1. The Basics of Social Science Research Methods
Susanne Barth, MSc

2. Structure of the lecture
Experiment + 2nd questionnaire (ca. 15 min)
Basics of Empirical Research (ca. 30 min)
 Book Chapter 3, 5, 6, 9, 10
[Bha2012] Bhattacherjee, A. (2012). Social Science Research. Principles, Methods, and Practices. Tampa, Florida: University of South Florida. PDF

3. Being a participant
Link: go to
QR Code
Complete experiment
Fill in 2nd questionnaire

4. Research process Exploration: Research question(s) Literature review
Research design:
Operationalization
Research method
Sampling
= Research proposal

5. Research question(s) Specific but not too narrow
Open question: what, why, how, when, to what extent etc.
Avoid yes/no questions
Interesting to you BUT also to your audience
Possible to answer
Identify one or more research questions
What is a „good“ research question?
Specific but not too narrow: do not include too many variables
Your research question is the starting and the end point of your research: EVERYTHING will focus around/on this RQ(s). It is the main argument of your paper. You must always stick to this RQ, thus, the literature, research design and research execution is centered around this question
Explain the social relevance of your research. Why is it important to research this question?

6. Example RQ (I) Do computer games have bad influence? Yes/no question
Better:
e.g. „to what extent“
What is meant by computer games?
Better: e.g. „first-person shooter games“
What is meant by „bad“?
Better: „aggressive behavior“ or be even more specific
Influence on?
Better: „influence on children aged between 10 and 14“
Computer games  violent computer games … or even more specific: „first-person shooter games“
Aggressive behavior….or be even more specific

7. Example RQ (II)
To what extent do first-person shooter games influence aggressive behavior of children aged between 10 and 14?
To what extent display children aged between 10 and 14 after having played a first-person shooter game aggressive behavior compared to children that played a non-violent computer game?
Define first-person shooter games
Define agressive behavior: Do you know different variables of aggressive behavior?
1st question: how to research this? More difficult to examine, valid results?
2nd question: Doable in a lab experiment  comparison of two group

8. Example RQ (III)
What kind of character traits are most likely to cause people to commit cybercrime?
How does news propagate and influence users?
First question: - Define character traits e.g. big five extraversion/introversion, openess to experience etc.
- define people
- Define cybercrime
Second question: - news in general? Which news? Be spefic
- propagate and influence are two different concepts…Two concepts in one question, concentrate on one concept
- influence on?
- users? In general? Define target group
- how does…is very open…can you narrow this a bit down?

9. Research process Exploration: Research question(s) Literature review
Research design:
Operationalization
Research method
Sampling
= Research proposal

10. Literature review (I) Literature available?
How many papers? (search terms)
(Still) interesting?
New and relevant?
State of knowledge in the field/research area
Identifying theories (if you are planning to do a deductive research approach)
Can you already formulate a hypothesis, reformulate your RQ based on literature
Gaps in the literature?
Does the RQ already exist and why should you redo this research?
Go back and forth between literature review and formulation of your research question.

11. Literature review (II)
ScienceDirect
Web of Science
Scopus
IEEE
GoogleScholar
JSTOR
PsycINFO
SpringerLink

12. Literature review (III)

13. Literature review (IV)

14. Literature review (V)

15. Research process Exploration: Research question(s) Literature review
Research design:
Operationalization
Research method
Sampling
= Research proposal

16. Operationalization: dependent variable
Concept
Aggressive behavior
Construct
Physical aggression
Construct
Verbal aggression
Construct
Symbolic aggression
Research design:
How are you planning to answer the formulated RQ?
Identify the constructs you are planning to examine. How can you measure these constructs? What does the literature says about your constructs? Are there existing instruments to operationalize these constructs?
fighting
etc.
etc.
shouting
etc.
etc.
gesture
etc.
etc.
Variables

17. Classification of variables
Influence of variable A on B, C & D
Physical aggression
Playing a FPS game
Verbal
aggression
A: Independent variable
Symbolic aggression
B, C, D: Dependent variables

18. Research method (I) Quantitative e.g. survey Experimental design
Qualitative e.g. interviews
Method should fit your RQ!

19. Research method (II)
What kind of character traits are most likely to cause people to commit cybercrime?
To what extent display children aged between 10 and 14 after having played a first-person shooter game aggressive behavior compared to children that played a non-violent computer game?
To what extent do first-person shooter games influence aggressive behavior of children aged between 10 and 14?
What do news consumers consider fake news?
RQ: survey (quantitative)  measure character traits (e.g. Big Five Inventory) and measure willigness to commit cybercrime (can you find an existing scale?)
RQ: experimental design (quantitative)  group that play a violent computer game and a control group that play a non-violent computer game, you could ask participants to judge their attitude to aggressive behavior or measure their mood state or measure heart rate in order to draw conclusions on physical arousal and compare both groups
RQ: Mix of survey and experiment (quantitative): let the target group play a violent game, observe their behavior, ask participants to judge their state of mood before and after having played a violent game, for instance
RQ: interview (qualitative)  interview news consumers about their opinion towards face news

20. Sampling strategy
Who (or what) is the target group of investigation? (see slides 1st lecture)
How to select a sample?
How to select a sample from the chosen unit of analysis/population? How to approach/find your participants?

21. Research process Exploration: Research question(s) Literature review
Research design:
Operationalization
Research method
Sampling
= Research proposal
Now, you are ready to start writing your research proposal
Try to be as specific as possible but write to the point
Clear structure of research proposal helps you to conduct the research at a later stage
Research proposal should function as a central thread guiding your research

22. To sum up: Define RQ(s) based on literature
Define your concept(s), construct(s) and variable(s)
Determine how to examine your RQ(s)
The research method must fit your RQ(s)
Define your target group and sampling method
Start writing your proposal
Have a look at the ethical committee process
Make use of the clinics!
Incomplete teams?
Clinics are a requirement to be able to submit your proposal!!
Incomplete teams?

23. © by WingedWolf