201.04 sociological research methods

Sociological Research
Methods and Techniques

© 2010 Alan S.Berger 1

Sociological Research Topics
Sociologists:
– Study the influence that society has on
people’s attitudes and behavior
– Seek to understand ways in which people
interact and shape society


Sociology and Common Sense
Sociologists do not accept something as fact
because “everyone knows it”
Findings are tested by researchers,
analyzed in relation to other data, and
evaluated with sociological theory


What Good Is
Sociological Theory?
• Theory: set of statements that seeks to
explain problems, actions, or behavior
– Effective theories have explanatory and
predictive power

– Durkheim’s work on suicide provides a
classic case of sociological theory at work


Method and Ethics
The scientific method includes selecting a researchable
problem, reviewing the literature, formulating a hypothesis,
creating an operational definition, choosing a research
design, collecting the data, analyzing the data, and stating
conclusions.

 It is important that sociologists observe the ethics of
their discipline in carrying out research. They have an
obligation to protect their research subjects from risk
and harm and to protect these subjects’ rights and
dignity.


Sociology and Science
● Sociology is a type of science, a logical system that
bases knowledge on direct, systematic observation.
- Scientific sociology is the study of society based on
systematic observation of social behavior.
- Scientific knowledge is based on empirical evidence,
information we can verify with our data, not common sense.

● Scientific evidence sometimes contradicts common sense
explanations of social behavior.
-It is not what we do not know that get us into trouble, it is
what we know that is not true.

● Is there such a thing as objective reality??


Research, Values, and Biases
● Sociologists strive for objectivity, a state of personal
neutrality in conducting research, whenever possible
following Max Weber’s model of value-free research.
-One way to limit distortion caused by personal values is
through replication, repetition of research by others in order to
assess its accuracy.
-More about this later.
● Limitations of scientific sociology.
-Human behavior is too complex to allow sociologists to predict
precisely any individual’s actions.
- Because humans respond to their surroundings, the mere
presence of a researcher may affect the behavior being studied.
● Social patterns change; what is true in one time or place
may not hold true in another.


Value Free Research and Research with Values
● Because sociologists are part of the social world they study, being
value-free when conducting social research is difficult.
● An alternative to Value Free is Interpretive sociology.
- Not biased, just the opposite
- Max Weber, argued that the focus of sociology is
interpretation.
- Interpretive sociology is the study of society that focuses
on the meanings people attach to their social world.
- The interpretive sociologist’s job is not just to observe
what people do but to share in their world of meaning and
come to appreciate why they act as they
● Another alternative is Critical sociology.
-Karl Marx, who founded critical sociology, rejected the idea
that society exists as a “natural” system with a fixed order.
Critical sociology is the study of society that focuses on the
need for social change.
- The point is not merely to study the world as it is but to
change it.


Value Free Research and Research with Values
● Research is effected by the characteristics of the researcher. We
have to strive to overcome this.

● Characteristics that can effect the design, conduct, and results of
research
Gender
Race
Ethnicity
Religion
Social Status

● The American Sociological Association has established formal
guidelines for conducting research. Most professional
associations do the same thing.


Value Free Research and Research with
Values – The case of Gender
-Research is affected by gender, the characteristics that members of a
society attach to being female and male, in five ways:
- Androcentricity, or approaching an issue from the male
perspective.
- Overgeneralizing, or using data drawn from studying only
one sex to support conclusions about human behavior in
general.
-Gender blindness, or not considering the variable of
gender at all.
-Double standards.
- Interference because a subject reacts to the sex of the
researcher
- Similar effects from the researcher’s race and/or ethnicity
and/or religion


Methods of collecting data
• Sociologists use the following methods
– Surveys
– Experiments
– Participant observations
– Secondary Analysis


Survey Research
● A survey is a research method in which subjects respond to a series
of statements or questions in a questionnaire or an interview..
-Surveys are directed at populations, the people who are the
focus of research.
- Usually we study a sample, a part of a population that represents
the whole. Random sampling is commonly used to be sure that
the sample is actually representative of the entire population.
- Surveys may involve questionnaires, a series of written
questions a researcher presents to subjects.
- Questionnaires may be closed-ended or open-ended.
- Surveys may also take the form of interviews, a series of
questions administered in person by a researcher to
respondents.
● This technique uses statistical methods to analyze data


Aspects of Survey research
● Questions: A Word or Two Makes All the Difference. How
researchers word questions affects how the public
responds.
● Sampling issues.
- Lois Benjamin used interviews and snowball sampling to
study one hundred elite African Americans. Benjamin
concluded that, despite the improving social standing of
African Americans, black people in the United States still
experience racial hostility.
- Kinsey and his successors and the Mercury Magazine
political predictions
- Election polling and prediction


Understanding and using
statistical data
• Reading Tables: An Important Skill. A table provides a
lot of information in a small amount of space, so learning
to read tables can increase your reading efficiency
• Three simple, critical, and useful statistical measures of
the average
1. The mode is the value that occurs most often in a series of
numbers.
2. The mean refers to the arithmetic average of a series of
numbers.
3. The median is the value that occurs midway in a series of
number arranged from lowest to highest.


Experiments
● An experiment is a research method for investigating
cause and effect under highly controlled conditions.
-Experimental research is explanatory, meaning that it asks not just
what happens but why. Typically, researchers conduct
experiments to test hypotheses, unverified statements of a
relationship between variables. Most experiments are
conducted in laboratories and employ experimental and control
groups.
-The Hawthorne effect is a change in a subject’s behavior caused
by the awareness of being studied.
-The Stanford County Prison study was an experiment conducted by
Philip Zimbardo that supported the notion that the character of prison itself,
and not the personalities of prisoners and guards, causes prison violence.

● Statistics can, but do not have to be used in this method of doing research.


Participant Observation
Participant observation is a method by which researchers
systematically observe people while joining in their
routine activities. Participant observation research is
descriptive and often exploratory. It is normally
qualitative research, inquiry based on subjective
impressions.
 William Whyte utilized this approach to study social life in a poor
neighborhood in Boston. His research, published in the book
Street Corner Society, illustrates the value of using a key
informant in field research.
 Elliot Liebow studied unemployed Black men in Washington and
published his results as Talley’s Corner


Secondary Analysis or Archival
Research
A research method in which a researcher utilizes data collected by
others.

E. Digby Baltzell’s Puritan Boston and Quaker Philadelphia explored
reasons for the prominence of New Englanders in national life. This
study exemplifies a researcher’s power to analyze the past using
historical sources


Steps in the conduct of Scientific
1. Select a topic guided by sociological perspective and curiosity.
• Frequently guided by the source of funding for the research.
2. Define the problem in considerable detail, specifying exactly
what you want to learn.
3. Review the literature to use what is already known about the
topic. As a guide, and to generate ideas as to what questions to
ask.
4. Formulate your hypothesis, describing how you expect your
variables to be related.
• Your variables need to be operationalized.
5. Choose a research method, which we will discuss in a few
minutes.
6. Collect your data paying attention to the validity.
7. Analyze your data.
8. Disseminate by publishing or speaking at professional
meetings, your findings.

The Scientific Method


Steps in the Research
Process
►Formulating the Hypothesis
– Hypothesis: testable statement about
relationship between two or more variables
– Variable: measurable trait or characteristic
subject to change under different conditions
• Independent variable: variable
hypothesized to cause or influence another
• Dependent variable: variable subject to the
influence of another variable


Steps in the Research
Process
►Formulating the Hypothesis
– Causal logic: relationship between a condition
or variable and a particular consequence, with
one event leading to the other
– Correlation: exists when a change in one
variable coincides with a change in another

Correlation does not necessarily
indicate causation


The utility of Measurement
For a measurement to be useful, it must be reliable and
valid.

• Reliability refers to consistency in measurement.

• Validity means precision in measuring exactly what one intends
to measure.

There are two types of measurement
Nominal: expresses the essence of an idea in words
Operational: expresses the essence of an idea in terms that
can be measured.


Collecting and Analyzing Data
►Ensuring Validity and Reliability

– Validity: degree to which a measure or scale
truly reflects the phenomenon under study

– Reliability: extent to which a measure
produces consistent results


Collecting and Analyzing Data
Selecting the Sample

– Sample: selection from a larger population
that is statistically representative of that
population

– Random sample: when every member of
an entire population has the same chance
of being selected


The Basic Concepts of the Social
Scientific Method
Concepts, variables, and measurement.

1. Concepts are mental constructs that represent some part of the
world, inevitably in a simplified form.

2. Variables are concepts whose value changes from case to case,
Constants do not change value.

3. Measurement is the process of determining the value of a
variable in a specific case.

4. Statistical measures are frequently used to describe populations
as a whole.
a) This requires that researchers operationalize variables,
which mean specifying exactly what one is to measure in assigning
a value to a variable

Relationships among variables
Cause and effect is a relationship in which change in one
variable causes change in another.
• The independent variable is the variable that causes the
change.
• The dependent variable is the variable that changes.
• Cause-and-effect relationships allow us to predict how one
pattern of behavior will produce another.
• Correlation exists when two (or more) variables change
together.
• Spurious correlation means an apparent, although false,
association between two (or more) variables caused by some
other variable.
• Spurious correlations can be discovered through scientific
control, the ability to neutralize the effect of one variable in
order to assess relationships among other variables.


Developing the Conclusion
●Supporting Hypotheses
– Sociological studies do not always generate
data that support the original hypothesis

– Controlling for Other Factors
• Control variable: factor that is held
constant to test the relative impact of an
independent variable


Finally….
• The interplay of theory and method.
– Inductive logical thought is reasoning that builds specific
observations into general theory.
– Deductive logical thought is reasoning that transforms general
ideas into specific hypotheses suitable for scientific testing.
– Most sociological research uses both types of logical thought.
• People Lie with Statistics? The best way not to fall prey
to statistical manipulation is to understand how people
can mislead with statistics:
• People select their data.
• People interpret their data.
• People use graphs to “spin” the truth
• If you don’t understand this you WILL be fooled!


Research Ethics
Code of Ethics: first published by ASA in
1971
1. Maintain objectivity and integrity in research
2. Respect subject’s right to privacy and dignity
3. Protect subjects from personal harm
4. Preserve confidentiality
5. Seek informed consent
6. Acknowledge research collaboration and
assistance
7. Disclose all sources of financial support

Research Ethics
█
Confidentiality
– Supreme Court has failed to clarify rights of
scholars
• Research Funding
– Funding source should not taint
objectivity of research
• Value Neutrality
– Researchers should not allow personal
feelings to influence interpretation of
data © 2010 Alan S.Berger 30

Feminist Methodology
█
Has had greatest influence on current
generation of social researchers
• Rejects notion of work
and family as separate
spheres
• Has drawn attention to
researchers’ tendency
to overlook women in
sociological studies

Government Involvement

 Oversight by Institutional Review
Boards !


201.04 sociological research methods

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