Ethan Kupferberg Soc 101 Class 7 9 17 19 Step six Collecting the data 1 We must make certain that the operational definitions must measure what they are intended to measure and not something else Validity the measurement are consistent with what was intended to be measured We must make certain that our operational definitions would illicit the same findings if the study was conducted again by you or another research 2 Reliability the quality of consistency in measurement The process must yeild the same results if repeated time after time Research strive to be verifiable or replicable If something is verifiable it means that anyone can re run anyone else s experiment and get the same result Eventually a theory gets written into the textbooks only when a lot of scientists get together and agree that is pretty good research Six Types of research 1 Survey The most popular method among researchers involves direct questioning of research subjects Practical issues involve Selecting a sample Population the target group that you intend to study Sample a set number of individuals from among the target population How one chooses a sample is crucial the choice may skew results If you wish to generalize your findings generalizability then your sample must be representative of your population Random sample every element of the population has the same chance of ending up in the sample Important if goal of study is to be generalizable Stratified random sample a sample for selected subgroups of the target population in which everyone in those subgroups has an equal chance of being included in the research Snowball sampling sample is created by a continuous series of introductions to friends and colleagues Not very representatives or generalizable Question Formation Neutral questions Your questionnaire must be designed to allow respondents to best express their own opinions Questions should not be leading or use biased language For example Do you think crackheads should be allowed to receive welfare The problem with questions like the second is that it can create a response bias by only having positive statements It is critical to state what the objective of a question is before the question is constructed Survey questions are generally of two types Closed ended questions provide a series of fixed responses to questions They are used mostly in instructed interviews and they allow subjects to use their own words Interviewing techniques require some degree of repprot be established a feeling of trust between researchers and the research subjects Qualitative observation This method entails the researcher participating in the research setting while simultaneously systematically observing what is happening Also referred to as the ethnographic method Participant observation is based on living among the people under study for a lengthy period usually a year and gathering data through continuous involvement in the routine culture traits and daily lives of the people under study Things to consider The setting and social environment characteristics of the subjects e g gender ethnicity approximate age grouping style of dress Patterns frequency direction of interaction and communication Decision making behaviors who initiates it who ultimately makes the decision and type manner of communication regarding the decision Setting up culture shock Initial orientation or entry period which may take 3 months or longer learning about the environment breaking in researcher has to gain trust of community under study Avoiding breaches of etiquette Rapport with a few key informants who become researcher s guide to community and the gatekeepers of information A key informant provides guidance on local customs language who to avoid The uses of participant observation method Participant observation is often deployed by sociologists interested in documenting the lives of people who live on the margins of society In such circumstances scientific methods are too intrusive Also there are problems for researchers in gaining entry to such communities Advantages of participant observation 1 The behavior occurs in its natural setting Researchers take part in the events he or she is observing describing and analyzing 2 The sociologist gains insights beyond any gained from more distant description and surveys Some behaviors and beliefs can only be understood in more intimate day to day relationships or by just being there when things happen Disadvantages of participant observation 1 2 3 4 Time consuming Hard to replicate Results are not generalizable hard to rule out spuriousness The problem of researcher s attachment and detachment to the community is blurring of subjectivity and objectivity 3 Secondary Analysis Research analyze data already collected by others A disadvantage of secondary analysis is that the research must rely on someone else s research and consequently cannot be certain that the data were systematically gathered accurately recorded and biases avoided 4 Documents Research based on the study of documents written sources that provide data such as letters diaries newspapers books police reports and government records It may also include in a more extended sense archival material of any sort such as recordings photographs and movies 5 Experiments Three conditions are necessary for causation correlation temporal priority no spurious correlation 6 Unobtrusive measures public space This research method involves observing the behavior of people who do not know they are being observed Unobtrusive measures can yield a great deal of information that would be difficult if not impossible to obtain through other research methods Raises serious ethical issues depending upon how it is carried out Not allowed at most public universities which have informed consent polices Ethics in Sociological Research Research ethics require sociologists to follow guidelines that call for openness honesty truth and the protection of research subjects Landmark social sciences studies such as Zimbardo s Stanford prison experiment and Humpherys s tearoom trade study made it clear that social and behavioral research may carry risks of harm related to psychological well being violations of autonomy and privacy and reputational damage Laud Humphreys tearoom study In his book Tearoom Trade Impersonal Sex in public places 1970 the researchers observed men meeting other men for casual sexual encounters in public restroom Humphreys gained the confidence