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Social Research Methods Midterm
epistemology - the science of knowing, systems of knowledge methodology - the science of finding out, procedures for scientific investigation agreement reality - those things we "know" as part and parcel of the culture we share with those around us replication - repeating a research study to test and either confirm or question the findings of an earlier study inaccurate observations - we often make mistakes in our observations because they are casual and semiconscious overgeneralization - we often assume that a few similar events provide evidence of a general pattern selective observation - we tend to focus on future events and situations that fit the pattern and ignore others that do not illogical reasoning - when we prematurely jump to conclusions or argue on the basis of invalid assumptions, the exception that proves the rule theory - a systematic explanation for the observations that relate to a particular aspect of life variables - logical set of attributes. The variable sex is made up of the attributes male and female attributes - characteristics; qualities of a person or thing independent variable - a variable with values that are not problematic in an analysis but are taken as simply given. An idependent variable is presumed to cause or determine the dependent variable dependent variable -
a variable assumed to depend on or be caused by another. idiographic - an approach to explanation in which we seek to exhaust the idiosyncratic causes of a particular condition or event nomothetic - seeks to explain a class of situations or events rather than a single one induction - the process that moves from a given series of specifics to a generalization deduction - the process of moving from a general rule to a specific example sociology - a social science discipline that focuses on how thought and behavior of a social actor are conditioned by other social actors social actors - individuals, groups, organizations, collectivity or aggregates, communities and a whole society or nation sociology studies - situations Talcott Parson's system levels - the cultural system-anthropology the social system-sociology the personality system-psychology the behavioral organism-health science, bio, neuroscience the foundations of social science - logic and observation three major aspects of social scientific enterprise - theory, data collection and data analysis theory - systematic explanation for the observations that relate to a particular aspect of life data collection - observation Data Analysis - the comparison of what is logically expected with what is actually observed what is social research? - is looking scientifically at the social world
social darwinismterm-32 - charles darwin: evolution through natural selection Three Purposes of Research -
- Exploration
- Description
- Explanation karl marx - social behavior is best explained as the process of conflict georg simmel - focused on small scale conflict michel chossudovsky - international and global competition symbolic interactionism - a paradigm that views human behavior as the creation of meaning through social interactions, with those meanings conditioning subsequent interaction. georg simmel - interested in how individuals interacted with one another, a micro approach george herbert mead - taking the role of the other charles horton cooley - "looking glass self" primary groups ethnomethodology - harold garfinkel: people are continually creating social structure through their actions and interactions, creating their realities -methodology of the people structural functionalism - a paradigm that divides social phenomena into parts, each of which serves a function for the operation of the whole -a society entity can be viewed as an organism emile durkheim: crimes and their punishment provide an opportunity to reaffirm society's values feminist paradigms - paradigms that view and understand society through the experiences of women and or examine the generally deprived status of women in society--concerned with the treatment of women and the experience of oppression feminist standpoint theory -
nancy hartsock: women have knowledge about their status and experience that is not available to men critical race theory - a paradigm grounded in race awareness and an intention to achieve racial justice W.E.B. DuBois roots in the civil rights movement critical race theory - derrick bell: interest convergence--majority group members will only support the interests of minorities when those actions also support the interests of the majority group 3 purposes of research - exploratory, descriptive and explanatory descriptive - includes study seeking precise "point estimates" -often the most difficult to do well explanatory - studies that test causal hypotheses, empirical relationships operationalization - the process of assigning a precise method for measuring a term being examined for use in a particular study operational definition - a statement of the procedures used to define research variables null hypothesis - the hypothesis that there is no significant difference between specified populations, any observed difference being due to sampling or experimental error. Exploration - -Typically occurs when the subject of study is relatively new. -Usually done for 3 reasons: (1) to satisfy the researcher's curiosity and desire for better education, (2) to test the feasibility of undertaking a more extensive study, and (3) to develop the methods to be employed in any subsequent study Example: You are not happy with your college's requirements for your major so you study the history of the requirements and meet with officials to learn about why those requirements exist Shortcoming of exploratory studies - they may not be entirely definitive, because they lack representativeness (the people that you study in your exploratory research may not be typical of the larger population that interests you) Description - -Describe situations and events through scientific observation
Ex: Does math skill correlate to shoe size? No, it is actually age that correlates to both math skill and shoe size. How to test a hypothesis - -Specify variables you think are related -Specify measurement of variables -Hypothesize correlation, strength of relationship, statistical significance -Specify tests for spuriousness False Criteria for Nomothetic Causality -
- complete causation
- exceptional cases
- majority of cases Necessary cause - represents a condition that must be present for the effect to follow ex: you have to be female to get pregnant (cannot get pregnant unless female)-- but being female doesn't necessary guarantee pregnancy Sufficient case - represents a condition that, if it is present, guarantees the effect in question ex: if you don't take the exam you will definitely fail (but you could still fail even if you did take it)-- not taking the exam would guarantee failure Units of Analysis - -the what or whom being studied (most often individuals in social science research). -could also be groups, organizations, social interactions, social artifacts (books, poems, etc) Faulty Reasoning about Units of Analysis - ecological fallacy and reductionism The Ecological Fallacy - erroneously drawing conclusions about individuals solely from the observations of groups ex: if you see higher suicide rates for protestants than catholics, you still don't know that more protestants commit suicide than catholic people Reductionism - a strict limitation (reduction) of the kinds of concepts to be considered relevant to the phenomenon under study Ex: trying to predict success of basketball team by only looking at individual players (not wrong, but doesn't account for anything) Ex: Sociobiology - a paradigm based on the view that social behavior can be explained in terms of biological factors
The Time Dimension - We can choose to make observations more of less at one time or over a long period
- Cross-Sectional Studies
- Longitudinal Studies Cross-Sectional Study - a study based on observations representing a single point in time, a cross section of a population -many explanatory studies are cross-sectional, but this is a problem bc explanatory studies usually find causal relationships, and casual relationships need a time order Longitudinal Study - a study design involving the collection of data at different points in time 3 types: (1) Trend study (2) cohort study (3) panel study Trend study - a study in which a given characteristic of some population is monitored over time ex: if you want to know whether contemporary U.S. citizens were better or more poorly informed about politics than citizens of an earlier generation ex: looks at shifts in religious affiliation over time Cohort Study - a study in which some specific subpopulation, or cohort, is studied over time ex: if you were to study the first year uva students, and then do the same study when they are second years (cohort is staying the same, but not necessarily the same people) ex: follows shifts in religious affiliation among those born during the Depression Panel Study - a study in which data are collected from the same set of people at several points in time ex: follows the shifts in religious affiliation among a specific group of people over time. 2 hazards: (1) panel mortality (2) panel conditioning How can researchers approximate longitudinal studies -
- Imply processes over time
- Make logical inferences
one that is simply assigned to a term without any claim that the definition represents a "real" entity empirical hypotheses - based on data---empirical observation based on theory--empirical hypothesis -both are about correlation of observables
