Foundations of Research

1. Info 271B Lecture 2 Foundations of Research

2. Administrative Stuff • Course Mailing List: i271b • Please sign up through the ischool intranet. • OR: • https://calmail.berkeley.edu/manage/list/listinfo/i271b@ischool.berkeley.edu • Readings (When to buy) • Get Bernard (Social Research Methods) now on Amazon.com or elsewhere • You will need Statistics (Freedman et al.) by week 4. • STATA Software Recap – Get it by week 5. • IC, SE and MP– you want IC (intercooled) • IC Licenses: 6-month ($65), 12-month ($98), Perpetual ($179) • http://stata.com/order/new/edu/gradplans/gp-campus.html Info 271B

3. Brief Background: Epistemology and Strategies of Inquiry Info 271B

4. Different Definitions of ‘Science’ “an objective, logical , and systematicmethod of analysis of phenomena, devised to permit the accumulation of reliable knowledge” (Lastrucci 1963:6) “Science is the intellectual and practical activity encompassing the structure and behavior of the physical and natural worldthrough observation and experimentation” (Oxford Standard American Dictionary)

5. Instrumental Positivism and Humanism: Two Important Worldviews In turning sociology into a science, “it will be necessary to crush out emotion…it will be desirable to taboo ethics and values” (Ogburn 1929) “…the development of a total portrait of man derived from the combination of discrete questionnaires, surveys and other ‘atomic’ facts” (Horowitz, 1968). “Man is the measure of all things” (Protagoras 485-410 B.C.)

6. Post-Positivism, Observation, Measurement and Reason

7. Logical Empiricism: The current state of positivism • Again, knowledge is based on experience– but metaphysical explanations of phenomena are incompatible with science. • Established the idea that we can build ‘true’ complex statements if we start with true propositions. • We should only attempt to answer “answerable” questions.

8. The Social Sciences • Anthropology, economics, history, political science, psychology, social psychology, sociology, philosophy • Related sub-fields: communications, criminology, demography, education, epidemiology, geography, journalism, leisure studies, nursing, social work Info 271B

9. Quantitative and Qualitative Perspectives in the Social Sciences • "There's no such thing as qualitative data. Everything is either 1 or 0“ • Fred Kerlinger • "All research ultimately has a qualitative grounding“ • Donald Campbell In turning sociology into a science, “it will be necessary to crush out emotion.” Further, “it will be desirable to taboo ethics and values (except in choosing problems); and it will be inevitable that we shall have to spend most of our time doing hard, dull, tedious, and routine tasks” (Ogburn 1930:10).

10. Different Strategies of Inquiry • Qualitative • Emergent methods • Open-ended questions • Interviews, Case Studies, Ethnographies • Quantitative • Instrument-based questions • Statistical analysis • Surveys, Experiments

11. Why quantitative research? • Standardized methodologies • Statistical techniques are public • Like any science, the methods of research can (and should be) disclosed so that anyone can duplicate your findings • Forces the investigator to think about the measurement of key factors (i.e., variables) and whether they actually measure intended concepts. Info 271B

12. Foundations of Quantitative Research: Variables and Measurement Source: XKCD Info 271B

13. Constructs and Variables • Variables • Something we can measure • Concrete measured expressions to which we can assign numeric values • Constructs • Concepts, often complex • Not directly measurable • Also called ‘theoretical variables’ Info 271B

14. Linking Constructs and Variables Success Life Happiness ? ? ? ? Info 271B

15. Conceptual and Operational Definitions • Conceptual Definitions • Abstractions that facilitate understanding • Operational Definitions • How to measure a conceptual variable Info 271B

16. Operationalization “If the content of an operational definition is bad, then so are all conclusions you draw from using it to measure something.” Concept: “Trustworthiness” Info 271B

17. Operationalization • For any operational definition, there are a few important things to keep in mind: • What is the unit of analysis? • Be able to justify your operational definition (i.e., don’t make arbitrary decisions) • An entire study and any conclusions you draw can be undone by an insufficient operationalization. Info 271B

18. Measurement • How could we actually measure Information Privacy…? • This is what Bernard refers to as multidimensionality: No single variable does a very good job of measuring the intended concept. Info Privacy ? ? Info 271B

19. Measurement: Variables • Independent Variable (X) • Also called predictor variables, or right-hand side variables (RHS) • Those that the researcher manipulates • Attributes or potential causes under investigation in a given study • Dependent Variable (Y) • Also called outcome variable, or left-hand side variables (LHS) X Y y = mx + b Info 271B

20. Thursday: Research Problems for Quantitative Research Read the Creswell chapters first. Note that two of the readings are examples of quantitative research studies. We are going to discuss what it means to set up an argument and problem for quantitative analysis, so read those with this intention in mind.