1. Week 3 Methods and Theories for Studying Families

2.  Scientific sociological study  Objectivity  Sociological research of the family  Survey research  Survey: Research instruments designed to obtain information from individuals who belong to a larger group, organization, or society.  Information gathered is used to describe, explain and predict attitudes, behaviors, aspirations.  Political polls, opinion surveys, Census

3.  Population: The entire membership of a country, organization, group or category of people to be surveyed.  Sample: Some portion of the population chosen to represent the population.

4.  Cross-sectional vs Longitudinal study  Longitudinal  Repeated cross-sectional  Panel  Cohort

5.  Sampling methods  Random sample  Stratified random sample  Convenience sample  Sample size  Response rate

6.  Generalizability  Confidence  Validity  Reliability

7.  Nominal (categorical) data  Ordinal data  Interval data  Ratio data

8.  Dependent and independent variables  Measures of central tendency  Mean  Mode  Median  Outliers

9.  Cause and effect relation  Time order  Correlation  Nonspuriousness

10.  Experiments  Field experiments  Participant observation  Content analysis  Secondary analysis  Qualitative interviews

11.  Theories provide us with a basic understanding of how to see the larger social picture in our personal lives.  Theories are sets of interrelated concepts used to describe, explain and predict how society and its parts are related to each other.

12.  Cumming and Henry’s theory on aging.  Elderly people realize the inevitability of death and begin to systematically disengage from their previous youthfull roles, while at the same time the society disengages from them.  How did their theory test against research?

13.  Macro theories  Functional, conflict  Micro theories  Symbolic interactionism, social exchange

14.  Grand theory  Deals with universal aspects of social processes or problems and is based on abstract ideas and concepts rather than case specific evidence.  Middle-range theory  Derived from specific scientific findings and focuses on the interrelation of two or more concepts applied to a specific social process or problem.