SOLVED

11) Professor Rodgers examined survey data on people who were 65 years of age and older. She found the average level of happiness reported increased from 1990 to 2010. She concluded that people under 65 years of age also experienced increasing levels of happiness from 1990 to 2010. The error she committed is called A) the error of overgeneralization. B) the error of selective observation. C) the error of illogical reasoning. D) the error of inaccurate observation. E) no errors. 12) What is the purpose of basic social research? A) It solves social problems and finds which policies are best. B) It improves social programs so they become more effective. C) It invents new taxonomies and jargon. D) It creates fundamental knowledge about how the social world works. E) It predicts what future society will be like. 13) After graduating from university, Samantha got a job with the regional government. One year into her new job, she learned that a big corporation planned to build a huge new factory on farmland outside the quiet, small town of Petitville, which had 2000 residents. The big corporation flew in a high-powered public relations team of five people, who showed a slick video, threw out a few statistics, and promised that many new jobs and income would come to the region and town. Two of the public relations people said they were factory site experts. They said that in the three other locations where the big corporation had built factories in the past two years, the local people were very happy. They said the same would occur in Petitville and further study was unnecessary. Just before the regional board was about to vote for approval, Samantha asked some questions: How would the new factory with 1000 employees affect the way of life in Petitville? Would the new factory create traffic congestion, noise, and air or water pollution? Would the town need to upgrade its police, fire, or ambulance services? Would it raise housing prices? What percent of the jobs would go to local people, and would the jobs be well-paying and stable? Would there be three shifts with some shifts ending late at night or early in the morning? How would the local schools and sewage treatment services be affected? Would the new factory’s location adjacent to the area’s only park limit the use of the park and its playground and bicycle trail by local children? Samantha questioned the corporate factory site expert’s claims that the company had created jobs and done wonderful things in two other towns so the same thing would happen here, and that no further issues were involved. She challenged the corporation’s claims, which use all EXCEPT which of the non-scientific bases of knowledge? A) Tradition B) Authority C) Overgeneralization D) Premature closure E) Selective observation 14) After graduating from university, Samantha got a job with the regional government. One year into her new job, she learned that a big corporation planned to build a huge new factory on farmland outside the quiet, small town of Petitville, which had 2000 residents. The big corporation flew in a high-powered public relations team of five people, who showed a slick video, threw out a few statistics, and promised that many new jobs and income would come to the region and town. Two of the public relations people said they were factory site experts. They said that in the three other locations where the big corporation had built factories in the past two years, the local people were very happy. They said the same would occur in Petitville and further study was unnecessary. Just before the regional board was about to vote for approval, Samantha asked some questions: How would the new factory with 1000 employees affect the way of life in Petitville? Would the new factory create traffic congestion, noise, and air or water pollution? Would the town need to upgrade its police, fire, or ambulance services? Would it raise housing prices? What percent of the jobs would go to local people, and would the jobs be well-paying and stable? Would there be three shifts with some shifts ending late at night or early in the morning? How would the local schools and sewage treatment services be affected? Would the new factory’s location adjacent to the area’s only park limit the use of the park and its playground and bicycle trail by local children? Based on her questions, Samantha urged the regional board to delay a decision and first conduct a(n) A) social impact assessment study. B) evaluation research study. C) time-series study. D) cohort study. E) action-oriented research study. 15) Which best summarizes the main goal of descriptive research? A) Advance knowledge about an underlying process or complete a theory B) Develop techniques and a sense of direction for future research C) Give a verbal or numerical (e.g., percentages) picture D) Extend a theory or principle into new areas or issues E) Provide evidence to support or refute an explanation 16) Prestige and honour within the scientific community depend largely on A) the size of a researcher’s paycheque. B) the number of appearances of a person on TV or in major newspapers. C) one’s reputation as a researcher as demonstrated by having many publications in highly respected scholarly journals. D) how popular the person is among students as an excellent teacher. E) the number of powerful political and business people a person has as friends. 17) The president of Big Hotdog, Inc. considered changing the company’s wage structure to increase worker productivity. She called in the firm’s top management team to make a decision. The vice-president for Human Resources said, “We can’t change it because we’ve had the same wage structure for the past 20 years and the employees will object.” The vice-president for Finance said, “A new wage structure was tried at Spicy Meatball, Inc. and it didn’t work there so it won’t work here.” The vice-president for Production said, “My brother is a professor of Human Relations, and he says it’s a good idea.” The vice-president for Sales said, “I read an article in last week’s Fortune magazine on worker productivity, and it proves that the proposed new wage structure always is best.” When the president suggested getting more information, the vice-president for Overseas Marketing said, “We have enough knowledge in this room now and getting any more would be a waste of time.” The president agreed with the vice-president for Sales. Which error did she make? A) Appeal to authority as a basis of knowledge B) Appeal to tradition as a basis of knowledge C) Premature closure D) Selective observation E) Overgeneralization 18) A tendency to assume that a person or source with a strong reputation or in a high-status position is automatically correct, instead of carefully evaluating the quality of information offered is called A) selective observation. B) skepticism. C) the halo effect. D) premature closure. E) the scientific method. 19) Explanatory research is A) research in which a researcher seeks to test theories and addresses the question of why events or patterns occur in social reality. B) a technique developed by economists in which the positive and negative consequences of something are estimated, given a dollar value, then balanced against one another. C) evaluation research after the program or policy being evaluated ends. D) evaluation research throughout the program or policy being evaluated. E) research into a new area that has not been studied and in which a researcher develops initial ideas and a more focused research question. 20) Below are five of the seven steps of a research project in scrambled order. Of the five listed below, which one is supposed to be second in the sequence? A) Interpret findings. B) Collect data. C) Design study. D) Focus project. E) Analyze the data.