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Foundations of
Social Science Dr. Andrew
Austin Tentative Study
Guide for Exam One Version 1.2 What are types
of native human inquiry, for example tradition and authority? What are
problems with these types of ways of knowing the world? What are sources of
human error, for example overgeneralization and reification? For example,
drawing conclusions from limited observations is the error of
overgeneralization, while ignoring those cases that do not fit our
predetermined pattern of thinking/opinion is the error of selective
observation. What other errors are human beings apt to make? What did
Orwell mean by doublethink? What are the
foundations of social science? What is logic and rationalism? What is
observation and empiricism? What is theory? A hypothesis is a specified
testable expectation about empirical reality that follows from a more general
proposition. How is this different from an axiom or postulate? What is a
concept? Scientists study patterns of things and events. What do scientists
call these patterns? Scientists study collections of things. What
do scientists call these collections? What do we mean when we say science is
a variable language? A variable is a special kind of concept comprised of a
set of attributes. What are the different types of variables? What
is the difference between a variable and a constant? An exhaustive
study of the inner workings of a particular L.A. street gang is an example of
the idiographic method. What are other examples? What is the difference
between the idiographic and nomothetic method? What are examples of the
nomothetic method? When the logic of data analysis moves from the
particular/concrete to the general/abstract, where a researcher constructs a
theory by observing aspects of social life and searching for patterns that
may point to universal principles, we call this the inductive method.
What are examples of the inductive method? What is the procedure of the
deductive method? What is the wheel of science? What is Plato's
cave? Why is this significant? What is ontology? What is
epistemology? Why is the difference between these two philosophical concepts
important for understanding science, theory construction, and methodology?
What are the different ways of organizing social scientific knowledge? I
am here asking you about the various divisions of knowledge I identified in
class, for example the division by emphasis or division by scope. Who is Thomas
Kuhn and what is a paradigm? What is the difference between a paradigm (or a
school of thought) and a theory? What do we mean when we say paradigms
shift and why does this happen? What do we mean when we say that social
sciences have competing paradigms? What are the three schools of social
science thought covered in class and what are their main features? Who was
Emile Durkheim and what did he do for social science? Who is Jonathan
Turner and how does he differentiate between science, ideology, and other
forms of knowledge? Who is Sandra Harding and what is “strong objectivity”?
What is her argument concerning the neutrality and the depoliticization of
science? What is epistemological relativism versus sociological
relativism? According to Diesing, the internalist view of social science
argues that social science is an autonomous institution with its own values
of objectivity and neutrality. From this point of view, political
influences come from outside the institution. How is this different
from the externalist view? What is the institutional power and position
view? Technocratic science is that type of science that Diesing claims
benefits corporations, the state, and the military. What is the other
type of science Diesing identifies? What would it take to make this
possible? Consider the problem of the politics of torture in the field of
psychology. According to
Babbie, the use of deception in social science research, although not
automatically ruled out, is always to be carefully considered. If deception
is used, what must follow? What are other ethical concerns? What
is the Institutional Review Board? Know about the process generally. What
happened at Nuremberg? What are examples of abuses of science discussed
in class? What were the Milgram authority studies and what were some
problems? What about Zimbardo’s study? Humphries? Babbie says that a
researcher observes confidentiality when the identity of the participant is
known to her/him but kept secret from the public. How is this different
from anonymity? Do ethical standards refer only to physical harm or to both
physical and mental (and emotional) harm? Consider the politics of torture
and ethics in the field of psychology. What is the
general flow in research design covered in class (see the chart in the
textbook)? Note the importance of theory. How does theory determined
conceptualization and operationalization? How do theory, conceptualization,
and operationalization shape the choice of method? How do these in turn shape
the population and sampling strategy? What are the different purposes of
research design? The empirical case/unit a researcher observes and measures
is the unit of analysis. What is the unit of observation? It is
always the same as the unit of analysis? If not, what would an
exception look like? What are some of the problems of reasoning associated
with confusing units of analysis? Consider the Chicago project discussed in
the class. What is the different
between cross-sectional and longitudinal research? What are the different
types of longitudinal research? What is the
term that specifies a concept in a manner that renders it measurable? What is
the term that specifies what we mean when we use a particular term?
What is the difference between conceptualization and operationalization? What
are the different levels of measurement? What are the differences between
them? What have we achieved when our measure measures what it is designed to
measure? What is the difference between reliability and validity? What
is the type of validity based on the ability of a researcher to predict the
behavior of the dependent variable? What are other types of validity? |