создавать идеи для будущего изучения, попасть в ловушку, представлять интерес для.
III. Supplythe missing words or word combinations choosing among those given below:
1) Like the … on the street, the sociologist is interested in questions that… most people. 2) A… of scientific method is planning. 3) Sociologists do not simply … the door or … the telephone to learn more about human behavior. 4) People in the United States became … of the plight of the homeless in the nation's … centers. 5) Sociologists try to develop … questions. 6) First, they reviewed … such as «Time», «Newsweek» and «People». 7) Second, they examined … done in Boston and New York. 8) Still… review refuted this hypothesis. 9) A hypothesis … tells us what we are looking for in our research. 10) In formulating a hypothesis we … suggest that it is… study. 11) Sociologists … one of the research designs. 12) The random sample is … used by social scientists.
13) Scientific studies do not … to answer all the questions about ….
14) The conclusion of a research study … both an end, and a beginning.
15) The homeless are merely trapped in economic conditions that lead to … and …. 16) … further implications are evident. 17)… contributes to homelessness. 18) Through … of scientific method the researchers studied a… social issue … to sociologists,… and ….
policy makers, mental health workers, contemporary, the systematic application, the inadequate supply of low-costing housing, with this finding in mind, poverty, despair, represents, aim, a particular object, frequently, employ, merely, worthy of, essentially, further, the systematic studies, ^popular magazines», researchable, aware, urban, walk out, pick up, key element, typical citizen, concern, of interest.
IV. Studythe following words and word combinations and use them in sentences of your own:
to be interested in, to concern smb, (un)like smb, to ensure smth, the workings of a method, to be aware of, to tend to smth, to state as clearly as possible, to present … as …, to be representative of, to conduct a review, to avoid doing smth, further (review, investigation, etc.), to focus on, to imply, to be worthy of, to depend on, ultimately, both … and …, to be true of, to confirm a hypothesis, to make changes in, to be trapped, to lead to poverty and despair, to contribute to, an (in)adequate supply of, to be of interest to smb.
Comprehension Exercises
I. Reread the text and answer the following questions.
1) What questions are sociologists interested in? 2) What differs the sociologist from the typical citizen? 3) What is scientific method and why is planning its key element? 4) What are the five basic steps in scientific method? 5) What does it mean to define a problem? 6) How do sociologists review the literature concerning a problem under study? 7) What is a hypothesis? Is it always correct? 8) How do sociologists test a hypothesis? 9) Why do you think that the random sample is frequently used by social scientists? 10) How do you understand that developing the conclusion is not the end of a research study? 11) What do researchers have to do if their hypothesis is refuted?
II. Define the following key terms and memorize the definitions: scientific method, hypothesis, research design, random sample.
III. Speak on scientific method and its aspects in brief and illustrate your reports withsituations and examples of your own.
IV. Employthe scientific method and its stages described in this text and comment on the problem of the homeless in Russia.
V. Give some other actual examples of human behavior whichcan be analyzed with the help of this scientific method of sociological research. Comment on them thinking like sociologists.
Text IV. Research Designs for cOllecting Data. Ethics of Research
An important aspect of sociological research is the decision as to how data should be collected. A research design is a detailed plan or method for obtaining data scientifically. Sociologists regularly use experiments, participant observations, surveys and unobtrusive techniques to generate data for their research.
Experiments. When sociologists wish to study a possible cause-and-effect relationship, they may conduct experiments. An experiment is an artificially created situation that allows the researcher either to confirm or to reftite the hypothesis under study. In the classic method of conducting an experiment, two groups of people are selected and compared: the experimental group which is exposed to the experiment and the control group which is not.
Participant observation. It is a research technique in which an investigator collects information through direct participation in and observation of a group or a community under study. In some cases, the sociologist actually «joins» the group for a period of time to get an accurate sense of how it operates. In conducting participant observation research the investigator may face several problems. Firstly, in our society many people resent the feeling of '«being studied». Thus, if the group sees the researcher as an outsider and an observer – rather than a member of the group – its members may feel uneasy and hide many thoughts and emotions. On the other hand, if the researcher disguises his or her identity or purpose, he or she is being somewhat dishonest and this may also distort the group process. Finally, sociologists must learn to see the world as the group sees it. This raises a delicate question regarding the effect of the group on the observer and the observer on the group. The sociologist must retain a certain level of detachment from the group under study and the observer cannot allow the close associations or even friendships that inevitably develop or influence the conclusion of the study.
Surveys. Almost all of us have responded to surveys of one kind or another. A survey is a study, generally in the form of an interview or a questionnaire, which provides sociologists with information concerning how people think and act.
Each of these forms has its own advantages. An interview can obtain a high response rate because people find it more difficult to turn down a personal request for an interview than to throw away a written questionnaire. On the other hand, questionnaires have the advantage of being cheaper. Also, since the questions are written, the researcher knows that there is some guarantee of consistency, whereas five interviewers can ask the same question in five different ways.
Unobtrusive measures. They include a variety of research techniques that have no impact on who or what is being studied. Social scientists and students from the University of Arizona studied people's spending and eating habits by examining household garbage left out on the street. This is an unconventional example of the use of unobtrusive measures in social scientific research.
The basic techniques of unobtrusive measures are the use of statistics and studying cultural, economic and political documents, including newspapers, periodicals, radio and television tapes, diaries, songs, folklore and legal papers, to name a few examples.
It is important to realize that research designs need not be viewed as mutually exclusive. Two or more methods used together may be especially informative. For example, unobtrusive methods have proved to be valuable as a supplement to other research methods. One investigator wished to examine the relationship between reported and actual beer consumption. He obtained a «front doon» measure of consumption by asking residents of houses how much beer they drank each week. At the same time, a «backdoor» measure was developed by counting the number of beer cans in their garbage. This backdoor method produced a considerably higher estimate of beer consumption.
Ethics of research. Most sociological research uses people as sources of information – as respondents to survey questions, participants in experiments or subjects of observation. That is why in conducting research sociologists must abide by the code of ethics that puts forth the following basic principles:
1. Maintain