Transcript WHY DO SOCIAL RESEARCH ?

Week 1
WHY DO SOCIAL RESEARCH ?
• Answer Questions about society
• Enhance our knowledge
• Benefit society
DYNAMIC
Cycle of Research
research
Social behaviors,
attitudes and theories
Change!
patterns
theories
Research Subjects
• Individuals
• Groups of People
• Societies
• Cultures
• Social processes
• Social and Psychological abnormalities
These are your units of analysis
EMPIRICAL RESEARCH
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Don’t rely on what others say
Test it yourself
Touch that stove to see if it’s hot
Ouch –
Yup – It’s hot!
How is a researcher like a
detective?
• Looks for facts and truths
• Accumulates facts to solve mysteries
• Results benefit society
Like Detectives, Researchers are
HUMAN
Humans are subjective
Don’t always observe or listen accurately
Opinions may bias research
Often generalize
Often resist change
Often put our own interests first
How to do Scientific Research
• Define all terms
• Suspect all previous knowledge
• Replicate research to test social theory
and build on it
• Look for regularities and patterns
• Look for normalities and conformities,
abnormalities and deviance from patterns
Methods used for Data collection
• Information is data
What are the most popular Methods used for
gathering Data
• Survey – Interview and Questionnaire
• Experiment – Laboratory setting – Testing
• Qualitative – Participant Observation,
Intensive Interview, Focus Groups, Case
Studies, Comparative, Content
Analysis,Grounded Theory
Types of Social Research
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Descriptive Research – social phenomena are defined and described.
i.e. What are the characteristics of people who use the Internet? i.e.
age, gender, education, income, religion. Best method to assess is
survey
Exploratory Research – Determine how people behave in a particular
setting – i.e. What are the various ways people use the internet? –
What are the meanings they attach to their actions? What issues
concern them? Best methods to assess – survey and observation
Explanatory Research – Identify causes and effects of social
phenomena with the objective of predicting outcome – If a person
uses the internet they feel happier. Best method to assess is
Experiment – sometimes survey. Usually is Quantitative.
Evaluation Research – Incorporates a variety of methods to learn the
effects of a social program or intervention or to assess need for a
social program or intervention – i.e. Did giving employees use of
internet improve morale? Best to use multi-method approach.
The Time Dimension
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The event, phenomena, behavior etc.
may be studied as:
1. Cross-Sectional Study – One point in
time
2. Longitudinal Study – multiple points in
time
ATTRIBUTES OF DATA
• May be Primary Data – collected by the
researcher
• May be Secondary Data – researcher
uses other researchers’ data
Businesses, government, organizations,
universities compile data and statistics that
others can use such as: General Social
Survey, Census, National Crime Study,
Election Studies
Problems?
• Is the available Secondary Data useful?
• Is it accurate?
• Are the measures used close to the
measures needed to answer your
research questions?
More Attributes of Data
• Quantitative – The data is numeric – It can
be ordered in terms of magnitude
• Qualitative – The data is mostly written or
spoken words that do not have a direct
numerical interpetation
What is a Research Question?
• Example – Will arresting spousal abusers
deter repeat incidents (recidivism)?
• We seek to answer questions about
people, people in groups, general social
issues and processes by collecting
verifiable empirical data
• In the form of a hypothesis – If more
spousal abusers are arrested then
recidivism will be reduced
Where do the questions come
from?
• Own experience or personal interests
• Reading literature about a particular topic
What is the process we follow:
• Identify a question
• Refine the question
• Evaluate the question
• Reformulate the question
How Do We Develop Theories?
• Deductive reasoning – General to Specific
Our research starts from a theory, moves to data
collection then back to a better theory
• Inductive reasoning – Specific data leads to a
general theory
Instead of the research cycle starting with theory,
the question emerges from the situation. We
observe behaviors or attitudes and then ask
questions about it.
Qualitative research is often exploratory and hence
inductive.
Ethical Issues
Scientists should not impose their own values on
their research!
Research on people requires that researchers:
• Cause no harm to subjects
• Participation should be voluntary
• Subjects must give informed consent
• Researchers should fully disclose identity
• Anonymity and confidentiality must be
maintained
Proposals
• For funding and approval for research a
researcher may have to submit a research
proposal.
• The bare bones of a research proposal are:
Research problem statement, literature review,
methodological plan, budget, ethics statement,
statement of limitations
• It may also include – proposal summary,
statement of objectives, evaluation plan,
implications for future research and other
materials as relevant to the sponsoring agency