Sociological Research Methods

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Sociological Research
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A Public Restroom?
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Common Sense vs. Scientific Evidence

• Poor people are far more likely than rich people
  to break the law.
• The United States is a middle-class society in
  which most people are more or less equal.
• Most poor people dont want to work.
• Differences in the behavior of females and males
  are just human nature.
• People change as they grow old, losing many
  interests as they focus on their health.
• Most people marry because they are in love.

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Question Mindset

• There is a marked increase in the number of
  divorces in the United States.
• Factual The number of divorces as a have gone
  up sig. in the past 25 years
• Comparison Is this a phenomenon of just American
  society and culture?
• Developmental Have there been other periods in
  American history where divorces have gone up or
  at least marriage rates fallen.
• Theoretical What else has happened within the
  same timeframe that can be exacerbating the
  problem?

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Sociological Research Methods

• Sociologists, in order to study issues collect
  Empirical Research.
• Empirical Research research based on
  experiences, observations, and experiments

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Sociological Research Methods

• Sociologists in collecting this data strictly
  follow the Scientific Research Method
• This method allows researches to develop an
  understanding of Cause and Effect or causation.

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Ten Steps In Sociological Investigation

• Select and define topic
• Review the literature
• Develop key questions to ask
• Assess requirements for study
• Consider ethical issues
• Select a research methodology
• Collect the data
• Interpret the findings
• State conclusions
• Publish the findings

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Sociological Research Methods A Systematic Plan
for Conducting Research

• Hawthorne effectA change in a subject's behavior
  caused by the awareness of being studied

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Steps in the Ideal Experiment

• Specify the dependent and independent variables.
• Measure the dependent variable.
• Expose dependent variable to independent
  variable.
• Re-measure dependent variable to see if predicted
  change took place.
• If no change, modify hypothesis re-test

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Causation Is Not Correlation!

• A causal relationship.when homeless shelters are
  closed in a city there are less beds for the
  homeless to use.
• Cause Effect
• Rarely when studying or dealing with human beings
  do researchers find clear causal relationships!

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Causation

• Cause and effect
• A relationship in which change in one variable
  causes change in another
• Types of variables
• Independent The variable that causes the change
• Dependent The variable that changes (its value
  depends upon the independent variable)
• Correlation
• A relationship by which two or more variables
  change together
• Spurious correlation
• An apparent, though false, relationship between
  two or more variables caused by some other
  variable

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Independent and Dependent Variables

• You are studying the relationship between
  spousal abuse and credit card debt.
• The independent variable is
• The dependent variable is
• Independent variable one that produces an effect
  on another variable
• Dependent variable the variable affected in the
  relationship is the dependent.

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Independent and Dependent Variables

• another scenario.
• You are studying healthy lifestyles in the U.S.
  (specifically people who walk daily). Advocates
  say walking (30 minutes) a day will help cut down
  on a persons yearly healthcare costs.
• The Independent variable is
• The dependent variable is

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Causation Is Not Correlation!

• There is a strong correlation between the
  unemployment rate going up and the number of
  people utilizing soup kitchens in a given area.
• Two variables or occurrences seem to have a
  strong link between each other.
• There is always an effort by sociologists to
  separate causal from correlational however
  correlation can involve causation (ex
  educational experience v. success / family
  incomeinvolvement

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Correlational Research

• Interpreting Correlations
• Scores range from -1 to 1
• -1, negative relationship example of a
  negative   drinking in college and GPA  
• 0, no relationshipexample of a near zero  
  hair length and GPA
•   1, positive relationship example of a
  positive GPA and scores on SAT

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CORRELATION

• Perfect positive correlation coefficient
• 1.00 means that an increase in one event is
  always matched by an equal increase in a second
  event
• Positive correlation coefficient
• indicates that as one event tends to increase,
  the second event tends to, but does not always,
  increase
• increases from 0.01 to 0.99 indicate a
  strengthening of the relationship between the
  occurrence of two events

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• Research Methods

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Ethnography
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Ethnography

• Downsides are that only small populations can be
  studied and results cannot be applied to diff.
  groups even if they hold the same title
• Another loss is if the researcher becomes to
  comfortable they stop being the researcher

• Firsthand studies of people using actual
  observations or interviewing.
• From this research and researchers can get clear
  first person accounts and evidence of how a
  specific group functions within a larger society

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Ethnography

• EthnographyObservation
• Observation observing people in actual social
  settings
• An Observation can be done with the participant
  being aware of the study or with them completely
  unaware of the researcher

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Sociological Research Methods

• 2. Surveys
• Survey Research method using questionnaires or
  interviews to gather data from individuals.
• Interview Asking people directly specific
  questions and recording their answers
• Questionnaire Asking people to respond to
  questions in writing. Could be in person, through
  the mail etc.

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Surveys

• surveys tend to be more impersonal and anonymous
  therefore they can assess more sensitive
  information.
• another aspect that has to be watched is how the
  questions are worded and the responses a
  population can respond with.

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Survey ResearchA research method in which
subjects respond to a series of statements or
questions in a questionnaire or interview

• Population
• The people who are the focus of the research
• Sample
• The part of the population that represents the
  whole
• Random Sample
• Drawing a sample from a population so that every
  element of the population has an equal chance of
  being selected

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Sampling

• When conducting research sociologists (or any
  social scientist) often use representative
  samples of the population they are studying.

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3. Experiments
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Experiments

• For sociology, experiments can allow researchers
  to control and accurately study specific social
  behaviors.

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Sociological Research Methods

• 4. Review past and previous Documents
• By analyzing past research, or materials (e.g.
  newspapers, records, arrests) a sociologists
  might be able to develop a theory or support an
  existing one.
• Also..

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Sociological Research Methods

• By analyzing current sources of electronic
  communication (e.g. news reports, music)
  researchers may once again be able to support or
  develop theories of study.
• Ex Are nightly news programs more likely to
  report and visualize minority crimes than white
  Caucasian crimes?

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Scientific Sociology Terminology

• ReliabilityConsistency in measurement
• Does an instrument provide for a consistent
  measure of the subject matter?
• ValidityPrecision in measuring exactly what one
  intends to measure
• Does an instrument actually measure what it sets
  out to measure?

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Controversy and Debate (cont.)
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Ethical Guidelines for Research

• Must strive to be technically competent
  fair-minded
• Must disclose findings in full without omitting
  significant data be willing to share their data
  
• Must protect the safety, rights, and privacy of
  subjects
• Must obtain informed consent subjects are aware
  of of risks and responsibilities and agree
• Must disclose all sources of funding avoid
  conflicts of interest
• Must demonstrate cultural sensitivity

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Ethics

• for the researcher in any social science, the
  first question is anyone being exposed to any
  type of physical, psychological, or social harm?
• ..we shall look at another the infamous Stanley
  Milgram experiment.

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Ethics

• what did Stanley Milgram do wrong (ethically).