Sociological terms lolz:
- Quantitative research uses numerical data, they generally use either surveys or precollected
data.
- Qualitative research uses descriptive rather than numerical data.
- Surveys are when people are asked to answer a series of questions.
- Researchers describe the people surveyed in terms of populations and samples.
A population is all those people with the characteristics a researcher wants to study.
Sociologists would like to collect information on all members of a population, but most
populations are too large. Such a survey would cost too much and take too long for most
research projects. Instead, a sample is drawn. A sample is a limited number of cases drawn from
the larger population.
- representative sample: a sample that accurately reflects the characteristics of the population
as a whole
- A questionnaire is a written set of questions that survey participants answer by themselves.
- In an interview, a trained interviewer asks questions and records the answers. Questionnaires
and interviews may contain closed-ended or open-ended questions.
- Closed-ended questions are those questions that a person answers by choosing from a
limited, predetermined set of responses. (Because participants are limited in their responses,
however, closed-ended questions sometimes fail to uncover underlying attitudes and opinions.
On the positive side, closed-ended questions make answers easier to tabulate and compare.)
- Open-ended questions require the person to answer in his or her own words. Answers to
open-ended questions can reveal many attitudes. These answers are not easy to quantify or
compare, however.
- Field research looks closely at aspects of social life that cannot be measured quantitatively
and that are best understood within a natural setting; research that takes place in a natural
(non-laboratory) setting.
- case study: thorough study of a single group, incident, or community. This method assumes
that the findings in one case can be generalized to similar situations, so the researcher should
be conscious about which cases can be considered unique and unapplicable to other similar
cases, or not.
- The term culture refers to the knowledge, language, values, customs, and physical objects that
are passed from generation to generation among members of a group
- Quantitative research uses numerical data, they generally use either surveys or precollected
data.
- Qualitative research uses descriptive rather than numerical data.
- Surveys are when people are asked to answer a series of questions.
- Researchers describe the people surveyed in terms of populations and samples.
A population is all those people with the characteristics a researcher wants to study.
Sociologists would like to collect information on all members of a population, but most
populations are too large. Such a survey would cost too much and take too long for most
research projects. Instead, a sample is drawn. A sample is a limited number of cases drawn from
the larger population.
- representative sample: a sample that accurately reflects the characteristics of the population
as a whole
- A questionnaire is a written set of questions that survey participants answer by themselves.
- In an interview, a trained interviewer asks questions and records the answers. Questionnaires
and interviews may contain closed-ended or open-ended questions.
- Closed-ended questions are those questions that a person answers by choosing from a
limited, predetermined set of responses. (Because participants are limited in their responses,
however, closed-ended questions sometimes fail to uncover underlying attitudes and opinions.
On the positive side, closed-ended questions make answers easier to tabulate and compare.)
- Open-ended questions require the person to answer in his or her own words. Answers to
open-ended questions can reveal many attitudes. These answers are not easy to quantify or
compare, however.
- Field research looks closely at aspects of social life that cannot be measured quantitatively
and that are best understood within a natural setting; research that takes place in a natural
(non-laboratory) setting.
- case study: thorough study of a single group, incident, or community. This method assumes
that the findings in one case can be generalized to similar situations, so the researcher should
be conscious about which cases can be considered unique and unapplicable to other similar
cases, or not.
- The term culture refers to the knowledge, language, values, customs, and physical objects that
are passed from generation to generation among members of a group
