Investigating the Social World
Web Exercises
1. Go to Sociosite at www.sociosite.net/index.php. Choose “Subject Areas.” Choose a sociological subject area you are interested in. How would you conduct a study on your chosen subject using experimental methods? Choose at least five of the key terms listed at the end of this chapter that are relevant to and incorporated in the research experiment you have located on the web. Explain how each of the five key terms you have chosen plays a role in the research example you have found on the web.
2. Try out the process of randomization. Go to the website www.randomizer.org. Type numbers into the randomizer for an experiment with 1 group (“sets”) and 40 individuals (“numbers”) per set, with a number range from 1 to 2. Specify that each number in a set is not to be unique (“No”), and the list should be sorted from least to greatest, and printed with “Place Markers Within.” Now click “RANDOMIZE NOW.” Repeat the process for an experiment with 1 group and 40 numbers per set (range is now 1 to 4). Does the distribution of numbers assigned to each group seem to be random?
3. Participate in a social psychology experiment on the web. Go to www.socialpsychology.org/. Pick an experiment in which to participate and follow the instructions. After you finish, write up a description of the experiment and evaluate it using the criteria discussed in the chapter.