CMNS 260 Study Guide - Spring 2018, Comprehensive Midterm Notes - Logic, Dependent And Independent Variables, Statistical Inference
12 Oct 2018
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Department
Course
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CMNS 260
MIDTERM EXAM
STUDY GUIDE
Fall 2018
1
Chapter 1 – An Introduction to Inquiry
• Science: A body of knowledge about reality as well as a set of systematic methods for generating
this knowledge.
• Ageeet eality: What e ko as part and parcel of the culture we share with those
around us.
• Expeietial eality: What e ko fo personal experience and discovery.
• Concrete experience: The empirical experience of sensation including touch, taste, sight, smell,
and hearing.
• Percepts: Components of concrete experience.
• Abstract experience: Imaginary experience occurring in the mind.
• Concepts: Abstract terms for organizing sensory experience.
Social theories and concepts are used in developing research designs
• Social theory can be defined as a system of interconnected abstractions or ideas that condenses
and organizes knowledge about the social world.
• A concept is an idea expressed as a symbol or in words.
• Nealy all soial eseah ioles soe theoy. The uestio is ot if you use theoy, ut ho.
• Theory: A set of interrelated propositions providing a logical explanation of empirical regularities.
• Propositions: Statements (ideas) expressing the relationship between concepts.
• Values: Statements of what is ultimately preferable or desirable.
Logic & relations between theory and empirical research
• Testing theories through empirical observation (deductive)
• Using empirical observation to develop theories (inductive)
• Induction: A form of reasoning that moves from specific cases to the general case.
• Deduction: A form of reasoning that moves from the general principles to a specific case.
Social research and empirical observations
• Social research involves thinking scientifically about questions about the social world and
following scientific processes.
• Empirical research involves a process that includes topic selection, formulating a research
question, designing a way to interpreting data, communicating the results of the research
process in the form of arguments.
• Data is defined here as the empirical evidence of information that a person gathers carefully
according to established rules or procedures; it can be qualitative or quantitative.
• Empirical: the criterion requiring sensory experience as evidence.
• Methodology: A set of practices and techniques used to collect, process, and interpret
information aimed at enhancing our understanding of reality.
• Causal reasoning: The recognition that future circumstances are rooted in or conditioned by
present ones.
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2
Intended Use of Research
• Basic or Fundamental
o Concerns of scholarly community
o Inner logic and relation to theoretical issues in field
• Applied
o Commissioned/judged/used by people outside the field of communication
o Goal of practical applications
o Usefulness of results
• Types of Applied Research
o Action Research
o Social Impact Assessment
o Needs Assessment
o Evaluation Research
▪ Formative (built in methods for measuring success or failure)
▪ Summative (final outcomes used to measure success or failure)
o Cost-benefit analysis
• Pure research: Investigations driven by curiosity and satisfied by understanding something
previously unknown.
• Applied research: Investigations directed toward insights that allow us to live more efficiently or
effectively.
(Non-scientific) ways of knowing
• Authorities (parents, teachers, religious leaders, media gurus)
• Tradition
• Common sense
• Personal experience
• Media myths
Ordinary inquiry vs. scholarly inquiry
• ‘isks of Eos assoiated ith o-scholarly methods
o Selective observation (inaccurate): only notice some phenomena (e.g. gamblers fallacy)
o Overgeneralization: evidence applied to too wide a range of conditions
o Premature closure: jumping to conclusions
o Halo effect: idea of being influenced by prestige
Scholarly Communities – Norms
• Universalism: eseah judged o sietifi eit
• Organized scepticism: challenge and question research
• Disinterestedness: openness to new ideas, non-partisan
• Communalism: sharing with others
• Honesty
• Social scientists replicate research and share systems of observation to avoid errors of inquiry
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