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| concerned with developing, exploring or testing the theories or ideas that social researchers have about how the world operates. |
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| based on observations and measurements of reality -- on what we perceive of the world around us |
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| laws or rules that pertain to the general case |
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| laws or rules that relate to individuals |
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| most social research is interested (at some point) in looking at cause-effect relationships. -- ones that tell us how our causes (e.g., programs, treatments) affect the outcomes of interest. |
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| 3 basic types of research questions |
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| descriptive, relational (looks at relationship between two or more variables), causal |
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| one that takes place at a single point in time. In effect, we are taking a 'slice' or cross-section of whatever it is we're observing or measuring. snapshot |
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| is one that takes place over time -- we have at least two (and often more) waves of measurement in a longitudinal design |
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| many waves of measurement over time |
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| correlational relationship between variables |
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| A correlational relationship simply says that two things perform in a synchronized manner.But knowing that two variables are correlated does not tell us whether one causes the other. Can't assume that just because there is a correlation there is a causal relationship - or that one variable causes another. |
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| third variable problem (spurious relationship) |
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| it may be that there is a third variable that is causing the correlation we observe. |
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| types of relationships: positive relationship |
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| In a positive relationship, high values on one variable are associated with high values on the other and low values on one are associated with low values on the other. |
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| types of relationships: negative relationship |
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| Implies that high values on one variable are associated with low values on the other. This is also sometimes termed an inverse relationship. |
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a specific value on a variable. For instance, the variable sex or gender has two attributes: male and female. Or, the variable agreement might be defined as having five attributes:
* 1 = strongly disagree
* 2 = disagree
* 3 = neutral
* 4 = agree
* 5 = strongly agree |
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| the independent variable is what you (or nature) manipulates -- a treatment or program or cause. |
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| dependent variable is what is affected by the independent variable -- your effects or outcomes |
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| a specific statement of prediction |
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| qualitative and quantitative |
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| All quantitative data is based upon qualitative judgments;and all qualitative data can be described and manipulated numerically. |
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The unit of analysis is the major entity that you are analyzing in your study. For instance, any of the following could be a unit of analysis in a study:
* individuals
* groups
* artifacts (books, photos, newspapers)
* geographical units (town, census tract, state)
* social interactions (dyadic relations, divorces, arrests)
--it is the analysis you do in your study that determines what the unit is |
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| occurs when you make conclusions about individuals based only on analyses of group data. |
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| It occurs when you reach a group conclusion on the basis of exceptional cases. |
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| Deductive reasoning works from the more general to the more specific. Theory, hypothesis, observation, confirmation |
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| Inductive reasoning works the other way, moving from specific observations to broader generalizations and theories. Observation, pattern, tentative hypothesis, theory |
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| rejection of metaphysics --t is a position that holds that the goal of knowledge is simply to describe the phenomena that we experience. The purpose of science is simply to stick to what we can observe and measure. |
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| post-positivism is a wholesale rejection of the central tenets of positivism. A post-positivist might begin by recognizing that the way scientists think and work and the way we think in our everyday life are not distinctly different. Scientific reasoning and common sense reasoning are essentially the same process. |
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| A critical realist believes that there is a reality independent of our thinking about it that science can study. |
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| believe that we each construct our view of the world based on our perceptions of it. Because perception and observation is fallible, our constructions must be imperfect. |
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| conclusion, internal, external, construct |
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| In this study, is there a relationship between the two variables? |
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| Assuming that there is a relationship in this study, is the relationship a causal one? |
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| Assuming that there is a causal relationship in this study, can we claim that the program reflected well our construct of the program and that our measure reflected well our idea of the construct of the measure? In simpler terms, did we implement the program we intended to implement and did we measure the outcome we wanted to measure? |
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| Assuming that there is a causal relationship in this study between the constructs of the cause and the effect, can we generalize this effect to other persons, places or times? |
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| sample size is too small, measure of variable unreliable, heterogeneity, etc... |
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| prospective research participants must be fully informed about the procedures and risks involved in research and must give their consent to participate |
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| Harm can be defined as both physical and psychological. |
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| assured that identifying information will not be made available to anyone who is not directly involved in the study. |
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| the participant will remain anonymous throughout the study -- even to the researchers themselves. |
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| feasibility of a study... |
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| how long the research will take, ethical constraints, needed cooperation, costs |
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| preparation, generation of ideas, structuring, representation, interpretation, utilization |
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| threats to external validity |
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| improving external validity... |
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| the group you wish to generalize |
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| The listing of the accessible population from which you'll draw your sample |
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| The sample is the group of people who you select to be in your study. |
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| we can't say a causal relationship exists unless the cause precedes the effect in time. |
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| involves attempts to explain a particular phenomenon in terms of limited and or lower order concepts. |
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| Type of longitudinal study - examines changes within a population over time. (Comparison of U.S Censuses over a period of decades) |
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| Type of longitudinal study: a researcher examines specific subpopulations as they change over time, although data may be collected from different members in each set of observations. |
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| examines the same set of people each time. |
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| steps of research methods |
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| operationalization, population and sampling, observations, data processing,analysis, application |
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| the mental process whereby fuzzy and imprecise notions are made more specific and presise. So you want to study prejudice. What do you mean by "prejudice"? Are there different kinds of prejudice? What are they? |
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| an observation that we choose to consider as a reflection of a variable we wish to study. Thus, for example, attending religious services might be considered an indicator of religiosity. |
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| a specifiable aspect of a concept. Religiousity for example might be specified in terms of a belief dimension, a ritual dimension, a devotional dimension, a knowledge dimension, and so forth. |
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| "essential nature" or the "essential attributes" of some entity. So vague, useless for rigorous inquiry. |
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| one that is simply assigned to a term without any claim that the definition represents a "real" entity. arbituary - i.e could define compassion as plucking feathers off helpless birds... |
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| operationalization - specifies how a concept will be measured. |
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| variables whose attributes have only the characteristics of exhaustiveness and mutual exclusiveness. gender, relgious affiliation, political party, birthplace.... |
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| variables with attributes we can logically rank-order. i.e social class, conservatism, prejudice, -- one is "more" than the other. |
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| the actual distance separating attributes don't have meaning. logical distance between attributes can be expressed in meaningful standard intervals. For example, the distance between 80 and 90 is the same as between 40 and 50. However, 80 degrees F is not twice as hot as 40 degrees. |
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| a level of measurement describing a varaible with attributes that have all the qualities of nominal, ordinal, and interval measures and in addition are based on a "true zero" point. Age is an example. |
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| nominal, ordinal, interval, ratio |
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| progressively requiring more information. |
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| concerns the fineness of distinctions made between the attributes that compose a variable. 43 is more precise than saying someone is in their 40s. |
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| describing someone as born in new england is less precise thatn born in stowe, Ma but if the person is born in Boston - it is more accurate to say they were born in new england even though it isn't as precise a detail. |
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| does a particular tech. applied repeatedly to the same object, yield the same results each time? |
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| reliability does not ensure accuracy... |
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| test-retest method (taking the same measurement twice), split-half method (make more than one measurement of any subtle or complex social concept), using measures that have proved their reliability, appropriately training those collecting data etc. |
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| that quality of an indicator that makes it seem a reasonable measure of some variable. that the freq. of attendance at religious services is some indication of a persons religiosity seems to make sense w/o a lot of explanation. It has face validity. |
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| criterion related validity (predictive validity) |
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| the degree to which a measure relates to some external criterion. |
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| the degree to which a measure covers the range of meanings includes within a concept. |
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| index (measure of ordinal variable) |
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| Construct by accumulating scores assigned to individual attributes. We might measure prejudice by adding up the number of prejudiced statements each respondent agreed with. |
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| scale (measure of ordinal variable) |
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| assigning scores to patterns of responses, recognizing that some items reflect a relatively weak degree of the variable while others reflect something stronger. (woman are different versus women should not be allowed to vote) |
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Item Selection: Face Validity, unidimensionality (items relecting religious fundamentalism should not be included in a measure of political conservatism), general or specific, variance
Examination of Empirical Relationships:
bivariate relationship, multivariate relationships.
Index Scoring: |
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| the analysis of two variables simultaneously, for the purpose of determining the empirical relationship between them. The construction of a simple percentage table or the computation of a simple correlation coefficient are examples of bivariate analyses. |
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| the analysis of the simultaneous relationship among several variables. examining simultaneously the effects of age, gender, and social class on religiosity would be an example. |
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| item analysis (examine the extent to which the index is related to the individual items it comprises), external validation, |
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| bogardus social distance scale, thurstone scales, likert scaling, semantic differential, guttman scaling |
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| bogardus social distance scale |
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| measurement tech. for determining the willingness of people to participate in social relations - of varying degrees of closeness - with other kinds of people. |
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