POL2156 - Theme 1

What is a SIMPLE RANDOM SAMPLE? How can one obtain a simple random sample? What variables are used? How do you calculate a sampling ratio?

SIMPLE RANDOM SAMPLE: - each element has the same probability of being selected - each combination of elements has the same probability of being selected TO SELECT a Simple Random Sample: 1. Devise a sampling frame - a list of elements in the population 2. Number all the elements consecutively starting at 1 3. Pick a sample size (n) from the total population (N) 4. Use a random number table or computer program to generate a list of random numbers 5. The sample will be comprised of the cases whose element numbers match the randomly generated numbers SAMPLING RATIO: - the sampling ration: n/N (sample size = n; population size = N) ex. A sample size (n) of 1000 taken from a population (N) of 100 000 - sampling ratio is .01 (1000/100 000)

What is a STANDARD ERROR OF THE MEAN?

STANDARD ERROR OF THE MEAN: - probability samples with sufficient sample sizes minimize the amount of sampling error, but some sampling error is bound to occur - this sort of sampling error is measured by a statistic called the Standard Error of the Mean - about 95% of all sample means lie within 1.96 standard errors of the mean

What is STRATIFIED RANDOM SAMPLING? How does it differ from a SIMPLE RANDOM or SYSTEMATIC SAMPLE? How is a Stratified Sample obtained? What are the PROS/CONS of stratified random sampling?

STRATIFIED RANDOM SAMPLING ensures that subgroups in the population are proportionally represented in the sample EX. assume you are doing a study of students and want to ensure that each faculty is represented in the sample proportionally - assume a sampling ratio of 1 in 20 or 0.5 - the number of cases drawn from each faculty should equal 1/20 of all students in that faculty - that result is not guaranteed with a simple random or systematic sample***** TO SELECT A STRATIFIED RANDOM SAMPLE: 1. Stratify the population, i.e., divide it into subgroups (in our example, into faculties) 2. Select a sample or a systematic sample from each stratum - in our case, the number of cases selected from a stratum would equal 1/20th of the number of people in that stratum PROS/CONS: - using this procedure ensures that each stratum (faculty) is proportionally represented in the total sample - however, doing this is not always predictable

What are 4 features of STRUCTURED OBSERVATION in regards to sampling?

STRUCTURED OBSERVATION AND SAMPLING: 1. Often no sampling frame - ex. a list of all people who were admitted to the emergency room at a particular hospital 2. May involve time sampling - ex. an emergency room may be observed at random times throughout the day 3. may include place sampling - ex. a study of student activities on campus may involve a sampling of places such as dining halls, pubs, classrooms etc. 4. May include behaviour sampling - ex. a researcher may want to observe ever fifth interaction between students and librarians at a particular reference desk

What is a SYSTEMATIC SAMPLE? How is it obtained? What variables are used? What is a potential problem that might occur with SYSTEMATIC SAMPLING?

SYSTEMATIC SAMPLE: selected directly from the sampling frame without using random numbers VARIABLES: - i = size of sampling interval - ex.if you want to select every 30th case, i = 30 HOW TO OBTAIN: 1. To begin, choose a number at random from 1 to (i), in this case from 1 to 30 - that number is known as a "random start" - the case with that number is the first case selected POTENTIAL PROBLEM: - a potential problem with systematic sampling: periodicity - Periodicity occurs if the cases in the sampling frame are arranged in some systematic order - ex. in an election study: vote, non-vote, vote, non vote - the problem with that is, if we were to select every 30th case starting with case 20, we would select case 20, 50, 80 etc. - i.e., all cases would be non-votes

What are the 6 categories that can influence social research?

Social Research can be influenced by: 1. Values 2. Politics 3. Ontology 4. Epistemology 5. Practical Considerations 6. Theory

Give an example of a Simple Random Sample

Suppose there is enough money to interview 450 students at the university. This means that the probability of inclusion in the sample is: 450/900 = 1 in 20 This is known as the SAMPLING RATIO: n/N The key steps in devising a simple random sample are as follows: 1. Define the population. Here N is all full-time students at the university: 9000 2. Select or devise a comprehensive sampling frame. In this case, let's assume that (a) the office that keeps student records haas a list of full-time students and (b) you have access to it 3. Decide on the sample size (n) you will use; here n is 450 4. List all the students in the population and assign them consecutive numbers from 1 to N, here 1 to 9000 5. Using a table of random numbers, or a computer program that can generate random numbers, select n (450) different numbers from 1 to N (9000) 6. The students who math the n (450) random numbers constitute the sample. Two points are worth noting here. First there is almost no opportunity for bias, since in this case the selection process is entirely random: students are not selected on the basis of subjective criteria such as whether or not they look friendly and approachable. Second, selection does not depend on availability: students do not have to by the interviewer in order to be included in the sample. The process of selection takes place without their knowledge, and they do not know they will be asked to be part of a social survey until they are contacted by someone associated with the study.

Give an example illustrating the pros and cons of convenience sampling

Suppose you want to study university undergraduates to find out the extent of their part-time employment while at school. To save time and effort you decide to conduct the study at your own university. You could use probability sampling to get participants, but you think the research is not important enough to justify the cost. Instead you choose five faculties, and within each, one or two of the specific degree programs it offers: anthropology, visual arts, chemistry, electrical engineering, French, kinesiology, media studies, and psychology. This choice of subjects is designed to maximize variety in the types of degree programs represented while providing similar numbers of males and females (since in particular degree programs one gender frequently predominates). Questionnaires can then be given to students in first-, second-, third-, and fourth-year courses. Together, these procedures represent a good attempt at generating a varied sample. It is a convenience sample, because the choices of university, faculty, degree program, and course are made purposively rather than randomly. Because of the way the questionnaires are administered (in class), there is a very high response rate. On the other hand, students who are absent from class do not get a chance to fill out a questionnaire. An important question is whether absence from class is connected in some way to part-time work, the latter variable being the focus of your study. In other words, is absence higher among students who work part-time, perhaps because they are working at the time of the class? Are some students too tired to go to class because of their part-time work? If so, you will probably underestimate the proportion of students who work part-time. Also, because you have selected a convenience sample, you must say so in your research report, acknowledging that the results cannot be generalized to Canadian students as a whole or even to the student population at your university.

What are the advantages and limitations of THE LABORATORY EXPERIMENT?

THE LABORATORY EXPERIMENT: Advantages: - greater control over environment is an asset - easier to assign participants randomly to conditions Limitations: - low external validity - life in a test tube?

What are the 4 main goals of qualitative research?

THE MAIN GOALS OF QUALITATIVE RESEARCH: 1. Seeing through the eyes of the studied 2. emphasis on process 3. flexibility and limited structure 4. ultimate goals

Explain and summarize 'The National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth'

'The National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth' This panel study is a long-term effort to monitor Canadian children's development and well-being as they mature from infancy to adulthood. It began with a representative sample of children 11 years of age or younger in 1994-5 being interviewed, with follow-ups every two years. Statistics Canada collects the data, with direction provided by Human Resources Development Canada. The study hopes to follow the subjects until they are 25 years old, and to contribute to the development of policies that help children live healthy, active, and rewarding lives (see Michaud, 2001). The data for Cycle 8, which began in September 2008, were released in November 2010 (Statistics Canada, 2010).

Explain CROSS-SECTIONAL DESIGN

- Cross-sectional designs involve taking observations at one point in time (no "before" and "after" comparisons) - they do not include a manipulation of the independent variable (no "treatment" is given) - entails the collection of data (usually quantitative) on more than one case - researchers are interested in variation between different people, families, nation-states and so on, and variation can be established only when more than one case is examined - researchers employing this design usually select many cases because: 1. a larger number makes it more likely that variation will be encountered in ALL the variables of interest 2. a second reason is that certain statistical techniques are likely to require large sample sizes EXAMPLES: questionnaires, structured interviews, structured observation - two or more variables are measured in order to detect patterns of association + remember, correlation does not equal causation

Explain the following challenges that would effect a study's conclusions if there was NO control group or random assignment.

- History. This refers to events other than the manipulation of teacher expectations that might have caused the spurters' scores to rise. For example, suppose that the school's principal had taken steps to raise standards in the school. Without a control group, we could not be sure whether it was the teachers' expectations or the principal's action that produced the increase in spurters' grades. With a control group, we can say that the principal's action should have had an effect on the control subjects too, and therefore that the differences between the experimental and control groups can be attributed to the effect of teacher expectations alone. •Testing. This threat refers to the possibility that subjects may become more experienced at taking a test or sensitized to the aims of the experiment as a result of the pre-test. The presence of a control group, which presumably would also experience the same things, diminishes this possibility. •Instrumentation. This threat refers to the possibility that changes in the way a test is administered can account for an increase (or decrease) in scores between a pre-test and post-test; for example, perhaps the teachers know their students better or are more friendly the second time they give the test. Again, if there is a control group, the people in that group should be affected as well. •Mortality. A particular problem for studies that span a long period of time is the risk that some subjects will leave the experiment before it is over: for example, some students might move to a different school, or experience a long-term illness. Since this problem is likely to affect the control group too, it may not make a difference to the results. However, experimenters should try to determine whether mortality has affected the experimental and control groups differently. •Maturation. Quite simply, people change over time and the ways in which they change may have implications for the dependent variable. The spurters might have improved anyway as they got older, regardless of the effect of teacher expectancies. But the control group would also mature, so maturation effects cannot explain the differences between it and the control group. •Selection. When subjects are not assigned randomly to the experimental and control groups, variations between them in the post-test may be due to pre-existing differences between the two groups. For example, if all the best students were given the spurter label, it might have been their pre-existing academic ability rather than teacher expectations that caused them to do better. However, since a random selection process was employed here, the "selection" risk is greatly reduced. With random assignment, the top students would make up roughly the same proportion of the spurter group as the non-spurter group, cancelling out the effect of pre-existing academic ability. However, even with the use of random assignment, if the number of people in each group is relatively small, there is still a risk of pre-existing differences between the experimental and control groups.

Describe the CASE STUDY DESIGN - what is it's use? What are some drawbacks?

- sometimes questions arise regarding the external validity of case studies - the findings for a particular case may not be applicable to other cases - however, achieving external validity is not the main reason for doing a case study - case studies have other strengths - they provide in-depth descriptions of the characteristics of a particular case that cannot be achieved using other method - a basic case study involved an in-depth study of a single case - a single case can be a person, family, organization, event, country etc. - it can involve qualitative and/or quantitative research methods

Explain the three criteria of causation that nomothetic explanations have to satisfy: 1. correlation 2. time order 3. non-spuriousness

1. CORRELATION: the proposed cause and the proposed effect have to vary together. Ex. In our example, as the number of violent movies watched changes, the level of violence would have changed as well. You would have to observe that, in general, the greater the number of violent movies watched, the higher the level of violence. 2. TIME ORDER. The proposed cause must precede the effect in time. Ex. assume that you do find a correlation between watching violent movies and real violence. You would also have to show that the increase in the watching of violent movies came BEFORE he increase in violence. If you found that the increase in watching of violent movies occurred after the level of violence went up, your explanation would have to be rejected. 3. NON-SPURIOUSNESS. Alternative explanations for the correlation observed have to be ruled out. "Spurious" literally means false or illegitimate. - a common source of spuriousness is a variable that influences both the proposed cause and the effect. Ex. suppose our data reveal that people who are violent tend to watch a lot of violent movies, and that people who reject violence watch very few violent films, i.e.,that the two variables are correlated. Can we conclude from this that watching violent movies CAUSES people to be more violent? In order to answer that question, we would try to determine whether some third factor is the cause of the correlation between the number of violent movies watched and the level of violence. For instance, could it be that people who are violent to begin with seek out violent movies? If so, then pre-existing violent tendencies affect both the watching of violent movies (your proposed cause) and the level of violence (the effect). If that is the case, the correlation between watching violent movies and the level of real violence is spurious, and your explanation does not hold up.

Break down the four criteria for evaluating trustworthiness of research

1. Credibility: - do the people studied agree with the interpretation of their thoughts and actions offered by the researcher? - conducted through respondent (member) validation + the people studied may become defensive and try to censor the research + the people studied may not give genuine feedback on what the researcher produced, but may instead try to please the researcher + the people studied may not have expertise to provide meaningful comments 2. Transferability - can the findings be applied to other contexts or people not studied? - "thick" description helps to determine whether transferability is possible + provides enough information to conduct later comparison to findings from other studies 3. Dependability - were proper procedures followed? - can the study's theoretical inferences be justified? + "auditing" is sometimes done wherein peers review the research and procedures to see if the study is dependable + may be time consumer and expensive because of the amount of data gathered in a qualitative research project 4. Confirmability - was the researcher objective and unbiased? - did the researcher sway the results dramatically? - "auditing" can be used to examine this

Describe the general research orientation in quantitative or qualitative methods of study for each of the four research designs: 1. experimental 2. cross-sectional 3. longitudinal 4. case study

1. EXPERIMENTAL - Quantitative: typically most experiments involve quantitative comparisons between experimental and control groups on dependent variables. ex. rosenthal and jacobson - Qualitative: experiments are not used in qualitative research, although they may inspire or be inspired by qualitative findings. ex. a qualitative study of teachers who participated in the rosenthal jacobson study would be enlightening 2. CROSS-SECTIONAL - Quantitative: survey research and structured observation on a sample at a single point in time are two forms; content analysis of a sample of documents is another - Qualitative: qualitative interviews or focus groups at a single point in time are two forms; qualitative content analysis of a set of documents relating to a single period is another. 3. LONGITUDINAL - Quantitative: survey research on a sample on more than one occasion, as in panel and cohort studies is one form; content analysis of documents relating to different time periods is another - Qualitative: include ethnographic research over a long period, qualitative interviewing on more than one occasion, or qualitative content analysis of documents relating to different time periods. * such research is longitudinal when the main purpose is to map change 4. CASE STUDY: - Quantitative: survey research is conducted on a single case with a view to revealing important features about its nature - Qualitative: the intensive study done by qualitative interviewing of a single case, which may be an organization, person, family or community

Identify the general orientations of quantitative and qualitative research

1. Quantitative research: uses numbers and statistics in the collection and analysis of data - role of theory in research: mainly inductive; generation of theory - epistemological orientation: interpretivism - ontological orientation: constructionism 2. Qualitative research: uses mainly words and other non-numeric symbols in the collection and analysis of data - role of theory in research: mainly deductive; testing of theory - epistemological orientation: natural science model; positivism - ontological orientation: objectivism -- are these differences irreconcilable? -- does real-life research cluster neatly into these two camps?

Break down the 4 main goals of qualitative research: - seeing through the eyes of the studied - emphasis on process - flexibility and limited structure - ultimate goals

1. Seeing through the eyes of the studied - empathy + probing "beneath the surface" of social behaviour + seeing through the eyes of the people studied - in-depth description and emphasis on context + behaviour that may seem odd or irrational may become more understandable if the context is described + naturalism is an approach that helps the researcher gain an understanding of the social context + observing people in their own environment 2. emphasis on process - showing how events and patterns unfold over time - a long time spent in the field allows the researcher to understand individual and social change and its context - this can also be done with semi-structured interviewing, unstructured interviewing, and life history approach 3. flexibility and limited structure - questions should be quite general + especially early in the research - there is usually little or no theory driving the research - the topics explored in the research may change as the study progresses - allows the researcher to find new directions of study 4. ultimate goals - seeing through the eyes of others - bring out a sense of process - having a flexible and unstructured method of inquiry - achieving a deep understanding of the people or groups being studied - pursue social justice and bring about social change

What are the 5 major threats to external validity that cook and campbell have identified?

1. The representativeness of the study participants. To what social and psychological groups can a finding be generalized? Can it be generalized to a wide variety of individuals who differ in ethnicity, social class, religion, gender, and type of personality? In the Rosenthal and Jacobson study, the students were largely from poorer groups and a large proportion from ethnic minorities. This may limit the generalizability of the findings. 2. The effects of the setting. Can the results of a study be applied to other settings (in Rosenthal and Jacobson's case, to other schools)? There is also the wider issue of whether expectation effects can also be discerned in non-educational settings. 3. History effects. This threat raises the question of whether the findings can be generalized to the past and into the future. The Rosenthal and Jacobson research was conducted more than 50 years ago. Would the findings still apply today? Also, their investigation was conducted at a particular juncture in the school year. Would the same results have been obtained if the research had been conducted at different points in the year? 4. The effects of pre-testing. As a result of being pre-tested, subjects in an experiment may become sensitized to the experimental treatment, with the result that their responses are affected as they become more test-wise. Consequently, the findings may not be generalizable to groups that have not been pre-tested, and, of course, in the real world people are rarely pre-tested. This may have occurred in the Rosenthal and Jacobson research, since all students were pre-tested at the end of the previous academic year, so the students new to the school in the fall (when the teachers were told about spurters) presumably were not pre-tested. 5. Reactive effects produced by the experimental arrangements. People are frequently, if not invariably, aware of the fact that they are participating in an experiment. Their awareness may influence how they respond to the experimental treatment; for example, they may react by behaving in a socially acceptable manner rather than sincerely and spontaneously, which could affect the generalizability of the findings. Since Rosenthal and Jacobson's subjects do not appear to have been aware that they were participating in an experiment, this problem is unlikely to have been significant. The issue of reactivity and its potentially damaging effects is a recurring theme in many types of social research

What are the 11 main steps of quantitative research?

1. Theory 2. Hypothesis 3. Research Design + choice has implications for a variety of issues like external validity 4. devise measures of concepts + process referred to as operationalization: operations performed to measure something 5. Select research site(s) 7. Administer research instruments/collect data + in experimental research, this usually means pre-testing subjects, manipulating the independent variable for the experimental group only, and post-testing + in cross-sectional research using survey research instruments, it involves interviewing the members of the sample with a structured interview schedule or distributing a self-completion questionnaire + in structured observation research, this step involves watching the setting of interest and the people it it, and then recording the types of behaviours observed 8. Process data + can be straightforward like recorded in a computer file + other variables may need to coded 9. Analyze data 10. Findings/conclusions 11. write up findings/conclusions Once the findings have been published they become part of the stock of knowledge in their domain. Thus there is a feedback loop from step 11 back to step 1. The presence of both an element of deductions (steps 1 and 2) and induction (the feedback loop) is indicative of the positivist foundations of quantitative research. The emphasis on the translation of concepts into measures (step 4) is also a feature of positivism

Define Validity and Internal Validity

1. VALIDITY is concerned with the integrity of the conclusions generated by a piece of research 2. INTERNAL VALIDITY is concerned with the issue of whether causation has been established by a particular study ex. did the study establish that personal income level in Canada really is influenced by one's level of education? Could income be influenced by something else?

What are the 3 core overlapping general ethical principles?

3 CORE OVERLAPPING ETHICAL PRINCIPLES: 1. Respect for Persons 2. Concern for welfare 3. Justice

What are 3 sources of bias in sampling?

3 SOURCES OF BIAS IN SAMPLING: 1. Not using a random method to pick the sample 2. The sampling frame - human judgement that selects one group over another 3. Non-response - some people in the sample fail to participate which skews the data

What are the 3 main reasons for the attention given to measurement in quantitative research?

3 main reasons for the attention given to measurement in quantitative research: 1. Measurement allows for delineation of FINE DIFFERENCES between people in terms of the characteristic in question. This is very useful since, although it is often easy to distinguish between people in terms of extreme categories, finer distinctions are much more difficult to recognize. Clear variations in levels of job satisfaction - people who love their jobs and people who hate their jobs - are easy to see, but small differences are much more difficult to detect. 2. Measurement provides a CONSISTENT DEVICE or yardstick for gauging such distinctions. This consistency related both to time and to the people using the measure. A measure's results should not be affected by either the time when it is administered or the person who administers it. With regard to time, this rule means that the measure should generate consistent results UNLESS the phenomenon or characteristic being measures has changed. Ex. measures of worker morale administered at different times should indicate the same level of morale unless the morale itself has changed - should also stay the same regardless of who is administering - whether a measure actually possesses this consistency pertains to the issue of reliability 3. Measurement provides the basis for ESTIMATES OF THE NATURE AND STRENGTH OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN VARIABLES (ex. correlation analysis)

What are four sources of error in quantitative research?

4 SOURCES OF ERROR IN QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH: 1. Sampling error 2. sampling-related error 3. data collection error 4. data processing error - Sampling error: arises because it's rare to end up with a perfectly representative sample, even when probability sampling is employed - Sampling-related error arises from activities or events related to the sampling process. Each reduces the generalizability or the external validity of findings ex. inaccurate sampling frame & non-response

What are the 4 types of probability samples?

4 TYPES OF PROBABILITY SAMPLES: 1. simple random sample 2. systematic sample 3. stratified random sampling 4. multi-stage cluster sampling

How can you calculate population mean?

95% of all sample means lie within (+ or -) 1.96 standard errors of the population mean. If a sample has been selected according to probability sampling principles, we can be 95% certain that the population mean lies between: (a) [the sample mean] - [1.96 times the standard error of mean] and (b) [the sample mean] + [1.96 times the standard error of the mean] This is known as the 95% confidence interval. If the mean level of alcohol consumption in the previous seven days in our sample of 450 students is 9.7 units and the standard error of the mean is 1.3, we can be 95% certain that the population mean lies between: 9.7 - (1.96 x 1.3) and 9.7 + (1.96 x 1.3) That is, between 7.152 and 12.247 units of alcohol.

Give two examples of quasi-experiments

A common type of quasi-experiment compares data collected before and after a policy shift by government or industry. For example, the numbers of car accidents before and after the lowering of a speed limit can be compared. If the number goes down after the speed limit has been lowered, the policy would appear to be a success, but one cannot be sure because there is no control group not experiencing the change. Perhaps the change was caused by something other than the reduction in the speed limit, such as increased media coverage of car accidents. Another example might involve the installation of cameras to detect speeding. If the cameras are placed only in randomly selected places and not in others, the research changes from a quasi-to a real experiment, since the locations without cameras would constitute a control group. Governments find it difficult, however, to subject some people to one condition and others to another. The prison system, schools, and other institutions controlled by governments are part of the real social world, and as such have to meet goals that are very different from those of experimental research. That makes it next to impossible for governments to randomly assign people to different conditions. Therefore, they usually have to make do with quasi-experimental evaluations of policy changes. A criminologist may want to randomly assign criminals to jail or home custody and then compare the two forms of detention, but the potential for some of the at-homes to reoffend would be seen as too great a risk. Because minor criminals are more likely to get home custody than are more serious criminals, a fair test is not possible without random assignment. Similarly, when Canada abolished the death penalty, it was not for the purpose of conducting an experiment: abolition was a policy decision. Data could be examined as if the change were part of a quasi-experiment, for example, by comparing the murder rate before and after capital punishment was abolished; but the legislation was definitely not intended for that purpose.

Elaborate on the Zimbardo Study

A good illustration of what can go wrong when subjects are pressured into remaining in a study can be found in the Stanford mock prison study (Haney, Banks, & Zimbardo, 1973). In this experiment, psychologically healthy male university students were randomly selected to be either "guards" or "prisoners" in a simulated prison set up in the basement of a university building. "Guards" were given uniforms, wooden batons, and reflective sunglasses (to avoid eye contact with the "prisoners" and thus to dehumanize them), and were told to instill fear in the "prisoners." The "prisoners" were given humiliating smocks and headgear to wear, and had to address the "guards" in a respectful manner regardless of how they were being treated. The aim of the study was to see whether taking on the role of "guard" would create feelings of omnipotence and lead to belligerent behaviour, and whether being treated like a prisoner would produce feelings of subservience, self-alienation, resentment, and hostility. In short, the aim of the study was to see whether placing ordinary people in these roles would lead to stereotypical prison behaviour. The study was designed to last two weeks. Zimbardo describes what happened: At the end of only six days we had to close down our mock prison because what we saw was frightening. It was no longer apparent to us or most of the subjects where they ended and their roles began. The majority had indeed become "prisoners" or "guards" no longer able to clearly differentiate between role-playing and self. There were dramatic changes in virtually every aspect of their behavior, thinking and feeling; human values were suspended, self-concepts were challenged, and the ugliest, most base, pathological side of human nature surfaced. We were horrified because we saw some boys ("guards") treat other boys as if they were despicable animals, taking pleasure in cruelty, while other boys ("prisoners") became servile, dehumanized robots who thought only of escape, of their own individual survival, and their mounting hatred of the guards. (Zimbardo, 1971; quoted in Aronson, 1992, pp. 10-11; emphasis added) ISSUES: - many "prisoners" wanted to leave long before the study was terminated. Yet they were given every indication that they had no choice but to stay in the study, and were convinced that for all practical purposes they were in a prison + a few were allowed to leave early, but only after showing signs of extreme stress and even hysteria - need for REBs: it didn't occur to Zimbardo that his work was causing research participants harm. It was not until a student research assistant told him she thought the treatment of the "prisoners" was awful that he relented and brought the study to an end. + presumably, an REB review would have spared the "prisoners" considerable agony - participant payment: in general it's considered unethical to offer payment if that would lead subjects to take risks they would not otherwise accept + payment should not put undue pressure on people to take part or remain in a study - Some REBs do not allow subjects to be paid for their participation, except to cover the costs of taking part (parking etc.) - purpose is to prevent poor people from "selling themselves" to researchers

How can values influence social research?

A researcher's values can contribute bias in research: - choice of topic - formulation of the research question - choice of method - formulation of research design and data collection methods - actual data collection - analysis of data - interpretation of data - conclusions REFLIXIVITY: - researchers' awareness that their values and decisions have an impact on the research - personal biases are made explicit 3 DIFFERENT POSITIONS ON VALUES IN SOCIAL RESEARCH: 1. Research should be value-free 2. research cannot be value-free, but researchers should be open and explicit about their values 3. researchers should use their values to direct and interpret their investigations: value commitment is a good thing for researchers to have

What are the Alternative Criteria for Evaluating Qualitative Research? (2)

ALTERNATIVE CRITERIA FOR EVALUATION OF QUALITATIVE RESEARCH: 1. Trustworthiness: made up of four criteria - credibility - transferability - dependability - confirmability 2. Authenticity: the degree to which the research is transformative and emancipatory for the people studied and society at large

How did the term "procedural compliance" emerge through a study?

Along with some colleagues, Bryman undertook an evaluation of new staff appraisal schemes in four universities. The research entailed collecting both quantitative and qualitative data, the former derived from large numbers of interviews with appraisers, appraisees, senior managers, and many others. In the course of conducting the interviews and analyzing the data, the team became increasingly aware that many of those interviewed expressed a certain cynicism about the appraisal project. For some it was a belief that nothing of any significance happens as a result of an appraisal meeting; for others it was a feeling that the appraisal process itself is not very meaningful. As one of the interviewees said, "It's like going through the motions of it [appraisal]. It's just get it over with and signed and dated and filed and that's the end of it" (Bryman et al., 1994, p. 180). On the basis of these findings the researchers suggested that the attitudes toward appraisal and the behaviour of those involved in it were characterized by "procedural compliance"—a term that the researcher coined and defined as "a response to an organizational innovation in which the technical requirements of the innovation . . . are broadly adhered to, but where there are substantial reservations about its efficacy and only partial commitment to it" (1994, p. 178).

How were athletes caught using sampling distribution methods?

Assume a population of five cases (scores = 6, 8, 10, 12, 14) from which a random sample of two cases is selected. The five scores sum to 50 and therefore the mean of the population is 50/5, or 10. Taking all possible random samples of two cases with replacement (meaning that after a case is chosen it goes back into the pool, so that two 6s or two 14s are possible), and calculating the means of each sample of size two, the following set of means results: Thus the 7, where 6 and 8 meet, is the mean of those two values, namely: [6 + 8]/2 = 7; the 13 appears where 12 and 14 meet: [12 + 14]/2 = 13. Now count the number of the sample means in the table; there are 25. There is only one mean of 14, in the bottom right corner, but five means of 10, on the diagonal. Thus five of the 25 sample means, or 20 per cent of them, have a value of 10, the same as the population mean. Sample means of 9 and 11 are the next most frequent at 32 per cent (a combined total of 8 of 25 means). With 8 and 12, another 24 per cent (6 of 25) are now counted. So sample means of 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12 represent 76 per cent of all possible sample means. The sample means furthest from the population mean, the 6 and 14 (in each corner), are the rarest, at 4 per cent (1 of 25) each. Those percentages are really probabilities. The probability of getting a sample mean of 7 is 2 chances in 25 or, as it is usually expressed, 8 chances in 100 or 8 per cent. The logic of a confidence interval should now be more apparent. A researcher normally takes only one sample, but most random sample results stay close to the population value. In our example, 76 per cent of the sample means are within (±) 2 units of the population mean. When plotted, these results don't exactly take the shape of the bell curve shown in Figure 7.5, but you can see the broad outline. Including more and more cases in the sample shapes the lines into a normal curve. With a real sample, an extension can be created on each side of the sample mean to make it more likely to be correct than if the sample mean by itself were used. The extension for a 95 per cent confidence interval is equal to 1.96 times the standard error of the mean. (In Box 7.2 the sample mean was 9.7, and the extensions were ± [1.96 × 1.3] or ± 2.548). The extensions around the sample mean create what is called an interval. There is only a 5 per cent chance that the interval does not include the population mean for a 95 per cent confidence interval. This is basically how athletes using banned substances are caught. They provide one bio-sample (actually two, but one is a backup), which the authorities then check against a more sophisticated version of the table to the right. For example, suppose that the population mean value for testosterone is 10 and athlete X comes in at 14. While that is a possible (non-drugged) outcome, it is rare. So if the doping committee is willing to be wrong 4 per cent of the time (the frequency with which an honest 14 occurs), the athlete can be accused. With a reputation at stake, however, a 4 per cent chance of error is too high. That is why the tests allow for only much less likely errors.

What are DEFINITIVE vs SENSITIZING concepts?

Blumer (1954): Definitive vs. Sensitizing concepts 1. Definitive concepts: defined with nominal and operational definitions, as in quantitative research 2. Sensitizing concepts: provide only a general sense of reference and guidance as to the content of the concept - begin with a broad definition of a concept and narrow it down through the research process

Define CENSUS

CENSUS: data collected from all elements in the population rather than from a sample. The phrase "the census" typically refers to the enumeration of all (or nearly all members of the population of a nation-state - that is, a national census.

What is the CLASSIC EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN?

CLASSIC EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN: 1. Independent and dependent variables are identified 2. the dependent variable is observed or measured (pre-test) in each of the control and treatment groups and recorded at T1 (time 1) 3. The treatment group receives the treatment while the control group is left alone 4. The dependent variable is observed or measured (post-test) in each of the control and treatment groups and recorded as occurring at T2 (time 2) 5. Any changes in each group are noted - ideally change will only occur in the treatment group - true experimental evidence would eliminate all other possible (rival) explanations for the change in the dependent variable in the treatment group - most social experience involves complex issues; thus, it is hoped that the control group and random distribution of subjects will increase VALIDITY

How is the CONCERN FOR WELFARE principle provided for in ethical guidelines? - strategies (quantitative and qualitative) - covert research - duty to report - online analysis

CONCERN FOR WELFARE: - Welfare is concerned with the well-being of person, group, community affected by the research + avoid harm, embarrassment, inadvertent identification - Identity and privacy issues + ensure the right to privacy - confidentiality + must be maintained when there is contact between researcher and subject, even if online + not a concern with publicly available information STRATEGIES: - Random Response Technique (quantitative) + useful for controversial topics + originally designed for interview situations in which the respondent is asked about controversial or illegal activities + reason for developing this technique was to protect researchers as well as respondents from the risk that police would examine the data and then bring the researchers into court as witnesses - works on probabilities - flip a coin but don't reveal results: about half of them should get heads, half tails. - "for the following question, if you have heads you must say yes, regardless of whether it is true or not. With tails you should answer the question truthfully." ex. "have you ever used cocaine?" even if no one had in fact used it, roughly 50% should say yes because they got heads - assume 60% of respondents say yes. The excess over the 50% (heads who had to say yes) can be used to calculate how many people used cocaine. Here the excess is 10%, presumably representing people who tails and have used the drug. Then, since one would expect roughly the same number of cocaine users in the heads group, that figure must be doubled to get the percentage of the total sample who used cocaine Qualitative: - dealing with privacy and confidentiality issues is quite different + pseudonyms may not be enough + in-depth research, analysis, and reporting may provide enough detail that people or locations could be identified +thus, you have to make sure to change any identifiable information about the participant COVERT RESEARCH: - very intrusive - no consent - benefits must outweigh any harm to participants - little to no concern over reactivity - permission from the participants to use the data may be sought after-the-fact if they are available - researchers must ensure anonymity of the non-consenting participants DUTY TO REPORT: - researcher may have a duty to report on certain activities observed or disclosed (ex. child abuse, crime) - privacy and confidentiality rules are often used to set boundaries on what can be disclosed to a researcher and what will result in a report to an outside agency - mandatory reporting rules should be told to participants BEFORE they participate + included in informed consent - REB review and approval required ONLINE ANALYSIS: - online data collection and analysis is growing - ethics and REBs still apply - do NOT join a chat room and pretend to be a participant of the group - do NOT conduct covert research - consider encryption for any information that can be connected to the Internet

Explain CONTENT ANALYSIS sampling through the sampling of media and dates.

CONTENT ANALYSIS SAMPLING: 1. Sampling Media - for example, a study of newspaper articles may involve sampling of different papers, of articles on a given topic, etc. 2. Sampling dates - for example, if researching media portrayals of sex workers, once could use a random method to select the years for which media are to be analyzed

What are the Contrasts between Quantitative and Qualitative Research

CONTRASTS BETWEEN QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE RESEARCH - numbers vs. words - point of view of researcher vs. points of view of participants - researcher distant vs. researcher close - theory and concepts tested in research vs. theory and concepts developed from data - structured vs. unstructured - generalizable knowledge vs. contextual understanding - theory testing vs. theory development - hard reliable data vs. rich, deep data - macro vs. micro - behaviour vs. meaning - artificial settings vs. natural settings

What is snowball sampling?

CONVENIENCE SAMPLING: - Snowball Sampling is a form of convenience sampling - the researcher makes contact with some individuals, who in turn provide contacts for other participants EX. students who participate in survey studies are asked to come up with the names of some non-students who may be willing to participate - generally not used within quantitative research strategy but within a qualitative one - but this isn't to say that snowball sampling isn't completely useless to quantitative research: when the researcher needs to focus on relationships between people, tracing connections through snowball sampling can be a better approach than conventional probability sampling. Ex. statistically small groups like gay francophone lawyers in New Brunswick, for example - are researchable with a snowball approach. Taking a random sample from that population would not be feasible.

Explain the Critical Approaches to Social Science

CRITICAL APPROACHES TO SOCIAL SCIENCE: - critical theories are critiques of positivism, too - critical researchers use many kinds of research methods + both deductive and inductive approaches + reject "value-free" science - anti-oppressive in practice and political in nature + ex. Karl Marx and conflict theory - Involves praxis: putting one's theoretical positions positions into practice

What are the CRITIQUES OF QUALITATIVE RESEARCHER (4)

CRITIQUES OF QUALITATIVE RESEARCH: 1. Too subjective - it can be too impressionistic and subjective - bias can result from personal relationships that develop during the research - it may be unclear as to how a particular topic or theme became the focus of the research 2. Difficult to replicate - reactive effect can be expected - subsequent researchers will bring a different reactive effect to their gender, race, or social position 3. Issues of generalization - however, generalization may not be the goal of the research - in-depth description and understanding of meaning may be what researcher is aiming for 4. Lack of transparency - it may be difficult to determine how the research was conducted, why certain people were chosen for in-depth interviews etc. - unclear how researchers arrived to specific findings - can be diminished by researchers keeping the detailed record of decisions taken at various stages of research

How does cross-sectional research measure up in terms of replicability, the ability to establish causation, and external validity?

CROSS-SECTIONAL RESEARCH: 1. Replicability characterizes most cross-sectional research, so long as the researcher spells out the procedures for selecting respondents, administering research instruments (structured interview or self-completion questionnaire, etc.) and the analysis of data 2. Issues with INTERNAL VALIDITY: Establishing causality can be problematic. - for example, a researcher may find a positive association between self-esteem and income - but does self-esteem influence the level of income, or is it the other way around? - is there reciprocal causation? (self-esteem influences income and income influences self-esteem) 2. Issues with external validity - external validity is strong when the sample is a random one - when non-random methods of sampling are employed, external validity becomes questionable - if random methods are not used, the findings may not hold up for people who were not studied STRENGTHS OF THIS DESIGN: - it can examine the effect of variables that cannot be manipulated in experiments - ex. age, gender, ethnicity, culture, social class etc.

Give an example of LONGITUDINAL RESEARCH - how can it overlap with the case study?

Case study research frequently includes a longitudinal element. The researcher can be a participant observer in an organization for an extended length of time, or may do ethnographic research with a community for many months or years, or may conduct structured or qualitative interviews with individuals over a prolonged period. Moreover, the researcher may be able to inject an additional longitudinal element by analyzing archival information and asking respondents to recall events that occurred before the study began, thus discovering some history. A longitudinal element also occurs when a case that has been studied is returned to at a later time. A particularly interesting example of this occurred in "Middletown," a pseudonym for an American Midwest town first studied by Lynd and Lynd (1929) in 1924-5 and restudied in 1935 during the Depression to see what changes had occurred (Lynd & Lynd, 1937). In 1977, the community was again restudied, this time in a post-Vietnam War setting (Bahr et al., 1983), using the same research instruments but with minor changes.

Explain cross-cultural studies in comparative research

Comparative research: Cross-cultural studies Phenomena such as voting behaviour or crime victimization in two or more countries can be compared using the same research instruments, seeking similarities and differences and a deeper understanding of social reality in different national contexts. At the very least such research supplies a replication. Cross-cultural research is more expensive than other approaches. It also presents other problems. When using existing data such as official statistics or survey evidence, the researcher must ensure that the variable categories and data-collection methods are comparable. When new data are being collected, the researcher must ensure that data-collection instruments (for example, questionnaires and interview schedules) are translated properly. Even when translation is carried out competently, there may still be a problem with insensitivity to specific national and cultural milieus. For example, the London "tube," the Toronto "subway," and the Montreal "métro" differ in more than name: public transit experiences in the three cities may be very different in terms of ridership, safety, cleanliness, and so on. A strength of cross-cultural research is that it helps to illustrate how social scientific findings may be culturally specific. For example, Wilson's (2002) examination of Ontario raves made frequent comparisons to the earlier rave scene in Britain. However, the UK scene was primarily an outgrowth of working-class struggles, whereas Canadian raves appealed more to middle-class, culturally alienated youths. Similarly, Baer et al. (2001) found that joining clubs and voluntary organizations increased toward the end of the last century in the US, West Germany, and the Netherlands, was stable in Canada and 10 other countries, but decreased in Spain. Finally, Young and Dugas (2012) compared Canadian print media coverage of climate change issues in English-language publications with those in written in French, and found that the different environmental and media cultures in the two language communities contributed to important differences in how climate change topics were narrated.

What is a concept?

Concepts are ideas or mental representations of things. They are the building blocks of theory and represent the points around which social research is conducted. ex. emotional labour, secularization, hyperactivity, academic achievement, teacher expectations, charismatic leadership, crime, research ethics, gatekeepers, drug and alcohol use, and self-image

Explain DEDUCTIVE AND INDUCTIVE APPROACHES

DEDUCTIVE METHOD: - the most common approach to social research - begins with theory - understand specific phenomenon through background research - develop hypotheses - test with empirical data - revise if necessary - theory guides observations and findings 1. theory 2. hypotheses 3. data collection 4. findings 5. hypotheses confirmed or rejected 6. revision of theory INDUCTIVE METHOD: - theories and interpretations are the outcome of theory - gather and examine data first - then create theory from the observations - observations/findings to theory - grounded theory + deriving theory from observations + used by qualitative researchers

Define Element or Unit

ELEMENT/UNIT: a single case in the population. In social sciences that element or unit is usually a person, but many other things can be sampled as well: nations, cities, regions, schools, firms and so on.

What is epistemology and the 3 broad positions on knowing the world.

EPISTEMOLOGY: - how do we know the world? - how does knowledge become acquired? 3 THREE BROAD POSITIONS ON KNOWING THE WORLD: 1. positivism 2. interpretivism 3. critical approaches

Outline the process for Ethics Approval in Quantitative Research

ETHICS APPROVAL FOR QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH - considered by some to be easier to obtain - stated hypothesis and specific plan for testing - data gathered from one person at a time *Some REB favour quantitative work because it is considered to be more scientific

Outline the guidelines for Ethics Approval in Qualitative Research

ETHIS APPROVAL FOR QUALITATIVE WORK - flexibility for emerging themes means indeterminate methods - may capture data on people that would not want their activities observed - a cautious REB can: + restrict research project + prevent funding + prevent research project

Explain and Elaborate on what an EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN is for research designs.

EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN: True experiments are common in psychology and organizational studies but rare in sociology or political science because: - many variables of interest are not subject to experimental manipulation - ethical concerns preclude performing experiments - many phenomena of interest have long-term, complex causes that cannot be simulated in experiments - even where applicable, experimental models do not get at the perceptions and feelings of research subjects THERE ARE TWO KINDS OF EXPERIMENTS: 1. Field experiments are conducted in real-life surroundings 2. Laboratory experiments take place in artificial environments - controls research environment - easier to randomly assign research subjects; therefore, enhanced internal validity - easier to replicate - however, weak external validity KEY CONCEPTS RELEVANT TO EXPERIMENTS: - experimental or treatment group: receives a treatment or manipulation of some kind - control group: does not get the treatment or manipulation - random assignment: participants are placed in the experimental or control group using a random method - pre-test: measurement of the dependent variable before the experimental manipulation - post-test: measurement of the dependent variable after the experimental manipulation

What are the two primary concerns of EXTERNAL VALIDITY? What are some threats to external validity? (5)

EXTERNAL VALIDITY has two primary concerns? 1. Are the findings applicable to situations outside the research environment? - naturalistic studies tend to satisfy this criterion 2. Can the findings be generalized beyond the people or cases studied? - studies using representative samples tend to satisfy this criterion THREATS TO EXTERNAL VALIDITY IN EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH: 1. the representativeness of the study participants: the findings may not be generalizable to a wide variety of people who were not in the experiment 2. The effects of the setting: the findings may not apply to settings and environments that differ from those of the experiment 3. History effects: the findings may not apply to other time periods, either in the past or in the future 4. Effect of pretesting: the findings may not apply to people who were not pretested, and few people in society are pre-tested 5. Reactive effects of experimental arrangements: the findings may be invalid because they were caused by subjects behaving atypically due to the fact that they were in an experimental situation

Describe the process of formulating a research question

FORMULATING A RESEARCH QUESTION: When little or no research has been done: - a qualitative, exploratory approach may be preferable + typically associated with the generation of theory rather than theory testing + relatively unstructured approach to the research process When a researcher wants to study individuals involved in illicit activities: - need to develop rapport with subjects + qualitative strategy - The choice of research orientation, design, and method must match the question being asked: + is it a brand new phenomenon? + measuring impact? + world views? + hypothesis testing? The choice of research method should match the research question - a research questions states the purpose of the study in the form of a question - for example: + what social factors make people enjoy smoking marijuana? + what explains differential rates of suicides in societies? + What is it like to be a member of the furry fandom? The form of the research question will always be shaped by the qualitative and quantitative orientations of the study: - qualitative: + less specific research question + inductive + no hypothesis - quantitative + can test causal models + deductive + narrowed research question to make a testable hypothesis RESEARCH QUESTIONS SHOULD: - be clear - be researchable - relate to established theory and research - be linked or closely related to each other - allow the researcher to make a contribution to existing knowledge - be neither too broad nor too narrow

give an example of a deductive study

For millennia, religion has been the basis for beliefs about our place in the cosmic order, what it means to be human, how we should treat each other, and whether anything exists beyond the material, physical universe. However, in many Western countries a process of secularization has occurred in which fewer and fewer people embrace religious beliefs and practices, a process that became especially marked after the middle of the twentieth century. To be sure, religion has not disappeared in Western countries, including Canada. In fact about 26 per cent of Canadians attend religious services once a month or more frequently (Statistics Canada, 2013). Nonetheless, several indicators suggest that the proportion of Canadians who are firmly religious is considerably lower than it was several decades ago. What can account for this profound social change? Hay (2014) has taken a deductive approach to this issue. As in all deductive research, his goal was "theory testing." He started by proposing some theories, derived testable hypotheses from them, and then set out to determine which, if any, of the hypotheses were supported by the data. He reviewed seven well-known theories of secularization, and deduced specific hypotheses from each one. For instance, the deprivation-compensation theory holds that the existential security that affluent people in developed societies enjoy through health care and education, long life expectancy, and the absence of military conflict shields many of us from the traumas that draw people toward religion. The hypothesis he derived from this theory was that people who have experienced real tragedy in their lives are more likely to be religious than people who have no direct exposure to such things. Hay then analyzed contemporary survey data that included measures of religious beliefs and practices, as well as a number of variables that provided indicators of factors that were relevant to each of the theories. Veiled women in Iran, a society that has experienced far less secularization than many Western countries. Do you think that some of the theories examined in Hay's (2014) research can help to explain the high levels of religiosity found in Iran? For example, could the acceptance of religious beliefs and practices there be related to cultural factors that favour societal cohesion over personal autonomy? Could low levels of religious pluralism be a factor? There was limited support for deprivation-compensation theory, but there was strong support for three other theoretical positions. One theory that gained support involves the idea that a growing acceptance of personal autonomy in spiritual and moral matters has led to increased levels of secularization. A second position that was consistent with the results holds that the religious pluralism found in wealthy countries creates a situation in which it is very difficult for a particular faith group to make the claim that it is the "one true religion," which casts doubt on all religious doctrines and so increases levels of secularization. A third theory that was substantiated by the data maintains that increasing acceptance of human evolution and the belief that observable phenomena are purely material or physical in nature has reduced levels of religiosity in Canada.

What is the purpose of a control group?

For this study to be a true experiment, however, it must control for (in other words, eliminate) rival explanations of its causal findings, leaving teacher expectations as the only factor that could have created any differences in performance between the two groups. The presence of a control group and the random assignment of subjects to the experimental and control groups help to eliminate rival explanations for differences in academic performance, which in this case are any explanations other than different teacher expectations.

Give an example of INTERPRETIVISM IN PRACTICE

Foster (1995) conducted ethnographic research using participant observation and semi-structured interviews in a housing estate in East London referred to as Riverside, a residential complex experiencing a high level of crime according to official statistics. However, she found that residents did not perceive the estate to be a high-crime area; nor were they overly anxious about becoming victims of crime. Those perceptions could be attributed to a number of factors, but a particularly important one was "informal social control," which was used in conjunction with more formal methods such as policing. People expected a certain level of crime, but felt fairly secure because informal social control worked to keep the level of crime contained. Informal social control has several aspects. One is that neighbours often look out for each other. In the words of one of Foster's interviewees: "If I hear a bang or shouting I go out. If there's aggravation I come in and ring the police. I don't stand for it" (Foster, 1995, p. 575). Another aspect of informal social control is that people often feel secure because they know each other. A second respondent said: "I don't feel nervous . . . because people do generally know each other. We keep an eye on each other's properties. . . . I feel quite safe because you know your neighbours and you know they're there . . . they look out for you" (Foster, 1995, p. 575) Of course, as the example in Box 1.4 suggests, when social scientists adopt an interpretive stance, they are not simply revealing how members of a social group interpret the world around them. The social scientist almost certainly aims to place those interpretations into a social scientific framework. Thus there is a double interpretation going on: the researcher is interpreting others' interpretations. Indeed, there is even a third level of interpretation, because the researcher's interpretations have to be further interpreted in terms of the concepts, theories, and literature of the social sciences. Thus, in Box 1.4 the idea that Riverside was not perceived as a high-crime area by residents was Foster's interpretation of her subjects' interpretations. She then had the additional job of placing her findings into a social scientific framework, which she accomplished by relating them to existing concepts and discussions in criminology: concepts such as informal social control, neighbourhood watch schemes, and the role of housing style as a possible cause of criminal activity.

Why is Research Ethics important? What are its general principles?

General ethical principles: - respect for persons - concerns for welfare - justice - research ethics needs to be addressed in the initial stages of a study - ethics should be kept in mind in every phase of the study FIRST PRIORITY OF A SOCIAL RESEARCHER: ensure that the people being studied are not harmed by their participation - knowledge is of secondary interest to participant safety - risk assessment is a key feature of all research - researchers must constantly balance between potential gain and risk of harm

Give an example of how Grand Theory can be applied to a specific situation and yield some important insights?

Giddens's (1984) structuration theory attempts to bridge the gulf between notions of structure and agency in social life. This theoretical issue is explored in empirical research by Dinovitzer et al. (2003) on the educational attainment of immigrant youth. The specific focus of their research was suburban Toronto immigrants in the years 1976 to 1995. The data were quantitative, generated through structured interviews. The goal of the researchers was to tease out the relative influence on educational attainment of structural variables (such as class, gender, and the youths' family background) and individual variables over which the young people had more control (such as studying and cutting classes). The authors found that educational achievement is affected by two structural variables (gender and father's occupation) and one individual factor (intellectual investment), and that bilingual ESL students do better than young immigrants for whom English is a first language. They are not brighter, nor do they work harder, but they have greater parental supervision, and—perhaps partly as a consequence—they plan better.

Explain INTERPRETIVISM

INTERPRETIVISM - interpretivism is a critique of positivism -goal is to grasp the subjective meaning of people's lives - people interpret the reality of their own lives (social construction of reality) - views the social world from the point of view of the social actor + empathetic understanding + interpretation of existence - SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM: major perspective in sociology that uses interpretivism ex. george herbert mead, irving goffman

What are IDIOGRAPHIC EXPLANATIONS?

Idiographic Explanations involve a rich description of a person or group and seek to explain the particular - typically qualitative - it is not meant to apply to persons or groups who were not part of the study *based on: empathetic understanding

Give an example of SAMPLING ERROR

Imagine a population of 200 people and a sample of 50. Imagine as well that the topic is whether people watch reality TV programs, and that the population is divided equally between those who do (100) and those who do not (100). If the sample is representative, the sample of 50 should also be equally split in terms of this variable. If there is a small amount of sampling error, so that the sample contains one person too many who does not watch reality TV and one too few who does, the distribution looks skewed. It's important to appreciate that the possibility of sampling error can never be completely eliminated. Even with a well-crafted probability sample, a degree of sampling error is likely to creep in, just as flipping a coin is likely to yield 49Heads/51Tails and 51Heads/49Tails results COMBINED than 50/50 outcomes, even though the latter is the most probably single result. Probability sampling allows you to employ tests of statistical significance that will permit you to make inferences about the population from which the sample was selected, with a known probability error.

Give 2 examples in which snowball sampling would be useful.

In The Help, which is set in Mississippi in the early 1960s, Emma Stone's character, Skeeter, wants to interview black maids who work for white families in order to expose the latter's racism. Most maids are afraid to speak out, fearing retribution. Eventually one maid comes forward and introduces Skeeter to some other maids willing to be interviewed. How was snowball sampling useful in this scenario? What are some other research situations in which snowball sampling would be useful? Becker reported on how he generated a sample of marijuana users: I had been a professional dance musician . . . and my first interviews were with people I had met in the music business. I asked them to put me in contact with other [marijuana] users who would be willing to discuss their experiences with me . . . Although in the end half of the fifty interviews were conducted with musicians, the other half covered a wide range of people, including labourers, machinists, and people in the professions. (1963, pp. 45-46)

Describe the case for the emergence of a concept in qualitative research: The case of emotional labour

Is this woman's smile spontaneous and sincere, or is she just doing her job? Hochschild's concept of emotional labour—labour that "requires one to induce or suppress feelings in order to sustain the outward countenance that produces the proper state of mind in others" (1983, p. 7)—has become very influential in the sociology of work and in the developing area of the sociology of emotions. She gathered data on emotional labour by exploring how airline workers manage to keep smiling at truly obnoxious customers. Hochschild's initial conceptualization emerged from a questionnaire she had created on a related topic. To develop the idea of emotional labour she gained access to Delta Airlines, and in the course of her investigations she: •watched training sessions for flight attendants and had many conversations with both trainees and experienced attendants; •interviewed airline personnel such as managers and advertising agents; •examined Delta advertisements spanning 30 years; •observed the flight attendant recruitment process at Pan American Airways (because she had not been allowed to do this at Delta); and •conducted "open-ended interviews lasting three to five hours each with thirty flight attendants in the San Francisco Bay Area" (Hochschild, 1983, p. 15). For a contrasting occupational group also involved in emotional labour, she interviewed five debt collectors. Her book explored topics such as the human costs of emotional labour and the issue of gender in relation to it. It's clear that Hochschild's concept of emotional labour began with a somewhat imprecise idea that was gradually developed to address its wider significance. The concept has been picked up by other qualitative researchers in the sociology of work. For example, Leidner (1993) did an ethnographic study of a McDonald's restaurant and an insurance company to investigate how organizations seek to "routinize" emotional labour.

How is the JUSTICE principle provided for in ethical research guidelines?

JUSTICE: - the burdens and benefits of research should be spread evenly across society - no person or group should be exploited for research (ex. prison inmates) - no person or group should be systemically excluded from the benefits of research INCLUSIVITY: - usually present in social science research - normal part of establishing a representative sample group PRINCIPLE OF NO HARM SHOULD BE FOLLOWED - less risk in social research than in medical research but it still exists (ex. Zimbardo) - informed consent is useful here, too - participants have the ability to opt-out at anytime and face no consequences for leaving the study IN PRACTICE, POTENTIAL HARM SHOULD NOT OUTWEIGH THE POTENTIAL BENEFITS: - avoid research that is likely to cause harm or be disturbing - life should not get worse because of participation in a research project - if potential harm and risks are greater than risks of everyday life then informed consent is a minimum requirement

What are the kinds of qualitative research? (6)

KINDS OF QUALITATIVE RESEARCH: 1. Ethnography/Participant observation: immersed in the social setting 2. Qualitative interviewing: in-depth, semi-structured or unstructured 3. Focus groups: interview several people together 4. Discourse and conversation analysis: analyze the language 5. Content analysis: qualitative analysis of texts and documents 6. Participatory action research: engage participants to produce social change

What's the process in youth shelters

Karabanow (2002) described his experiences in two Canadian shelters for homeless and runaway youth. As a participant observer, he was able to monitor routine activities there and describe the shelter culture. In addition he carried out in-depth interviews with three levels of shelter workers and used agency archival materials. The dramatic transformations in the shelters' external environment and internal operations that took place over a period of years provided the basis for an analysis of the evolution of their organizational processes. This example shows the development of a sense of process in at least two ways. First, observation of the shelters over time made it possible to bring out developments and interconnections between events. Second, connecting these events with historical and other data made it possible to show how the shelters were affected by the larger society.

What are the key points of chapter 2?

Key Points •There is an important distinction between a general research orientation (quantitative versus qualitative) and a research design. •The nomothetic approach to explanation involves discovering general laws and principles. •Nomothetic explanations must satisfy three criteria of causation: correlation, time order, and non-spuriousness. •Qualitative researchers usually take the idiographic approach to explanation, which entails creating a rich description of a person or group based on the perceptions and feelings of the people studied. •Replicability, validity (measurement and external), and the ability to establish causation are important criteria for evaluating the quality of quantitative social research. •Four key research designs are experimental, cross-sectional, longitudinal, and case study. •Threats to the establishment of causation are of particular importance in non-experimental, quantitative research. •External validity is a concern with case studies (generalizability) and laboratory experiments (findings may not be applicable outside the research environment).

What are the Key Points from Chapter 3?

Key Points The TCPS2 outlines three core principles for the ethical conduct of research: •Respect for persons demands that research participants be able to give free, informed, and ongoing consent. •Concern for welfare includes all aspects of the well-being of individuals, groups, and communities affected by the research. •Justice covers all dimensions of fairness in the treatment of research subjects and researchers themselves. Most social research in Canada has to abide by those principles. In most cases, before social research can be conducted it has to be approved by a Research Ethics Board (REB) that uses the TCPS2 to guide its decisions. It may be difficult to measure harms and benefits in social research, so the implementation of these principles is rarely simple and straightforward. Researchers may disagree on how the three core principles are to be implemented, but they still must do everything they can to comply with them. REBs must be independent - so university's can overturn the decisions of REBs

What are the Key Points of Chapter 9 - Qualitative research

Key Points •Qualitative research does not lend itself to a clear set of linear steps. As a research strategy it tends to be more open-ended than is typically the case with quantitative research. •In qualitative research, theories and concepts are outcomes of the research process. •There is considerable unease about the direct application of reliability and validity criteria to qualitative research. Many writers prefer alternative criteria. •Lincoln and Guba (1985; 1994) propose two key criteria to evaluate a qualitative study: trustworthiness and authenticity. Trustworthiness requires four conditions: credibility, transferability, dependability, and confirmability. •Most qualitative researchers try to see the social world through the eyes of their research participants. •Like all approaches to social research, qualitative methods have both strengths and weaknesses. Their major strengths include the development of empathetic understanding, rich description of context, and emphasis on process. Weaknesses include a reliance on the researcher's own perspectives when making research decisions, difficulties in replication, limited generalization, and lack of transparency.

What are the key points of Chapter 1?

Key Points •Quantitative and qualitative research constitute different approaches to social investigation and carry with them important epistemological and ontological assumptions. •Epistemological considerations loom large in the choice of a research strategy. To a great extent, the issues revolve around the advantages and disadvantages associated with the natural science (in particular positivist), interpretivist, and critical approaches to science. •Ontological considerations, such as objectivism versus constructionism, also constitute important dimensions of the quantitative/qualitative contrast. •Theory can either precede research and data gathering (the deductive method) or emerge out of it (induction). •Feminist researchers in the past have tended to prefer a qualitative approach, although this situation is changing now. •Values can impinge on the research process in various ways; as a consequence, research often has political dimensions. •The political dimensions of research relate to the exercise of power at different stages of an investigation. •Issues related to the research question can also affect decisions about research methods. Clear research questions improve the chances of success.

When doing sampling, what are the limits to generalization?

LIMITS TO GENERALIZATION: - even when a sample is selected using probability sampling, any findings can be generalized ONLY to the population from which the sample was taken - do the findings from an earlier date STILL apply today?

Describe LONGITUDINAL DESIGNS

LONGITUDINAL DESIGN(S): - cases are examined at a particular time (T1), and again at a later time or times (T2, T3, etc.) - these designs provide information about the time-order of changes in certain variables - this helps establish the direction of causation: Ex. if an increase in income is observed at T1, and an increase in life satisfaction occurs at T2, that is evidence that the increase in life satisfaction was preceded by the increase in income, rather than the other way around THERE ARE 2 BASIC TYPES OF LONGITUDINAL DESIGN(S): 1. Panel Study: the same people, households, organizations, etc. are studied at different times 2. Cohort study: people sharing the same experience are studied at different times, but different people may be studied at each time DRAWBACKS: - attrition over time (Attrition is a process in which the workforce dwindles at a company) - it may be difficult to determine when subsequent waves of study should be conducted - panel conditioning: people's attitudes and behaviours may change as a result of participating in a panel

Give an example of constructionism in action

Lantz and Booth (1998) examined media treatment of the apparent rise in the incidence of breast cancer that began in the early 1980s and found that its depiction as epidemic can be treated as a social construction. They analyzed a variety of popular magazines and noted that many of the articles drew attention to the lifestyles of modern women, such as delaying first births and having careers. The authors also argued that the articles ascribe blame: "Women are portrayed as victims of an insidious disease, but also as victims of their own behaviours, many of which are related to the control of their own fertility" (1998, p. 915). This article concludes that, as a social category, the breast cancer epidemic was represented in popular magazines in a particular way—one that blamed the victims and their lifestyles, particularly in the case of young women. Yet in fact fewer than 20 per cent of cases of breast cancer were in women under the age of 50. Lantz and Booth's study is fairly representative of a constructionist ontology in suggesting that the idea that young women's lifestyles cause breast cancer was constructed as a social fact by popular-magazine writers. Similarly, Hallgrimsdottir et al. (2006, p. 266) argue that the media "contributes to constructing, reproducing and deepening the social stigmas associated with working in the sex industry." The authors compared media depictions of sex-trade workers in Victoria, British Columbia, from 1980 to 2004 with accounts provided by street sex workers, escorts, and others in this sector. Whereas the media portrayed such people as wicked and blameworthy in the earlier years, and as exploited, trapped, and innocent girls more recently, the sex workers themselves interpreted their work lives very differently. Although there was considerable heterogeneity in their experiences and attitudes toward their trade, many saw sex work as a largely mundane matter of earning a living. Because they are marginalized and stigmatized, however, their voices are seldom heard; most people have their ideas about the sex trade constructed for them by the media.

Describe the process of the MANIPULATION OF VARIABLES in terms of: - what underpins different types of research - what is a variable and what types of variables there are

MANIPULATION OF VARIABLES: - causality underpins different types of research designs in social research, both quantitative and qualitative - it is often expressed in the language of variables +VARIABLES are characteristics or attributes of data that vary or change (ex. gender, age, interest in a subject, belief) - independent variables are manipulated to see if they have an impact on dependent variables 1. dependent is the outcome (like headache pain) 2. independent is the manipulated variable (like taking tylenol or not)

What is MULTI-STAGE CLUSTER SAMPLING? What are some issues with Multi-Stage Cluster Sampling?

MULTI-STAGE CLUSTER SAMPLING is used for laASrge populations where/when there is/are: - no adequate sampling frame - elements are geographically dispersed IT INVOLVES TWO OR MORE STAGES: 1. selecting clusters (groups of elements) 2. then selecting subunits within clusters EX. - the provinces and territories might be categorized into regions: BC, Prairies, Ontario, Quebec, Atlantic provinces, and the Northern Territories - a certain number of provinces or territories might be selected from each region that contains more than one province or territory - then the next steps would be taken ISSUES WITH MULTI-STAGE CLUSTER SAMPLING: 1. Technical complications (ex. not all clusters are the same size) 2. Cluster samples are usually stratified as well, i.e., divided into strata or subgroups before the clusters or subunits are selected (ex., ethnic subgroups)

What is MEASUREMENT VALIDITY?

Measurement Validity (or construct validity) involves the question, "Are you measuring what you want to measure?" Ex. is the number of murders recorded in annual police statistics a valid indicator of murder rate?

Define NON-PROBABILITY SAMPLE

NON-PROBABILITY SAMPLE: a sample selected using a non-random method. Essentially, this implies that some units in the population are more likely to be selected than others.

What is convenience sampling? What is a consequence of using this type of non-probability sampling? What is convenience sampling useful for?

NON-PROBABILITY SAMPLING: Convenience Sampling - cases are included because they are readily available - problem: one cannot generalize the results to some larger population with any confidence - convenience samples are useful for pilot studies, for testing the reliability of measures to be used in a larger study, for developing ideas, learning how to do research etc. Subjects are asked to be in the study because they are "in the right place at the right time". It provides little opportunity to control for biases. Convenience samples are inexpensive, accessible, and usually less time consuming to obtain than other types of samples. They are common in healthcare studies.

What is the difference between nominal and operational definitions?

Nominal: dictionary definition Operational definition: spells out the operations the researcher will perform to measure the concept ex. one way to measure the incidence of crime is to use statistics provided by police forces; another is to ask a sample of people whether they have been victims of certain crimes

What are NOMOTHETIC EXPLANATIONS

Nomothetic Explanations involve attributions of cause and effect, expressed in terms of general laws and principles - typically quantitative Nomothetic explanations have to satisfy three criteria of causation: 1. correlation 2. time order 3. non-spuriousness

What is quota sampling? What are the strengths of quota sampling? What are the weaknesses?

Non-Probability Sampling: QUOTA SAMPLING is collecting a specified number of cases in particular categories to match the proportion of cases in that category Ex. there are quotas for people in certain groups such as age, gender, ethnicity, class etc. - Random methods are NOT used to fill the quotas STRENGTHS OF QUOTA SAMPLING: - cheaper and easier to manage compared to random sampling - can be conducted much more quickly than random sampling - good for pilot tests, exploratory research WEAKNESSES OF QUOTA SAMPLING: - not likely to be representative - judgements about eligibility may be incorrect (ex. a researcher may misjudge a person's age and mistakenly avoid that person) - it is not appropriate to calculate a standard error term from a quota sample - quota samples are often biased - they under-represent people in lower social strata, people who work in the private sector and manufacturing, and people at the extremes of income; and they over-represent women in households with children and people from larger households - in contrast probability samples may be biased as well bc they may under-represent men and employed people, perhaps because such people are often both more difficult to contact and busier, thus less willing to participate

Identify ONTOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS

ONTOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS: 1. Objectivist perspective - social phenomena have an objective reality, independent of our perceptions 2. Constructionist perspective: - constructionist (hard) + reality is merely a set of mental constructions + ex. Nietzsche: there are no facts, only interpretations - constructionist (soft): more middle ground + there is an objective social reality that is marred by human interpretation RELATIONSHIP TO SOCIAL RESEARCH: - ontological assumptions about reality affect: + research question formulation + the way research is carried

Once you have selected a research design, what must you do?

Once a Design is Selected: Select a specific method such as: - questionnaire - structured interview - participant observation - ethnography - experiments

Give an example of how stratified random sampling was used to study women's participation in the paid labour force

Over the past 40 years, families in Canada and several other countries have made the transition from a "male breadwinner" model to one in which women are full participants in the paid labour force. Gaudet et al. (2011) used the 2001 General Social Survey (Cycle 15 on Family History) to explore Canadian women's participation in paid work after childbirth, focusing on the years 1970-99. This General Social Survey used a stratified sampling technique in which the 10 provinces were divided into 27 geographical areas or strata. Random-digit dialling was used in each stratum to select the sample, which was considered to be representative of the target population of non-institutionalized people over the age of 15 in the 10 provinces. The researchers noted that since the 1970s, it has become increasingly common for women to engage in paid work within two years of giving birth. Gaudet et al. wanted to know what factors influenced women's proclivity to enter the labour force within that two-year period, and whether those factors have changed over time. They found that after controlling for a number of socioeconomic influences, the greater a woman's level of education, the more likely she was to be in the paid labour force within two years. They also found that this relationship did not change significantly in the years under study. They noted that this pattern suggests that women at lower levels of education are more likely to suffer the effects of poverty and other negative life-course events associated with being out of the labour force. Another key finding was that for the 1995 to 1999 cohort, women whose spouses were in the highest and lowest income categories were more likely to return to work than those whose spouses had middling levels of income. This suggests that women's decisions to return to work were also affected by how much money their spouses earned.

Elaborate on how politics can influence social research

POLITICS IN SOCIAL RESEARCH - researchers sometimes "take sides" - funding: + who gets it? are strings attached? + government may fund research to benefit them politically - Research subjects/participants +Gatekeepers +who gets access? are strings attached? - Research findings + what sorts of findings are "acceptable" to those who fund or publish research

Define POPULATION

POPULATION: all the cases about which you are seeking knowledge, or all the cases o which your conclusions are meant yo apply. EX. if you are studying voting behaviour , the population might be all the people in a particular jurisdiction who are eligible to vote EX. If the topic is hyperactivity among young children, the population might be all children aged 2 to 11. (Note that the "population" in this context means something different from "population" in the everyday sense)

What is POSITIVISM

POSITIVISM - positivism follows the natural sciences - uses the principal of empiricism (use of the senses for knowledge) - generate hypotheses to test (uses deduction) - can provide foundation for induction, too - science is value-free + formerly "objectivity" + currently "intersubjectivity" - scientific statements are of key importance

Define PROBABILITY SAMPLE

PROBABILITY SAMPLE: a sample selected using a random process such that each unit in the population has a known chance of being selected. The aim of probability sampling is to keep sampling error to a minimum.

Explain the Inductive study on police culture

Police culture: An inductive study Police forces have faced severe criticism recently for their workplace culture and practices. The Civilian Review and Complaints Commission for the RCMP and the national Auditor General's Office have published damning reports on sexual harassment and other forms of abuse that officers have endured on the job. In an article that appeared in the Globe and Mail Lesley Bikos (2017), a former member of the London, Ontario, police service, described her research into noxious aspects of police culture across a variety of police organizations. Bikos conducted in-depth interviews with officers from 23 different police services. Her research was inductive in that her goal was not to test a pre-existing theory. As a former officer she had some familiarity with the subject matter before she began her study, but her interpretations and conclusion largely took shape after she had collected some rich, detailed interview data, which she used to make sense of the social context in which police culture evolves. Her interviews with officers unearthed many accounts of sexual assault and intimidation in the workplace, along with racism, homophobia, and sexism. Police culture in general was commonly described by her informants as being characterized by a "high-school mentality." She determined that the toxic work environment that the police find themselves in "damages many of its officers physically, mentally, and spiritually." Bikos concluded that a crucial factor that perpetuates the toxic work environment in police departments is a lack of protection for officers who want to speak out against the infractions that they have experienced or witnessed. The "small percentage of bad-apple officers" who wreak havoc in the workplace would not be such a problem if better mechanisms for reporting and investigating objectionable behaviours were in place. Other factors that she identified that could contribute to a change in police culture included greater training and professionalization in the force, civilian involvement in promotional decisions and internal investigations, and better communication across ranks.

What is Qualitative Research?

Qualitative research is concerned primarily with words and images rather than numbers - it's usually inductive + process starts with field research, the concepts and theories are developed - it tends to be interpretivist + concerned with finding out what an action or event means to the people involved - often constructionist + social life is not seen as fixed, but as an outcome of interactions and negotiations - takes a naturalist perspective + when doing research, the social world should be left as undisturbed as possible

What are QUASI-EXPERIMENTS? Name and describe a type of Quasi-experiment - give an example of a research area/type you'd use this experiment type.

Quasi experiments differ from true experiments in that internal validity is harder to establish - there are many different types of quasi-experiments, but a particularly interesting type are "natural experiments" NATURAL EXPERIMENTS: - experiment-like conditions are produced by naturally occurring phenomena or changes brought about by people not doing research - lack clear causation - ex. evaluation research: examine the effects of organizational innovations such as a longer school day or greater worker autonomy in a plant - sometimes if you don't know what to interpret from your research findings, do more research

How can we reduce non-response for - telephone interviews - face-to-face contact - mailed questionnaires

REDUCING NON RESPONSE: 1. For telephone interviews: - call backs are useful - sometimes several are necessary - reassure prospective participants that you are not out for material gain 2. For face-to-face contact: - dress appropriately - be flexible to accommodate participants 3. For mailed questionnaires - write a good covering letter explaining the reasons for the research - make it personal by including the respondent's name and address in the covering letter and personally signed - mailed questionnaires should always be accompanied by a stamped return envelope - don't allow the questionnaire to appear unnecessarily bulky - follow up individuals who do not reply at first, possibly with two or three further mailings - monetary incentives increase the response rate but can be deemed unethical

What is REPLICABILITY?

REPLICABILITY A study is replicable if others are able to repeat it and get the same results - sometimes replications are conducted to make sure that the original research was carried out properly; this is especially important if the study's results do not match prior findings on the topic - for a study to be replicable, the procedures used to conduct the research must be sound and spelled out

Define REPRESENTATIVE SAMPLE

REPRESENTATIVE SAMPLE: a sample that is a microcosm of the population, one that "represents" its essential characteristics. A sample such as this is most likely to be selected when a probability sampling process is used.

Define Research Design

RESEARCH DESIGN is a framework for the collection and analysis of data Ask: - what do I want to learn? - What is the nature of the research question? - What kind of explanation will I want? (typically nomothetic and idographic)

What are the 4 types of Research Designs?

RESEARCH DESIGNS: 1. Experimental design 2. Cross-Sectional design 3. Longitudinal design(s) 4. Case Study design

What is the Research Ethics Board (REB)?

RESEARCH ETHICS BOARD (REB) - All Canadian research requires REB approval - must be obtained BEFORE people are approached to be participants - you may NOT begin you research until you have obtained full ethics clearance from your institution - REBs can approve, require modification, or reject a study - there is an appeal process for rejected studies - REBs can be found in many institutions and comprised of people from various interest groups + universities, colleges, government, private companies + members from different disciplines + must have an external representative - conflict of interest rules + funding relationships, work with the applicant

Compare - face-to-face interviews - telephone interviews - posted questionnaires - email - web in terms of RESOURCE ISSUES: 1. the cost of the mode of administration 2. speed of the mode of administration 3. cost of handling a dispersed sample and SAMPLING RELATED ISSUES: 1. mode of administration produces a good response rate 2. the researcher being able to control who responds (is the targeted person the one who answers)? 3. the mode of administration being accessible to sample members 4. the most of administrations likelihood in resulting in a non-response to some questions

RESOURCE ISSUES: 1. the cost of the mode of administration - posted questionnaire, email and web fare the best in this area - second place: telephone interview - worst: face-to-face 2. speed of the mode of administration - Best: telephone interview, posted questionnaire, email, web - Worst: face-to-face 3. cost of handling a dispersed sample - Best: telephone interview, posted questionnaire, email, web - Worst: face-to-face interview (better with clustered sampling) SAMPLING RELATED ISSUES: 1. mode of administration produces a good response rate - Best: face-to-face - Mediocre: telephone interview - Worst: posted questionnaire, email, web 2. the researcher being able to control who responds (is the targeted person the one who answers)? - Best: face-to-face, telephone interview - Okay: posted questionnaire, email, web 3. the mode of administration being accessible to sample members - Best: face-to-face, posted questionnaire - Middle: telephone interview - Worst: email, web (bc of need for respondents to be online) 4. avoid non-response - Best: face-to-face interview, telephone interview - Middle: posted questionnaire, email, web

How is the RESPECT FOR PERSONS principle provided for in ethical research guidelines? - features - information sheets - consent forms - practical challenges

RESPECT FOR PERSONS - research subjects are not "objects" or resources to be used for some end - individuals have basic human rights that include dignified treatment by researchers - most fundamental of the three principles INVOLVES: - informed consent: + free and ongoing + necessary for the researchers and participants to act as collaborators - participants must be advised of the risks and potential benefits of the research - potential participants are given an information sheet and/or consent form outlining what the research is about INFORMATION SHEET OUTLINES: - the research project - the methods - the potential risks and potential benefits of participating - the names of those in charge - the affiliated institution and contact information - assurances of confidentiality - how the data will be stored - how findings will be published CONSENT FORMS: - a consent form is important because it mentions the ability of the participant to leave study at any time + can be merged into one document with letter of information - prospective participant must have the ability to understand and to actually consent - a person with limited ability (ex. child, medically limited) must have an agent or guardian provide the consent PRACTICAL CHALLENGES: - difficult to give prospective participants absolutely all the information to make fully informed consent - informed consent is impractical in ethnography (participant observation) + prevents contamination of subjects + unforeseen changes in project due to emerging theme + unknown people may enter the research setting - Experiments are particularly problematic for fully informed consent + reactive effects (participants know they are being observed for specific purposes) - some deception necessary + deception can be seen as problematic + must be clearly justified + debriefing is important*****

Explain RELATIONAL STATEMENTS further

Relational Statements connect to or more variables, so that knowing the value of one variable conveys information about the other; for example, "As the proportion of people aged 15-25 decreases, the crime rate also decreases" Relational statements come in 2 forms: 1. deterministic: which means the two variables always go together in a particular way - ex. "as the number of people aged 15-25 decreases by 1%, the crime rate also shrinks by 1 percent." If the research uncovers an instance in which the variables are not related in this way, the relational statement must be modified 2. probabilistic, which means the two variables go together with some degree of regularity, but the relationship is not inevitable - ex. "regions of the country where the number of people aged 15-25 is decreasing are more likely to experience a decline in the crime rate than regions in which the number of people in that age category is increasing" - here, finding a case that does not fit the pattern does not mean that the theory must be modified; this could simply be one of the times when the variables are not related in the usual way

Describe the elements of a SAMPLE SIZE. What are 3 issues you can face with sample size?

SAMPLE SIZE: - the absolute size of the sample matters (not the proportion of the population that it comprises) - as sample size increases, sampling error tends to decrease - common sample sizes: 100, 400, 900, 1600, 2500 - each size increase cuts the sampling error by 1/2, then 1/3, then 1/4, and then 1/5 respectively - the biggest change occurs between 100 and 400 + is an increase sample size worth the time and effort? + often sample size is dictated by financial concerns ISSUES WITH SAMPLE SIZE: 1. Non-response - the response rate is the percentage of the sample that participates in the study - if there is some particular issue common to the non-responders that brings them to differ in some important way from those who participate 2. Heterogeneity of the population - generally, the greater the heterogeneity of the population on the characteristics of interest, the larger the sample size should be 3. Kind of Analysis - the sample size needed may vary depending on what sort of analysis will be done - if small groups in the population are to be compared to larger groups, it may be necessary to oversample the smaller group in order to make meaningful comparisons - certain statistical procedures, such as some multivariate analyses, require large sample sizes to work properly

Define SAMPLE

SAMPLE: the elements selected for investigation, a subset of the population. The method of selection may involve probability or non-probability sampling.

Define SAMPLING ERROR

SAMPLING ERROR: an error os estimation that occurs if there is a difference between the characteristics of a sample and those of the population from which it was selected. Sampling error can occur even when a random method is used. For example, if valid measures indicate that 45% of a national probability sample is in favour of more public funding for the arts, but the actual figure in the population is 49%, the difference is caused by sampling error.

What is a SAMPLING ERROR and why is it problematic and how can we minimize such an error?

SAMPLING ERROR: errors of estimation that occur because there is a discrepancy between the sample group and the total population This is problematic because it's virtually impossible to eliminate sampling error Using random samples and making the sample as large as possible helps to minimize sampling error.

Define SAMPLING FRAME

SAMPLING FRAME: the list of elements from which the sample will be selected

Define Sampling

SAMPLING: the selection of a subset of a population for research

What are the Main Steps in Qualitative Research

THE MAIN STEPS IN QUALITATIVE RESEARCH: 1. Establish a general research question - what interesting social issue are you studying - ex. do high crime communities have low social control 2. Select a relevant site and subjects: - where is the research being conducted and who are the research subjects - ex. residents in a high crime neighbourhood 3. Collect the data - determine which methods to use - as suggested earlier, it may be more appropriate to use more than one method - ex. ethnographic observations and interviews 4. Interpret the data - determine the meanings that research subject put to activities that occur in the social environment - ex. residents don't perceive crime as a problem because there is a low incidence of violent crime, in spite of the high crime rate 5. Conceptual and theoretical work - evaluate the data related to your research question - ex. crime may not be as damaging to a community as outsiders might think if there are cushioning factors. Although crime is recognized as common, networks of localized support reduced the potential or at least fear of actual violence. How does available data answer this question? (a) Tighter specification of the research question (b) Collection of further data - here the interpreting and theorizing process is intermixed data collection. This is an iterative process. Data may confirm or contradict the interpretation which may lead again to more data collection - ex. more interviews with research subjects, perhaps some new or some revisited 6. Writing up and findings/conclusions - the researcher must demonstrate the credibility of the research and why the research matters - ex. provide insight into why crime may flourish in an area essentially under the nose of residents

What is grounded theory? How are theories and concepts explored and utilized in qualitative research?

THEORIES AND CONCEPTS IN QUALITATIVE RESEARCH: - qualitative research often involves the "grounded theory" approach: the use of data to develop theories + this may involve an iterative process: going back and forth from data to theory, revising the theory in the process - qualitative research may involve testing theories + this can be done through an iterative process, or occasionally through theory testing in the conventional sense

What is a THEORY and what are the common components of theory? What are middle range theories and grand theories? What is the relationship between theory and research?

THEORY: an explanation of observed regularities or patterns Common components of a theory: - definitions: what are the key terms - descriptions: what are the characteristics - relational statements: how are variables related? + deterministic + probabilistic - middle range theories + limited in scope + testable + ex. merton's theory of anomie - grand theories + general and abstract + provide ways to look at the world + ex. structural functionalism, symbolic interactionism, critical theory, post-structuralism, feminism etc. + ex. standpoint theory maintains that the way we view the world and make our way in it is largely determined by our placement in various hierarchies of status and power - one offshoot of standpoint theory has been an increased willingness to examine the views and perceptions of poor and marginalized groups in society - what is the relationship between theory and research? + theory can guide research + research can test theory

What are some threats to internal validity in experiments that lack random assignment and/or the presence of a control group outlined by Cook and Campbell (1979)? (6)

THREATS TO INTERNAL VALIDITY IN EXPERIMENTS THAT LACK RANDOM ASSIGNMENT AND/OR THE PRESENCE OF A CONTROL GROUP: 1. History: some event occurring after the treatment was given may have influenced the dependent variable 2. testing: the pre-test may have influenced the dependent variable 3. Instrumentation: changes in the way a test is administered may account for pre-test and post-test differences 4. Mortality: participants leave the experiment before it is over 5. Maturation: participants change over time (ex. get older, develop mentally and emotionally, etc.) 6. Selection: post-test differences between the control and experimental groups may have been caused by pre-existing differences

What are the two main types of sampling?

TWO MAIN TYPES OF SAMPLING: 1. Probability: uses random selection methods, associated with quantitative methods 2. Non-probability: Does not use random selection methods, associated with qualitative research

What are the 3 types of CASE STUDIES?

TYPES OF CASE: 1. The Critical Case: illustrates the conditions under which a certain hypothesis holds or does not hold Ex. studying a person for whom certain counselling techniques are successful 2. The extreme (or unique) case: illustrates unusual cases, which help in understanding the more common ones Ex. studying the life of a person who has been married seven times helps researchers understand more common marriage patterns 3. The revelatory case: examines a case or context never before studied ex. the study of a particular historical figure may be enhanced when documents are "de-classified" or enter the public domain, such as the diaries of former Prime Minister MacKenzie King

What are the 3 types of non-probability sampling?

TYPES OF NON-PROBABILITY SAMPLING: 1. convenience sampling 2. snowball sampling 3. quota sampling

Why does the Tri-Council Policy exist?

The Tri-Council Policy exists due to inadvertent harm caused to participants - the researcher may not recognize all the risks - long history of unethical research has resulted in more stringent REB

What is the TRI-COUNCIL POLICY?

The Tri-council policy statement was written based off anthropology in part because: - one of the major complaints of qualitative researchers is tha ethics policies in Canada and elsewhere have been designed according to a bio-medical model that calls for standard research protocols, signed consent forms, and other elements that are not compatible with qualitative and especially ethnographic studies - ex. imagine how members of an outlaw motorcycle gang would respond to a researcher who handed them information sheets and consent forms to sign - such difficulties were not addressed in national ethics regulations - found that among all ethical guidelines only four pertained to "natural observation research" in the original TCPS TCPS2 came into effect December 2014 - was created with substantial input from qualitative researchers. - SSHR, CIHR, and NSERC agencies: administered through research ethics boards - approval process can be long

What must the Researcher convince the REB of?

The onus is on the researcher to convince the REB that studies are: - sound - ethical - do not harm participants - make a contribution to knowledge

Give an example of the use of qualitative methods in participatory action research

Type 2 diabetes among Indigenous children and youth is a growing problem, one with important implications for the quality of life among Indigenous people in Canada. Sharma et al. (2011) sought to do something about it, but rather than approach the issue from the perspective of conventional social science, they used the methods of participatory action research (PAR) to address it. Instead of devising the methodology themselves and then seeking consent from prospective research participants, they first consulted members of the community where the research would take place to get their permission to do a study on the topic, and then asked for their views on what an appropriate methodology might be. After gaining permission to go ahead with the project from the band and chief of a rural Indigenous community in British Columbia, Sharma et al. held focus groups with several community groups, including elders with diabetes, the Chief and Council, a health-care services team, and some Indigenous youths to determine how the study would be conducted. This was done in an attempt to neutralize the power differential between the researchers (who were non-Indigenous and had PhDs, secure middle-class incomes, and Western cultural outlooks) and the members of the community. It was especially important to recognize the potential for exploitation in this research, given the history of colonialism in Canada and the tendency of past researchers to marginalize Indigenous experiences and ways of knowing. The goal was to make the members of the community equal partners in the research, and in so doing allow them to bring their own issues and perspectives to bear on it. The various participants decided collectively that the project would take the form of a short film to be created by five Indigenous youths aged 14-16. The film featured interviews with elders suffering from diabetes, a description of what diabetes is, and some tips on healthy eating. The production of the film involved a constant negotiation of the relationship between the professional researchers and the youths. The former tried to stay in the background as much as possible, although they did end up editing the first version of the film. In order to enhance the collaborative nature of the project, the professional researchers then showed the edited version to the youths and removed any parts that the young people thought were inappropriate. This illustrates several aspects of PAR: explicit recognition of the power differentials that often characterize conventional research; an attempt to minimize those differentials in order to address the subject matter from the perspective of the people participating in the research; and full participation by the group that is the focus of the inquiry in order to produce knowledge and actions that are beneficial to them and not just to the professional researchers.

What are some issues that arise with VIRTUAL SAMPLING?

VIRTUAL SAMPLING ISSUES: - a major limitation of online surveys is that not everyone is online and has the kind of technical ability to handle these kinds of questionnaires - many people have more than one email address - some households have one computer but several users - internet users are a biased sample of the population (tend to be better educated, wealthier, younger, more urban) - few sampling frames exist for the general population

Give an example of how deception is necessary in research.

Virtually all experiments in the social sciences involve deception of some kind. In the Rosenthal and Jacobson study, for example, the experimenters told the teachers that certain students were spurters, which simply was not true. But could the experiment have been carried out without any deception? For example, could the experimenters have told the teachers that they were testing the effects of teacher expectations on student achievement? Could they have given the teachers a list of students and said, "Pretend that these students are gifted, although they are not any more gifted, on average, than the students not on the list. We want to see whether you would treat such children differently, and whether differential treatment affects their academic performance." Surely, that sort of approach would not have produced authentic behaviour on the part of the teachers, and the teachers might well have refused to participate under those conditions for ethical and practical reasons. Clearly, some form of deception was necessary for the experiment to work. Deception raises ethical concerns because it's basically a form of lying to get honest actions/reactions/authentic behaviour. - you can go back and tell them about ur study

What does the news often miss about reporting research? Explain using an example

What's missing in media portrayals of violent crime In 2017, a Canadian veteran of the war in Afghanistan shot and killed his wife, his mother, and his daughter, and then killed himself. Many of the media accounts of the tragedy focused on the perpetrator, in particular on the fact that he had suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) brought on by his combat experience. A common narrative in the media portrayals of the event involved the idea that Canadian soldiers suffering from PTSD and other combat-related ailments typically cannot get the help they need, despite the significant sacrifices they have made in Canada's military operations. Lost from view in these media accounts was the fact that there were victims besides the person who committed the murder-suicide. The lives and circumstances of the other three people who died were largely overlooked and forgotten. Another thing that was missing was an acknowledgment that the murders were part of the larger societal issue of deadly violence against women (Renzetti, 2017). As Mount Allison University sociology professor Ardath Whynacht put it, "There were four victims that day and we're talking only about the services that could have helped him, and not, for example, services that might have helped his spouse be safer, in trying to leave that relationship and get space" (Renzetti, 2017).

Summarize the key points of chapter 7

•Probability sampling is a mechanism for reducing bias in sample selection. •Key technical terms in sampling include representative sample, random sample, non-response, population, and sampling error. •Randomly selected samples are important because they permit generalizations to the population of interest. •Sampling error generally decreases as sample size increases. •Under certain circumstances, quota samples can be an alternative to random samples, but they have some deficiencies. •Convenience samples can provide useful data, but have limited generalizability. •Sampling and sampling-related error are just two sources of error in social survey research. •Response rates vary by the medium of communication and most can be improved by persistent follow-up procedures.