Sociological Research Methods and Techniques

Sociological Research Topics
Sociologists:
– Study the influence that society has on people’s attitudes and behavior
– Seek to understand ways in which people interact and shape society

Sociology and Common Sense
Sociologists do not accept something as fact because “everyone knows it”
Findings are tested by researchers, analyzed in relation to other data, and evaluated with sociological theory

What Good Is
Sociological Theory?
Theory: set of statements that seeks to explain problems, actions, or behavior
Effective theories have explanatory and predictive power
Durkheim’s work on suicide provides a classic case of sociological theory at work

The scientific method includes selecting a researchable problem, reviewing the literature, formulating a hypothesis, creating an operational definition, choosing a research design, collecting the data, analyzing the data, and stating conclusions.
 It is important that sociologists observe the ethics of their discipline in carrying out research. They have an obligation to protect their research subjects from risk and harm and to protect these subjects’ rights and dignity.
Sociological Research
Method and Ethics

Sociology and Science
● Sociology is a type of science, a logical system that bases knowledge on direct, systematic observation.
- Scientific sociology is the study of society based on systematic observation of social behavior.
- Scientific knowledge is based on empirical evidence, information we can verify with our data, not common sense.
● Scientific evidence sometimes contradicts common sense explanations of social behavior.
-It is not what we do not know that get us into trouble, it is what we know that is not true.

Research, Values, and Biases
● Sociologists strive for objectivity, a state of personal neutrality in conducting research, whenever possible following Max Weber’s model of value-free research.
-One way to limit distortion caused by personal values is through replication, repetition of research by others in order to assess its accuracy.
-More about this later.
● Limitations of scientific sociology.
-Human behavior is too complex to allow sociologists to predict precisely any individual’s actions.
- Because humans respond to their surroundings, the mere presence of a researcher may affect the behavior being studied.
● Social patterns change; what is true in one time or place may not hold true in another.

● Because sociologists are part of the social world they study, being value-free when conducting social research is difficult.
● An alternative to Value Free is Interpretive sociology.
- Not biased, just the opposite
Max Weber, argued that the focus of sociology is interpretation.
- Interpretive sociology is the study of society that focuses on the meanings people attach to their social world.
The interpretive sociologist’s job is not just to observe what people do but to share in their world of meaning and come to appreciate why they act as they
● Another alternative is Critical sociology.
-Karl Marx, who founded critical sociology, rejected the idea that society exists as a “natural” system with a fixed order. Critical sociology is the study of society that focuses on the need for social change.
- The point is not merely to study the world as it is but to change it.
Value Free Research and Research with Values

● Research is effected by the characteristics of the researcher. We have to strive to overcome this.
● Characteristics that can effect the design, conduct, and results of research
Gender
Race
Ethnicity
Religion
Social Status
● The American Sociological Association has established formal guidelines for conducting research. Most professional associations do the same thing.
Value Free Research and Research with Values

Value Free Research and Research with Values – The case of Gender
-Research is affected by gender, the characteristics that members of a society attach to being female and male, in five ways:
- Androcentricity, or approaching an issue from the male perspective.
- Overgeneralizing, or using data drawn from studying only one sex to support conclusions about human behavior in general.
-Gender blindness, or not considering the variable of gender at all.
-Double standards.
- Interference because a subject reacts to the sex of the researcher
- Similar effects from the researcher’s race and/or ethnicity and/or religion

Methods of collecting data
Sociologists use the following methods
Surveys
Experiments
Participant observations
Secondary Analysis

Survey Research
● A survey is a research method in which subjects respond to a series of statements or questions in a questionnaire or an interview..
-Surveys are directed at populations, the people who are the focus of research.
- Usually we study a sample, a part of a population that represents the whole. Random sampling is commonly used to be sure that the sample is actually representative of the entire population.
- Surveys may involve questionnaires, a series of written questions a researcher presents to subjects.
- Questionnaires may be closed-ended or open-ended.
Surveys may also take the form of interviews, a series of questions administered in person by a researcher to respondents.
● This technique uses statistical methods to analyze data

Understanding and using statistical data
Reading Tables: An Important Skill. A table provides a lot of information in a small amount of space, so learning to read tables can increase your reading efficiency
Three simple, critical, and useful statistical measures of the average
The mode is the value that occurs most often in a series of numbers.
The mean refers to the arithmetic average of a series of numbers.
The median is the value that occurs midway in a series of number arranged from lowest to highest.

Experiments
● An experiment is a research method for investigating cause and effect under highly controlled conditions.
-Experimental research is explanatory, meaning that it asks not just what happens but why. Typically, researchers conduct experiments to test hypotheses, unverified statements of a relationship between variables. Most experiments are conducted in laboratories and employ experimental and control groups.
-The Hawthorne effect is a change in a subject’s behavior caused by the awareness of being studied.
-The Stanford County Prison study was an experiment conducted by Philip Zimbardo that supported the notion that the character of prison itself, and not the personalities of prisoners and guards, causes prison violence.
● Statistics can, but do not have to be used in this method of doing research.

Participant Observation
Participant observation is a method by which researchers systematically observe people while joining in their routine activities. Participant observation research is descriptive and often exploratory. It is normally qualitative research, inquiry based on subjective impressions.
 William Whyte utilized this approach to study social life in a poor neighborhood in Boston. His research, published in the book Street Corner Society, illustrates the value of using a key informant in field research.
 Elliot Liebow studied unemployed Black men in Washington and published his results as Talley’s Corner

Steps in the conduct of Scientific Sociological Research
1. Select a topic guided by sociological perspective and curiosity.
Frequently guided by the source of funding for the research.
2. Define the problem in considerable detail, specifying exactly what you want to learn.
3. Review the literature to use what is already known about the topic. As a guide, and to generate ideas as to what questions to ask.
4. Formulate your hypothesis, describing how you expect your variables to be related.
Your variables need to be operationalized.
5. Choose a research method, which we will discuss in a few minutes.
6. Collect your data paying attention to the validity.
7. Analyze your data.
8. Disseminate by publishing or speaking at professional meetings, your findings.

►Formulating the Hypothesis
Steps in the Research
Process
Hypothesis: testable statement about relationship between two or more variables
Variable: measurable trait or characteristic subject to change under different conditions
Independent variable: variable hypothesized to cause or influence another
Dependent variable: variable subject to the influence of another variable

►Formulating the Hypothesis
Steps in the Research
Process
Causal logic: relationship between a condition or variable and a particular consequence, with one event leading to the other
Correlation: exists when a change in one variable coincides with a change in another

Collecting and Analyzing Data
►Ensuring Validity and Reliability
Validity: degree to which a measure or scale truly reflects the phenomenon under study
Reliability: extent to which a measure produces consistent results

Collecting and Analyzing Data
Selecting the Sample
Sample: selection from a larger population that is statistically representative of that population
Random sample: when every member of an entire population has the same chance of being selected

The Basic Concepts of the Social Scientific Method
Concepts, variables, and measurement.
1. Concepts are mental constructs that represent some part of the world, inevitably in a simplified form.
2. Variables are concepts whose value changes from case to case, Constants do not change value.
3. Measurement is the process of determining the value of a variable in a specific case.
4. Statistical measures are frequently used to describe populations as a whole.
a) This requires that researchers operationalize variables, which mean specifying exactly what one is to measure in assigning a value to a variable

Developing the Conclusion
●Supporting Hypotheses
Sociological studies do not always generate data that support the original hypothesis
Controlling for Other Factors
• Control variable: factor that is held constant to test the relative impact of an independent variable

Finally….
The interplay of theory and method.
Inductive logical thought is reasoning that builds specific observations into general theory.
Deductive logical thought is reasoning that transforms general ideas into specific hypotheses suitable for scientific testing.
Most sociological research uses both types of logical thought.
People Lie with Statistics? The best way not to fall prey to statistical manipulation is to understand how people can mislead with statistics:
People select their data.
People interpret their data.
People use graphs to “spin” the truth
If you don’t understand this you WILL be fooled!

Research Ethics
Code of Ethics: first published by ASA in 1971
Maintain objectivity and integrity in research
Respect subject’s right to privacy and dignity
Protect subjects from personal harm
Preserve confidentiality
Seek informed consent
Acknowledge research collaboration and assistance
Disclose all sources of financial support