Sociology Chapter 2.1

quantitative research methods

Survey research secondary analysis: using pre-collected information for data collection and research purposes. experiment

participant observation

a case study where the researcher becomes a member of the group being studied. EX: John Howard Griffin, a white journalist, dyed his skin to study the life of African Americans in the South. a researcher may join a group with or without informing its members that he or she is a sociologist.

sample

a limited number of cases drawn from the larger population. It must be carefully selected if it is to have the same basic characteristics as the general population.

representative sample

a sample that accurately reflects the characteristics of the population as a whole. This allows the researcher to make generalizations about the entire population. The Gallup Poll and Harris Poll use representative samples in their surveys. To get a representative sample, samples are chosen by random, or chance, selection. EX: each member of the population is assigned a number, and then numbers are drawn from a container at random to get the sample.

interview

a trained interviewer asked questions and records the answers. may contain close-ended or open-ended questions.

questionnaire

a written set of questions that survey participants answer by themselves. may contain close-ended or open-ended questions.

population

all those people with the characteristics a researcher wants to study. EX: all high school seniors in the U.S.

open-ended questions

ask the person to answer in his or her own words. Answers to these questions can reveal many attitudes. However, these answers are not easy to quantify or compare.

qualitative research methods

case study: intensive study of a single group, incident, or community

closed-ended questions

questions a person must answer by choosing from a limited, predetermined set of responses. EX: multiple choice questions. These sometimes fail to uncover underlying attitudes and opinions. But they make it easier to tabulate responses and compare.

Survey

research method in which people are asked to answer a series of questions. It is the most widely used research method among sociologists. It is a type of quantitative research. It is ideal for studying large numbers of people. Researchers describe the people surveyed in terms of populations and samples. Info is obtained through either a questionnaire or an interview.

qualitative

research that rests on narrative and descriptive data.

field research

research that takes place in a natural (non laboratory) setting. It looks closely at aspects of social life that cannot be measured quantitatively. EX: "jock" culture is best studied by field research. It is qualitative. Scientists have a responsibility to follow a code of ethics that protects all of their subjects, animal or human.

quantitative

research that uses numerical data. Tools include surveys and pre collected data. 90% of research published in journals is based on surveys.

case study

the most popular approach to field research. It is an intensive study of a single group, incident, or community. This method assumes the findings in one case can be generalized to similar situations.

Goal of sociological research

to test common sense assumptions and replace false ideas with facts and evidence. For sociologists, the world is their laboratory.

secondary analysis

using pre-collected information for data collection and research purposes. It is a well-respected method of collecting data in sociology. Emile Durkheim relied on pre-collected data. EX: the US Census Bureau is one of the most important sources of pre-collected data for American sociologists. The census contains detailed information on income, education, race, sex, age, marital status, occupation and death and birth rates.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Secondary Analysis

1. pre-collected data provide sociologists with inexpensive, high-quality information. 2. existing sources of information permit the study of a topic over a long period of time. 3. the researcher cannot influence answers because the data have been collected by others. Disadvantages:: 1. the existing information may not exactly suit the researcher's needs because it was gathered for a different reason. 2. sometimes pre collected data are outdated. 3. little may be known about collection methods. EX: the people who collected the data may have been biased.