Lecture handout[ april 5th
- 2. Concepts • Highest level of generality • “A formal definition of what is being studied.” • “The mental images we use to bring order to the mass of” things in the social world • Examples: • Adjustment to college (academic, social, and psychological adjustment) • Collective efficacy: social cohesion/trust & informal social control…..
- 3. What is a variable? • Variables • Logical groupings of attributes.
- 4. What is a variable? • Example: To measure adjustment, you can think of questions such as the following: • Academic: Are you doing in your work? Are you attending your classes? Social: Have you made any friends? What degree of social life do you have?
- 5. • 3. Attributes The categories of a variable • Example: The attributes of the variable, religion….
- 6. Making an argument • Relationship between two or variables • Example: Is low voter turnout explained by the educational levels of the population? – Do you buy the relationship exists? – How will you support your case?
- 7. Statistic • Categories of one VAR are related to the categories of another
- 8. Causal • 0ne variable is the cause, and the other variable is the effect.
- 9. Causal • Causal variable -- independent variable • "effect" variable --dependent variable. – The dependent variable (attitude or behavior) – The independent variable (age, income, race..)
- 10. Causal relationship • differences in one VAR explain differences in the other VAR 10
- 11. Four types of social research • Descriptive Research: research that defines and describes social phenomena • Example: Shows frequencies (how many are doing something) • Focus is on describing some phenomenon…..
- 12. Four types of social research • Exploratory Research: investigation of social phenomena without expectations • Meanings – actions and issues. • Large amounts (unstructured information) • New direction of inquiry
- 13. Four types of social research • Explanatory Research • research that identifies causes and effects of social phenomena • Goal: predict how one thing will change when another.
- 14. Four types of social research Evaluation Research: research that determines the effects of a social program or other type of intervention. How effect is a particular program? –Is our smoking prevention program working? –Is our needle exchange program working?
- 15. Two Traditions • Qualitative • Quantitative – Microsociology – Macrosociology – Study of everyday life – Study of large-scale – Acknowledges patterns subjectivity of research – Assumes research – Methods: objectivity • Observation – Methods: • Interviews • Surveys • Visual analysis • Scales • Databases
- 16. Two Traditions • Quantitative – Relationships between variable – Gender and income
- 17. Qualitative Approach Issue or Setting Representation Observations and/or Researcher Analysis and Interviews Interpretation Images or Documents Review of the Literature (theories) Data Collection Fieldnotes, interview transcripts
- 18. Qualitative • interactions, behaviors, and attitudes – narrative representations
- 19. Qualitative • Researcher does the analysis through careful, ongoing “readings” of data
- 20. Value of Qualitative Research • Debated within discipline for decades • “legitimacy” as a science
- 21. A Striking Difference • Qualitative researchers: enter a setting (the field) and spend significant amounts of time (often years) interviewing and observing. – They are known by their subjects and come to know their subjects well. • Quantitative researchers: don’t meet their subjects. Data is often collected through other organizations (e.g., U.S. Census) or through mail surveys.
- 22. Research Design and theory • Quant: Theory -> hypothesis -> DATA (deductive) • Qual: Data – Take findings and then link to theory (inductive)