SO 201 Final

Primary data collection

occurs when social researchers design and carry out their own data collection

Secondary data collection

 a resource that was collected by someone else

Self-==administered== questionnaire

a survey completed directly by respondents through the mail or online

Response categories

preset answers on a survey for close ended questions

Cross-sectional surveys

data are collected at only one time point

Longitudinal surveys

data are collected at multiple time points

Repeated cross-sectional surveys

data are collected at multiple time points, but from different subjects at each time point

Panel surveys

data are collected on the same subjects at multiple time points

Split-ballot design

where a randomly selected subset of respondents, typically 50% of sample, receives one version of the module and the other 50% receives a different version

Measurement error

Occurs when the approach used to measure a particular variable affects the response provided. It may include the survey design, the interviewer, or the setting

Coverage error

The sampling frame does not adequately capture all members of the target population

* It results from either systematically omitting respondents or including the same respondents multiple times
* Eg: sampling via phone/internet to communities who don’t have access

Sampling error

Involves differences between the characteristics of the sample and the population

Computer-assisted personal interviews

Where the researcher sues a laptop/tablet that is preprogrammed with all the survey responses and response categories

Skip pattern

a question or series of questions associated with a conditional response to a prior question

Screener question

a question that serves as a gateway to a follow-up question. Also known as a filter question. Filters people out who are not eligible

Social desirability bias

a type of response bias that is the tendency of survey respondents to answer questions in a manner that will be viewed favorably by others

Mode effects

the ways that the specific mode might affect respondents’ answers

Stem

the part of the question that presents the issue of discussion

Dichotomous outcome

requires a simple “yes” or “no” answer

Mutually exclusive

where answers do not overlap

Exhaustive

where there is at least one accurate response

Rating scales

a series of ordered categories, type of close ended question

Likert scale

captures the respondent’s level of agreement or disagreement with a particular statement

Forced-choice

only agree or disagree, no neutral option

Acquiescence bias

where respondents tend to answer “agree”

Double-barreled question

where a question asks about two or more ideas in a single question

Codebook

a system of organizing information about a data set, including the variables it contains, the possible values for each variable, coding schemes, and decision rules

Frequency distribution

A presentation of the possible values of a variable along with the number of observations for each value that was observed

Relative frequency

The frequency of a response by percent in reference to the total data

Histogram

May be used to visualize the frequency distribution of a continuous variable

* The bins represent a range of values of a continuous variable

Summary statistic

A single value that summarizes some feature of a distribution

Measures of central tendency

Summary statistics that indicate the middle of a distribution

Marginal frequencies

the entries in the “Total” row or “Total” column of a frequency table.

Conditional mean

a statistic that is calculated for observations that meet a particular condition

Bivariate regression analysis

used to describe how the conditional mean of the dependent variable changes as the independent variable changes.

* y = a + bx

Regression coefficient

the slope of the line, a value that indicates the expected change in our outcome that is associated with a one-unit increase in our independent (explanatory) variable

Population trends

analyses that show how populations change or remain stable over time. Another way to conceptualize trends is to think of them as bivariate associations in which one of the variables is time.

Cohort replacement

occurs when younger people have systematically different attitudes than older people who exit a population by death

Age effects

how peoples’ opinions or other characteristics change as they get older

Period effects

a broad pattern in which all ages in a population exhibit a tendency toward change over the same historical period

Unobtrusive methods

social research methods that involve analyzing existing materials rather than interviewing, surveying, or observing people

Societal blind spots

a tendency of individuals to romanticize the past or to presume that certain things are true, even when the facts contradict them

Expert analysis

published books and articles on the researcher’s topic of interest

Records

records are documents the memorialize events or characteristics **at a particular moment in time. eg: census**

News media

used to abstain the facts about both important events and daily living. It can also be **analyzed to uncover biases** about which topics get the most news coverage

Geographic information systems

using statistical software that take many bits of quantitative data and associate them with locations on maps

* These data allow researchers to understand how social phenomena are unfolding across space  

Aggregate data

high-level data which is acquired by combining individual-level data

Micro data

unit-level data obtained from sample surveys, censuses, and administrative systems

Comparative research methods

use materials to examine **change across locations** to answer questions about how and why social processes unfold in particular ways

Historical research methods

examine **change over time** to answer questions about how and why social processes unfold in particular ways

Counterfactuals

a thought exercise of imagining what might have happened but did not, which can be useful in case selection

* helpful for determining the noteworthiness of a selected case

Critical content analysis

An interpretative analysis of media designed to uncover societal blind spots

Quantitative content analysis

Testing hypotheses through the systematic review of materials that have been converted into a quantitative data set

* Involves both purposive and representative random sampling

Coding

the process of translating written or visual material into standardized categories. In qualitative data analysis, this involves tagging or labeling segments of data as an example of or related to a theoretical idea, wider theme, or concept

Coding scheme

a document that lists all the possible categories and outlines specific rules for how to apply those categories to the material

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What should researchers do when they come across material that doesn’t fit their preliminary coding scheme

either create a decision rule or a new category

Decision rule

used in quantitative content analysis, clearly distinguishes mutually exclusive categories of a variable

Deconstruction

a process of rigorously analyzing and making apparent the assumptions, judgments and values that underlie social arrangements

Semi-structured interview

a type of in-depth interview in which the researcher has prepared a list of questions and follow-up probes but is free to ask questions out of order, ask follow-up questions, and allow the conversation to unfold naturally

Unstructured interview

a highly flexible type of in-depth interview in which the researcher has a list of general topics to cover but has control over all the questions and the flow of the interview

* No preset questions at all, interviews may differ greatly between respondents

Informal interview

an informal conversation with people who have background knowledge relevant to a study

* Not usually recorded, some field notes, often provide preliminary knowledge necessary for designing an effective unstructured/structured interview

Oral history

an unstructured or semi-structured interview in which people are asked to recall their experiences in a specific historical era or during a particular historical event

* Goal is to preserve the stories of individual people
* Limitation: possibility of recall bias (difficulty recalling things)

Life history interview

used to understand the life course, not just to preserve the past. An in-depth interview used to understand how lives unfold over time, the timing and sequencing of important life events, and other turning points in individuals lives

Life course

human development over the life span, taking into account how individual lives are socially patterned and affected by historical change

Cognitive interview

an interview with survey respondents to understand how the interpret particular questions and terms. Respondents ‘’think out loud’ as they answer the questions.

* Can also uncover new responses that researchers did not think of when designing multiple-choice response questions

Informant

a person who has special knowledge about a research question based on the person’s social or professional position

Respondent

the person who is interviewed. Also called an interviewee

Purposive sampling

when cases are selected carefully

Case study logic

an approach to research in which the goal is to understand the case or person in depth, not as a representation of a wider population

Sampling for range

a purposive sampling strategy in which researchers truth to maximize respondents’ range of experiences with the phenomena under study

Vignette

a short description of characters or situations that is presented to respondents in order to elicit a response


1. Particularly useful if the topic is difficult to conceptualize through questions alone, or if the topic is sensitive

Reflexivity

an influence on the validity of qualitative research 

* Interviewers need to be reflective about how the context of the interview as well as who the interviewer is may affect responses
* Researchers should also take note of the context of the interview and how that might influence the conversation
* views social reality as constructed or accomplished exactly by efforts to capture and represent it rather than as something that is simply “there”

Moderator

a professionally trained person who leads the discussion in a focus group

* Responsibility: asking designed questions, keeping participants on topic, making sure all participants take part, and no one dominates the convo

Ethnography

a written representation or report that represents a culture; the result of fieldwork. Writing ethnography is office work, not field work. Ethnography joins culture and fieldwork

Limits of ethnography

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* Who you are, how you speak to others, your positionality, can guide and determine how honest people are with you/how much depth you get to see
* Rapport with some informants may preclude it with others
* Accessing culturally sacred matters can mean devoting your entire career to doing so
* The results they achieve are always experiential and highly variable by setting and by person
* Politically mediated: the power of one group to represent another is involved

Community study

a study that takes the entirety of social life into account but within a bounded community such as a small town or a neighborhood

* Ethnographers embed themselves in the world they are studying

Complete participant

one of the four roles a researcher can adopt when doing fieldwork. As a complete participant, the researcher goes undercover, immersing themselves in a fieldwork site and keeping their identity as a researcher a secret

* Difficult to maintain (and not ethical??)
* Reactivity doesn't happen in complete observation

Reactivity

when the presence and action of the researcher change the behaviors and beliefs of the research subjects

Cognitive dissonance

the unpleasant or distressing feeling we experience when we hold two discrepant beliefs, or we engage in a behavior that violates our beliefs

* Theory emerged from a complete participation study of a cult

Participant observer

one of the four roles– where the researcher tells at least some of the people being studies about their real identity as a researcher

* Most subjects’ informed consent can be assumed by their acceptance of the researcher’s presence in their world
* Not every person the ethnographer encountered will have given consent and it can be difficult or impossible for someone to withdraw form a social situation because they do not want to be studied

Hawthorne effect

named after a study of factory workers, the phenomenon whereby merely being observed changes subjects' behavior

* When researchers study people for a sustained period of time and are fully engaged in social life, the Hawthorne effect usually fades

Observer

one of the four roles– the researcher tells people they are being observed but does not take part in the subjects’ activities and lives

Covert observer

Where the researcher observes people who do not know they are being observed or studied, but also don’t participate in the daily life of those they observe

* Cover observers pose the least danger of altering the dynamics of the world they study, but they also run the greatest risk of misunderstanding the situation

Systematic observation

A type of covert observation— a method of observation in which the researcher follows a checklist and timeline for observing phenomena 

* Ethnographers use covert observation to study public settings or to conduct preliminary analysis of a field site before doing participant observation

Grounded theory

a systematic, inductive approach to qualitative research that suggests that researchers should extrapolate conceptual relationships from data rather than formulate testable hypotheses from existing theory

* Ethnographers committed to this approach feel that beginning with theory may lead them to pics too early, potentially closing themselves off to important areas of inquiry

Extended case study approach

an approach to theory in qualitative research in which the researcher starts with an established theory and chooses a field site or case to improve upon or modify the existing theory

* In this approach, the site of the fieldwork, or case, is a micro context best understood through theories that try to explain the macro context

Gatekeeper

a person with the authority to allow outsiders into (or ban them from) a research setting

* Can have formal or informal authority in the community
* Researchers must convince gatekeepers that the research will not harm the community
* Researchers entering a new site as outsiders often must persuade gatekeepers to allow them to enter the field

Rapport

a close and harmonious relationship that allows people to understand one another and communicate effectively

* Developing rapport in the field often involves limiting the “real you” from coming out in your interactions, which can have ethical implications
* Early interactions with research participants tend to be especially important for establishing good rapport

Key informant

a person who is usually quite central or popular in the research setting and who shares their knowledge with the searcher or a person with professional or special knowledge about that social setting

* Most ethnographers get help from key informants early in the study

Field notes

the data produced by a fieldworker, including observations, dialogue, and thoughts about what is experienced in the field

* They are the raw materials of the research that will eventually be transformed into a journal article or book
* Field notes are a major commitment, with one estimate saying tha writing up good field notes takes twice as logan s the time spent in the field

Field notes should include

direct observations

* A chronological account of observations and experiences
* Episodes–-an account of a conversation, an event, or an occurrence that has a beginning and an end
* Physical descriptions—people, locations, and streets
* Separate from description, note your inferences and ideas about what’s going on
* Report your own feelings and reactions during the day
* Record your sociological analysis of the situation

Realist tale

a type of ethnographic writing, also known as classical or mainstream ethnography, often written objectively, in the third person

Confessional tale

a type of ethnographic writing, also known as postmodern ethnography, in which the account of the field is very personalized and incorporates the researcher’s thoughts and feeling throughout; often written in first person

Advocacy tale

a type of ethnographic writing, also known as the critical ethnography, that goes beyond reporting and observation to document a wrong and advocate for change

Visual ethnography

a form of ethnography that involves taking photos of and filming people in their everyday lives

* Goal is to study ppl in their natural habitats through photography and filming

Team ethnography

a research process that emphasises close collaboration between researchers involved in fieldwork, analysis and interpretation of ethnographic data

Triangulation

combining materials-based method with other research methods whenever possible

Cyberethnography

doing ethnographic work in online life

* How tiktok has changed online life, online communities, chatrooms, etc.

The Belmont Report

**1979**: established a national system designed to protect humans involved in social science research

* issued by the National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research

Principles of the Belmont Report: Respect

people are to be treated as autonomous agents in research studies and those with diminished autonomy receive protection. Incarcerated, mentally ill, etc