LEARNING OBJECT IVES

Chapter 1: The Uses of Social Research Methods

LEARNING OBJECT IVES

After reading Chapter 1, students should be able to do the following:

1.Distinguish research from other ways of knowing about the world.

2.Understand the limitations of relying on authorities or personal expe rience as a basis for knowing about the world.

3.Identify four steps of the scientific meth od.

4.Understand how the scientific method contributes to greater objectivity and intersubjectivity .

5.Appreciate the varied purposes of resear ch.

6.Understand the value and importance of basic and applied resear ch.

7.Identify the distinctions among descriptive, exploratory, explanatory, and evaluative resear ch.KEY TERMS – (page references from text in parentheses) Applied Research (11) Authorities (4) Basic Research (11) Descriptive Study (14) Evaluation Research (16) Explanatory Research (15) Exploratory Research (13) Factually testable (9) Intersubjectivity (7) Objectivity (7) Overgeneralize (9) Personal Inquiry (5) Positivist View of Science (6) Post-Positivist View of Science (7) Premature Closure (6) Qualitative Data Analysis (14) Quantitative Data Analysis (15) Research Question (2) Scientific Method (6) Theory (10) Unit of Analysis (3)

CHAPTER OUTLINE

• Introduction
• What is a research question?

•A question about one or m ore topics or concepts that can be answered through re search.II. Research versus Other Ways of Knowing

• Knowledge from Authorities

•Examples: Mom, Census Bureau, Social Institutions (Religion, School, Media)

1.Problems: may be misleading and/or incorrect

• Knowledge from Personal Inquiry

•Inquir y that employs the senses’ evidence for arriving at knowledge

1.Problems: Overgeneralize from a limited number of ca

ses 2.Perceive Selectivity 3.Premature Closure-tendency to stop searching once we think we have an answ er

• Stren

gths of the Sc ientific Method •Positivist View of Science •Post-positivist view of Science •Objectivity- the ability to see the world as it really is.•Intersubjectivity-agreements about reality that result from comp aring the observations of more than one observer.1 An Invitation to Social Research How It's Done 4e Emily Stier Adler, Ro ger Clark (Instructor Manual (Lecture Notes Only) All Chapters, 10 0% Original Verified, A+ Grade) 1 / 4

The Uses of Social Research Methods •The Promotion of Skepticism and Intersubjectivity •The Extensive Use of Comm unication •Testing Ideas Factually • The Use of Logic •Theoretical Explanation 1.Theory-an explanation of how and why so mething is at is III. The Uses and Purpose of Social Research

• Uses of Social Research

•Basic Research-designed to add to our knowledge about the social world •Applied Research-designed to have practical results and used in the immediate fu ture

• Purpose of Social Research

•Exploratory Research 1.Inductive research on a relatively unstudied topic in a new area 2.Qualitative data analys is •Descriptive Resear ch 1.Research designed to describe groups, activiti es, situations, or events. Provides detailed and precise idea of the way things are, perhaps even how they have changed over time.

2.Quantitative data analys is •Explanatory Rese arch 1.Research designed to explain why subjects vary in one way or another; play s an important role in theory building.IV. Evaluation Research

• Evaluation Research-research designed to assess the impacts of program

s, policies, or legal changes.

TEACHING TIPS

In Class Assignments 1.Bring in, or have students bring in, some articles from the newspaper about topics of interest to sociologists. Compare journalistic coverage to social science interest. Discuss th e sources of data and what these reports might mean to the public and to interest groups. Discuss why it is so difficult to get "final answers" on questions that are essentially tied to values, e.g.the death penalty, abortion and others .

2.Have students spend a few minutes writing about why so many people spend so much time an d money on consulting psychics and horoscopes. Why are so many individuals willing to trust the advice of sources, whose basis in evidence is somewhat suspect (from a scientific point of view)?

3.The media is another authoritative source from wh ich we get information. Have students discuss sources of media, those of which are more trustable authoritative sources and those which ma y be more biased. Have students discuss ways in which the media may collect and present informati on in ways that may be biased.

4.Create a survey with items that collects basic descript ive data about students as well responses to questions about political opinions and attitudes. Students should generate a code name for

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Chapter 1 themselves. This survey should be collected and then distributed to students for analysis throughout the semester. (See Chapters 6, 9, and 15 in this manual for exercises that use information gathered in this survey). This test or survey should include different types of questions (closed-ended and open ended), with allowance for data analysis with nominal, ordinal and other levels of measurement. The instrument should include questions that are clearly worded, as well as those that are likely to be misunderstood by students. A sample pre-test is shown in the Appendix.

• Have students spend a class time in a student union, or place on campus heavily populated by

students on campus. To demonstrate the example of knowledge by personal inquiry, have students do a one hour observational research of campus students. Students can be observing whether or not students are studying, socializing, attending or skipping class. Are certain types of students more likely to engage in certain types of activities? What do they conclude about the student body after these observations? How does this activity coincide with the example and issues that go along with knowledge by personal inquiry?Videos

There are many films that can be used to begin a discussion of research methods in sociology.

• Sociological Thinking and Research

Focusing on a sociological study of Times Square, this video discusses how research is used to answer key questions about society. The researchers discuss the formulation of research questions, employ multiple methodologies and explain how their findings are used by stakeholders and other interested audiences.

This film can be found by writing to Insight Media, 121 West 85 th Street, New York, NY 10024.

Discussion questions:

• Why is itmportant to spend the time to develop appropriate experimental designs for each

research question?

• What was the study done in Time Square? What was researcher’s experimental design?
• Why is it important to have a sociological imagination when developing research questions?

• Research Methods for the Social Sciences

This video provides an overview of the research process and the challenges of applying the scientific method in the social sciences. Advantages and disadvantages of using various methodologies are also discussed along with research ethics.

Discussion questions:

• What are the steps to the scientific method?
• What ethical issues are discussed in the film?

This film is commonly found in library catalogues. If your specific university library does not hold the title, request an interlibrary loan. You can also request the title from ProMedion productions.

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The Uses of Social Research Methods Homework Assignments

• In Exercise 1.1, Ways of Knowing about Social Behavior in the text, students are asked to

compare different ways of knowing about the world. This could serve as a good introductory exercise where students compare their taken-for-granted views of the world with information gathered through data collection. Have students use authoritative sources for data sources, such as information found on the Census Website, or General Social Survey Website.

• To spark student interest in social research, have students access the Sociological Tour of

Cyberspace web site listed below. Ask students to investigate one of the links provided by Kearl and be prepared to discuss what the site holds in class.

• Have students access sociological journal articles, or you can provide students with a sample of

articles for analysis. With each article have students identify whether the research question is exploratory, descriptive, or explanatory. Also have students identify whether or not the analysis is qualitative or quantitative.

• Have students bring in two or three Census Reports they find and print out online. With the

Census Reports have students identify the research question addressed, units of analysis, and any relevant findings. Do the findings coincide with any knowledge previously found by personal inquiry?

• Have students complete exercise 1.3, but about a more relevant sociological research question,

such as crime or drug use. For crime, students can focus on their neighborhood, campus housing, or apartment complex as a place where crime occurs or does not occur.Internet Exercises

http://www.trinity.edu/~mkearl/

A Sociological Tour of Cyberspace This site managed by Mike Kearl at Trinity University in Texas is a very comprehensive site for sociologists teaching a variety of courses. A good exercise for week one is to direct students to locate this site and identify areas of interest. There are links to resources for data analysis, methods and statistics, subject-based inquiries and other topics. Kearl also provides a guide to writing a research paper, resources for evaluating the credibility of resources on the web and ways for students to locate data to examine hypotheses.

http://www.census.gov/

US Census Bureau web site On the main front page students can access short fact sheets. Under people and households students can click on a more specific topic, such as households or poverty to get more specific short fact sheets. Also on the main page students can access the data finder where they can put in their specific county or city and get demographic specifics. These can be used as authoritative data sources for class discussion.

http://publicsociology.com/

Homepage for Public Sociology This website is a social reform movement to conduct a new type of sociology. When discussing basic research, applied research, and evaluation research, have students also look at a different type of research which is often debated and discussed; public research. Sociologists engaging in public research utilize

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