1.

Participant Observation
a. “They observe action and interaction while participating as part of the social
context they are studying” (pg. 44).
b. If a researcher was studying friendship groups among first graders, they would
interact with the children by either taking the role of a teacher, talking with the
students, monitoring recess, etc.
c. Participant Observation is basically when researchers and/or sociologists take
part/action in the research study. They do not just observe or watch the sampling
group, but rather play a role in the research.
d. In the TV show, Undercover Boss, where the boss works amongst his/her
employees to study their behaviors and to understand what his/her minimum wage
employees do.

2. Ethnography
a. “Research that systematically studies how groups of people live and make
meaning by understanding the group from its own point of view” (pg. 44).
b. Typically participant-observation studies are an example of this. Also, typically
ethnographies use field notes to conduct and remember their research.
c. Ethnography is a type of research where the researcher uses people in their natural
environments (homes, workplace, etc.) to understand how groups of people live
and the patterns within their society. Other types of research consist of
experiments, applied research, basic research, etc.
d. An example of ethnography is when researchers went to the isolated, indigenous
societies in the Amazon Rainforest. These people were the only groups of people
that had no contact with the outside world. Researchers went in and studied the
people from afar. While I’m not sure if that study was ethical, the study used
ethnography or studied how groups of people live.

3. Content Analysis
a. “One way researchers use documents to collect data…when conducting content
analysis, researchers use texts—which may be written or visual—and
systematically categorize elements of those texts on the basis of a set of rules”
(pg. 45)
b. How many girls and boys show up in children’s book (counting elements in a
text) or comparing the sexualization of women and men in advertisements
(involve more interpretive and relational elements)
c. Content analysis is when researchers use physical things/documents like books,
websites, magazines, etc. to study how ideas in the world works.
d. In my life, I manage the social media accounts for my band, The Misdemeanors.
Sometimes, I might look at different statistics and/or ask different questions to
figure out the overall population who likes our music. On Instagram, I might look
out how many followers we have that don’t have any connections to us and what
their gender, age, and other demographics are. On Spotify, I look at our most
played songs.

4. Qualitative Methods
 a. “Methods that rely primarily on information that is not numerical, such as
words or images” (pg. 47) → also, I used the definition from the glossary
because it makes more sense to me
b. In qualitative data analysis, people might publish a book or use details/imagery to
display their data. The textbook uses the example of Matthew Desmond’s
Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City because he takes the readers
through his study of socio-economic classes during the 2008 recession.
c. Qualitative Methods is essentially using words, instead of numbers, to display
your findings from your research/experiment.
d. An example of a qualitative method I’ve read is the Omnivores’ Dilemma by
Michael Pollan. He studies and researches the poultry industry to help his readers
learn about the effects meat has on their diets and the environment. While he uses
occasional statistics or numerical data to explain his research, he mostly uses
descriptive imagery of farms and the livestocks’ lives.

5. Random Sampling
a. “Everyone [who meets the criteria for the participation in the study] has an equal
chance of being included in a sample” (pg. 51).
b. If you were conducting a random sample of sophomores at Belmont, then the
random sample would allow all sophomores to have an equal chance of being
selected. In these types of studies, you need a list of everybody who qualifies for
the study.
c. Random Sampling happens when you are deciding who you want in your research
study. Some people might do surveys or use a convenience sample (something
like the first 20 people), but a random sample works well in most research studies
because there are less biases or outliers. Random Sampling means that everybody
in the population (everybody who meets the criteria) has the exact same
likelihood of being chosen for the research.

6. Generalizability
a. “The possibilities to assume that the patterns and relationships observed among
the sample in the research study would also hold true for the border population”
(pg. 51). Generalizability only happens when researchers use “a properly
constructed random sample.”
b. If you conducted a random-sample survey of Belmont students living in dorms,
and concluded that most Belmont students are satisfied with the dorms. You only
asked part of the population, but assume that the ratio is similar for all Belmont
students living in dorms.
c. Generalizability is when you only use part of the population, but because of
random sampling, can assume that the data fits for the whole population.
d. In the recent study about the loneliness of college students, researchers found that
60% of college students feel lonely in college in the United States. The
researchers did not ask every single student at every university, college, and
community college in the United States, but took a random sample of college
students. They had college students with completely different demographics and
 because it was a random sample, they generalized the statistic. Out of the students
in the study, 60% were lonely, so in the United States 60% of students are lonely.

7. Reliability
a. “The extent to which the researchers results are consistent, and consistency helps
us understand whether the form of measurement in the research actually measures
what we think it measures” (pg. 53). There are also different types of reliability,
but “all involve the question of whether repeating research measurements will
produce the same results each time”.
b. In research studies a teacher should ask, if I give students an exam with similar
questions on multiple days, will they get the same score everytime. Another
example would be if you are given a survey, would you answer similarly every
time.
c. Reliability in a form of measurement or evaluation to make sure that the research
being conducted is consistent. If the results of the data seem random or there are a
lot of outliers, the study might not be a reliable study.
d. Belmont sends students multiple surveys throughout the year on Outlook. If
Belmont does a survey and the results of each participant might differ each day or
the results of all the participants seem completely random, then the survey might
not be reliable. Sometimes random results mean that the objects in the study do
not correlate, though.

8. Validity
a. Validity is if the “research results are trustworthy”. Your results could be reliable,
but they also need to be correct. “There are a variety of types of validity, but all
involve the question of whether the measures and findings of a research study
consistently measure the phenomena accurately.”
b. If a researcher wanted to measure your knowledge of sociology by asking you to
sing Belmont’s fight song. This is not a measure of your sociological knowledge,
but of your knowledge of Belmont. They would need to have you take a sociology
test instead.
c. When you conduct a research study, the validity of the results is very important. If
the results are not valid, they could be inaccurate, not dependable, or not
measuring the right thing. Studies can be invalid when the parameters were not
designed correctly or when there is bias.
d. There was a study recently that concluded that grizzly bears are diabetic. In the
last few years, scientists have looked at the study and realized that the original
researcher might not have developed the study correctly. Another example would
be if the researcher was biased. In study dealing with politics, this might be very
common.

9. Operationalize
a. “Explains the research’s procedures in enough detail that others can replicate their
research” (pg. 2 of Intro-ResearchMethods pdf).
b. A researcher wanted to study how many hours people spend interacting with other
people. To make the study operationalizable, researchers would have to define the
word “interaction”. How do you use “interaction”?
c. When conducting a research study, you want to make sure that other people will
understand the findings and how you measured your research. You don’t want to
be vague or use words without strict definitions. Your hypothesis needs to be
measurable and specific.
d. Last year in Biology 2, we did a research experiment on squirrels. My group was
determining how “sociable” squirrels were. At first, we didn’t have a way to
measure how social squirrels were. Everybody in my group went out and
measured the sociability of squirrels completely differently. After we clarified our
parameters, our data became operational.