SOCI 217 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Abductive Reasoning, Research, Nomothetic
Document Summary
3 common errors in process of human inquiry: errors in observation- what we see. Misinterpret info: selective observations- particularistic/filtering observations. Events that fit pay more attention to expectations. 7 major goals: identify broad/general patterns, test/refine theory, *make predictions impt because of application of research, interpret culturally/historically significant phenomena, explore diversity, give voice, advance new theories. All scientific discovery based on 2 principles: empiricism= *knowledge should be based on evidence/observations, logic= *knowledge should make sense, be reasonable, consistent. Advantages: errors are less likely to occur knowledge which we can rely on. Disadvantages: expensive, time consuming and slow, knowledge is constantly changing. **see diagram: always begins with a question, find out what previous theories say, hypotheses. *testable expectations that follow from a theory: data/analysis (observations, conclusions test/refine pre-existing theories, deductive reasoning: top to bottom of diagram use general ideas to make sense of data. Inductive reasoning: bottom to top data-to-theory- use data to form general theories (grounded- research: *critique: too linear.
