SOCIOL 103 Chapter Notes - Chapter 2: Scientific Method, Operational Definition, Knowledge Extraction

• School: UMASS-Amherst
• Department: Sociology
• Course: SOCIOL 103
• Professor: Donald Tomaskov

Document Summary

*the goal of research is to answer questions; sociological research attempts to answer a vast variety of questions about our social world. Empirical evidence: what scientific research is based on; which is evidence that comes from direct experience, scientifically gathered data, or experimentation. Meta-analysis: a technique in which the results of virtually all previous studies on a specific subject are evaluated together. Scientific method (or interpretive framework): used to increase understanding of. *1) ask a question, 2) research existing sources, 3) formulate a. Reliability: referring to how likely research results are to be replicated if the study is reproduced; this increases the likelihood that what happens to one person will happen to all people in a group measure. Validity : referring to how well the study measures what it was designed to. Ask a question ; the first step of the scientific method frame.