AU26 Sociology 1102 Chapter 2: Discover Sociological Research

scientific method

a process of gathering empirical (scientific & specific data) creating theories and rigorously testing theories

deductive reasoning

broad theories about the social world but does break down into more specific and testable hypotheses

hypotheses

ideas about the world, derived from theories, that describe possible relationships from different phenomena

inductive reasoning

starts from specific data, such as interviews, observations or field notes that may focus on a single community or event and endeavors to identify larger patterns from which to derive more general theories

quantitative research

gathering data that can be quantifed and offers insight into board patterns of social behavior and social attitudes

quantitative research examples

surveys, expiriments, secondary data analysis

qualitative research

characterized by data that cannot be quanitified (put into numbers), focusing on generating in-depth knowledge of social life, instutions, and processes

qualitative research examples

interviews, ethographies

scientific theories

explanations of how and why scientific observations are as they are

• it is logically existent

• it can be disaproved

concepts

ideas that summarize a set of phenomena

operational definition

decribes a concept in such a way that it can be observed and measured

variable

a concept that can take 2 or more possible values

variable examples

age, work status, income, occupation, etc

qualitative variables

include factors that can be counted

qualitative variables examples

age, income, years of education, etc

quantitative variables

include variables that can express qualities and do not have numerical values

quantitative variables examples

preferences, gender, race, etc

correlation

refers to the degree to which 2 or more variables are associated with one another

casual relationship

a relationship between 2 variables in which one variable is the cause of the other

spurious relationship

correlation between 2 or more variables caused by another factor that is not being measured rather than a casual link between the variables themselves

positive correlation

relationships showing that as one variable rises or falls, the other does as well

negative correlation

relationship showing that as one variable increases, the other decreases

principle of falsification/falsifiability

a therory must lead to testable hypotheses that can be disaproved if they are wrong

validity

the degree of which concepts and their measurments accurately represents what they claim to represent

realiability

refers to the extent to which researchers’ findings are consistent with the findings of different studies of the same thing or with the findings of the same study overtime

• making sure the results from a single study is not an outlier

bias

characteristics of results that systematically misrepresent the true nature of what is being studied

social desirability bias

response bias based on the tendency of respondents to answer a question in a way that they percived will be favorable received

• focused of the particapents of the study

objectivity

refers to the ability to represent the object of study accurately

value naturality

characteristic of being free of personal beliefs and opinions that would influence the course of the research

replication

repetition of a previous study using a different sample or production to verify or refute the original findings

• replicating the study increases the validity of the results

research methods

techniques for systematically gathering data

surveys

questionarrie or interviews adminstered to a group of people in-person or by telephone or email to determine their charateristics, opinons and behaviors

• quantitative methods, numerical variables

sample

small number of people that is meant to represent the larger population

(ex: 1,000 voters represents the voting behaviors or Americans in general)

population

(ex: Americans in general)

the whole group of people studied

random sampling

sampling in which everyone in the population of interest has an equal chance of being chosen for the study

stratified sampling

sampling in which a population is divided into a series of subgroup and taking random samples within each group

• ensuring representation from all subgroups

fieldwork

research method that uses in-depth and often extended study to describe and analyze a group or community (also called ethnography)

• qualititative method

interviews

detailed conversations designed in depth information about a person and their activities

expiriments

techinques for investigating cause and effect under controlled conditions

independent or expirimental variables

variables the reseachers changes intentionally

dependent variables

variables that change as a result of changes in other variables

When is the US cenus conducted

every 10 years (years ending in 0)