Chapter 3

Question 1

Research methodology

Answer 1

is the system of methods a
researcher uses to gather data on a particular
research question

• Research methodology is a contested field in
sociology

• There is no single best way to do sociological
research->researchers often combine several
research methods in their work

Question 2

scientific method

Answer 2

– Observation
– Identify a research question
– Conduct background research
– Formulate a hypothesis
– Select a research design
– Gather data
– Analyze data
– Revise hypothesis or present results

Question 3

1. MAKE AN
   OBSERVATION

Answer 3

We notice that patrons of a coffee shop sit for long periods with their
laptops.

Question 4

2. IDENTIFY A
   RESEARCH QUESTIO

Answer 4

We articulate the main question we are trying to answer. It could be What
percentage of patrons use laptops at the coffee shop? or What is the main
reason people use laptops at the coffee shop?

Question 5

3. CONDUCT
   BACKGROUND
   RESEARCH

Answer 5

We need to see if anyone has already investigated this situation. If so,
their findings might help us refine our research question, or we might see
if our own experiment replicates their findings. If our experiment records
something different, we should attempt to explain it in terms of possible
social

Question 6

4. FORMULATE A
   HYPOTHESIS

Answer 6

Here we come up with a prediction that we wish to test. It is a tentative
answer to our research question. It could be Twenty-five per cent of
patrons at our coffee shop use laptops or Length of time spent in the
coffee shop correlates with the seriousness of their laptop activity.

Question 7

5. SELECT A RESEARCH
   DESIGN

Answer 7

How will we test our hypothesis? We could sit in the coffee shop
from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and count how many people use their laptops
and for how long. We could ask some of the people with laptops
what they’re doing, or we could try peeking at their screens to
avoid having to ask them, but this would be performing research
without their consent, which is unethical (as we will see later in the
chapter).

Question 8

6. GATHER DATA

Answer 8

We have selected a research design to test our hypothesis, and now
we can carry out our research.

Question 9

7. ANALYZE DATA

Answer 9

After we have completed our experiment, we summarize the results
to see if they confirm the prediction we made with our hypothesis.
Were we right? Were we close? Were we way off base?

Question 10

8a. REVISE
HYPOTHESIS

Answer 10

If our results do not confirm the prediction we made, we need to go
back to step 4 and revise our hypothesis, performing more research
until we get results that align with what we predicted.

Question 11

OR 8b. PRESENT
RESULTS

Answer 11

Once we have results that confirm our hypothesis, we can write them up and share them with other sociologists who may find our research useful.

Question 12

French philosopher Auguste Comte (1798–1857) coined the term
sociology and Comte’s sociology was rooted in

Answer 12

Positivism

Question 13

Positivism

Answer 13

is the belief that the social sciences could be studied using the
methods natural sciences (i.e. experiment, measurement, and systematic
observation)
• Positivism assumes that researchers are objective

Question 14

Insider versus Outsider Perspectives

Answer 14

• Comte viewed the outsider as the “expert” who occupies a privileged
position over the insider “subjects of study”
• The outside expert ideal would be an example of policy sociology

Question 15

Smith’s Standpoint theory

Answer 15

states that the social location of sociologists impacts the questions they ask and the answers
they receive

• The insider voice of the subject being studied provides information that
comes from their subjective experience

• The objective outsider expert uses their privilege to decide over the
authenticity of the insider perspective, this is where vital information
gets lost

Question 16

Critical sociologists like Dorothy Smith and Michel
Foucault challenged the notion of the objective outsider and stressed the
unique role of

Answer 16

The insider perspective

Question 17

Qualitative research

Answer 17

is the close examination of
characteristics that cannot be counted or measured
(microsociologists approach)
– i.e ethnography

Question 18

Quantitative research

Answer 18

focuses on social elements
that can be counted or
measured, which can
therefore be used to
generate statistics
(macrosociologists
approach)
– i.e surveys, polls,
questionnaires

Question 19

Many researchers today
embrace

Answer 19

triangulation,
or a mixed-methods
approach

Question 20

Qualitative methods includes

Answer 20

– Ethnography
– Institutional ethnography
– Case study approach
– Narratives
– Content analysis
– Discourse analysis
-Genealogy

Question 21

Ethnography

Answer 21

• Ethnography seeks to uncover the symbols and categories members of
the given culture use to interpret their world
– Participant observation: observing people and actively participating in their
activities to obtain an insider’s perspective
– Semi-structured interviews: informal, face-to-face interviews
– Informants: are insiders who help the researcher in becoming accepted by the
community and assist with the interpretation of information and behaviour

Question 22

Institutional Ethnography

Answer 22

• Institutional ethnography, developed by Dorothy Smith, recognizes that every
institution has two sides, each associated with a different kind of data:
1. Ruling interests are the interests of the organization, particularly its
administration, and/or the interests of those who hold power in society.
Written rules and practices (texts) provide the data
• Ruling relations are activated when workers follow rules and practices (i.e. they serve the
needs of organization)

2. Experiential data come from informants: anyone who works for the
   organization, outside of management

Question 23

• Case studies

Answer 23

is a research design that takes as its subject a single case or
a few selected examples of a social entity such as:
• communities
• families
• roles
• relationships
– The case study approach is often used to identify and describe best practice
strategies with a proven history of achieving desired results

Question 24

Narratives

Answer 24

are the stories people tell about themselves, their situations,
and others around them
– Voice is the expression of a unique viewpoint from a particular social location
(influenced by gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, class, etc.)
– Narratives can give voice to people who do not usually get to speak directly in
research
– Purest form of the insider view

Question 25

Content analysis

Answer 25

Involves studying a set of cultural artifacts, (e.g.,
newspaper articles, billboards, artwork or children’s books) or events
and interpreting the themes they reflect
• These items have two distinct properties:
– 1. They are not created for specifically to be studied
– 2. Data are pre-existing and non-interactive
i.e feminist approaches seek to reveal the gendered aspects of culture, such as
patriarchy and misogyny

Question 26

There are two types of discourse analysis used by sociologists
that focuses on social power relationships:

Answer 26

1. analyzing discourse as the term is commonly
   understood (i.e. as a conversation, a speech, or a written text)
2. discourse analysis considers a broader definition of
   “text,” going beyond individual works to include larger
   fields of information over time

Question 27

Discourse Analysis: Genealogy

Answer 27

Genealogy is a method of examining the history of the second type of
discourse

• It seeks to trace the origins and histories of modern discourses

Question 28

Discourse Analysis: Genealogy ( socialist and works)

Answer 28

i.e Michel Foucault’s genealogical
work captures the dynamic nature of such discourses as mental illness
(1961), the penal system (1975), and sexuality (1978)

i.e Edward Said’s Orientalism (1979), which is the Western fascination with or romanticization of “exotic” Middle and Far Eastern cultures

Question 29

Quantitative Research

Statistics:

Answer 29

is a science that, in sociology, involves the use of numbers to
map social behaviour and beliefs
– It is “The only science that enables different experts using the same figures to
draw different conclusions.”—Esar
• However, many of the topics that sociologists research, (e.g., poverty,
abuse, social class) are theoretical in nature and thus difficult to define

Question 30

A measure of centre is a way of

Answer 30

taking all of the data you have gathered on a
particular subject and finding the most representative result

Question 31

Measures of central tendency:
– Median

Answer 31

represents the number, score, or result that separates the higher half from
the lower half of a given data set
• E.g., in the series 6, 8, 10, 11, 14, 16, 18 – 11 is the median

Question 32

Measures of central tendency:
– Mean (average)

Answer 32

can be found by adding up all the scores and dividing the total by
the number of scores you have
• E.g., 6+8+10+11+14+16+18=83/7=11.9

Question 33

Operational definitions

Answer 33

transform abstract or theoretical concepts like
“poverty”, “middle class” or “single parent” into concrete, observable,
measurable entities

Question 34

Variable

Answer 34

A variable is a concept with measurable traits or characteristics that can
vary or change from one person, group, culture, or time to another

Question 35

Operational Definitions in Action

• For example, defining poverty

Answer 35

– Absolute poverty: anything below the minimum income
level needed to secure basic necessities
• Measure: Market Basket Measure (MBM)

– Relative poverty: defines poverty relative to median or
mean household incomes
• Measure: low-income cut-off (LICO)

• Different poverty definitions lead to different poverty
measures and thus different poverty statistics

Question 36

Data generation methods:

Answer 36

– A poll is a quantitative survey designed to measure respondents’ views on a particular
topic or set of topics
– Closed-ended questionnaires are used to capture respondents’ answers to a set of
questions with set answer options
– Open-ended questionnaires, are used to capture respondents’ answers to each
question without having to select a predetermined response from a list (response
cannot be yes or no)
• Questionnaires are administered to a sample, selected from a larger
population

Question 37

Sociologists commonly refer to two different types of variables:

Answer 37

• Independent variable: has an effect on another variable (the cause)

• Dependent variable: is affected by the independent variable (the effect)

Question 38

• Correlation

Answer 38

exists when two variables are associated more frequently
than could be expected by chance

• This relationship can take on two forms:
– Direct (or positive) correlation occurs when the independent and the dependent
variables increase or decrease together

– Inverse (or negative) correlation occurs when the two variables change in
opposing directions

Question 39

Spurious Reasoning:
Correlation Is Not Causation

Answer 39

• Correlation: describes the relationship between two
variables

• Causation: is the linking of effects to causes

• Spurious reasoning: occurs when someone sees
correlation and falsely assumes causation

– Spurious variable: a third outside factor that
influences both correlating variables

Question 40

oel Best, Damned Lies and Statistics: Untangling Numbers from the
Media, Politicians, and Activists (2001)
– States

Answer 40

that we should view statistics critically, we must recognize that all statistics
are flawed to some extent; and these flaws can have grave consequences
– When examining a statistic, we must ask ourselves a number of questions such
as:
• What might be the sources for this number?
• Who produced the number, and what interests might they have?
• What are the different ways key terms might have been defined, and which definitions have
been chosen?

Question 41

Research ethics

Answer 41

entails demonstrating respect for the research subjects
(i.e. their privacy, their understanding of what the research will require
of them, and their capacity to choose to be researched or not)

Question 42

• Informed consent

Answer 42

is given when participants indicate their
understanding and acceptance of the research conditions