Date post: | 28-Nov-2014 |
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Technology |
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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…..
What is a variable?
• Variables
• Logical groupings of attributes.
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?
• 3. Attributes The categories of a variable
• Example: The attributes of the variable, religion….
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?
StatisticStatistic
• Categories of one VAR are related to Categories of one VAR are related to the categories of anotherthe categories of another
Causal
• 0ne variable is the cause, and the other variable is the effect.
Causal
• Causal variable -- independent variable
• "effect" variable --dependent variable. – The dependent variable (attitude or behavior)– The independent variable (age, income,
race..)
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Causal relationshipCausal relationship
• differences in one VAR differences in one VAR explainexplain differences in the differences in the other VARother VAR
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…..
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
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.
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?
Two TraditionsTwo Traditions• Qualitative
– Microsociology– Study of everyday life– Acknowledges
subjectivity of research– Methods:
• Observation• Interviews• Visual analysis
• Quantitative– Macrosociology– Study of large-scale
patterns– Assumes research
objectivity– Methods:
• Surveys• Scales• Databases
Two TraditionsTwo Traditions• Quantitative
– Relationships between variable
– Gender and income
Qualitative ApproachQualitative Approach
Issue or Setting
Observations and/or
InterviewsImages or Documents
Data Collection
Fieldnotes, interview transcripts
Researcher Analysis and Interpretation
Representation
Review of the Literature (theories)
QualitativeQualitative• interactions, behaviors, and attitudes
– narrative representations
QualitativeQualitative• Researcher does the analysis through
careful, ongoing “readings” of data
Value of Qualitative ResearchValue of Qualitative Research
• Debated within discipline for decades
• “legitimacy” as a science
A Striking DifferenceA 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.
Research Design and theory
• Quant: Theory -> hypothesis -> DATA (deductive)
• Qual: Data – Take findings and then link to theory (inductive)