Question

1. Question • Can a devout Catholic study abortion without being influenced by his/her religion? • Answer, yes. It is possible by following sociological research/scientific method.`

2. Sociological Research How do sociologists study social behavior?

3. The Sociological Research Process • Quantitative Research- has the goal of objectivity and data that can be measured -typically relies on complex statistical techniques (think numbers- quantity) • -example: statistically examining the relationships among church membershipsand divorce. • Qualitative Research- relies on interpretation and description of underlying meanings and patterns of social relationships (think open-ended subjective questions) • -example: analyzing the content of suicide notes, asking people about their lives and general reactions.

4. Deductive v Inductive Approaches to Research • Deductive- the researcher begins with a idea and generates hypotheses which leads to data gathering, then generalizations, and then to support or refutation of the theory • Inductive- the researcher collects information, creates a generalization, the generalization is then used to create a theory that is then tested through the formation of hypotheses Theory gives meaning to research---research helps support theory

5. Divorce in America

6. Correlations • Sociologists are interested in finding correlations between two variables. EXAMPLES • What is the correlation between student perceptions of the teacher and grades? • What is the correlation between a parent’s education level and what level classes their children take in school? • What is the correlation between your income level and your geographic location? • What is the correlation between religious views and political beliefs?

7. Correlations Continued • What is the correlation between divorce rates and the state of the economy? • What is the correlation between your family’s income and your grades? • What is the correlation between gender and pay? • What is the correlation between a nation’s overall wealth and the gap between the rich and poor? • What is the correlation between political views and gender? • What is the correlation between geographic location and race? • What is the correlation between language and race? • What is the correlation between age and musical preferences?

8. Clear Target Students will be able to identify various methods used by sociologist to conduct research and determine which methods are best for studying various issues in society.

9. Sociological Research Methods • Naturalistic Observations- Observing people in their natural environments (aka field research) • Surveys- polls that gather facts or determine relationships among facts • Experiments- in which subjects are exposed to an independent variable to determine how this impacts a dependent variable

10. Survey • Is a poll in which the researcher gathers facts of attempts to determine relationships among facts • How to collect data? • Survey—Questionnaire and Interview • Decide on a population and select a sample • Random sampling- every member of a population has the same chance of being selected • Probability sampling- people are chosen because they have certain characteristics Strengths and weaknesses?

11. Survey Questions

12. Types of question • Open-ended - ‘How do you feel today?’ • Allows wide range or responses - preferable when researcher has little idea of the type or response to expect • Respondents decide how much information to give • Lack of structure can make scoring of the responses difficult

13. Types of question • Closed questions - ‘On a scale of 1-5 how happy do you feel today?’ • A fixed set of responses is provided • Respondent must pick one • Easy to score • May miss responses that some participants wants to give since the scope for answers is limited

14. Types of question • Mixed questions • A fixed set of responses is provided • An open-ended choice is given to cover any alternatives that may have been missed • Still has a limited scope How do you feel today? A. Happy B. Sad C. Angry D. Relaxed E. Other (specify)_________________________________

15. Response scales • Categorical questions – non-directional options How are you happy today? • Likert Scales - Labeled points on scale I am Happy today • Percentages How happy are you on a percentage from 1-100 • Continuous scales Please mark the line below to express you level of happiness: Happy Unhappy

16. Categorical Questions • Often used for demographic information: • Job type, ethnic background, etc. • Dichotomous questions – only two options: Yes/no, Male Female • No indication of response strength

17. Labeled points on scale Several possibilities Strongly agree, Agree, Disagree, Strongly disagree Scale from 1-5 with ends (poles) labeled Useful to try and define parts of the scale (anchoring) How many values should be put on a scale? 7±2 options - above this difficult to use the full range When normally distributed can be analysed parametrically Likert Scales

18. Percentages • Gives participants a wider range of possible responses • But resposes tend to cluster around commonly used percentages – 10, 20, 25, 50, 75, 90

19. Continuous scales Happy Unhappy • Line is normally 10cm long • Score = distance in mm from start of line to mark • Get a fuller use of the scale than percentages • Allows more sensitive measurement than Likert • More challenging to code

20. Writing goodquestions • A survey lives and dies by its questions • Unclear questions confuse • Vocabulary should be clear and simple • Questions should be specific • Should government do something about health care? • Should government pass a law on health care? • Should government pass a law on health care that would guarantee health coverage for all?

21. Writing good questions • Include conditional information before the key idea in the question • If you were the victim of a violent crime, would you consider buying a gun? • Consider varying the polarity of the questions • Questions should be phrased both negatively and positively • Some people just like to say No (or Yes)!

22. Avoid when writing Qs • Leading questions - suggesting the ‘right’ answer • People often recognize the importance of gun control in the prevention of crime. What is your opinion of gun control? • Loaded questions - emotionally charged • Are you in favor of laws that that allow dangerous convicted felons out of prison early? • Double-barreled questions - packing too much in • Do you favor life sentences for repeat offenders and stricter sentences for criminals who used guns?

23. Field Research • Is the study of social life in its natural setting: observing and interviewing people where they live, work, and play. • Qualitative data oriented • Case studies • Ethnography- is a detailed study of the life and activities of a group of people by researchers who may live with that group over a period of years • Interviews Strengths and weaknesses?

24. Experiments Are carefully designed situations in which the researcher studies the impact of certain variables on subjects’ attitudes and behaviors • Experimental group (expose independent variable) vs. control group (withhold independent variable) • Follow the scientific method • Hypothesis • Variables • Independent • Dependent variables Use existing sources- • Secondary analysis—use previously collected data • Content analysis—analyze your results

25. Steps of Sociological Research The scientific method involves eight basic steps: 1) Observation of an event that stimulates thinking. 2) Defining or classifying the terms or events being considered.

26. Steps of Sociological Research The scientific method involves eight basic steps: 3) Formulating the research issue or hypothesis. 4) Generating a theory or proposition - a general statement that serves as a potential answer to the research question.

27. Steps of Sociological Research The scientific method involves eight basic steps: 5) Creating a research design in order to test whether the theory or proposition is valid. 6) Collecting data-working through the research design to make observations.

28. Steps of Sociological Research The scientific method involves eight basic steps: 7) Analyzing the data. 8) Making conclusions and evaluating the theory. 

29. Steps of Sociological Research Putting it into action

30. DURKHEIM’S SUICIDE STUDY • DEFINING THE PROBLEM: WHAT ARE THE SOCIAL PATTERNS RELATED TO SUICIDE? • WHAT COUNTED AS SUICIDE? • WHEN AND WHERE ARE SUICIDE MOST COMMON? • WHAT SOCIAL CHARACTERISTICS DO SUICIDE VICTIMS SHARE? Sociologist Emile Durkheim

31. Example 1… Sociology Question- What causes people to commit suicide?

35. WHAT ARE THE INDEPENDENT VARIABLE(S) IN DURKHEIM’S STUDY? TIME OF DAY GEOGRAPHY RACE GENDER SEASON MEDIA

36. WHAT IS THE DEPENDENT VARIABLE(S) IN DURKHEIM’S STUDY? THE SUCIDE RATE THIS IS INFLUENCED BY THE INDEPENDENT VARIABLES

37. IS THERE A RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE TWO? • GPA AND HOURS SPENT STUDYING • GPA AND ABSENTEEISM • GPA AND HAIR COLOR

38. RELATIONSHIPS OF VARIABLES • DIRECT RELATIONSHIP: BOTH VARIABLES INCREASE; BOTH VARIABLES DECREASE. • INVERSE RELATIONSHIP: THE VALUE OF ONE VARIABLE INCREASES AS THE VALUE OF THE OTHER DECREASES. • NULL HYPOTHESIS: THERE IS NO RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN VARIABLES.

39. REVIEWING THE LITERATURE STEP 2 • WHAT IS KNOWN ABOUT SUICIDE? • VICTIMS OF SUICIDE WERE ASSUMED TO BE DEPRESSED, MENTALLY ILL, OR STRICKEN WITH UNBEARABLE LOSS. • ARE THERE DIFFERENT RATES OF SUICIDE IN DIFFERENT COUNTRIES, SEASONS, AND DIFFERENT SOCIAL GROUPS? DURKHEIM WOULD TEST THIS SUSPICION.

40. HYPOTHESIS STEP 3 DURKHEIM’S STUDY: THE MORE INTEGRATED PEOPLE ARE INTO THEIR SOCIAL GROUPS, THE LESS LIKELY THEY ARE TO COMMIT SUICIDE

41. CHOOSING A RESEARCH DESIGN STEP 4 • DATA: FACTS, STATISTICS, STUDY RESULTS • HOW WILL YOU MEASURE (OBSERVE) THE DIFFERENT VARIABLES? • TWO VARIABLES: • DEGREE OF INTEGRATION • RATE OF SUICIDE

42. CAN BE MEASURED EMPIRICALLY IN ORDER TO GATHER INFORMATION ABOUT AN ABSTRACT VARIABLE WHAT IS THE ABSTRACT VARIABLE IN DURKHEIM’S STUDY? DURKHEIM DEVELOPED AN OPERATIONAL DEFINITION USING THE FOLLOWING INDICATORS TO MEASURE SOCIAL INTEGRATION: MARITAL STATUS CHURCH INVOLVEMENT INDICATORS

43. COLLECTING THE DATA • DURKHEIM RELIED ON GOVERNMENT RECORDS THAT LISTED CAUSES OF DEATH. • DURKHEIM ALSO USED RECORDS THAT LISTED THE NUMBER OF SUICIDES AND GAVE STATISTICS ABOUT THE VICTIMS: THEIR AGE, MARITAL STATUS, NATIONALITY, RELIGION. WHAT WAS THE POTENTIAL PROBLEM OF DOING THIS?

44. DURKHEIM’S FINDINGS • THE MORE SOCIALLY INTEGRATED ONE IS, THE LESS LIKELY ONE IS TO COMMIT SUICIDE. • WHAT TYPE OF RELATIONSHIP EXISTS BETWEEN THE TWO VARIABLES?

45. Strengths and weaknesses of experiments • A.) advantages include the high degree of control, the low cost, small numbers of subjects, and the ability to replicate many times • B.) disadvantages include artificiality, a less communal approach to data gathering, biases on the part of the reseracher, and subject reactivity • Hawthorne Effect- is an example of how subjects react to their knowledge of being studied. Can you think of situations in which your behavior changed because you knew you were being observed?

46. CHALLENGES IN DOING RESEARCH • RELIABILITY • VALIDITY • SPECIFYING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN VARIABLES • PEOPLE ARE NOT REDUCIBLE TO SIMPLE CAUSE-AND-EFFECT EQUATIONS

47. VALIDITY • THE DEGREE TO WHICH A STUDY MEASURES WHAT IT IS ATTEMPTING TO MEASURE • MEASURING SOCIAL INTEGRATION BY USING INDICATORS LIKE MARRIAGE RATES • MIGHT THE DATA BE DISTORTED?

48. RELIABILITY • THE DEGREE TO WHICH A STUDY YIELDS THE SAME RESULTS WHEN REPEATED BY THE ORIGINAL RESEARCHER OR BY OTHERS

49. RELIABILITY OR VALIDITY? • BATHROOM SCALE • GPA AS AN INDICATOR OF INTELLIGENCE

50. Sociological Research • The best way to conduct sociological research is to triangulate- meaning to combine more than one method • Ethics of sociological research—code of ethics • Objectivity/integrity • Privacy/confidentiality • Avoid harm to subjects • Informed consent • Disclose