Chapter 2 - Sociological Research

Interpretive Approach

A sociological research approach that seeks in-depth understanding of a topic or subject though observation or interaction.

Random Sample

A study's participants being randomly selected to serve as a representation of a larger population. Every person in a population has the same chance of being chosen for the study.

What is an advantage of secondary data?

Is that it is nonreactive (or unobtrusive) research, meaning that it does not include direct contact with subjects and will not alter or influence people's behaviours. Unlike studies requiring direct contact with people, using previously published data does not require entering a population and the investment and risks inherent in that research process.

What is critical sociology's interest when performing research?

Critical sociology has an interest in types of knowledge that enable emancipation from power relations and forms of domination in society.

What is interpretive sociology's interest when performing research?

Interpretive sociology has an interest in pursuing types of knowledge that promote greater mutual understanding and the possibility of consensus among members of society.

Control Group

An experimental group that is not exposed to the independent variable.

Variable

A characteristic or measure of a social phenomenon that can take different values.

Population

A defined group serving as the subject of a study.

Research Methods & Design

A detailed method / plan for obtaining data scientifically. 1. Observation / Ethnography 2. Interview 3. Survey 4. Experiment 5. Secondary Sources

Research Design

A detailed, systematic method for conducting research and obtaining data.

Reliability

A measure of a study's consistency that considers how likely results are to be replicated if a study is reproduced. Researchers want to maximize the study's reliability (how likely research results are to be replicated if the study is reproduced). Reliability increases the likelihood that what happens to one person will happen to all people in a group.

Empiricism

-Observation cannot be recorded at random. -In order for observations to be useful, they need to be collected and recorded systematically. (Always need to show why you're doing what you're doing). -When observations are collected and recorded systematically, it is only then can it be used as evidence for research. Your justification. -Empiricism can be biased through a persons everyday life.

Why do research?

-To gather data on something that has little information. -To explain a relationship between two phenomenon. -To provide possible solutions to a social problem. -To evaluate a policy on a particular issue. Its it effective? -To refute or tests an existing theory.

Defining The Problem

-What are you looking at? You need to state as clearly as possible what you hope to investigate. -What do you want to understand or find out more about? -The point is to uncover something in need of answers and requiring an explanation. -It cannot be a yes or no answer, it should lead to a new question.

Formulating The Hypothesis

-What do you expect to find? You are trying to make an educated guess about a relationship. -If you think something will happen, then something else will happen. -The point is to give a potential claim you can test when you are performing the analysis.

What is the general method of knowing?

1. Rationalism - truth through reason. 2. Empiricism - truth through observation.

Interview

A one-on-one conversation between a researcher and a subject. A way of conducting surveys on a topic. Similar to the short answer questions on surveys; the researcher asks subjects a series of questions. Participants are free to respond as they wish, without being limited by predetermined choices. In the back-and-forth conversation of an interview, a researcher can ask for clarification, spend more time on a subtopic, or ask additional questions. In an interview, a subject will ideally feel free to open up and answer questions that are often complex. There are no right or wrong answers.

Value Neutrality

A practice of remaining impartial, without bias or judgment during the course of a study and in publishing results.

Content Analysis

A quantitative approach to textual research that selects an item of textual content that can be reliably and consistently observed and coded, and surveys the prevalence of that item in a sample of textual output. Content analysis is a quantitative approach to textual research that selects an item of textual content (i.e., a variable) that can be reliably and consistently observed and coded, and surveys the prevalence of that item in a sample of textual output.

Positivist Approach

A research approach based on the natural science model of knowledge utilizing a hypothetic-deductive formulation of the research question and quantitative data.

Literature Review

A scholarly research step that entails identifying and studying all existing studies on a topic to create a basis for new research.

Code of Ethics

A set of guidelines that the Canadian Sociological Association has established to foster ethical research and professionally responsible scholarship in sociology. Formal guidelines for conducting sociological research—consisting of principles and ethical standards to be used in the discipline. It also describes procedures for filing, investigating, and resolving complaints of unethical conduct. These are in line with the Tri-Council Policy Statement on Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans (2010), which applies to any research with human subjects funded by one of the three federal research agencies - the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC).

Sample

A small, manageable number of subjects that represent the population.

Scientific Method

A systematic research method that involves asking a question, researching existing sources, forming a hypothesis, designing and conducting a study, and drawing conclusions. A scientific process of research establishes parameters that help make sure results are objective and accurate. Scientific methods provide limitations and boundaries that focus a study and organize its results. The scientific method involves developing and testing theories about the world based on empirical evidence. It is defined by its commitment to systematic observation of the empirical world and strives to be objective, critical, skeptical, and logical. It involves a series of prescribed steps that have been established over centuries of scholarship. The scientific method provides a systematic, organized series of steps that help ensure objectivity and consistency in exploring a social problem. They provide the means for accuracy, reliability, and validity. In the end, the scientific method provides a shared basis for discussion and analysis. The method starts with these steps—1) ask a question, 2) research existing sources, 3) formulate a hypothesis.

Why do sociologists look at existing sources when performing research?

A visit to the library and a thorough online search will uncover existing research about the topic of study. This step helps researchers gain a broad understanding of work previously conducted on the topic at hand and enables them to position their own research to build on prior knowledge. It's important to sift through information and determine what is relevant. Using existing sources educates a researcher and helps refine and improve a study's design.

Hypothesis

An educated guess with predicted outcomes about the relationship between two or more variables hypothetic-deductive methodologies. Methodologies based on deducing a prediction from a hypothesis and testing the validity of the hypothesis by whether it corrective predicts observations. The hypothesis is an assumption about how two or more variables are related; it makes a conjectural statement about the relationship between those variables. It is an "educated guess" because it is not random but based on theory, observations, patterns of experience, or the existing literature. The hypothesis formulates this guess in the form of a testable proposition. However, how the hypothesis is handled differs between the positivist and interpretive approaches.

Case Study

An in-depth analysis of a single event, situation or individual. To conduct a case study, a researcher examines existing sources like documents and archival records, conducts interviews, engages in direct observation, and even participant observation, if possible. Case studies are useful when the single case is unique. In these instances, a single case study can add tremendous knowledge to a certain discipline. A major criticism of the case study as a method is that a developed study of a single case, while offering depth on a topic, does not provide enough evidence to form a generalized conclusion. It is difficult to make universal claims based on just one person, since one person does not verify a pattern. This is why most sociologists do not use case studies as a primary research method.

Primary Data

Data collected directly from firsthand experience.

Qualitative Data

Information based on interpretations of meaning. Results that are subjective and often based on what is seen in a natural setting. Qualitative information is harder to organize and tabulate. The researcher will end up with a wide range of responses, some of which may be surprising. The benefit of written opinions, though, is the wealth of material that they provide.

Quantitative Data

Information from research collected in numerical form that can be counted.

Textually Mediated Communication

Institutional forms of communication that rely on written documents, texts, and paperwork.

Surveys

Data collections from subjects who respond to a series of questions about behaviours and opinions, often in the form of a questionnaire. One of the most widely used scientific research methods. The standard format allows individuals a level of anonymity in which they can express personal ideas. Sociologists conduct surveys under controlled conditions for specific purposes. They gather different types of information from people. While surveys are not great at capturing the ways people really behave in social situations, they are a great method for discovering how people feel and think—or at least how they say they feel and think. They can track attitudes and opinions, political preferences, reported individual behaviours (such as sleeping, driving, or texting habits), or factual information such as employment status, income, and education levels. A survey targets a specific population, people who are the focus of a study. Most researchers choose to survey a small sector of the population, or a sample - a manageable number of subjects who represent a larger population. The success of a study depends on how well a population is represented by the sample. The validity of surveys can be threatened when part of the population is inadvertently excluded from the sample (e.g., telephone surveys that rely on land lines exclude people that use only cell phones) or when there is a low response rate.

Research Design

Different research methods and designs help us to ask different types of questions. The decision depends on the research question itself, resource available (money and manpower), type of research you are trying to do. Each method/design has strengths and weaknesses.

Empirical Evidence

Evidence corroborated by direct experience and/or observation.

When considering the type of research that might go into producing a government policy document, where would the most reliable data come from in a sociology experiment?

From an experimental or quasi-experimental research model in which a control group can be compared with an experimental group using quantitative measures. If the research question is more exploratory (for example, trying to discern the reasons why individuals in the crack smoking subculture engage in the risky activity of sharing pipes), the more nuanced approach of fieldwork is more appropriate. The research would need to focus on the subcultural context, rituals, and meaning sharing pipes, and why certain phenomena exists.

Field Research

Gathering data from a natural environment without doing a lab experiment or survey. Refers to gathering primary data from a natural environment without doing a lab experiment or a survey. It is a research method suited to an interpretive framework rather than to the scientific method. To conduct field research, the sociologist must be willing to step into new environments and observe, participate, or experience those worlds. In field work, the sociologists, rather than the subjects, are the ones out of their element. The researcher interacts with or observes a person or people, gathering data along the way. The key point in field research is that it takes place in the subject's natural environment, whether it's a coffee shop or tribal village, a homeless shelter or a care home, a hospital, airport, mall, or beach resort.

Research Method/Design: Collection

How are you going to get the data? Are you trying to collect evidence to answer your research questions? The point is to select the best possible way to find the type of information to test your hypothesis.

Participant Observation

Immersion by a researcher in a group or social setting in order to make observations from an "insider" perspective. Researchers join people and participate in a group's routine activities for the purpose of observing them within that context. This method lets researchers experience a specific aspect of social life. A researcher might go to great lengths to get a firsthand look into a trend, institution, or behavior. Researchers temporarily put themselves into roles and record their observations. These researchers try to blend in seamlessly with the population they study, and they may not disclose their true identity or purpose if they feel it would compromise the results of their research. Participant observation is a useful method if the researcher wants to explore a certain environment from the inside.

Secondary Data Method

Implementation: -Analysis of government data (census, health, crime stats) -Research of historic documents. Advantages: Makes good use of previous sociological information. Disadvantages: Data could be focused on a purpose other than yours and data can be hard to find.

Experimental Method

Implementation: -Deliberate manipulation of social customs and mores. Advantages: Tests cause and effect relationships. Disadvantages: Hawthorne Effect and ethical concerns about people's wellbeing.

Field Work Method

Implementation: -Observation -Participant Observation -Ethnography -Case Study Advantages: Yields detailed, accurate real-life information. Disadvantages: Time consuming, data captures how people behave button what they think and believe and qualitative data is difficult to organize.

Survey Method

Implementation: -Questionnaires -Interviews Advantages: Yields many responses, can survey a large sample and quantitative data are easy to chart. Challenges: Can be time consuming, difficult to encourage participant response, and captures what people think and believe but not necessarily how they behave in real life.

Field Experiment

In a natural or field-based experiment, the generation of data cannot be controlled but the information might be considered more accurate since it was collected without interference or intervention by the researcher.

What is positivist sociology's interest when performing research?

In pursuing types of knowledge that are useful for controlling and administering social life.

What does the operational definition identify?

It identifies an observable condition of the concept and by operationalizing a variable of the concept, all researchers can collect data in a systematic or replicable manner.

Inductive Approach

Methodologies that derive a general statement from a series of empirical observations.

Ethnography

Observing a complete social setting and all that it entails.

What is the positivist approach to a hypothesis?

Positivist methodologies are often referred to as hypothetico-deductive methodologies. A hypothesis is derived from a theoretical proposition. On the basis of the hypothesis a prediction or generalization is logically deduced. In positivist sociology, the hypothesis predicts how one form of human behaviour influences another. Successful prediction will determine the adequacy of the hypothesis and thereby test the theoretical proposition. Typically positivist approaches operationalize variables as quantitative data; by translating a social phenomenon into a quantifiable or numerically measurable variable. This permits sociologists to formulate their predictions using mathematical language like regression formulas, to present research findings in graphs and tables, and to perform mathematical or statistical techniques to demonstrate the validity of relationships.

What is a disadvantage of secondary data?

Public records are not always easy to access. A researcher needs to do some legwork to track them down and gain access to records. In some cases there is no way to verify the accuracy of existing data. Or data is unavailable in the exact form needed or do not include the precise angle the researcher seeks.

Lab Experiment

Research can be controlled so that perhaps more data can be recorded in a certain amount of time. To set up a lab-based experiment, sociologists create artificial situations that allow them to manipulate variables. Classically, the sociologist selects a set of people with similar characteristics, such as age, class, race, or education.

What are some of the guidelines that sociologists need to adhere to when conducting research?

Researchers must obtain participants' informed consent, and inform subjects of the responsibilities and risks of research before they agree to partake. During a study, sociologists must ensure the safety of participants and immediately stop work if a subject becomes potentially endangered on any level. Researchers are required to protect the privacy of research participants whenever possible. Even if pressured by authorities, such as police or courts, researchers are not ethically allowed to release confidential information. Researchers must make results available to other sociologists, must make public all sources of financial support, and must not accept funding from any organization that might cause a conflict of interest or seek to influence the research results for its own purposes. The CSA's ethical considerations shape not only the study but also the publication of results.

Secondary Data

Secondary data do not result from firsthand research collected from primary sources, but are drawn from the already-completed work of other researchers. Sociologists might study texts written by historians, economists, teachers, or early sociologists. They might search through periodicals, newspapers, or magazines from any period in history. Using available information not only saves time and money, but it can add depth to a study. Sociologists often interpret findings in a new way, a way that was not part of an author's original purpose or intention.

Why is distinguishing between the independent and dependent variable important?

Simply identifying two topics, or variables, is not enough: Their prospective relationship must be part of the hypothesis. Just because a sociologist forms an educated prediction of a study's outcome doesn't mean data contradicting the hypothesis aren't welcome. Sociologists analyze general patterns in response to a study, but they are equally interested in exceptions to patterns.

Operational Definitions

Specific explanations of abstract concepts that a researcher plans to study. A researcher's operational definitions help measure the variables. Those definitions set limits and establish cut-off points, ensuring consistency and replicability in a study.

Experiment

The testing of a hypothesis under controlled conditions. They investigate relationships to test a hypothesis—a scientific approach. There are two main types of experiments: lab-based experiments and natural or field experiments.

Structured Questionnaire

Subjects answer a series of set questions.

What are the four used methods of investigation that sociologists use when planning a study's design?

Survey, field research, experiment and secondary data analysis (existing sources).

What was a crucial concern that Weber addressed regarding ethics?

That personal values could distort the framework for disclosing study results. He accepted that some aspects of research design might be influenced by personal values, he declared it was entirely inappropriate to allow personal values to shape the interpretation of the responses. Sociologists must establish value neutrality, a practice of remaining impartial, without bias or judgment, during the course of a study and in publishing results. Sociologists are obligated to disclose research findings without omitting or distorting significant data. Value neutrality means striving to overcome personal biases, particularly subconscious biases, when analyzing data. It means avoiding skewing data in order to match a predetermined outcome that aligns with a particular agenda, such as a political or moral point of view. Investigators are ethically obligated to report results, even when they contradict personal views, predicted outcomes, or widely accepted beliefs.

What are the main advantages and disadvantages of covert participant observation?

The advantage is that it allows the researcher access to authentic, natural behaviors of a group's members. The challenge is gaining access to a setting without disrupting the pattern of others' behavior. Becoming an inside member of a group, organization, or subculture takes time and effort. Researchers must pretend to be something they are not. The process could involve role playing, making contacts, networking, or applying for a job. Once inside a group, some researchers spend months or even years pretending to be one of the people they are observing. As observers they cannot get too involved. They must keep their purpose in mind and apply the sociological perspective. They illuminate social patterns that are often unrecognized. Because information gathered during participant observation is mostly qualitative, rather than quantitative, the end results are often descriptive or interpretive. The researcher might present findings in an article or book, describing what he or she witnessed and experienced.

What is the chief drawback of the structured questionnaire seeking quantitative data such as yes no answers?

The artificiality. In real life, there are rarely any unambiguously yes-or-no answers.

When conducting research using secondary data what is important to consider?

The date of publication of an existing source and to take into account attitudes and common cultural ideals that may have influenced the research. Attitudes and cultural norms can be vastly different then than they are now. Beliefs about gender roles, race, education, and work may have changed significantly since the time of research.

Validity

The degree to which a sociological measure accurately reflects the topic of study. Researchers also strive for validity, which refers to how well the study measures what it was designed to measure. Validity would ensure that the study's design accurately examined what it was designed to study.

Asking a Question

The first step of the scientific method is to ask a question, describe a problem, and identify the specific area of interest. The topic should be narrow enough to study within a geography and time frame. It can't be vague. When forming basic research questions, sociologists develop an operational definition - to define the concept in terms of the physical or concrete steps it takes to objectively measure it. The concept is translated into an observable variable, a measure that has different values. The operational definition identifies an observable condition of the concept.

What does the operational definition require?

The operational definition must be valid in the sense that it is an appropriate and meaningful measure of the concept being studied. It must also be reliable, meaning that results will be close to uniform when tested on more than one person.

Institutional Ethnography

The study of the way everyday life is coordinated through institutional, textually mediated practices. In modern society the practices of everyday life in any particular local setting are often organized at a level that goes beyond what an ethnographer might observe directly. Everyday life is structured by "extralocal," institutional forms; that is, by the practices of institutions that act upon people from a distance. Ethnography needs to somehow operate at two levels: the close examination of the local experience of particular women and the simultaneous examination of the extralocal, institutional world through which their world is organized. In order to accomplish this, institutional ethnography focuses on the study of the way everyday life is coordinated through "textually mediated" practices: the use of written documents, standardized bureaucratic categories, and formalized relationships. The shift from the locally lived experience of individuals to the extralocal world of institutions is nothing short of a radical metaphysical shift in worldview. In institutional worlds, meanings are detached from directly lived processes and reconstituted in an organizational time, space, and consciousness that is fundamentally different from their original reference point. The goal of institutional ethnography therefore is to making "documents or texts visible as constituents of social relations". Institutional ethnography is very useful as a critical research strategy. It is an analysis that gives grassroots organizations, or those excluded from the circles of institutional power, a detailed knowledge of how the administrative apparatuses actually work. This type of research enables more effective actions and strategies for change to be pursued.

What kind of questions do sociologist's ask during their research?

They ask about the role of social characteristics in outcomes. For example, how do different communities fare in terms of psychological well-being, community cohesiveness, range of vocation, wealth, crime rates, and so on? Are communities functioning smoothly? Sociologists look between the cracks to discover obstacles to meeting basic human needs. They might study environmental influences and patterns of behavior that lead to crime, substance abuse, divorce, poverty, unplanned pregnancies, or illness. And, because sociological studies are not all focused on negative behaviors or challenging situations, researchers might study vacation trends, healthy eating habits, neighborhood organizations, higher education patterns, games, parks, and exercise habits.

What is the drawback of the structured questionnaire seeking more subjective answers?

They vary from person to person and require essay responses, but the participants willing to take the time to fill them out will convey personal information about many areas of interest.

What is the scientific method?

To define a problem > review the literature . formulate a testable hypothesis > select a research design > collect and analyze data > develop the conclusion > ideas for further research.

How are variables examined?

To see if there is a correlation between them. When a change in one variable coincides with a change in another variable there is a correlation. This does not necessarily indicate that changes in one variable causes a change in another variable, however, just that they are associated. There must be a relationship or correlation between the independent and dependent variables. The independent variable must be prior to the dependent variable. There must be no other intervening variable responsible for the causal relationship A researcher's operational definitions help measure the variables.

Nonreactive

Unobtrusive research that does not include direct contact with subjects and will not alter or influence people's behaviours.

Secondary Data Analysis

Using data collected by others but applying new interpretations.

Dependent Variable

Variable changed by another variable.

Independent Variable

Variable that causes change in a dependent variable.

Research Method/Design: Analysis

What are you going to do with the data? Are you going to use various ways to work with the information to find a relationship. It can be qualitative and text based or quantitative and number based.

Unit Of Analysis

What are you studying (units for measuring)? Are you comparing between: -Individuals -Groups -Communities -Nations

Correlation

When a change in one variable coincides with a change in another variable, but does not necessarily indicate causation.

Scientific Method Conclusions and Limitations

When concluding your research, what are the limitations? In an ideal world with unlimited resources, how can you improve on it next time - future studies. The point is to address the weaknesses and offer suggestions for direction and future agendas

Hawthorne Effect

When study subjects behave in a certain manner due to their awareness of being observed by a researcher. People changing their behaviour because they know they are being watched as part of a study.

When are people more likely to share honest answers?

When they think they are anonymous.

What are the drawbacks to field research?

While field research often begins in a specific setting, the study's purpose is to observe specific behaviours in that setting. Fieldwork is optimal for observing how people behave. It is less useful, however, for developing causal explanations of why they behave that way. From the small size of the groups studied in fieldwork, it is difficult to make predictions or generalizations to a larger population. There are difficulties in gaining an objective distance from research subjects. It is difficult to know whether another researcher would see the same things or record the same data.

What is the interpretive approach to a hypothesis?

While systematic, this interpretive framework seeks to understand social worlds from the point of view of participants, leading to in-depth knowledge. It focuses on qualitative data, or the meanings that guide people's behaviour. Rather than relying on quantitative instruments like questionnaires or experiments, which can be artificial, the interpretive approach attempts to find ways to get closer to the informants' lived experience and perceptions. Interpretive research is generally more descriptive or narrative in its findings. It can begin from a deductive approach, by deriving a hypothesis from theory and then seeking to confirm it through methodologies like in-depth interviews. It is ideally suited to an inductive approach in which the hypothesis emerges only after a substantial period of direct observation or interaction with subjects. This type of approach is exploratory in that the researcher also learns as he or she proceeds, sometimes adjusting the research methods or processes midway to respond to new insights and findings as they evolve. Once the preliminary work is done, it's time for the next research steps: designing and conducting a study, and drawing conclusions.