Page 49 - Essencials of Sociology

22 CHAPTER 1 The Sociological Perspective

Down-to-Earth Sociology

Testing Your Common Sense—Answers to the Sociology Quiz

1. False. More students were shot to death at U.S. schools 6. False. Extensive testing of Islamic terrorists shows that
in the early 1990s than now (National School Safety they actually tend to score more “normal” on psychologi-
Center 2013). See page 419. cal tests than most “normal” people do. As a group, they
2. False. Over the years, the wage gap has narrowed, but are in better mental health than the rest of the popula-
only slightly. On average, full-time working women earn tion (Sageman 2008b:64).
about 72 percent of what full-time working men earn. This 7. False. Most people on welfare are children, young
low figure is actually an improvement over earlier years. mothers with few skills, or are elderly, sick, mentally
See Figures 10.7 and 10.8 on pages 310–311. challenged, or physically handicapped. Less than 2
3. False. Today’s parents actually spend more time with percent fit the stereotype of an able-bodied man.
their children (Bianchi 2010). To see how this could be, See page 242.
see Figure 12.2 on page 373. 8. False. Women make considerably more eye contact
4. False. The crime rate outside fast-food restaurants is con- (Henley et al. 1985).
siderably higher. The likely reason is that topless bars hire 9. False. Until recently, the divorce rate of couples who
private security and parking lot attendants (Linz et al. 2004). cohabited before marriage was higher than those who did
5. False. Sociologists compared the psychological profiles not cohabit. Now the divorce rate seems to be about the
of prisoners convicted of rape and prisoners convicted same (Manning and Cohen 2011). Neither divorce rate
of other crimes. Their profiles were similar. Like robbery, indicates that the couples who previously cohabited are
rape is learned behavior (Scully and Marolla 1984, 2012). more satisfied with their marriages.

7. Analyzing the Results

You will have been trained in a variety of techniques to analyze your data—from those
that apply to observations of people in small settings to the analysis of large-scale sur-
veys. If a hypothesis has been part of your research, now is when you will test it. (Some
research, especially participant observation and case studies, has no hypothesis. You may
know so little about the setting you are going to research that you cannot even specify
the variables in advance.)

8. Sharing the Results
To wrap up your research, you will write a report to share your findings with the
scientific community. You will review how you did your research and specify your
operational definitions. You will also compare your findings with published reports
on the topic and examine how they support or disagree with theories that others have
survey the collection of data by applied. As Table 1.2 on the next page illustrates, sociologists often summarize their
having people answer a series of findings in tables.
questions
Let’s look in greater detail at the fifth step to see what research methods sociologists use.

Research Methods (Designs)
Know the main elements
1.7
of the 7 research methods:
As we review the seven research methods (or research designs) that sociologists use, we will
surveys, participant observation,
continue with our example of spouse abuse. As you will see, the method you choose will
case studies, secondary
depend on the questions you want to answer. So that you can have a yardstick for comparing
analysis, analysis of documents,
the results of your research, you will want to know what “average” is in your research find-
experiments, and unobtrusive
ings. Table 1.3 on page 24 summarizes the three ways that sociologists measure average.
measures.
Surveys
Let’s suppose that you want to know how many wives are abused each year. Some hus-
Read on MySocLab
Document: Sense and Nonsense bands also are abused, of course, but let’s assume that you are going to focus on wives.
About Surveys An appropriate method for this purpose would be the survey, in which you would ask