Methods for Conducting Sociological Research

The Enemy → Mindsets
* Mind-sets are patterns of thinking that affect how we respond to new ideas
Critical thinking
* Actively seeking to understand, analyze, and evaluate information to solve problems
Steps in Critical Thinking
  * Get an understanding of the problem
  * Gather information and interpret it
  * Develop a solution plan and carry it out
  * Evaluate a plan’s effectiveness
Value ridden research
  * Terminology can reflect value based assumptions
  * Questions can be selected or phrased in certain ways to elicit certain responses
  * Samples can be selected in order to skew the results
    * Values can skew results
      * Data collected without using flashy words/misleading ads
Never accept facts without questioning where they came from
* What makes a “fact” seem more real to you? Lobbyists understand these motivations and feed them to the general population
* Can be specific numbers and/or language choices
Objectivity
* The efforts researchers make to minimize distortions in observations or interpretations due to personal or social values.
Scientific Method
* A procedure involving the formulation, testing, and modification of hypotheses based on systematic observation, measurement and/or experiments
Methodology and Research Methods
  * The rules, principles and practices that guide the collection of evidence and the conclusions drawn from it
  * Research Design
    * Descriptive Studies
      * Goal is merely to explain a concept
      * Eg: behavior of a gang member, values of older adults
    * Explanatory Studies
      * Goal is to find out why things happen in a certain way
      * Eg: Why white men are more likely than black men to get prostate exams
  * Methods
    * Quantitative methods
      * Seek to obtain information about the social world that is in, or can be converted to, numeric form.
    * Qualitative methods
      * Attempt to collect information about the social world that cannot be readily converted to numeric form
  * Approaches to research
    * Deductive approach
      * Starts with a theory
      * Develop a hypothesis
      * Make empirical observations
      * Analyze the data collected through observation to confirm, reject or modify the original theory.
        * Might have to re-test
    * Inductive approach
      * starts with empirical observation
      * works to form a theory
      * determines if a correlation exists by noticing if a change is observed in two things simultaneously.
The Scientific Method
  * Theory: a system of orienting ideas
  * Hypothesis: A tentative statement, based on research, theory or prior evidence, that asserts a relationship between two factors
  * Induction: reasoning from the particular to the general
  * Observations: systematic collection of ‘social facts’
  * Deduction: reasoning from the general to the specific

Causality v Correlation
* Correlation (or association) is when two variables tend to track each other positively or negatively (i.e., they tend to vary together).
* Causality is the idea that a change in one factor results in a corresponding change in another factor.
Macro-level vs micro-level orientations
  * Macro-Level Orientation: The Top-Down View
    * Focuses on large-scale patterns of society
  * Micro-Level Orientation: The Bottom-Up View
    * Focuses on small-scale patterns of society
Concepts and Variables
  * Concept: a formal definition of what is being studied
  * Operationalization: definition of a concept into a term that varies & can be measured
  * Variable: measured concept that changes from case to case or time to time
    * Types
      * Independent
        * A variable believed to cause change in another variable [__predictor__]
      * Dependent
        * A variable believed to change because of another variable [__outcome__]
    * Hypothesis about crime
      * An increase in the level of inequality in society will result in an increase in the crime rate in that society.
        * In this hypothesis, we are claiming that our independent variable, inequality, impacts our dependent variable, crime.
    * Measurement of variables
      * Reliability: Degree to which a measurement instrument gives the same results each time that it is used,
        * May not reflect what the researcher is trying to uncover.
      * Validity: Degree to which the measurement reflects what the researcher is hoping to understand about the social world
Research Methods
  * Surveys
  * Interviews
  * Ethnographic research
  * Experiments
  * Historical research

Sampling
  * Random
    * sampling technique in which each sample has an equal probability of being chosen
  * Representative
    * subset of a population that seeks to accurately reflect the characteristics of the larger group
  * Access
    * Volunteers