HDF 304 Final Review.docx - HDF 304 Final Review Final...

HDF 304 Final Review
Final: 12/14/17 9a-12p MEZ 1.306
Lecture 1
● Important Ideas/Terms to Remember
○ Fact: A statement that can be verified and is established with overwhelming
evidence (opposite could be thought of as a myth)
○ Value/Opinion/Belief: A statement that is not possible to prove or disprove
through scientific evidence
● Sample Selection
○ Population: All individuals in a group that share a particular characteristic
■ Often impossible to find and survey all individuals in the group
○ Sample: A group of individuals who represent the entire population
● Methods: Surveys
○ Used to systematically collect information
■ Predetermined questions
● Questionnaires, interviews, focus groups
● Methods: Field Research
○ Systematic observation of people in their natural surroundings
○ Participant observers
■ Researchers interact naturally, but do not reveal their identities as
researchers
○ Non-participant observers
■ Researchers study phenomena without being part of the situation
● Methods: Secondary Analysis
○ Use of data that was collected by someone else
■ Historical documents, public records, official statistics
● Methods: Experiments
○ Examination of cause and effect relationships under controlled conditions
○ Individuals assigned by experimenter into one of two or more groups
○ Outcomes observed, cause and effect determined
● The Ethics and Politics of Family Research
○ Codes of ethics
■ Helps protect human research subjects
● Data is confidential
● Protect participants identities
■ Best way to get data is anonymously
■ Helps keep research “honest”
● Prevents biased research
■ Political issues can affect both research agendas and reporting
procedures
● Grant funding targeted towards specific diseases
● congress’ criticism on the use of funds allocated by the NSF
(national science foundation) NIH (national institute of health); the
waste book, congress will go through the use of grant funds and
they will flag and highlight research that they believe is wasteful
● one example of the Duke University Biologist Sheila Patek
researched mante shrimp hammers and trap jaw ants, her

research was featured in a waste book and she then presented
her work to Senator Flake, the man who challenged her fund. But
she ultimately was able to convince him otherwise whenever she
had an opportunity to present her research on capitol hill. Senator
Coburn has a waste book.
● More recently the NSF awarded $374,087 to UT Austin for a study
on “Senior citizens dating habits”
● Also, the National Endowment for the Arts gave $35,000 to a
study on “Silent Shakespeare” productions
● Lastly the Department of defense gave $193,448 to studying the
California Gnatcatcher bird
● the group trying to shut down the funds research are Conservative
Republicans
● because of that there is a liberal bias in the area of research
because people in the research fields like literature, anthropology,
etc. tend to be liberal.