Sociologists Doing Research Chapter 2

Research Methods Sociologists attempt to ask the “why” and “how” questions and gather evidence which will help form a hypothesis or form a hypothesis and then test it.

Types of Research Methods Quantitative: uses numerical data and statistics. Qualitative: Gather narrative and descriptive data

Survey Research Survey: research method in which people are asked to answer a series of questions. Good for studying large groups of people.

Things you need for a survey Population: group that the sociologists want to study Sample: a limited number of cases drawn from the larger population

Types of Research Representative Sample: selected carefully to have the same characteristics as the general populations. Ex. Gallop-Harris, Election polls.

Types of Research Random Sample: assign everyone in the population a number then draw numbers after the numbers have been scrambled Questionnaire: written set of questions that survey participants answer by themselves

Types of Research Interview: interviewer asks participants questions Open-ended ?’s: person is free to answer questions in their own words Closed-ended ?’s: person is limited to a predetermined set of responses

Types of Research Secondary Analysis: collecting information that someone else has already gathered. Ex. Gov’t Reports, U.S. census.

Types of Research Field Research: Looks closely at aspects of social life that cannot be measured quantitatively. It is qualitative research using a descriptive narrative.

Tools of Field Research Case Study: a thorough look at a single group, incident, or community. Assume that findings can be generalized to other similar situations. Participant Observation: the researcher becomes a member of the group being studied. STOP

Statistical Terms Mean: the average score of a response. Median: the score that is in the middle when counting scores from top to bottom. Mode: the single score that is recorded most often.

Causation in Science Causation: a scientific assumption that an event has a reason why it happened. Ex: Crime – some people use to think that criminals had inherited physical traits, now criminologists believe that there are several factors from poverty to parenting to peer pressure. Multiple Causation: an event occurs because of several factors in combination Variable: a single cause or factor

Types of Variables Quantitative Variable – a variable that can be measured and given a numerical value Qualitative Variable – identified by membership in a category (sex, marital status) Independent Variable – variable that causes something to occur; the researcher changes or looks for changes to occur Dependent Variable – what results from the change in the independent variable Intervening Variable – influences the relationship between the independent and dependent variable

Causation in Science Correlation: a measure of how things are related to each other. Exists when the independent variable is tied to a change in the dependent variable

Types of Correlations Positive Correlation: both variable change in the same direction (grades improve as study time increases) Negative Correlation: both variables move in opposite directions (grades go down as time watching television increases)

Standards for Showing Causation Two variables must be correlated. All other possible factors must be taken into account. Spurious Correlation – an apparent relationship affecting both variables actually caused by a third variable A change in the independent variable must occur before a change in the dependent variable

Scientific Methods Identify the Problem Review the Literature Formulate Hypothesis Develop a Research Design Collect the Data Analyze the Data State Findings and Conclusions

Ethics in Social Research Sociological Code of Ethics: getting the greatest amount of information possible but doing the least amount of harm to the individuals or groups you are studying Media Reporting- tend to oversimplify and news may be slanted depending on sponsor