Chapter 3 Flashcards
Research methodology
-is a contested field in sociology
-system of methods a researcher uses
scientific method steps:
-observation
-identify a research question
-conduct background research
-formulate hypothesis
-select a research design
-gather data
-analyze data
-revise hypothesis or present results
outsider expert ideal is an example of ____
policy sociology
insider vs outsider perspectives
outsider= expert who occupies a privileged position over the insider “subjects of study”
smith’s standpoint theory
-the social location of sociologists impacts the questions they ask and the answers they receive
- insider voice of the subject comes from their subjective experience
-the objective outsider expert uses their privilege to decide the authenticity of the insider perspective (this is where information gets lost)
opposition to smith’s standpoint
Critical sociologists ex: dorothy smith and michel foucault challenged the notion of the objective outsider and stressed the unique role of the insider perspective
Triangulation
mixed approach of quantitative (numbers) and qualitative(ex. ethnography)
Qualitative methods
-Ethnography
-Institutional ethnography
-Case study approach
-narratives
-content analysis
-discourse analysis
-genealogy
ethnography
-seeks to uncover the symbols and categories members of the given culture use to interpret their world
-participant observation
-semi-structured interviews
-informants
Institutional ethnography
-every institution has two sides
1. Ruling interest: interest of the organization
2.experiential data: from informants (people who work for organization outside of management)
Case study approach
-often used to describe best practices
Content Analysis
-studying a set of cultural artifacts or events and interpreting the themes they reflect
-the studied items must:
1. not have been created specifically to be studied
2. data and pre existence and non interactive
discourse analysis
-analyzing discourse ( conversation, speech, written text)
- different type= broader definition of “text” going beyond individual works to include larger fields of information over time
genealogy
-method of examining the history of discourse analysis
-traces the origin and histories of modern discourses
measure of center and two examples
-a way of taking all of the data you have gathered on a particular subject and
-Median: the number in the number of all the other number ( seperates the lower half from the upper half)
Mean: average
Operational definitions
-transform abstract or theoretical concepts like “poverty”(abstract poverty vs relative poverty leads to different poverty measures and different statistics), “middle class” “single parent” into concrete observable measurable entities
Variable
-a concept with measurable traits that can change/ vary form one person/group to another
Correlation
- when two variables are associated more frequently than could be expected by chance
-positive (direct) correlation: variables increase or decrease together
-negative (inverse) correlation two variables change in opposite directions
-describes the relationship between two variables
causation
-the linking of effects to causes
spurious reasoning, spurious variable
-when someone sees correlation and falsely assume causation
-an outside factor that influences both correlating variables
joel best, questions to ask when examining a statistic
-what are the sources
-who produced the number, what are their interests
-what are the different ways terms might be defined, which definition is being used
