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

Marriage and Family Relationships 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

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:  

Fertility Rate  Fertility rate is the number of women age 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 CComplete Observation: AArlie Hochschild observed the division of household labor by visiting wives and husbands in their homes OObservation takes place in the real world RResearcher attempts to fade into the background

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

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

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