part 1) For this discussion I would like for you to consider the concept of courtship and dating in our culture. Sociologically speaking, dating has a number of functions, namely (1) confirmation of a social self (an exploration of our own identity and understanding of self), (2) recreation, (3) companionship, intimacy and sex, (4) anticipatory socialization (pairing off as socialization and in anticipation of a more permanent union), (5) status achievement (higher status of being involved in a relationship), (6) mate selection. In your post, please identify and describe one dating ritual or behavior that you think is common in our culture (or a subculture) and discuss what social function it serves and how.
Part 2)
- Read the textbook (Chap 8: Experiment for Evaluation Research), read the notes on experiment (placed in the Week 10 Reading Assignment [2] folder), watch the video (placed in the Week 10 Reading Assignment [2] folder) and answer the following questions.
w10r1
What is the purpose of classical experiments?w10r2
Why in classical experiments must everything other than the dependent variable be tightly controlled?w10r3
In classical experiments, how does a control group differ from a treatment (i.e., experimental) group?w10r4
What is evaluation research?w10r5
In evaluation research, what is the independent variable?w10r6
In classical experiments, why do you have to treat each participant in exactly the same way?w10r7
Suppose a company wanted to evaluate the effect of a longer lunch break on employee productivity. You were asked to conduct evaluation research using a pre-experimental design. In this study, you found that lengthening the lunch break increased employee productivity. That is, in comparison with the employee productivity in the period in which workers took a one-hour lunch break, the productivity increased dramatically in the period in which workers took a two-hour lunch break. Given this result, can you say with confidence that the longer lunch break caused the increase in worker productivity? Explain your answer.