Instructions: Everyone must answer Question number 1 and then select any two of the remaining questions. "A" grades will go to those who do not simply paraphrase the text or my lectures but rather provide innovative answers supplemented by outside research, including the Web. Question 1 is worth 40% of the midterm grade.

1.  Describe in what respect social science is like physical science, paying particular attention to the scientific method and how we come to know the world (science and comom sense).

2.  What research do you believe would be worthwhile on the value of midnight basketball and other city-sponsored sports activities for reducing urban crime? Propose in separate paragraphs (these can be more than one in length) deductive, inductive and a descriptive rsearch project. Explain why each project is worthwhile.

3.  In our everyday lives, all of us are inductive researchers, making observations, gathering data, coming to conclusions about human behavior. As such, there are ethical problems that need to be regulated. For example, should you spy on your neighbors private acts in order to understand them better?  Discuss how you personally regulate your ethical behavior in everyday life and give several examples.

4.  You must develop a measure of family conflict. Propose measurement procedures using available data, questions, and observations. Discuss the advantages and disadvantage of each.

5.  Discuss how cultural, ethnic and gender background affects the construction of questions and the results obtained.

6.  What motivates the use of nonprobability sampling methods? Using outside sources, find examples of three of the six nonprobability method

7. Look through recent issues of Social Forces and find an article reporting an empirical study.

a. Give a full bibliography citation for the article.
b. State the problem or hypothesis being tested (if more than one problem or hypothesis, state them all).
c. Briefly describe how each concept or variable in the problem or hypothesis is measured.
d. What is the level of measurement of each variable?
e. Evaluate each measure from the standpoint of reliability. Does the author(s) cite or provide any evidence of reliability?
f. Evaluate each measure from the standpoint of validity. Does the author(s) cite or provide evidence of construct validity?