Exercises:

1. Find Russian equivalents for the following English phrases:

educated guess, steps of research, the conduct of research, formulation of hypothesis, data collection, generalization, verification, common sense, statement of relationship, to derive from existing theory, to predict the direction of relationship, to subject to test, to generalize findings, available analytic tools, to assign numerical weight, to process data through computer, trustworthy difference, to draw a sample, with sufficient care, to generalize data to another population, sources of error, to guess at the reason, to provide continuity, evidence cumulates gradually, to eliminate mistakes, to design a project , to develop an instrument for gathering data.

2. Find English equivalents for the following Russian phrases:

проводить исследование, перечислить основные этапы исследования, детально разработать проект, сформулировать гипотезу, собрать и систематизировать данные, составить опросник, получить достоверные данные, подвергнуть полученные данные проверке, опираться на здравый смысл, присвоить численные выражения ответам респондентов, обрабатывать данные на компьютере, различия, вызванные случайностью, использовать различные аналитические методы, обобщать данные для других генеральных совокупностей, недостаточное обобщение данных, слишком широкое обобщение данных, ошибочные гипотезы, ложные (ошибочные) выводы, источник ошибок, столкнуться с ошибками, обеспечить достаточную преемственность, постепенно накапливать знания.

3. Answer the questions on the text:

1. What is a hypothesis?

2. What is its place in research?

3. How can a hypothesis be tested?

4. What is necessary to collect relevant data for a research?

5. Why does the whole data collection process usually take a lot of time?

6. What steps should be taken to classify the data obtained?

7. What is the role of the researcher in the process of data classification? What should he do to provide the best of the hypothesis?

8. What does the process of data analysis involve? Why should the researcher refer to various statistics?

9. What problem is the researcher faced with after the hypothesis has been tested? May all the findings got by the researcher be legitimately generalized to other populations? How can he justify this generalization?

10. What is the benefit of generalization to sociological research?

11. Why are undergeneralization and overgeneralization considered to be harmful to the progress of science? What is meant by the term “undergeneralization”, “overgeneralization”?

12. What is verification? Why is it so essential for the research? How can the researcher verify the data obtained?

4. Match the terms with their definitions:

1. hypothesis	a) to consider smth. carefully and in detail in order to understand or explain it
2. verify	b) statement which says that smth. is true in most situations or for most people, especially when it is based on very little evidence
3. classify	c) to divide smth. into groups that have similar characteristics
4. analyse	d) to provide evidence, generally of an empirical or observational kind, for believing it to be true
5. generalization	e) an idea which is suggested as a possible explanation for a particular situation or condition but which has not yet been proved to be correct