2.11 Review

Multiple Choice Questions

Critical Thinking Questions

1. How do sociological explanations of social phenomena differ from common sense and journalistic explanations, and why is it important to follow scientific principles in sociological research?
2. What role does peer-reviewed research play in ensuring the quality of sociological studies?
3. How do primary and secondary data sources complement each other in sociological research, and what are the advantages and disadvantages of using each type of data4?
4. How has the practice of cohabitation and attitudes toward it changed in the United States over time, and what factors might contribute to these changes?
5. How have macroeconomic factors such as wage decline and stagnation influenced marriage rates among young people in the U.S. over time?
6. How do social class, gender, and education mediate the effects of macroeconomic factors on marriage and parenthood decisions3?
7. How do sociological research methods, such as surveys, interviews, and observations, help in understanding social phenomena, and what are the key differences between qualitative and quantitative approaches?
8. In what ways did the COVID-19 pandemic impact employed parents, and how did sociologists use qualitative and quantitative methods to study these effects?
9. How can combining qualitative and quantitative research methods offer a fuller picture of social phenomena, as demonstrated by studies on pandemic parenting?
10. How do different sampling strategies, such as probability and nonprobability sampling, impact the generalizability of sociological research findings?
11. What are the key differences between reliability and validity in sociological research?
12. How do descriptive statistics, such as frequencies and percentages, help sociologists summarize patterns in datasets?
13. What are the key differences between the mean, median, and mode as measures of central tendency, and how do they help sociologists describe the average or typical in a dataset?
14. How does the concept of correlation differ from causation in sociological research, and what criteria must be met to confirm a causal relationship between variables?
15. Why is it challenging to prove causation in sociological research, and how can correlational research still guide policy and decision-making?
16. What are the ethical considerations involved in doing sociological research?
17. In what ways can bias be introduced into sociological research, and how can researchers work to minimize these biases?
18. How might the exclusion of certain populations, such as Indigenous and Asian Americans, affect the outcomes and applicability of sociological research?
19. What are the potential consequences of government interference in sociological research, and how can this impact the credibility and objectivity of the findings?
20. How do sociologists balance the need for value-free research with the pursuit of social justice and addressing urgent social problems?

Data Analysis Questions

Answer each question for each figure in this chapter.

1. What is this figure trying to tell me?
2. What is the pattern in this data?
3. Where do the data come from?
4. Why does this data matter?