1. Week 1 WHY DO SOCIAL RESEARCH ?
Answer Questions about society
Enhance our knowledge
Benefit society

2. DYNAMIC
Cycle of Research
Social behaviors, attitudes and theories Change!

3. Research Subjects Individuals Groups of People Societies Cultures
Social processes
Social and Psychological abnormalities
These are your units of analysis

4. EMPIRICAL RESEARCH Don’t rely on what others say Test it yourself
Touch that stove to see if it’s hot
Ouch –
Yup – It’s hot!

5. How is a researcher like a detective?
Looks for facts and truths
Accumulates facts to solve mysteries
Results benefit society

6. Like Detectives, Researchers are HUMAN
Humans are subjective
Don’t always observe or listen accurately
Opinions may bias research
Often generalize
Often resist change
Often put our own interests first

7. How to do Scientific Research
Define all terms
Suspect all previous knowledge
Replicate research to test social theory and build on it
Look for regularities and patterns
Look for normalities and conformities, abnormalities and deviance from patterns

8. Methods used for Data collection
Information is data
What are the most popular Methods used for gathering Data
Survey – Interview and Questionnaire
Experiment – Laboratory setting – Testing
Qualitative – Participant Observation, Intensive Interview, Focus Groups, Case Studies, Comparative, Content Analysis,Grounded Theory

9. Types of Social Research
Descriptive Research – social phenomena are defined and described. i.e. What are the characteristics of people who use the Internet? i.e. age, gender, education, income, religion. Best method to assess is survey
Exploratory Research – Determine how people behave in a particular setting – i.e. What are the various ways people use the internet? – What are the meanings they attach to their actions? What issues concern them? Best methods to assess – survey and observation
Explanatory Research – Identify causes and effects of social phenomena with the objective of predicting outcome – If a person uses the internet they feel happier. Best method to assess is Experiment – sometimes survey. Usually is Quantitative.
Evaluation Research – Incorporates a variety of methods to learn the effects of a social program or intervention or to assess need for a social program or intervention – i.e. Did giving employees use of internet improve morale? Best to use multi-method approach.

10. The Time Dimension
The event, phenomena, behavior etc. may be studied as:
Cross-Sectional Study – One point in time
Longitudinal Study – multiple points in time

11. ATTRIBUTES OF DATA May be Primary Data – collected by the researcher
May be Secondary Data – researcher uses other researchers’ data
Businesses, government, organizations, universities compile data and statistics that others can use such as: General Social Survey, Census, National Crime Study, Election Studies

12. Problems? Is the available Secondary Data useful? Is it accurate?
Are the measures used close to the measures needed to answer your research questions?

13. More Attributes of Data
Quantitative – The data is numeric – It can be ordered in terms of magnitude
Qualitative – The data is mostly written or spoken words that do not have a direct numerical interpetation

14. What is a Research Question?
Example – Will arresting spousal abusers deter repeat incidents (recidivism)?
We seek to answer questions about people, people in groups, general social issues and processes by collecting verifiable empirical data
In the form of a hypothesis – If more spousal abusers are arrested then recidivism will be reduced

15. Where do the questions come from?
Own experience or personal interests
Reading literature about a particular topic
What is the process we follow:
Identify a question
Refine the question
Evaluate the question
Reformulate the question

16. How Do We Develop Theories?
Deductive reasoning – General to Specific
Our research starts from a theory, moves to data collection then back to a better theory
Inductive reasoning – Specific data leads to a general theory
Instead of the research cycle starting with theory, the question emerges from the situation. We observe behaviors or attitudes and then ask questions about it.
Qualitative research is often exploratory and hence inductive.

17. Ethical Issues
Scientists should not impose their own values on their research!
Research on people requires that researchers:
Cause no harm to subjects
Participation should be voluntary
Subjects must give informed consent
Researchers should fully disclose identity
Anonymity and confidentiality must be maintained

18. Proposals
For funding and approval for research a researcher may have to submit a research proposal.
The bare bones of a research proposal are: Research problem statement, literature review, methodological plan, budget, ethics statement, statement of limitations
It may also include – proposal summary, statement of objectives, evaluation plan, implications for future research and other materials as relevant to the sponsoring agency