WEEK 13 reading and writing social research

what is a research article?

articles authors write on analyzing their own data or other peoples data

why should we read research articles? 2

1. many jobs require knowing how to

2. it is another way to stand out for jobs

why should we critique research articles? 2

1. not all research is high quality

2. we need to see strengths and weaknesses of articles to evaluate its validity

what are 7 major sections of a research paper?

1. abstract

2. introduction

3. literature review/hypothesis

4. methods/data

5. results

6. discussion/conclusion

7. limitations

what are some steps to reading research articles?

1. identify what you're reading. is it original research, a report, is it peer-reviewed?

2. what is the research question?

3. literature review; what do existing research on this topic show

4. methods/data, who is being studied? how?

5. qualitative and quantitative results

6. key findings, what it means, limitations, and where to go from here

how do you critique a research paper?

read with a critical eye

(look for bias, if the method is good, how strong the evidence is, if it aligns with other findings in existing research)

how is research a cycle?

induction to deduction and so on.

we use observations to make generalizations and come to a theory. we use that theory to create a hypothesis that will show specific observations.

who created the cognitive dissonance theory?

Leon Festinger

what is cognitive dissonance?

psychological tension when there are opposing relationships between cognitions. we are motivated to restore cognitive consistency by resolving opposing cognitions

what is an example of cognitive dissonance for the cult in chicago?

they believed there would be a doomsday, a day when the world will end from a flood

they believed they would be saved by guardians. but time passes, there are no floods and no guardians

so, they believed their belief in the guardians saved them from the flood

What was Festinger and Carlsmith's (1959) study on cognitive dissonance ($1 vs. $20)?

participants were told to persuade another person a boring task is interesting. participants given $1 experienced more cognitive dissonance, and convinced themselves the task wasnt as boring. participants given $20 did not experience cognitive dissonance, because they knew the money was the reason they said it was interesting. it is easier to justify

what is triangulation?

a technique that facilitates validation of data through cross-verification

what is data triangulation?

replicating the study, studying the same phenomenon with different data sources

what is method triangulation?

using multiple research methods combined to study the same phenomenon