SOC 101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Empirical Measure, Inductive Reasoning, Testability
Document Summary
Hypotheses: ideas about the world, derived from theories, can be disproved when tested against observations (theories & empirical data in dynamic relationship) Deductive vs inductive reasoning: deductive: start from broad more specific. Inductive: generalization of an entire data from small (specific broad) Scope: how much variation in the outcome under investigation. Concepts: ideas that summarize a set of phenomena (e. g. , social class) Operational: a measurable definition of a concept (e. g. , annual income) Variable: a concept or its empirical measure that can take on two or more possible values. Quantitative: gathers data that can be quantified (large scale surveys) (numerical, income)
