soc 004 final

What are the four common errors in everyday reasoning?

Overgeneralization

Selective or inaccurate observation

Illogical reasoning

Resistance to change

Overgeneralization


A. to prematurely jump to conclusions or arguing on the basis of incalid assumptions.

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B. choosing to look only at things that are in line with our preferences and beliefs.

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C. when we unjustifiably conclude that what is true for some cases is true for all cases.

C

example of Overgeneralization

Woman thinks all men are untrustworthy after one man cheats...

College students are nerds

selective or inaccurate observation


A. choosing to look only at things that are in line with our preferences and beliefs.

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B. to prematurely jump to conclusions or argue on the basis of invalid assumptions.

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C. when we unjustifiably conclude that what is true for some cases is true for all cases.

A

example of selective or inaccurate observation

How do we feel about presidents like trump or biden?

Early days of dating

Illogical reasoning


A. the reluctance to change our ideas in light of new information.

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B. choosing to look only at things that are in line with our preferences and beliefs

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C. to prematurely jump to conclusions or argue on the basis of invalid assumptions.

C

example of illogical reasoning

- People who do not have many friends are not friendly

- But what if they just moved here?

- What if they have social anxiety disorder?

Resistance to change


A. to prematurely jump to conclusions or arguing on the basis of incalid assumptions.

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B. The reluctance to change our ideas in light of new information

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C. choosing to look only at things that are in line with our preferences and beliefs.

B

example of resistance to change

not changing opinion even after being wrong

Social Science

The use of scientific methods to investigate individuals, societies, and social processes; the knowledge produce by these investigations

Limitations of Social Science

The nature of the subject of enquiry

The nature of the empiric method

The limited applicability of the present day social sciences to the life of the private individual

The four goals for the social research in practice

Descriptive/Description

Exploratory/Exploration

Explanatory/Explanation

Evaluation

Descriptive/Description


A. Seeks to find out how people get along in the setting under question, what meanings they give to their actions, and what issues concern them

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B. Research in which social phenomena are defined and described

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C. Seeks to identify causes and effects of social phenomena and to predict how one phenomenon will change or vary in response to variation in another phenomenon

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D. Research that described or identifies the impact of social policies and programs

B

Exploratory/Exploration

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A. Research that described or identifies the impact of social policies and programs

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B. Research in which social phenomena are defined and described

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C. Seeks to identify causes and effects of social phenomena and to predict how one phenomenon will change or vary in response to variation in another phenomenon

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D. Seeks to find out how people get along in the setting under question, what meanings they give to their actions, and what issues concern them

D

Explanatory/Explanation


A. Seeks to identify causes and effects of social phenomena and to predict how one phenomenon will change or vary in response to variation in another phenomenon

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B. Research in which social phenomena are defined and described

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C. Research that described or identifies the impact of social policies and programs

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D. Seeks to find out how people get along in the setting under question, what meanings they give to their actions, and what issues concern them

A

Evaluation


A. Research in which social phenomena are defined and described

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B. Seeks to find out how people get along in the setting under question, what meanings they give to their actions, and what issues concern them

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C. Research that described or identifies the impact of social policies and programs

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D. Seeks to identify causes and effects of social phenomena and to predict how one phenomenon will change or vary in response to variation in another phenomenon

C

Valid Knowledge


A. The state that exists when statements or conclusions about empirical reality are correct

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B. Seeks to identify causes and effects of social phenomena and to predict how one phenomenon will change or vary in response to variation in another phenomenon

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C. Research that described or identifies the impact of social policies and programs

A

The Three components of validity

Measurement validity

Generalizability

Casual Validity

Measurement validity

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A. Exists when a conclusion holds true for the population, group, setting, or event that we say it does, given the conditions that we specify, it is the extent to which a study can inform us about persons, places, or events that were not directly studied

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B. Exists when a conclusion that A leads to, or results in, B is correct

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C. Exists when an indicator measures what we think it measures

C

Generalizability

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A. Exists when a conclusion holds true for the population, group, setting, or event that we say it does, given the conditions that we specify, it is the extent to which a study can inform us about persons, places, or events that were not directly studied

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B. Exists when an indicator measures what we think it measures

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C. Exists when a conclusion that A leads to, or results in, B is correct

A

Casual Validity


A. Exists when a conclusions holds true for the population, group, setting, or event that we say it does, given the conditions that we specify, it is the extent to which a study can inform us about persons, places, or events that were not directly studied

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B. Exists when an indicator measures what we think it measures

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C. Exists when a conclusion that A leads to, or results in, B is correct

C

Casual Validity is also known as

internal validity

Name the three characteristics of a good research question

Feasibility

Social Importance

Scientific Relevance

Theory

a logically interrelated set of propositions about empirical reality

Understand why an explanation formulated after the fact is necessarily less certain than an explanation presented before the collection of data

Even if we do learn inductively from such research, the adequacy of an explanation formulated after the fact is necessarily less certain than an explanation presented before the collection of data. Every phenomenon can always be explained in some way. Inductive explanations are more trustworthy if they are tested subsequently with deductive research. Great insights and ideas can come from inductive studies, but verifiable proof comes from deductive research.

Diagram the research circle, and explain the role of replication in relation to that circle.

Trend design is also called a

repeated cross-sectional design

Panel design

Where we follow the same people over time and what do they think of a certain thing

Problem with panel designs?

Those same people drop out of the study

Cohort design

Can be both panel or trend/cross sectional design

Cross-sectional sample

getting data from the population/ e.g. chooses every 10th person

Repeated cross sectional design

repeats the same process using different samples from the same population over time

Why is repeated cross sectional design good?

if the same population's opinion change over time

Longitudinal sample

doing things over time

Unit of Analysis

The level of social life on which a research question is focused, such as individuals, groups, towns, or nations.

Individual Unit of Analysis

A unit of analysis in which individuals are the source of data and the focus of the conclusions.

Group Unit of Analysis

A unit of analysis in which groups are the source of data and the focus of conclusions.

Ecological Fallacy

an error in reasoning in which incoherent conclusions about individual-level processes are drawn from group level data

Example of Ecological fallacy

California has a the highest rate of divorce, therefore every marriage couple in California is subject to divorce. (deals with a populations)

Reductionist fallacy

Making conclusions about the group based on individual level data

What is a research question?

Question that will be researched about.

It needs to be a type of question that will be answered in the next 20-30 pages

3 elements in a good research?

Doable/feasible: Make sure to measure it

Socially important: importance in society

Scientifically relevant: Does it contribute to scientific knowledge

What is a good research question?

Something that can be answered in a research paper

Rational choice

assumes that people's behavior is shaped by calculations of the costs and benefits of their actions.

Symbolic interactionism

assumes that people give symbolic meanings to objects, behaviors, and other people, and that their actions are a product of these meanings.

How do we we connect our research question and theory to the real empirical world?

We can do this by induction or deduction

If you start with theory, then it is ...

deduction

if you start with data, then it is ...

induction

If you are gathering data, then it is ...

induction

If you have a hypothesis, then it is ...

deduction

Once you have chosen a research question that is connected to theory, is doable, and socially relevant, and you have developed a ...?


A. Conclusion
B. Strategy
C. Independent variable
D. Dependent variable

B

Cross sectional design

it is a snapshot of a specific time and place

Research must show in research ...

Respect for Persons: treatment of persons as autonomous agents and protecting those with diminished autonomy

Beneficence: minimizing possible harm and maximizing benefits (do no harm)

Justice: distributing benefits and risks of research fairly. Are the procedures fair for the research participants?

Specific Core Ethical Principles for Social Scientists

Protecting Research Subjects

Maintaining Openness and Honesty

Achieving Valid Results

Encouraging Appropriate Application

To protect research subjects,
Four main ways to accomplish this

Avoid Harm

Avoid Deception

Include Informed consent

Make research confidential or anonymous

For Avoiding Harm, think of...

Ask yourself, will the participant be harmed physically? Emotionally?

Also, can we study ...?
Spouses of recently deceased
Domestic abuse victims
Bankruptcy filers
Undocumented workers

For Avoiding Deception, think of...

Deception occurs when subjects are misled about research procedures. This is often done to simulate real-world conditions in the lab

For Include consent, think of ...

The research participants need to know what they are getting into

The participants need to be competent to give consent

Can a 16 year old give consent to part of a research study?

How about a person with moderate learning disabilities?

The language of consent must be clear and understandable

Rarer, but sometimes "debriefing" is allowed

Confidentiality v. Anonymity

Maintaining privacy and confidentiality after a study is completed is another way to protect subjects

What is Institutional Review Boards (IRB)?

A group of organizational and community representatives required by federal law to review the ethical issues in all proposed research that is federally funded, involves human subjects, or has any potential for harm to subjects.

What is the "Tea room trade" study?

This study examines police response to the problem of impersonal homosexual sex in public washrooms

What is the belmont report?

produced by the newly created National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research. There are 3 basic ethical principles: respect for persons, beneficence, and justice.

What was Milgram study actually on?

The Milgram experiment is a famous psychological study exploring the willingness of individuals to follow the orders of authorities when those orders conflict with the individual's own moral judgment.

What is a Concept?

A mental image that summarizes a set of similar observations, feelings, or ideas.

What is Conceptualization?

Working out what your key terms will mean in your research

The process of specifying what we mean by a term.

In deductive research, conceptualization helps translate portions of an abstract theory into testable hypotheses involving specific variables.

In inductive research, conceptualization is an important part of the process used to make sense of related observations.

Conceptualization in deductive research

Conceptualization will help us translate portions of abstract theory in testable hypothesis involving specific variables

During Conceptualization in deductive research, Do we start with a general theory and then test it, or do we start with collecting data, then generalizing it?

We are not starting with a general theory then testing it, but rather we are starting by collecting data, then generalizing data

Conceptualization in inductive research.

We are working from the general to the specific.

During Conceptualization in inductive research, Do we start with a general theory and then test it, or do we start with collecting data, then generalizing it?

We are starting with the general theory and we are developing a hypothesis to test that theory and we are going to test that theory by the collection of data.

What is operationalization?

the process of specifying the operations that will indicate the value of cases on the variable.

Simply, operationalization involves making concepts measurable

When are concepts addressed?

Through variables

When are open-ended questions more useful than closed questions?

best used when theory and literature are limited, and a full range of responses cannot be predicted

When are closed ended questions used?

useful where we know generally what to expect and we are looking to build up evidence for a hypothesis

What is index?

a composite measure based on summing, averaging, or otherwise combining the responses to multiple questions that are intended to measure the same concept

Content Analysis

A research methods for systematically analyzing and making inferences from texts

What is Triangulation?

The use of multiple methods to study one research question

Example of Triangulation

How do UCR students feel about ChatGPT

Method 1: ask them in a questionnaire

Method 2: observe them in their classes

Method 3: Follow up interview with random sample of questionnaire respondents

Levels of measurement

nominal, ordinal, interval, ratio

Nominal

Variables whose values have no mathematical interpretation; they vary in kind or quality but not in amount

Ordinal

A measurement of a variable in which the numbers indicating a variable's values specify only the order of the cases, permitting "greater than" or "less than" distinctions

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small, medium, large

Interval

Measurement of a variable in which the numbers indicating a variable's values represent fixed measurement units but have no absolute, or fixed, zero point

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We know that if it is 60 degrees today and 70 degrees tomorrow, there is a 10-degree difference. And this 10 degree difference is the same as 100 degrees and 110 degrees

Ratio

The measurement of a variable in which the numbers indicating the variable's values represent fixed measuring units and absolute zero points

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Most of social scientific quantittavive variables are of this kind
Age
Height
Weight
GPA

What type of variable?


Did you receive a Pell grant this academic year?
Yes
No

Nominal

What type of variable?


How many hours per week do you work for work study
0-5 hours
6-10 hours
11-15 hours

Ordinal

What type of variable?


Which of the following loan types do you have?
Subsidized public
Unsubsizdized public
Private loan
Other

Nominal

What type of variable?


Age___

Ratio

Which of the following statements best reflect your level of concern towards your credit card debt?


I am not concerned about my credit card debt
I am somewhat concerned about my credit card debt
I am very concerned about my credit card debt

Ordinal

Ways of testing validity?

Face validity

Content validity

Criterion validity

Construct validity

face validity

When the items used to measure a concept suggests that they are appropriate "on their face"

Content Validity

When a full range of concept's meaning is covered by the measure you are using in your study. When we ask experts their opinion and when we carefully review literature

Criterion validity

When our study borrows from an already validated measure of the same phenomenon

Construct validity

When our measure is related to other measures as specified in a theory

Inter-item reliability

When different items in an instrument measuring the same thing are highly correlated. Also known as internal consistency

Alternate-forms reliability

When you have different instruments to measure the same thing, the measurements should be highly correlated

split halves reliability

reliability achieved when responses to the same questions by two randomly selected halves of a sample are about the same

interobserver reliability

when similar measurements are obtained by different observers rating the same persons, events, or places

Every time you begin to review or design a research study, you will have to answer two questions

What do the main concepts mean in this research?

How are the main concepts measured?

When it comes to conceptualization,

you need to develop and clearly state what you mean by your key concepts


your measurements will need to be clear and consistent with the definitions you've settled on (more on that topic shortly).

Constant

A number that has a fixed value in a given situation; a characteristic or value that does not change.

Operation

A procedure for identifying or indicating the value of cases on a variable.