Chapter 3 - Methods Flashcards
Methods
Sociology is an empirical science, which means that sociologists use data and observe reality.
Name the three types of research and their purposes:
- Descriptive research - come up with accurate descriptions of social phenomena.
- Explanatory research - rigorously test hypotheses.
- Exploratory research - discover new phenomena and construct new theories.
Methods
Criterias you can use when judging Empirical Evidence are…?
Hint: 3 answers
- Measurement quality (concepts)
- external validity (population)
- Internal validity (causal effects).
Measurement quality
What is a Measure?
Variable used in empirical research. Synonym: Indicator, Empirical variable, Proxy.
Measurement quality
What is Measurement Quality?
Quality of the measures used in the research, which depends on the validity and reliability of the measures.
Used to evaluate empirical evidence for 1) descriptions of social phenomena and 2) tests of hypotheses.
Measurement quality
What is Measurement Reliability?
The degree to which the measurement instrument gives the same result when repeating the observation of the same phenomenon.
Measurement quality
What is Measurement Validity?
The degree to which measures represent the theoretical concepts that they are intended to measure.
Measurement validity is under threat when measures capture something else than they are intended to do and when they only partly capture the concept.
Example: the concept is ‘smartphone usage’, the measure is ‘the duration with which the smartphone is used’.
Measurement quality
What is Operationalization?
Translation of theoretical variables (concepts) into empirical variables (measures). Measures are supposed to represent concepts.
Measurement quality
What is Conceptualization?
Differentiation of various dimensions that make up a concept.
- Complex concept: Theoretical concept that consists of different dimensions.
- Dimensions: Aspects of theory variables.
Measurement quality
What is Measurement Reliability?
The degree to which the measurement instrument gives the same result when repeating the observation of the same phenomenon.
Measurement quality
What is Standardization?
Process of making identical procedures, questions, answer categories and other aspects of the measurement instrument.
External validity
What is External Validity?
The extent to which the findings of a study can be generalized to the population of interest.
Used to evaluate empirical evidence for 1) descriptions of social phenomena and 2) tests of hypotheses.
External validity
Generalize
Moving from the specific observations in a study and using these to make inferences about some larger population (often the population of interest).
External validity
Population
The** entire set of cases** (individuals, groups, etc.) about which the researcher wants to draw conclusions.
External validity
Sample
A small set of cases (people) a researcher selects from the population.
External validity
Biased sample
Sample for which observations in the study cannot be generalized to the population.
External validity
What is Representative Sample?
Sample for which observations in the study can be generalized to the population.
External validity
What is Probability Sample?
The individuals in the population are (almost) equally represented in the sample, by giving the individuals equal chance to participate in the study.
External validity
What is Stratified Sample?
Sample based on dividing the population into subpopulations (strata).
Internal validity
What is Internal validity?
The degree in which you can infer from empirical findings in the study that there is a causal impact X on Y.
Used to evaluate empirical evidence for tests of hypotheses.
Internal validity
When a study wants to come up with a strong test of an hypothesis, it needs to address all three elements of causality:
Hint: APN
- Association: X and Y are related.
- Precede: X should precede Y in time.
- Non-spuriousness: only different conditions in X result in differential outcomes in Y, and nothing else.
Exploratory research
The purpose of Exploratory Research is to___?
To discover new social phenomena and to construct new theories.
You work from observations of single cases to more *universal patterns *and you construct new theories based on the patterns that you see.
Exploratory research
What is Induction?
Inferences (conclusions) that are made from observations of only a limited number of cases to a more general, universal pattern.
Case study research
What is Case Study Research?
Research that is an in-depth examination of an extensive amount of information about very few units or cases.
Case study research
Two purposes of case study: …?
Hint: TE
Thick description: detailed descriptions of persons, their behaviours, motivations, meanings, social processes and personal relationships within a well-defined case.
Exploratory research: to discover new phenomena and develop new theories, by using the observations made within the case study to generate more general ideas.
(Some case studies study a single case, some study multiple cases. Some case studies are more structured than others, etc. Therefore, some case studies are more appropriate for generalizing than others.)
Administrative research
What is Administrative research?
Research which uses data on human populations that are provided by official institutions (governments, schools, hospitals, etc.).
Population census: data collected among the entire adult population in a country.
Used for descriptive research and hypotheses testing. Strong external validity.
Survey research
What is Survey Research?
Research which uses questionnaires to collect data from respondents.
High external validity when the sample is representative of a whole population. Strong measurement reliability if the survey is highly standardized.
Big data research
What is Big data research?
Research which uses (unstructured) data form the Internet, digital communication and digital traces.
Opportunities: large scale and continuous time.
Challenges: not-representative sample which leads to less external validity.
Experimental research
What is Experimental research?
Research in which the researcher manipulates conditions for some research participants (experimental condition) but not others (control condition) and then compares group responses to see whether doing so made a difference.
Strong internal validity.
Challenge: external validity.
Experimental research is often done in laboratory experiments. The experiment groups are often western, rich, intelligent and educated. This is not a representative sample for the entire population. Also the setting can affect the results, for the laboratory setting differs in many ways from the real world. Field experiments are done in natural settings and often use more representative samples of participants.
Experimental research
What is Observational research?
Research in which the researcher relies on non-experimental observations.
Replication
What is Replication?
Redoing studies on the same topic, theory or hypothesis using different data, methods or measures.
Replication
Differrence False Positive & False Negative
- False positive: a research finding which suggests the hypothesis is true, whereas in reality the hypothesis is false.
- False negative: a research finding which suggests the hypothesis is false, whereas in reality the hypothesis is true.
