Ch 5- How Sociologists Do Research

Sociologists do research on about every area of human behaviour:

→ Macro level: they study broad matters as race relations, the military, and the global economic crisis

→ Micro Level: Study individualistic matters as pelvic examinations, how people interact in street corners, shyness

  • All human behaviour is eligible for sociological scrutiny. Research is needed to test common sense ideas, since not all of them are true.

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  • Research Questions: Identifying, refining, evaluating
  • Identifying: finding questions, can be from personal experience, literature, social theory, social trends/troubles
  • Refining: refining your question, to manage the size/scope of the project
  • Evaluating: must have social importance and scientific relevance

 \n A Research Model:

  1. Selecting a Topic
  • Something you want to know more about. Something that drives the sociologist’s interest or their drive to learn more about social life

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  1. Defining the Problem
  • After selecting a topic, they examine specific aspects of a topic

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  1. Reviewing the Literature
  • Read what has been published, it helps narrow down the problem, identify areas that are already known, and learn what areas need to be researched

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  1. Formulating a Hypothesis
  • A Hypothesis is a statement of what you expect to find according to predictions from a theory
  • A hypothesis predicts a relationship between or among variables
  • Variables are factors that change, or vary from one person or situation to another

Hypothesis will need operational definitions, which are precise ways to measure the variables

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  1. Choosing a Research Method
  • Decide how you will collect your data

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  1. Collecting the Data
  • Operational definitions measure the validity of the data gathered
  • Must be sure the data are reliable
  • Reliability means that if other researchers use your operational definitions, their findings will be consistent with you

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  1. Analysing the Results
  • Testing your data depending on the technique which applies to the observations made. Those that apply to observations of people in small settings to the analysis of large-scale surveys
  • If hypothesis has been part of the research, it has to be tested

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  1. Sharing the Results
  • Sociologists will write a report to share their findings with the scientific community
  • When the research is published, it belongs to the scientific community
  • Their findings will be available for replication, so that others can repeat the study to see if they come up with similar results

\ Basic Research Methods (research design)

  1. Surveys
  2. Participant observation
  3. Case studies
  4. Secondary analysis
  5. Documents
  6. Experiments
  7. Unobstructive measures

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