SOCI 100A Chapter Notes - Chapter 4: Operational Definition, Participatory Action Research
23 Oct 2016
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Research: a systematic approach to gathering data and using an agreed-upon set of methods. Quantitative approaches: converting aspects of social life into numbers. Make notes about feelings, moods, locations, body language. Inductive logic: a system of reasoning that moves from data to the formation of a theory (data to theory) Researchers gather data before coming up with a theory. Deductive logic: a system of reasoning that moves from theory to the formulation of hypotheses for testing (theory to data) Hypothesis: a tentative statement about a particular relationship (between objects, people, or groups of people) that can be teste empirically. Variables: used to measure relationships between objects, people, or groups of people. Independent variables: can be varied or manipulated by researchers. Dependent variables: the reaction (if one occurs) of the participants to this manipulation. Operational definition: descriptions of something that allows it to be measured. Have reliable measurements to have a valid measurement.
