Chapter 3: Researching the Social World

Test Bank

Multiple Choice

1. Lana has a theory about homelessness. She systematically gathers information through both observation and interviews to develop a theory. Which terms best fits Lana’s activity?

a. empiricism

b. hypothesizing

c. speculation

d. curiosity

Learning Objective: 3.1: Describe the scientific method.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Sociology as a Science

Difficulty Level: Medium

2. When conducting a research study, sociologists follow the ______, which refers to a structured way to find answers to questions about the world.

a. scientific method

b. social science method

c. ethnographic method

d. American method

Learning Objective: 3.1: Describe the scientific method.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: The Scientific Method

Difficulty Level: Easy

3. The first step in the scientific method is which of these?

a. review the relevant literature

b. uncover questions in need of answers

c. develop a hypothesis

d. select a research method

Learning Objective: 3.1: Describe the scientific method.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: The Scientific Method

Difficulty Level: Easy

4. Joe reviews the literature and comes to believe that as one's educational level rises, so does one's income. Joe has created which of these?

a. a theory

b. a hypothesis

c. a fact

d. a concept

Learning Objective: 3.1: Describe the scientific method.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: The Scientific Method

Difficulty Level: Medium

5. Surveys are an example of a(n) ______ that sociologists utilize to conduct a research study.

a. explorative tool

b. quantitative tool

c. analytical tool

d. qualitative tool

Learning Objective: 3.1: Describe the scientific method.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: The Scientific Method

Difficulty Level: Easy

6. The last step in the scientific method according to the text is which of these?

a. review the relevant literature

b. uncover questions in need of answers

c. develop a hypothesis

d. analyze the data in relation to the hypothesis

Learning Objective: 3.1: Describe the scientific method.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: The Scientific Method

Difficulty Level: Easy

7. For a long time, scientists claimed that brain size determined intelligence, but this was later debunked. This example illustrates which of these?

a. Science is rarely biased by social norms.

b. Even widely accepted facts can be dismissed if research can show they are false.

c. Science requires a dominant paradigm.

d. Scientific methods were not always based on empirical tests.

Learning Objective: 3.2: Explain how scientific knowledge develops over time.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: The Development of Scientific Knowledge

Difficulty Level: Medium

8. Gravity is a widely accepted explanation of the force that causes two particles to pull toward each other. Thomas Kuhn refers to this widely accepted general model as which of these?

a. a hypothesis

b. a paradigm

c. a natural experiment

d. an ideal type

Learning Objective: 3.2: Explain how scientific knowledge develops over time.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: The Development of Scientific Knowledge

Difficulty Level: Hard

9. Who defined science as the existence of a general model or paradigm, which is accepted by most practitioners in the field?

a. Thomas Kuhn

b. C. Wright Mills

c. Émile Durkheim

d. Karl Marx

Learning Objective: 3.2: Explain how scientific knowledge develops over time.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: The Development of Scientific Knowledge

Difficulty Level: Easy

10. Thomas Kuhn suggests that some disciplines are better described in a single-paradigm approach while others are better seen as multiple-paradigm sciences. In which group does sociology belong?

a. single-paradigm approach

b. multiple-paradigm approach

c. Sociology belongs in between these two approaches.

d. Sociology is not a science with paradigms.

Learning Objective: 3.2: Explain how scientific knowledge develops over time.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: The Development of Scientific Knowledge

Difficulty Level: Medium

11. Mary is conducting open-ended interviews to research the relationship between college grades and the amount of time spent studying. This is an example of a ______ research method.

a. quantitative research

b. qualitative research

c. paradigm research

d. quantifiable research

Learning Objective: 3.3: Identify the various methods of sociological research.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Sociological Research

Difficulty Level: Medium

12. Where is most qualitative research conducted?

a. in a lab

b. in the library

c. in natural settings

d. by mail

Learning Objective: 3.3: Identify the various methods of sociological research.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Sociological Research

Difficulty Level: Easy

13. Joe studies arrest rates in major cities by examining Census Bureau data. Which type of research is Joe enlisting?

a. quantitative

b. ethnomethodological

c. primary

d. qualitative

Learning Objective: 3.3: Identify the various methods of sociological research.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Qualitative and Quantitative Research

Difficulty Level: Medium

14. When a researcher wants to report the average cost of college tuition from the 1950s until present time, he or she enlists ______ statistics.

a. prescriptive

b. descriptive

c. inferential

d. historical

Learning Objective: 3.3: Identify the various methods of sociological research.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Qualitative and Quantitative Research

Difficulty Level: Medium

15. Ray wants to test a hypothesis on the relationship between educational level and income in Chicago. Ray would enlist which of these types of statistics?

a. descriptive

b. prescriptive

c. inferential

d. predictable

Learning Objective: 3.3: Identify the various methods of sociological research.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Qualitative and Quantitative Research

Difficulty Level: Medium

16. Which of these is a qualitative method?

a. historical-comparative method

b. experiments

c. open-ended interviews

d. statistics

Learning Objective: 3.3: Identify the various methods of sociological research.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Qualitative and Quantitative Research

Difficulty Level: Medium

17. Which sociologist studied a Chicago housing project and its gangs in thorough detail?

a. Émile Durkheim

b. Erving Goffman

c. W.E.B. DuBois

d. William F. Whyte

Learning Objective: 3.3: Identify the various methods of sociological research.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: The Interview Process

Difficulty Level: Easy

18. Which of these sociology students is engaging in participant observation?

a. John watches preschool students who are not aware he is there.

b. Mary visits a first-grade classroom to conduct a study on teacher–student interactions and helps out in the classroom as a para-educator.

c. Bill sits on a park bench and observes behavior without people's knowledge.

d. Sue observes medical students working on a patient without his or her knowledge that she is present.

Learning Objective: 3.3: Identify the various methods of sociological research.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Participant and Nonparticipant Observation

Difficulty Level: Hard

19. Joe is studying prisoners behavior in a counseling session, but they can't see him because he is behind a shaded window. Which of these methods of research is he using?

a. participant observation

b. surveys

c. content analysis

d. nonparticipant observation

Learning Objective: 3.3: Identify the various methods of sociological research.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Participant and Nonparticipant Observation

Difficulty Level: Hard

20. Sociologists who gather information from such Internet sites as Facebook and Twitter are utilizing which research method?

a. participant observation

b. nonparticipant observation

c. secondary analysis

d. netnography

Learning Objective: 3.3: Identify the various methods of sociological research.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Netnography

Difficulty Level: Medium

21. A sociologist who spends an intensive amount of time for several years observing an immigrant community to understand their daily activities would be using which research method?

a. netnography

b. interviews

c. ethnography

d. secondary analysis

Learning Objective: 3.3: Identify the various methods of sociological research.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Ethnography

Difficulty Level: Medium

22. Global ethnography is defined by which of these?

a. studying people’s lives locally in depth to understand globalization’s effects

b. studying people in different parts of the world by using surveys more creatively

c. studying entire sections of the globe using ethnographic methods

d. mixing ethnographic methods with global statistics

Learning Objective: 3.3: Identify the various methods of sociological research.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Ethnography

Difficulty Level: Medium

23. Which of the following is a benefit to unstructured interviews?

a. The questions are asked in exactly the same order.

b. The responses can easily be analyzed using quantitative methods.

c. Respondents can cover issues that are meaningful to them.

d. The limits on the researchers’ reactions to answers yield less biased answers.

Learning Objective: 3.3: Identify the various methods of sociological research.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Interviews

Difficulty Level: Medium

24. A(n) ______ is a person sought out by the researcher using interview methods because he or she has intimate knowledge of the group being studied and will talk openly about it to the researcher.

a. key informant

b. alpha interviewee

c. convenience sample

d. primary reference

Learning Objective: 3.3: Identify the various methods of sociological research.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Interviews

Difficulty Level: Medium

25. Which of these interviews asks the same questions worded exactly the same way to numerous subjects in order to avoid any unanticipated reactions or responses?

a. predictive

b. pre-structured

c. unstructured

d. unguided

Learning Objective: 3.3: Identify the various methods of sociological research.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Interviews

Difficulty Level: Medium

26. Which of these is a problem associated with prestructured interviews?

a. Interviewers often get too much diverse information to analyze effectively.

b. Interviewers have to make up new questions for each interview.

c. Closed-end questions are more difficult to answer than open-ended ones.

d. Respondents can lie in their responses.

Learning Objective: 3.3: Identify the various methods of sociological research.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Interviews

Difficulty Level: Medium

27. Which research method involves conducting interviews and administering questionnaires to a representative portion of the population?

a. content analysis

b. secondary analysis

c. observations

d. survey research

Learning Objective: 3.3: Identify the various methods of sociological research.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Survey Research

Difficulty Level: Medium

28. Which of these qualities differentiate interviews from questionnaires?

a. Questionnaires are self-administered; interviews are not.

b. Questionnaires can be completed online; interviews cannot.

c. Questionnaires are presented to randomly sampled respondents; interviews are not.

d. Questionnaires result in data that can be coded numerically; interviews do not.

Learning Objective: 3.3: Identify the various methods of sociological research.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Survey Research

Difficulty Level: Medium

29. Organizations such as Gallup gather ______ surveys in order to gather accurate information about members of a certain group or in a given geographic area.

a. detailed

b. stratified

c. descriptive

d. explanatory

Learning Objective: 3.3: Identify the various methods of sociological research.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Types of Surveys

Difficulty Level: Medium

30. Which of these would a researcher employ to discover the frequency of marijuana use among high school seniors?

a. descriptive survey

b. explanatory survey

c. stratified sampling

d. convenience sampling

Learning Objective: 3.3: Identify the various methods of sociological research.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Types of Surveys

Difficulty Level: Hard

31. Which sample allows everyone in the population an equal chance of being selected?

a. descriptive

b. random

c. stratified

d. convenience

Learning Objective: 3.3: Identify the various methods of sociological research.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Sampling

Difficulty Level: Medium

32. Nonrandom samples used in survey research may result in which of these?

a. highly reliable results

b. significantly biases results

c. reliability issues in future studies

d. low response rates

Learning Objective: 3.3: Identify the various methods of sociological research.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Sampling

Difficulty Level: Hard

33. Research based on convenience samples is usually which of these?

a. flawed

b. random

c. exploratory

d. descriptive

Learning Objective: 3.3: Identify the various methods of sociological research.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Sampling

Difficulty Level: Hard

34. Sociologist Devah Pager randomly assigned fake criminal records to pairs of similar men who were applying for jobs to discover how race and a criminal record can affect the likelihood of being called back for an interview. This is a good example of which research method?

a. observation

b. secondary analysis

c. survey

d. sociological experiment

Learning Objective: 3.3: Identify the various methods of sociological research.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Experiments

Difficulty Level: Medium

35. The two variables in an experiment are the ______, which is manipulated by the researcher, and the ______, which is a characteristic or measurement that resulted from the manipulation.

a. independent variable; dependent variable

b. exponential variable; independent variable

c. dependent variable; independent variable

d. reliant variable; exploratory variable

Learning Objective: 3.3: Identify the various methods of sociological research.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Experiments

Difficulty Level: Medium

36. When a researcher has greater control over the selection of participants and the independent variables, this is referred to as a(n) ______ experiment, and when the researcher has less control over the independent variables, this is referred to as a/an ______ experiment.

a. natural; laboratory

b. field; controlled

c. laboratory; natural

d. independent; dependent

Learning Objective: 3.3: Identify the various methods of sociological research.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Experiments

Difficulty Level: Medium

37. In experiments, there are independent and dependent variables. Which of these is characteristic of the independent variable?

a. It never changes.

b. It is not manipulated in the experiment.

c. It is not used in statistical analyses.

d. It is the characteristic that the individual being studied assigned to themselves.

Learning Objective: 3.3: Identify the various methods of sociological research.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Experiments

Difficulty Level: Medium

38. An experiment to find out what effect gender had on the starting salary a person was offered across different occupations and seniority levels would examine______ as the independent variable and ______ as the dependent variable.

a. gender; starting salary

b. starting salary; gender

c. gender; seniority level

d. starting salary; occupational type

Learning Objective: 3.3: Identify the various methods of sociological research.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Experiments

Difficulty Level: Hard

39. What method of studying divorce is likely being used if a research primarily gathers data from the Census and the General Social Survey?

a. observation

b. experiment

c. survey

d. secondary data analysis

Learning Objective: 3.4: Explain how sociologists engage in secondary data analysis.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Secondary Data Analysis

Difficulty Level: Medium

40. Which of these is a disadvantage of secondary analysis?

a. Secondary data is usually biased.

b. The data may not fit the researcher's needs.

c. The data may be hard to find.

d. The data will be expensive.

Learning Objective: 3.4: Explain how sociologists engage in secondary data analysis.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Secondary Data Analysis

Difficulty Level: Medium

41. Which of these is TRUE of the World Values Survey (WVS)?

a. It is an interview study of people in the globalizing world.

b. It cannot be used for secondary data analysis because it is biased.

c. It collects psychological data on how globalization influences peoples' values.

d. It could be used for research questions that are framed differently than the ones that motivated the original research.

Learning Objective: 3.4: Explain how sociologists engage in secondary data analysis.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: World Values Survey

Difficulty Level: Medium

42. Which statement explains the differences between history and historical-comparative sociology?

a. Historical-comparative sociology involves much more detail than historical research.

b. Historical-comparative sociology draws more distinctions about society than does historical research.

c. Historical data are more accurate than historical comparative sociological data.

d. Historical researchers collect far more original historical data than do historical comparative sociologists.

Learning Objective: 3.4: Explain how sociologists engage in secondary data analysis.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Historical-Comparative Method

Difficulty Level: Medium

43. What is an ideal type?

a. a measuring rod to help us understand social reality

b. a careful representation of reality

c. a measure used by historians, but dismissed by sociologists

d. a description of the best possible data collection outcome using any research method

Learning Objective: 3.4: Explain how sociologists engage in secondary data analysis.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Historical-Comparative Method

Difficulty Level: Medium

44. Casey conducts a research study examining the violence contained within television shows in the past five years. Which method will Casey likely use?

a. participant observation

b. experiment

c. content analysis

d. survey

Learning Objective: 3.4: Explain how sociologists engage in secondary data analysis.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Content Analysis

Difficulty Level: Medium

45. Which of these refers to the degree to which a given question produces the same results time after time?

a. reliability

b. validity

c. authenticity

d. reality

Learning Objective: 3.5: Discuss five key issues in social research.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Reliability and Validity

Difficulty Level: Medium

46. Which of these is important when conducting a study because it ensures that the question being asked is measuring what it is intended to measure?

a. validity

b. reliability

c. reality

d. authenticity

Learning Objective: 3.5: Discuss five key issues in social research.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Reliability and Validity

Difficulty Level: Medium

47. Ethics in research became a central concern at what point in history?

a. since the French Revolution in 1789

b. in 1848, after Marx released The Communist Manifesto

c. following World War II, in response to atrocities committed by the Nazis

d. in the late 1960s, when civil rights movements raised awareness on all rights issues

Learning Objective: 3.5: Discuss five key issues in social research.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Research Ethics

Difficulty Level: Medium

48. Which of these is concerned with issues of right and wrong, the choices that people make, and how they justify them?

a. value-free sociology

b. ethics

c. institutional review boards

d. scientific method

Learning Objective: 3.5: Discuss five key issues in social research.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Research Ethics

Difficulty Level: Hard

49. Which of the following was ethically controversial in the case of the Henrietta Lacks?

a. She was not told she had cervical cancer.

b. She was not treated for her cervical cancer.

c. She did not know of or consent to being a participant in a research study.

d. She was not allowed to withdraw from the study after she became concerned about it.

Learning Objective: 3.5: Discuss five key issues in social research.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Research Ethics

Difficulty Level: Medium

50. The Milgram experiment and the Zimbardo experiment both raised severe ethical issues but also provided scientific evidence of which of these?

a. the power of authority

b. the importance of social networks

c. the differences between good-natured and ill-natured people

d. the difficulty of controlling a mob once it forms

Learning Objective: 3.5: Discuss five key issues in social research.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Physical and Psychological Harm

Difficulty Level: Medium

51. It is very important that institutional review boards require evidence of the ______ of those being studied.

a. informed consent

b. uniform consent

c. ethical codes

d. review rights

Learning Objective: 3.5: Discuss five key issues in social research.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Informed Consent and Institutional Review Boards

Difficulty Level: Medium

52. What is meant by beneficence as it is associated with institutional review boards?

a. Reimburse people for participating in your study.

b. Do as little harm to participants and as much as you can do to assist them with your research.

c. Do not cause the participant to engage in deceptive research.

d. Share your results with the participant.

Learning Objective: 3.5: Discuss five key issues in social research.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Informed Consent and Institutional Review Boards

Difficulty Level: Medium

53. When a researcher reports research findings in such a way that any reader can understand how the research was conducted, the researcher is utilizing which of these?

a. value-free objectivity

b. reliability

c. procedural objectivity

d. validity

Learning Objective: 3.5: Discuss five key issues in social research.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Objectivity, or “Value-Free” Sociology

Difficulty Level: Medium

54. Who strongly believed that values might guide the choice of research topics but it was imperative to be value-free when conducting and analyzing research and when teaching?

a. Herbert Gans

b. Émile Durkheim

c. Auguste Comte

d. Max Weber

Learning Objective: 3.5: Discuss five key issues in social research.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Objectivity, or “Value-Free” Sociology

Difficulty Level: Easy

True/False

1. Sociologists practice empiricism.

Learning Objective: 3.1: Describe the scientific method.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Sociology as a Science

Difficulty Level: Easy

2. The scientific method is rarely used in sociological research because it has been shown to be biased when used with humans.

Learning Objective: 3.1: Describe the scientific method.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: The Scientific Method

Difficulty Level: Medium

3. The research process may begin again if a researcher discovers additional questions when analyzing the existing data.

Learning Objective: 3.2: Explain how scientific knowledge develops over time.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: The Development of Scientific Knowledge

Difficulty Level: Medium

4. The scientific method is not suitable for studying human beings as individuals.

Learning Objective: 3.1: Describe the scientific method.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: The Scientific Method

Difficulty Level: Medium

5. Scientific knowledge accumulates gradually and requires many studies.

Learning Objective: 3.2: Explain how scientific knowledge develops over time.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: The Development of Scientific Knowledge

Difficulty Level: Medium

6. A scientific paradigm is usually only accepted by a very small number of practitioners in the field.

Learning Objective: 3.2: Explain how scientific knowledge develops over time.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: The Development of Scientific Knowledge

Difficulty Level: Medium

7. Research questions in sociology generally determine the method of data collection.

Learning Objective: 3.3: Identify the various methods of sociological research.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Sociological Research

Difficulty Level: Medium

8. Surveys are a type of qualitative research.

Learning Objective: 3.3: Identify the various methods of sociological research.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Qualitative and Quantitative Research

Difficulty Level: Medium

9. Quantitative research requires statistical methods for collecting and reporting data.

Learning Objective: 3.3: Identify the various methods of sociological research.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Qualitative and Quantitative Research

Difficulty Level: Easy

10. Researchers test hypotheses with inferential statistics.

Learning Objective: 3.3: Identify the various methods of sociological research.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Qualitative and Quantitative Research

Difficulty Level: Medium

11. Sociologists rarely conduct observational research.

Learning Objective: 3.3: Identify the various methods of sociological research.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Observational Research

Difficulty Level: Medium

12. A researcher who lives with a religious community for five years and establishes a detailed account of their daily activities is utilizing the ethnographic research method.

Learning Objective: 3.3: Identify the various methods of sociological research.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Ethnography

Difficulty Level: Medium

13. Netnography is an account of what happens online.

Learning Objective: 3.3: Identify the various methods of sociological research.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Netnography

Difficulty Level: Medium

14. Choosing who will be a part of the control and experimental group is a step in the interview process.

Learning Objective: 3.3: Identify the various methods of sociological research.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Interviews

Difficulty Level: Medium

15. Pre-structured interviews often yield data that can be coded numerically.

Learning Objective: 3.3: Identify the various methods of sociological research.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Interviews

Difficulty Level: Medium

16. Most sociologists conduct their own surveys because of reliability issues.

Learning Objective: 3.3: Identify the various methods of sociological research.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Survey Research

Difficulty Level: Medium

17. Random samples are the most common type of sampling method to avoid survey bias.

Learning Objective: 3.3: Identify the various methods of sociological research.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Sampling

Difficulty Level: Hard

18. Most sociological experiments take place within a laboratory setting with a controlled environment.

Learning Objective: 3.3: Identify the various methods of sociological research.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Experiments

Difficulty Level: Medium

19. Wendy, a sociologist, studies the use of sexuality in television shows in order to understand changing gender norms. Her research method is known as content analysis.

Learning Objective: 3.4: Explain how sociologists engage in secondary data analysis.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Content Analysis

Difficulty Level: Medium

20. When a researcher gathers information from the census, police reports, or library documents, they are engaging in ethnographic data analysis.

Learning Objective: 3.4: Explain how sociologists engage in secondary data analysis.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Secondary Data Analysis

Difficulty Level: Medium

21. Reliability is the degree to which the measurement tool measures what it is supposed to measure.

Learning Objective: 3.5: Discuss five key issues in social research.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Reliability and Validity

Difficulty Level: Easy

22. Stanley Milgram’s obedience research is a good example of research designed to reduce the risks of psychological harm to the subjects.

Learning Objective: 3.5: Discuss five key issues in social research.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Research Ethics

Difficulty Level: Medium

23. The Nuremberg Code was developed to protect biomedical research subjects after the Nazi experiments on concentration camp inmates were revealed.

Learning Objective: 3.5: Discuss five key issues in social research.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Research Ethics

Difficulty Level: Medium

24. Researchers have a concrete rule that if they observe an illegal act while conducting ethnographic field research, they always report it to the police.

Learning Objective: 3.5: Discuss five key issues in social research.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Research Ethics

Difficulty Level: Medium

25. Informed consent is important because participants have the right to be aware they are being studied and therefore know the risks they may face.

Learning Objective: 3.5: Discuss five key issues in social research.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Informed Consent and Institutional Review Boards

Difficulty Level: Medium

26. Max Weber claimed that all sociological research should be value.free but teaching sociology should include one’s values and positions on issues.

Learning Objective: 3.5: Discuss five key issues in social research.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Objectivity or “Value-Free” Sociology

Difficulty Level: Medium

Essay

1. The first step in the scientific method is to uncover questions in need of answers. One question could address how recent mass shootings have affected opinions on gun laws in the U.S. List and describe the next five steps (steps 2 through 6) in the scientific research process, giving examples of how you might complete the steps in researching opinions about gun laws.

Learning Objective: 3.1: Describe the scientific method.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: The Scientific Method

Difficulty Level: Hard

2. In his discussion of Thomas Kuhn and paradigms in science, George Ritzer contends that sociology is a “multiparadigm” science. What is a paradigm? Why is sociology a multiparadigm science? What are the consequences for consensus within the discipline?

Learning Objective: 3.2: Explain how scientific knowledge develops over time.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: The Development of Scientific Knowledge

Difficulty Level: Medium

3. Identify the primary difference between qualitative and quantitative research. List one type of each research method and explain how it is collected.

Learning Objective: 3.3: Identify the various methods of sociological research.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Qualitative and Quantitative Research

Difficulty Level: Medium

4. Elaborate on the ethics that guide research in sociology by providing three main ethical guidelines that researchers must follow. For one of these guidelines, provide an example of a study that violated this rule, and explain the concrete details of the study and how it violated ethics.

Learning Objective: 3.5: Discuss five key issues in social research.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Research Ethics

Difficulty Level: Hard

5. What is the concept of value-free sociology? Which sociologist discussed the concept? In what parts of teaching and research is a value-free stance important? In your opinion, can sociology be truly “value-free”?

Learning Objective: 3.5: Discuss five key issues in social research.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Objectivity, or “Value-Free” Sociology

Difficulty Level: Medium