Methods of Social Research Family Sociology

Social Science Research How do we know what we know? Most of us understand the world around us through our personal experience -- the people and situations we have been in or have seen This personal experience leads to your conclusions about the world

Social Science Research While there is nothing wrong with these ways of knowing -- social scientists are skeptical about relying ONLY on these sources because: An individual’s experience of those around them is not representative of the broader society

Sociological Theories Social science theories explain or help us make sense of patterns in social life Theories shape and direct research – they point us in a direction That direction influences what we look for, what we find, and how we explain it Marriage and Family Relationships

Social Science Research How do we know what we know? Social scientists use a systematic and more scientific mode of investigation Social scientists rely on: Observations of the social world based on representative samples Example: If we wanted to study why people in the U.S. get married, we should not just survey college students We avoid the error of overgeneralization: i.e. using what we know about a small group of people to conclude something about all people

Theory > Method Once we have a theory to oriented our research… We choose an appropriate method of research A research method will define how we will collect the data for our study

Most Frequently used Methods of Social Research Demographic Studies Survey Research Participant Observation (Field Observation) Social Experiments

Demographic Studies Demography is a subfield of sociology that is concerned with how social conditions are distributed in the human population and how these populations are changing. Core interests are trends in: Fertility Mortality Migration Marriage and divorce

How are demographic data collected? Most data are collected at the state level and compiled by the National Center of Health Statistics (NCHS) NCHS is a department of the Center for Disease control (CDC) in Atlanta GE

Demographic Studies Examples of Demographic Studies in Fertility What is the fertility rate by race/ethnicity in the US? How has it changed over the past ten years? Go to the National Center for Health Statistics: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr55/nvsr55_01.pdf

Fertility Rate Fertility rate is the number of women age 15 - 44 who gave birth per 1000 women For example the rate for Non-Hispanic Black women is 89 births per 1000

Survey Research Collect information from a subgroup of people, known as a sample Samples are chosen to represent the larger population from which they are selected. Data is collected through in-person or phone interviews, or by questionnaires sent through the mail or though the internet (web-based)

Example of a U.S. Survey Pew Research Center

Field Research Used to understand processes among people by directly observing them as the behaviors take place Researcher participates directly in the social life of individuals of groups in question

Participant Observation Complete Observation: Arlie Hochschild observed the division of household labor by visiting wives and husbands in their homes Observation takes place in the real world Researcher attempts to fade into the background

Participant Observation Complete Participation: Researcher tries to become a part of the group they are studying Howard Becker hung around with Jazz musicians to understand how people learned to smoke pot - but he WAS also a Jazz musician

Field Research Intensive interviewing Focus Groups Questions are open ended Designed to be very in depth, with a small sample Provide rich description of personal experience Focus Groups Designed to obtain information from a small group of people Encourage open discussions of topics Used by market researchers and political pollsters

Social Experiments Family Studies and Sociology do not use a lot of these but In a social experiment you randomly assign subjects to a control group and a treatment group Recent study on the effect of TV on children Children were randomly assigned to 1) Watch Sponge Bob Square Pants 2) Watch PBS Children show Sprout 3) Or draw What differences do you think they found for 3 groups? Marriage and Family Relationships

Ethics in Social Research Today, before you can even begin a research project – you must go through an extensive process to receive an okay to move forward Researchers must prove that the individuals (subjects/respondents) who take part in a study will not be mentally or physically injured by theory participation Much of the ethical review process came out of the Millgram experiements http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcvSNg0HZwk

Summary When doing research on families, we always have to think of an answerable question? Then we decide do we want to study the family at the micro or macro level? Then we choose a theory to guide our research project. Next we decide what method will we use to collect data? How many people will be in our study? We apply the scientific method to the study of families and relationships