Research Methods- Fully answer questions
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Ch1.pptxChapter 1 –
Human Inquiry and Science
SOC 363
Methods of Social Research
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Chapter Outline
Looking for Reality
The Foundations of Social Science
The Purposes of Social Research
Some Dialectics of Social Research
The Research Proposal
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Looking for Reality
Knowledge from Agreement Reality
How do we know what is real?
A scientific assertion must have both logical and empirical support.
Epistemology – the science of knowing; systems of knowledge.
Methodology – the science of finding out; procedures for scientific investigation
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Looking for Reality
Ordinary Human Inquiry
Humans want to predict the future. Why?
We recognize that the future is caused in part by the present.
Cause and effect patterns are probabilistic in nature.
Prediction versus Understanding
Agreement Reality – those things we “know” as part of the culture we share with those around us.
Tradition – knowledge based on shared cultural understandings.
Authority – knowledge based on the status of the discoverer.
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Looking for Reality
Errors in Inquiry, and Some Solutions
Inaccurate Observations
Measurement devises offer accuracy.
Overgeneralizations
Large and representative samples are a safeguard against overgeneralization.
Replication – repeating a research study to test and either confirm or question the findings of an earlier study.
Selective Observations
Avoid looking for “deviant” cases
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Looking for Reality
Errors in Inquiry, and Some Solutions
Illogical Reasoning
“Gambler’s fallacy”
Use systems of logic consciously and explicitly.
Half-Life of Facts
How long today’s scientific facts survive reconceptualization, retesting, and new discoveries.
The fact that scientific knowledge is constantly changing points to a strength of scientific scholarship.
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Looking for Reality
A Review Question…
Your friend notices that after two coworkers take a sick day, their work hours are cut in the following weeks. Your friend concludes that management punishes all workers who take sick days.
What error in inquiry has your friend committed?
How would you correct for this error?
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Looking for Reality
Answers to the Review Question:
Your friend has committed an error of overgeneralization, because your friend had only observed the cases of two coworkers, but extended this observation to all coworkers.
If your friend really wanted to investigate this issue further, a relatively large and representative sample of all workers should be gathered…
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The Foundations of Social Science
The foundations of social science are logic and observation.
Theory – A systematic explanation for the observations that relate to a particular aspect of life.
Theory, Not Philosophy or Belief
Social theory has to do with what should be, not with what is.
Science cannot be used to settle value debates.
Social science can help know what is and why.
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The Foundations of Social Science
Social Regularities
Social research aims to find patterns of regularity in social life.
The Charge of Triviality
Documenting the obvious is a valuable function of any science.
The obvious all to often turns out to be wrong.
What About Exceptions?
Just because there are exceptions to a social regularity does not mean the regularity is unreal or unimportant.
People Could Interfere
The conscious will of social actors to upset social regularities does not pose a serious challenge to social science.
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The Foundations of Social Science
Aggregates, Not Individuals
The collective actions and situations of many individuals.
Focus of social science is to explain why aggregated patterns of behavior are regular even when individuals change over time.
Concepts and Variables
Variables – Logical groupings of attributes.
Attributes – Characteristics of people or things
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The Foundations of Social Science
Variables and Attributes:
In social research and theory, both variables and attributes represent social concepts.
Variables are sets of related attributes (categories, values).
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The Foundations of Social Science
Variable 1: Education, with the attributes of “educated” and “uneducated.”
Variable 2: Prejudice, with the attributes of “prejudiced” and “unprejudiced.”
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The Foundations of Social Science
Concepts and Variables
Independent Variable – A variable with values that are not problematical in an analysis, but are taken as simply given.
Presumed to cause or determine a dependent variable.
Dependent Variable – A variable assumed to depend on or be caused by another (the independent variable).
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The Foundations of Social Science
Review Question:
What are the independent and dependent variables in this example?
What attributes do each have?
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The Foundations of Social Science
Answer to Review Question:
The independent variable is the Characteristics of the date.
The attributes of the independent variable are variable, depending on how “Date Characteristics” is being measured. It could include attractiveness, punctuality, etc.
The dependent variable is the Quality of the date.
The attributes of the dependent variable are also variable, depending on how “Date Quality” is being measured. It could include excellent, very good, good, fair, poor, awful.
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The Purposes of Social Research
Exploratory:
Investigative, such as looking into a new political or religious group
methods vary greatly
conclusions are usually suggestive rather than definitive.
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The Purposes of Social Research
Descriptive: done for the purpose of describing the state of social affairs:
Examples: What is the unemployment rate? What is the racial composition of a particular city?
Careful empirical description takes the place of speculation and impressions.
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The Purposes of Social Research
Explanatory: providing reasons for phenomena in the form of causal relationships
Examples: Why do some cities have higher unemployment rates
Explanatory social research provides more trustworthy explanations.
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The Purposes of Social Research
Review Question:
For each of these research projects described below, determine if the research is exploratory, descriptive, or explanatory:
A researcher wants to examine what percentage of the U.S. adult population supports same-sex marriage.
A researcher wants to examine the influence of religious affiliation on same-sex marriage attitudes.
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The Purposes of Social Research
Answers to Review Question:
A researcher wants to examine what percentage of the U.S. adult population supports same-sex marriage.
This project would be considered descriptive because it is trying to characterize the level of national approval.
A researcher wants to examine the influence of religious affiliation on same-sex marriage attitudes.
This project would be considered explanatory because it is seeking to determine whether (and how) religion influences same-sex marriage attitudes.
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Some Dialectics of Social Research
Idiographic and Nomothetic Explanation
Idiographic – An approach to explanation in which we seek to exhaust the idiosyncratic causes of a particular condition of event.
Nomothetic – An approach to explanation in which we seek to identify a few causal factors that generally impact a class of conditions of event.
Inductive and Deductive Theory
Induction – The logical mode in which general principles are developed from specific observations.
Deduction – The logical model in which specific expectations of hypotheses are developed on the basis of general principles.
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Some Dialectics of Social Research
The Wheel of Science
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Some Dialectics of Social Research
Determinism versus Agency
Determinism – The influence of particular social environments and conditions.
Agency – The influence of individual “choice” or “free will.
Tolerance for ambiguity – The ability to hold conflicting ideas in your mind simultaneously.
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Some Dialectics of Social Research
Qualitative and Quantitative Data
Qualitative Data – non-numerical data
Quantitative Data – numerical data
Pure and Applied Research
Pure Research – Gaining “knowledge for knowledge’s sake.”
Applied Research – Putting research into practice.
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Some Dialectics of Social Research
Review Question
A researcher conducts a national survey, collecting information on religious affiliation and same-sex marriage attitudes. Based on this data, the researcher theorizes on the influence of religion on attitudes. This is an example of what kind of research?
Qualitative
Inductive
Deductive
Idiographic
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Some Dialectics of Social Research
Answer to Review Question:
This project would be inductive because the researcher is trying to develop general principles from specific observations.
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The Research Proposal
Introduction (Chapter 1)
Review of the Literature (Chapters 2, 17, Appdx A)
Specify the Problem (Chapters 5, 6, 12)
Research Design (Chapter 4)
Data Collection (Chapters 4, 8-11)
Selection of Subjects (Chapter 7)
Ethical Issues (Chapter 3)
Data Analysis (Chapters 13-16)
Bibliography (Chapter 17, Appdx A)
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The Research Proposal
Review Question
True or False: Research proposals are summaries of research projects, prepared after the project has been completed.
This statement is false. Research proposals often mark the start of or preparation for a new research project.
This is our task for the quarter – to help you create your own research proposal…
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