Sociological Research Vocab

in-depth analysis of a single event, situation, or individual

• content analysis

• case study

• empirical evidence

• field research

a variable changed by other variables

• dependent variables

• independent variables

• experiment

evidence that comes from direct experience, scientifically gathered data, or experimentation

• ethnography

• field research

• empirical evidence

a scholarly research step that entails identifying and studying all existing studies on a topic to

create a basis for new research

• field research

• literature review

• meta-analysis

a defined group serving as the subject of a study

• sample

• population

• random sample

the degree to which a sociological measure accurately reflects the topic of study

• reliability

• value neutral

• validity

small, manageable number of subjects that represent the population

• participants

• random sample

• sample

the testing of a hypothesis under controlled conditions

• experiment

• field research

• Hawthorne effect

represent research collected in numerical form that can be counted

• primary data

• quantitative data

• qualitative data

a practice of remaining impartial, without bias or judgment during the course of a study and in

publishing results

• value neutrality

• code of ethics

• field research