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2- Research Methods
The Process and Problems of Social Research
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Social Research Question | Is a question about the social world that you seek to answer through the collection and analysis of firsthand, verifiable, emperical data; about people in groups, about general social processes, or about tendencies in community change |
| List the 3 ways to create a good research question? | Identifying one or more questions for study; Refining the questions; Evaluating the questions |
| How to Identify a social research question? | Own experience; personal troubles; research literature is often the best source for research questions; find it in social theory; posed by someone else |
| Request for Proposal | Conduct research on specific questions posed by fudning source in what is termed an RFP |
| How do you refine a social researcch question? | Develop a list of research questions; narrow your list to the most interesting, most workable candidates; repeat this process until you find the right research question |
| How can you evaluate a social research question? | Evaluate the best candidate against the criteria for good social research questions: feasibility, given the time and resources available; social importance; and scientific relevance |
| Evaluating social research questions - Feasibility | Conduct any study within the time and resources available; what people/groups you can expect to have access to; may have additional resources (research funds/other researchers to collaborate with) |
| Evaluating social research questions - Social Importance | Should consider whether the Research question is important to other people; Will an answer to the research question make a difference for society or for social relations? |
| Evaluating social research questions - Scientific Relevance | Should be grounded in the social science literature |
| Theory | Is a logically interrelated set of propositions that helps us make sense of many interrelated phenomena and predict behavior or attitudes that are likely to occur when certain conditions are met; propositions about empirical reality |
| Rational Choice Theory | A social theory that explains individual action with the principle that actors choose actions that maximize their gains from taking that action |
| Specific Deterrence theory | Applies rational choice theory to crime and punishment |
| Conflict Theory | Karl Marx/ Friedrich Engels; Identifies conflict between social groups as the "engine" to social change; is key to understanding social processes |
| Paternoster et al. did not agree with the rational choice theory instead turned to a theory called, -Procedural Justice Theory- | Predicts that people will obey the law from a sense of obligation that flows from seeing legal authorities as moral and legitimate; focus on how authorities treat subjects rather than just what decisions they make |
| Symbolic Interaction Theory | The meaning people attach to their interactions; how social interaction conveys meaning and promotes socialization |
| Labeling Theory | Uses a symbolic interactionist approach to explain deviance as an "offender's" reaction to the application of rules and sanctions |
| Start out with a theory and then testing some of its implications with data = This is the process of a ________ research; the strategy used in ____________ methods | Deductive, Quantitative |
| Develop a theory that explains the patterns in the data; It is an _________ research & is used in _____________ method | Inductive, Qualitative |
| The process of conducting research designed to test explanations of social phenomena involves moving from ______ to ____ and then back to ______ | Theory, Data, Theory |
| Research Circle | A diagram of the elements of the research process, including theories, hypotheses, data collection, and data analysis |
| Deductive Research | The type of research in which a specific expectation is deduced from a general premise and is then tested |
| Hypothesis | A tentative statement about empirical reality, involving a relationship between two or more variables; researchers actually test, not the complete theory itself |
| A hypothesis proposes a relationship between ___ or _____ variables - characteristics or properties | two or more |
| Variation in one variable is proposed to ______, __________, or cause _________ in the other. | Predict, Influence, Variation |
| Independent Variable | The proposed influence; A variable that is hypothesized to cause, or lead to, variation in another variable |
| Dependent Variable | Its effect or consequence; A variable that is hypothesized to vary depending on, or under the influence of another variable |
| After researchers formulate one or more hypotheses and develop research procedures, they _______ ____ with which to test the hypothesis. | Collect Data |
| Direction of Hypotheses | Another feature of hypotheses; A pattern in a relationship between two variables - the values of variables tend to change consistently in relation to change on the other variable; The direction of association can be either positive or negative |
| Explanatory & Evaluative studies are types of _________ research | Deductive |
| Empirical Generalization | A statement that describes patterns found in data |
| Replications | Repetitions of a study using the same research methods to answer the same research question |
| Inductive Research | Begins with specific data = used to develop (induce) a general explanation (a theory) to account for the data; think of this process in terms of a research circle; The type of research in which general conclusions are drawn from specific data |
| How is Inductive Research different from Deductive Research? | Starts at the bottom of the circle with data and then develops the theory |
| Describe Deductive Research. | Reasoning from specific premises results in conclusion that a theory is supported |
| Describe Inductive Research. | The identification of similar empirical patterns results in a generalization about some social process |
| When does an inductive research come into a deductive research? | When we find unexpected patterns in the data we have collected for testing a hypothesis |
| "Inductive reasoning enters into deductive research we find unexpected patterns in the data we have collected for testing a hypothesis" - How do you call these patterns? | Serendipitous Findings (Anomalous Findings) |
| The Inductive Process can be ___ insights and provocative questions. | New |
| Serendipitous Findings | Unexpected patterns in data, which stimulate new ideas or theoretical approaches. Also known as anomalous findings; also known as Anomalous Findings |
| The research circle has gone more than once is a process called a = | Spiral |
| Exploratory Research - Inductive | Researchers begin by observing social interaction or interviewing social actors in depth and then developing an explanation for what has been found |
| Social Research strategy - Descriptive Research | Does not involve connecting theory and data; still part of the research circle; It begins with data and proceeds only to the stage of making empirical generalizations based on these data |
| Good descriptive research can also stimulate more ambitious ________ and _________ research. | Inductive and Deductive |
| Social Research Goals - When our conclusions about this empirical reality are correct; ex. I look out the window and observe that it is raining - a valid observation | Validity |
| Social Research Goals - The goal is to figure out ___ and ___ the social world--some aspect of it--operates as it does | How, Why |
| What are the three aspects of validity? | Measurement Validity, Generalizability, Causal Validity(also known as Internal Validity) |
| When does invalid validity occur? | In Invalid Conclusions |
| When the understanding of a social process or social setting is one that reflects fairly the various perspectives of participants in that setting. | Authenticity |
| What are some problems that can occur in validity? | Fictitious identities, gender |
| Generalizability - Define | To inform us about persons, places, or events that were not studied |
| Generalizability - When is generalizability valid? | If every person or community we study were like every other one, generalizations based on observations of a small number would be valid. |
| What are the two aspects of Generalizability? | Sample generalizablity, Cross-population generalizability |
| Generalizability - Sample Generalizability | The ability to generalize from a sample, or subset of a larger population to that population itself |
| Generalizability - Refers to the ability to generalize from findings about one group, population, or setting to other groups, populations, or settings; also referred to as External validity | Cross-population Generalizability |
| Generalizability - Sample generalizability is a key concern in | Survey Research |
| Generalizability - Cross-population occurs to the extent that the results of a study hold true for ________ populations; these populations may not all have been sampled, or they may be represented as subgroups within the sample studied | Multiple |
| Causal Validity - Define | Also known as Internal Validity; refers to the truthfulness of an assertion that A causes B |
| Authenticity - Define | An authentic understanding of a social process or social setting is one that reflects fairly the various perspectives of participants in that setting; suited to Qualitative research; understood as reality |
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1StellarStar