Fall, 2006 (Roos, Soc. 501)
Study Guide: Exam (November 8th) [Note: I will make the
long essay part of the exam available the day before, for completion at home.]
NOTE: Please bring a calculator.
The exam will be open book and open notes. This necessarily implies that I will not ask you to just repeat back to me what's in the books or notes. Rather, I will focus on the application of concepts. For example, I will provide you with some raw data and ask you to use the elaboration paradigm to percentage and interpret bivariate and trivariate tables.
I will assume you understand ALL the lecture material, and the Babbie chapter on the elaboration paradigm. In addition, the test may include concepts from Schutt we have not talked about in class. You do NOT need to know the GSS, nor any other required or recommended readings, although you may of course use those readings in answers to questions (e.g., although I won't ask you specifics about the history of human subjects research, you should understand what IRBs do and how they protect human subjects). To help focus your Schutt readings, I attach a list of relevant concepts, by chapter.
Schutt, Investigating the Social World:
Chapter 1: selective observation; descriptive vs. exploratory vs. explanatory vs. evaluation research; quantitative vs. qualitative methods; triangulation; generalizability
Chapter 3: social research question; theory vs. method; deductive vs. inductive; theory vs. hypothesis; variables; independent vs. dependent variables; direction of association; replication; empirical generalization; IRBs
Chapter 4: concept; conceptualization; operationalization; measurement; close-ended vs. open-ended questions; unobtrusive measures; triangulation; all levels of measurement; mutually exclusive; exhaustive; dichotomies; validity (measurement validity); reliability
Chapter 5: population; sample; elements; sampling frame; enumeration units; sampling units; sampling error (standard error); target population; representative sample; census; probability vs. nonprobability sampling; random sampling; systematic bias; simple random sampling; random number table; systematic random sampling; sampling interval; periodicity; stratified random sampling; inferential statistics; sample statistic vs. population parameter; quota sampling; purposive sampling; snowball sampling
Chapter 6: cross-sectional vs. longitudinal research designs; spuriousness; ecological fallacy vs. reductionism; nomothetic vs. idiographic; association vs. causation; intervening variables; nonspuriousness; randomization
Chapters 7: experimental vs. control group; pretest vs. posttest; randomization; quasi-experimental designs; nonequivalent control group design; before and after design; ; ex post facto control group design; internal validity; validity in experiments (selection bias, etc.); generalizability; external validity; Solomon Four-Group Design
Chapter 8: survey research; generalizability; omnibus survey; how to write survey questions (e.g., no confused phrasing, no double-barreled questions); filter questions; skip patterns; contingent questions; questionnaire; interview schedule; survey pretest
Chapter 9: qualitative methods; participant observation; intensive interviewing; focus groups; field research; types of participation (e.g., covert vs. overt); key informant; gatekeeper; field notes; saturation point
Chapter 10: tacit knowledge; reflexivity; ethnography; qualitative comparative anaalysis (QCA); narrative analysis; grounded theory
Chapter 11: evaluation research; needs assessment; impact analysis; efficiency analysis; cost-benefit analysis
Chapter 12: unobtrusive methods; historical events vs. historical process research; cross-sectional comparative research; comparative historical research; case vs. variables-oriented research; demography
Chapter 14: crosstabulation; marginal distributions; association; monotonic; curvilinear; elaboration; intervening variables; extraneous variables; specification