would be the independent variable.
d) If you wanted to investigate differences in crime rates between different age groups, then age would be the independent variable.
e) If you wanted to investigate the relationship between smoking and lung cancer, then smoking would be the independent variable.

Question 10:


a) A valid measure is one that adequately represents the concept.
b) A person’s year of schooling is a valid indicator of educational attainment.
c) Research is externally valid when the results from that research can be generalized to a larger population.
d) A valid measure is one that produces the same measurements of the same phenomenon again and again.
e) Research is internally valid if the conclusions from the study are actually supported by the data and methods that were used.

Question 11:


a) engage in an extensive process of testing the different dimensions of validity and reliability as they do in quantitative research
b) spend enough time with the people they are studying to fully understand their point of view
c) interview group members until they begin to see the same ideas coming up again and again
d) conducting extensive analyses of written records and documents on their topic of interest
e) demonstrate to their readers that they have gained enough understanding of their topic to ensure that their results are valid

Question 12:


a) having the wrong people participate in research
b) respondents making mistakes when they fill out a survey
c) respondents answering questions the way they think the researcher wants them to
d) errors in coding
e) errors in analysis

Question 13:


a) In order to study properly the cultures of other peoples, a researcher needs to develop an empathetic understanding of their lives in order to see the world as that group sees it.
b) Personal characteristics of the researcher will affect how the group reacts to the researcher.
c) It is not necessary for a researcher to empathize with the group that they are studying in order to be objective.
d) A researcher can judge the group that they are studying from their own cultural perspective.
e) It is common for research subjects to answer questions the way they think the researcher wants them to instead of answering the way they want to themselves.

Question 14:


a) experiments
b) surveys
c) in-depth interviews
d) participant observation
e) documentation

Question 15:


a) They are the most widely used technique in social science.
b) They are an excellent way to gather data on large populations that cannot be studied effectively in a face-to-face manner.
c) They provide a controlled environment in which it is possible to manipulate specific factors in an attempt to determine their effect on an outcome.
d) They are properly designed set of questions systematically administered to a randomly chosen sample.
e) Double-barrelled questions in surveys refer to questions that can be answered honestly in more than one way.

Question 16:


a) focus – each question should have one specific topic
b) brevity – shorter questions are preferable to longer questions
c) clarity – use clear, understandable words, and avoid jargon
d) bias – avoid biased words, phrases, statements, and questions
e) comfort – avoid asking people about uncomfortable topics

Question 17:


a) guarantees that our sample will be representative
b) removes both intentional and unintentional biases from our research
c) is necessary in field research
d) is the only way that we can be confident that our sample is representative of the population in which we are interested
e) solves all the problems in sociological research

Question 18:


a) the sample had low external validity
b) the test was voluntary for home-schoolers but mandatory for schooled children, so what was being compared was the top end of home-schooled students against all schooled children
c) the claim that more than more than 20,000 home-schooled students were used in the study, thus making the claims generalizable to a larger population, is false
d) if you are a home-schooler and you know you are a weak student, what incentive do you have to take a voluntary test
e) all of the above

Question 19:


a) participant observation
b) surveys
c) secondary data analysis
d) content analysis
e) documentation

Question 20:


a) surveys
b) secondary data analysis
c) participant observation
d) content analysis
e) documentation

Question 21:


a) secondary data analysis
b) surveys
c) participant observation
d) in-depth interviews
e) content analysis

Question 22:


a) documentation
b) participant observation
c) surveys
d) in-depth interviews
e) content analysis

Question 23:


a) collecting quantitative or numerical data that can be generalized to a larger population
b) collecting qualitative data that may or may not be generalizable to a larger population
c) collecting data by going into the “field” to observe and talk to people directly
d) spending time getting to know their subjects in order to be able to capture their world view
e) using techniques such as participant observation or in-depth interviews

Question 24:


a) The researcher participates in the daily activities of his or her research subjects, usually for an extended period of time.
b) The researcher may accompany his or her research subjects on their daily activities.
c) The researcher may interview his or her subjects and occasionally live with them.
d) The primary aim is to interview or participate in a large enough group in their natural setting, so that the results may be generalizable to similar subjects in similar contexts.
e) Ben Killingworth’s study (2006) is a good example of participant observation that illustrated how ideals about good mothers are defined, interpreted, and reconstructed by actual people in social interactions

Question 25:


a) Murphy found that the majority of the women that she interviewed breastfed their babies for about one year.
b) Murphy found that almost all of the women who had stopped breastfeeding recognized formula feeding as inferior but that none of them perceived this as a threat to their status as good mothers.
c) The interviews revealed that some women encountered health care workers who were unsupportive of breastfeeding or who did not diagnose medical problems that prevented breastfeeding.
d) Some women had babies who were either uncooperative or could not do it because of “incompetence.”
e) One of the strengths of Murphy’s research is the strength of her semi-structured interview technique because by directing women to discuss their breastfeeding decisions and then following their leads, she was able to gain a much deeper understanding of th

Question 26:


a) topic of study
b) whom to talk to
c) characteristics of the field researcher
d) what types of data to record
e) how long to stay in the field

Question 27:


a) revealing patterns in documents such as newspapers
b) the analysis of official statistics and existing surveys
c) using historical analysis to give a complete picture of the events or time period under study
d) looking for themes implicit in the documents
e) all of the above

Question 28:


a) in which the goal is to find out more about a particular group or topic
b) that test different theories against each other to determine which theory provides the best explanation for the phenomenon
c) that aim to be able to predict future patterns of behaviour
d) that aim to empower the group being studied
e) that test whether a theory developed from one group or time period applies to another group or time period