Sociology Chapter 2

4 types of truth in science

Belief or faith, truth from recognized experts, agreement among people, science

Scientific sociology

The study of society based on systematic observation of social behavior

Concept

A mental construct that represents some part of the world in a simplified form- society, family, economy

Measurements

A procedure for determining the value of a variable in a specific case

Variable

A factor that can change in an experiment- price, social class

Operationalized variables

Specifying exactly what is to be measured before assigning a value to a variable

Reliability

Consistency in measurement

Validity

Measuring exactly what you intend to measure

Androcentricity

Refers to approaching an issue from a male perspective

overgeneralizing

Researchers use data drawn from people of only one sex to support conclusions about humanity or society

Gender Blindness

Falling to consider the variable of gender at all

Double standards

Not to distort what they study by judging men and women differently

Interference

A subject reacts to the sex of the researcher, interfering with the research

Research method

A systematic plan for doing research

The Hawthorne Effect

Change in a subjects behavior caused by the awareness being studied

Asking questions: survey research

Population, sample, questionnaire, interview

Inductive logical thought

Reasoning that transforms specific observations into general theory

deductive reasoning

reasoning from the general to the specific