SOAN 2120 Chapter Notes - Chapter 7: Contact Hypothesis, Blind Experiment, Time Series

• School: University of Guelph
• Department: Sociology and Anthropology
• Course: SOAN 2120
• Professor: D Walters

Document Summary

Develop judgment from reading research reports strengths and weaknesses. Intervene or induce a change in some focused part of social life and examine consequences. Limited to things they can manipulate: ex. Can"t experiment if people who do college increase income. Experiments best for issues w narrow scope or scale: allows them to assemble and conduct experiments w limited resources in a short period. Experiments = micro level: can rarely address qs that require looking at conditions across societies isolate and target the impact that arises from one or more causal variables not suited for dozens of diverse variables. Random assignment valid comparison depends on comparing things that are fundamentally alike creates similar groups. Want to compare cases that do not differ w regard to variables that offer alternative explanations ex. Want to determine impact of completing a course. If the groups of pple completing the course are different ages the research cannot count on differences.