Giddens et al Chapter 2 Asking and Answering Sociological Questions Sociology A science unlike the natural sciences SOC 2010 HON Honors Introduction to Sociology 1 21 15 Research Methods Overview 7 Steps in the Research Process 1 Define the problem 2 Review the literature 3 Formulate a hypothesis 4 Select a research design 5 Carry out the research 6 Interpret the results 7 Report the research findings Your findings are registered and discussed in the wider academic community leading perhaps to the initiation of further research Hypotheses Ideas or guesses about a given state of affairs put forward as bases for empirical testing Research methods The diverse methods of investigation used to gather empirical factual material Different research methods exist in sociology but the most commonly used are fieldwork or participant observation and survey methods For many purposes it is useful to combine two or more methods within a single research project Ethnography The firsthand study of people using participant observation or interviewing Participant observation A method of research widely used in sociology and anthropology in which the researcher takes part in the activities of the group or community being studied 3 of the Main Methods Used in Sociological Research Ethnography o Strengths Usually generates richer and more in depth information than other methods Ethnography can provide a broader understanding of social processes o Limitations Can be used to study only relatively small groups or communities Findings might apply only to groups or communities studied not easy to generalize on the basis of a single fieldwork study Surveys o Strengths Make possible the efficient collection of data on large numbers of individuals Allow for precise comparisons to be made among the answers of respondents o Limitations Material gathered may be superficial if questionnaire is highly standardized important differences among respondents viewpoints may be glossed over Responses may be what people profess to believe rather than what they actually believe Experiments 1 Strengths Influence of specific variables can be controlled by the investigator Are usually easier for subsequent researchers to repeat Limitations Many aspects of social life cannot be brought into the laboratory Responses of those studied may be affected by the experimental situation Survey A method of sociological research in which questionnaires are administered to the population being studied Population The people who are the focus of social research Pilot study A trial run in survey research Sample A small proportion of a larger population Sampling Studying a proportion of individuals or cases from a larger population as representative of that population as a whole Random sampling Sampling method in which a sample is chosen so that every member of the population has the same probability of being included Experiment A research method in which variables can be analyzed in a controlled and systematic way either in an artificial situation constructed by the researcher or in naturally occurring settings Measures of central tendency The ways of calculating averages Correlation coefficients The measure of the degree of correlation between variables Mean A statistical measure of central tendency or average based on dividing a total by the number of individual cases Mode The number that appears most often in a given set of data This can sometimes be a helpful way of portraying central tendency Median The number that falls halfway in a range of numbers a way of calculating central tendency that is sometimes more useful than calculating a mean Standard deviation A way of calculating the spread of a group of figures Degree of dispersal The range or distribution of a set of figures Comparative research Research that compares one set of findings on one society with the same type of findings on other societies Science In the sense of physical science the systematic study of the physical world Science involves the disciplined marshaling of empirical data combined with theoretical approaches and theories that illuminate or explain those data Scientific activity combines the creation of bold new modes of thought with the careful testing of hypotheses and ideas One major feature that helps distinguish science from other idea systems is the assumption that all scientific ideas are open to criticism and revision Empirical investigation Factual inquiries carried out in any area of sociological study Charon Joel 2010 Should We Generalize about People pp 16 23 in Sociological Odyssey 3rd Edition edited by Patricia A Adler and Peter Adler Belmont CA Wadsworth Cengage BB 2 People often mix stereotypes in with their empirical categorizations Sociology is a social science and thus it makes generalization about people and their social life All human beings categorize and generalize We generalize from our past Every noun and verb we use is a generalization that acts as a guide for us In reality we are unable to escape generalizing about our environment that is one aspect of our essence as human beings Sometimes our generalizations are fairly accurate sometimes they are unfounded Should we generalize about people is not a useful question simply because we have no choice A better question is How can we develop accurate generalizations about people The whole purpose of social science is to achieve accurate categorizations and generalizations about human beings The purpose of almost all academic pursuits involves learning understanding and developing accurate categories and generalizations For animals most are prepared by instinct or simple conditioning to respond in a certain way to a certain stimulus in their environment Human beings are different from other animals because we have words for objects and events in the environment and this allows us to understand that environment and not just respond to it With words we are able to make many more distinctions and we are able to apply knowledge from one situation to the next far more easily We are far less dependent on immediate physical stimuli Humans do not then simply respond to the environment but they label that environment study and understand that environment develop categories and subcategories for objects in that environment and constantly try to generalize from what they learn in specific situations about those categories Through understanding a category we are able to see important and subtle