A research method that is used for the systematic analysis of media texts and communication. Strengths include the ability to use qualitative as well as quantitative data. Weaknesses include consumption of time as well as increased chance of error.

This group is composed of participants who do not receive the experimental treatment. When conducting an experiment, these people are randomly selected to be in this group. They also closely resemble the participants who are in the experimental group or the individuals who receive the treatment

This refers to a relationship between two (or more) variables in which they change together. It can be positive/direct or negative/inverse. A positive one, means that as one variable increases (e.g., ice cream consumption) the other variable also increases (e.g., crime).

A particular type of participant observation in which the identity of the researcher, the nature of the research project, and the fact that participants are being observed are concealed from those who are being studied

A sample (or samples) drawn from the relevant population and studied once. that describe characteristics of that population at one time, but cannot give any insight as to causes of population characteristics.

a statement or proposition that is regarded as being established, accepted, or self-evidently true: that which ideologies are based on.

A socioeconomic concept that market forces determine all political and social change. It is a concept that economic relationships are the foundation upon which every arrangement in our society is based. The term ‘economic relationships’ refers to, for example, whether you are a capitalist or worker.

When sociologists carry out research they must take into account ___________: problems that relate to the morality of your research or research method. ... It includes the issue of whether the research could cause any discomfort or harm, or indeed whether it includes any illegal activity.

_________________ is the study of how social order is produced in and through processes of social interaction. It generally seeks to provide an alternative to mainstream sociological approaches. In its most radical form, it poses a challenge to the social sciences as a whole.

A(n) __________ group (sometimes called a treatment group) is a group that receives a treatment in an experiment. The “group” is made up of test subjects (people, animals, plants, cells etc.) and the “treatment” is the variable you are studying.

One cannot prove whether a theory or hypothesis is true. One can only prove that it is false, a process called __________. It is a tool that distinguishes scientific social psychology from folk social psychology, which does not use that process.

_________ take(s) place in real-life settings such as a classroom, the work place or even in the street. Much more common in sociology than laboratory experiments.

According to sociologists, this is an ongoing process that involves interconnected changes in the economic, cultural, social, and political spheres of society. As a process, it involves the ever-increasing integration of these aspects between nations, regions, communities, and even seemingly isolated places

The _____________(also referred to as the observer effect or viewing effect) is where individuals modify or improve an aspect of their behaviour in response to their awareness of being observed.

A __________ is an assumption about how two or more variables are related; it makes a conjectural statement about the relationship between those variables. In sociology, it will often predict how one form of human behavior influences another. In research, independent variables are the cause of the change.

The ______________ method is an approach to research that begins with a theory about how things work and derives testable hypotheses from it. ... The hypotheses are then tested by gathering and analyzing data and the theory is then either supported or refuted by the results

Research Philosophy involving researchers to interpreting elements of the study, thus _____________ integrates human interest into a study. ... Accordingly, this philosophy emphasizes qualitative analysis over quantitative analysis.

A ____________ is one where the interviewer sticks rigidly to a pre-written set of questions. It is effectively an individually-administered questionnaire and could have open or closed questions or a mixture of both.

A ___________ is one where the interviewer does have a list of questions they intend to ask, but they are happy to ask supplementary questions if required or to leave out questions if deemed necessary.

A(n) __________ is an interview in which there is no specific set of predetermined questions, although the interviewers usually have certain topics in mind that they wish to cover during the interview. These flow like an everyday conversations and tend to be more informal and open-ended.

There are a number of different types of interviews in sociology, and one is a ____________ , where the researcher talks to many people at the same time, rather than discussing with individuals. ... The researcher can then facilitate them to focus on a particular issue or subject.

Experiments aim to measure the effect which one or more independent variables have on a dependent variable. ___________ take place in an artificial, controlled environments; not in a real world contexts such as a schools or a hospitals.

A ____________ is an observational research method in which data is gathered for the same subjects repeatedly over a period of time. These research projects can extend over years or even decades.

____________ refers to researchers using a range of methods in the same piece of research. This allows for triangulation where qualitative and quantitative data can be produced in order to maximise validity and reliability.

It was a series of notable social psychology experiments conducted by Yale University psychologist Stanley _________ in the 1960s. It measured the willingness of study participants to obey an authority figure who instructed them to perform acts that conflicted with their personal conscience.

A research technique whereby the researcher watches the subjects of his or her study, with their knowledge, but without taking an active part in the situation under scrutiny. ... To overcome this, researchers normally observe a number of similar situations, over a period of time.

_____________ is a frame of mind so that personal prejudices, preferences or predilections of the social scientists do not contaminate the collection of analysis of data. Thus scientific investigations should be free from prejudices of race, color, religion, sex or ideological biases.

___________ are numerical information collected and used by the government and its agencies to make decisions about society and the economy.

_______________ is where those being observed are aware of the fact. ... However, this form of observation is the method most at risk of the Hawthorne Effect.

__________ are broad viewpoints or perspectives that permit social scientists to have a wide range of tools to describe society, and then to build hypotheses and theories. The three major groups of these in sociology are conflict, functionalist, and symbolic-interactionist.

A research technique in anthropology and sociology characterized by the effort of an investigator to gain entrance into and social acceptance by a foreign culture or alien group so as better to attain a comprehensive understanding of the internal structure of the society.

_______________ are first-person accounts of social events or experiences, they generally include the writers feelings and attitudes.

An approach within the field of sociology that aims to reveal what role human awareness plays in the production of social action, social situations and social worlds. In essence, _______________ is the belief that society is a human construction

A(n)_____________ is a preliminary small-scale study that researchers conduct in order to help them decide how best to conduct a large-scale research project

_______________ describes an approach to the study of society that specifically utilizes scientific evidence such as experiments, statistics, and qualitative results to reveal a truth about the way society functions.

____________ data is that which is collected by sociologists themselves during their own research using research tools such as experiments, survey questionnaires, interviews and observation. ___________ data can take a quantitative or statistical form, e.g. charts, graphs, diagrams and tables.

___________ data is defined as the data that approximates and characterizes. _____________ data can be observed and recorded. ... This type of data is collected through methods of observations, one-to-one interview, conducting focus groups and similar methods.

_____________ methods emphasize objective measurements and the statistical, mathematical, or numerical analysis of data collected through polls, questionnaires, and surveys, or by manipulating pre-existing statistical data using computational techniques

A ____________ is a list of pre-set questions to which the participants are asked to answer. ... A spoken _____________ is an interview

In the context of research, the ____________ of a method refers to the extent to which, were the same study to be repeated, it would produce the same results

__________________ is defined as the level of how well or how accurately something reflects upon a sample. When a study gives a good indication of what the whole population believes, this is an example of a study with good ______________.

Most ________ comes from two major sources: corporations (through research and development departments) and government. This is primarily carried out through universities and specialized government agencies.

A process where the scientists performing the research influence the results, in order to portray a certain outcome.

The ______________ effect (also called the experimenter-expectancy effect, expectancy bias, observer effect, or experimenter effect) is a form of reactivity in which a researcher's cognitive bias causes them to subconsciously influence the participants of an experiment.

Any individual that answers questions during an interview or replies to a survey. For example, citizens responding to an annual census or students filling out course evaluations at the end of a semester.

A _______ is simply a subset of the population being studied; it represents the larger population and is used to draw inferences about that population. Sociologists typically use two _________________: those based on probability and those that are not.

A _____________ is a statistical error that occurs when an analyst does not select a group that represents the entire population of data and the results found do not represent the results that would be obtained from the entire population.

A systematic approach to researching questions and problems through objective and accurate observation, collection and analysis of data, direct experimentation, and replication (repeating) of these procedures.

_______________ data is data collected by other sociologists; Government departments or official bodies; or individuals.

___________ is an approach that is rooted in linguistics but that has been appropriated by sociology, particularly in the analysis of the communications media, cultural studies, and film studies.

______________ is a view that is based on emotive, anecdotal, and/or personal experience. It is the opposite of "objectivity", which purports to be bias- or -judgement-free and data-driven. First person narratives, ethnography, and a great deal of historical writings are generally this.

_____________________ is a micro-level theory that focuses on the relationships among individuals within a society. Communication—the exchange of meaning through language and symbols—is believed to be the way in which people make sense of their social worlds.

__________________ is a powerful technique that facilitates validation of data through cross verification from two or more sources. In particular, it refers to the application and combination of several research methods in the study of the same phenomenon.

In sociology and research terms, internal _______ is the degree to which an instrument, such as a survey question, measures what it is intended to measure while external _______ refers to the ability of results of an experiment to be generalized beyond the immediate study.

______________ is a fundamental functionalist concept. For sociologists like Durkheim, a society functions well when there is broad agreement about values and this is achieved through socialisation (including education). The absence of _____________ is anomie: a state of normlessness.

A ___________ is a judgment of the rightness or wrongness of something or someone, or of the usefulness of something or someone, based on a comparison or other relativity.

__________ in Social Research refers to the ability of the researcher to keep his or her own values (personal, political and religious) from interfering with the research process.May 29, 2016

______________ are standards of social behaviour derived from social interaction and accepted as constituent facts of social structure. They are objects that social conditions desire. These are culturally defined goals and involve “sentiments and significance.” These consist of “aspirational reference.”

____________ are properties or characteristics of some event, object, person, place or thing that are measurable and can take on more than one value, or vary