lessons 1 and 2

Question 1

what is methodology ?

Answer 1

the considerations and choices that are at stake when obtaining the information that is needed

Question 2

Social science research is….

Answer 2

is very general , often no ideal solution, but optimal solution

Science = research + theory.
The researcher’s views about the nature of the relationship between theory and research also have implications for research; whether it is seen as something that has to be addressed at the beginning of a research project (hypothesis) or as an outcome of the research process (after the research has been carried out).

Question 3

Theory should….

Answer 3

reduce the complexity, should apply broadly, theories are just ways to make sense of the reality

Question 4

confirmation is…

Answer 4

Observation in line with hypothesis

Question 5

falsification is…

Answer 5

Observations contrast hypothesis

Question 6

Inductive research:

Answer 6

building theory on the basis of research

Question 7

Deductive research:

Answer 7

research based on theory

Question 8

ontology is interested in…

Answer 8

What is social reality

Question 9

epistemology is interested in…

Answer 9

How we understand reality

Question 10

Objectivism:

Answer 10

social reality is real and objective, social facts

Question 11

Constructivism:

Answer 11

social reality is not real social reality is constructed through our interpretation

Question 12

Positivism:

Answer 12

human behavior is regular, research to capture regularities or patterns , studying social sciences like the natural sciences

Question 13

Interpretivism:

Answer 13

people make interpretations , people are not just natural elements because they make sense of their surroundings

Question 14

Scientific research should be….

Answer 14

neutral

Question 15

Practical research should be…

Answer 15

about contents not about practical compromises

Question 16

Qualitative

Answer 16

interpreting stuff

Question 17

Quantitative

Answer 17

counting stuff

Question 18

Social research

Answer 18

• In relation to social reality.
• Academic research on topics relating to questions relevant to the social scientific fields, such as sociology, human geography, politics, and criminology

Question 19

Theory

Answer 19

An explanation of observed regularities.

Question 20

Grand theories

Answer 20

• Explains a lot.
• Massive complexity reduction.
• Very abstract.
• Difficult to apply in research.

Question 21

Middle-range theories

Answer 21

• Explains a lot less.
• Bound to specific contexts/situations.
• Less abstract.
• Easy to apply in research.

Question 22

Deduction:

Answer 22

From theory to empirical data.

Question 23

Induction:

Answer 23

From empirical data to theory.

Question 24

what is Grounded theory

Answer 24

Grounded theory (GT) is a systematic methodology in social science research that involves the construction of theories through the analysis of data

• Collecting data (doing observations).
• Interpreting findings.
• Theory building by synthesis of findings.

Question 25

we have to focus on specific aspects in reality -

Answer 25

complexity reduction

Question 26

The quality of research depends on

Answer 26

how well it captures the part of reality your theory aims to explain.

Question 27

Replicability

Answer 27

Is a study replicable? Can it be repeated?
If a study supports a theory once, this means that a general pattern is identified. Theories are about establishing patterns on reality, so this criterion has to be fulfilled. This requires that you should be able to conduct a study more than once. It should be possible to repeat a study in more or less the same way as the original one

• Systematic and transparent procedures.
• Observations not bound to individual researcher.
• It could be done over, even if it likely won’t be.

Question 28

Reliability

Answer 28

Are the results stable and not mere coincidence?
* Very much related to replicability. But where replicability has to do with procedures, reliability has to do with outcomes.
Replicability has to do with the procedures/methods of the study. However, we should also come to the same outcomes/findings; this is reliability.

can we expect reliable an outcome
trust that it will do what you expect

Question 29

Validity

Answer 29

Is a study actually doing what it claims to be doing? Are the findings accurate?
* Most critiqued aspect of studies.
* Different from reliability.
Indeed, results can be stable, but still, it does not tell us anything about what reality is really like (it does not make sense). Validity is concerned with the integrity of the conclusions that are generated from research.
E.g. IQ test to measure intelligence.
It’s definitely applicable and reliable. But does it also mean that an IQ test can actually tell you something about people’s intelligence. This is an entirely different question.
Reliable – will you find an IQ score time and time again?
Valid – does IQ score reflect intelligence?

Question 30

Four types of validity

Answer 30

1. Measurement validity.
   Are the measures that are used right?
2. Internal validity.
   Are the (causal) relations that are found really there? If we suggest that x (the independent variable) causes y (the dependent variable), can we be sure that it is x that is responsible for variation in y and not something else that is producing an apparent causal relationship?
3. External validity.
   Do findings hold for other people/cases than the ones studied? Can they be generalised (beyond the specific research context)?
4. Ecological validity.
   Is the research setting similar enough to reality? It is concerned with the question of whether social scientific findings are applicable to people’s everyday, natural social settings. The more the social scientist intervenes in natural settings or creates unnatural ones, such as a laboratory or even a special room to carry out interviews, the more likely it is that findings will be ecologically invalid.

Question 31

Causality

Answer 31

Causality is what connects one process with another process or state, where the first is partly responsible for the second, and the second is partly dependent on the first.
1. Two separate things occur together (relation).
And
2. One of them is considered to provoke the other.
Causality is a pattern that we see in reality, but we cannot be sure that it is in reality.

Some criteria:
* Plausibility
o Good reason why cause may lead to effect (theory). A plausible mechanism is helpful.
* Temporality
o Cause comes before effect.
* Consistency
o Cause invariably leads to effect. Consistent findings.

Question 32

Summing up causality

Answer 32

• Causation = A -> B.
• Reverse causation = A <-B.
• Intervening effect = A- > C- > B.
• Cyclic effect = A -> B -> A -> B -> …
• Confounding effect = C -> A; C -> B.
• Spurious relation = A & B (mere coincidence).

Question 33

Randomised controlled trial

Answer 33

• Two (or more) highly similar groups - Randomisation.
  Subjects are assigned to groups on the basis of coincidence.
• Differ in only one controlled respect - Conditions

Control group (no treatment) and experimental group (manipulated treatment).
- Differences in outcome can be attributed to differences in conditions.
- Strong causality claim. In other words, true experiments tend to be very strong in terms of internal validity. True experiments require us to manipulate the independent variable. However, the vast majority of independent variables cannot be manipulated. For example, gender; we cannot manipulate gender so that some people are made male and others female

Question 34

Laboratory experiment

Answer 34

Takes place in a laboratory or in a contrived setting, such as in classrooms and organisations. This is mostly used in social psychology because the researcher has more influence over the experimental arrangements. The researcher has a higher level of control, and this is likely to enhance the internal validity of the study. It’s also more straightforward to replicate because they are less bound up with a certain setting that is difficult to reproduce.

• Excluding any confounding effect  high internal validity.
• But very ‘sterile’  low ecological validity.
• And people are aware being part of an experiment  reactive effects.

Question 35

Field experiment

Answer 35

• More realistic circumstances - higher ecological validity.
• But less control over confounds - lower internal validity.

However, manipulation of condition often implies small group of participants.
- Low external validity (in both cases).
- Experiments are quite rare in Sociology.

Question 36

Cross-sectional design

Answer 36

The cross-sectional design is often called a survey design, but the idea of the survey is so closely connected in most people’s minds with questionnaires and structured interviewing that the more generic-sounding term cross-sectional design is preferable.
It’s basically a type of observational study that analyses data from a population, or a representative subset, at a specific point in time. It takes a snapshot of a population at a certain time, allowing conclusions about phenomena across a wide population to be drawn.
An example of a cross-sectional study would be a medical study looking at the prevalence of breast cancer in a population. The researcher can look at a wide range of ages, ethnicities, and social background. If a significant number of women from a certain social background are found to have the disease, then the researcher can investigate further

Question 37

Longitudinal design

Answer 37

Longitudinal design
Just like cross-sectional design, but repeated (waves). It uses time as the main variable and tries to make an in-depth study of how a small sample changes and fluctuates over time. Longitudinal designs allow to see trends / evolutions over time, and it can say something about causality.
The ground-breaking television documentary ‘UP’ is probably the most famous example of a long-term longitudinal study, a case study of a group of British people from birth.

Question 38

two forms of Longitudinal design

Answer 38

Two forms:
* Cohort
In a cohort study, either an entire cohort of people or a random sample of them is selected as the focus of data collection. The cohort is made up of people who share a certain characteristic (age, sex, etc.)
E.g. Surveying 18-year-olds in 1991, 2001, 2011, etc.

• Panel
  Single group of people is selected once and then studied repeatedly.
  E.g. surveying people who were 18 in 1991, again in 2001, again in 2011, etc.

 Internal validity better than cross-sectional.
In terms of reliability, replication, and validity, the longitudinal design is a little different from cross-sectional research. However, a longitudinal design can allow some insight into the time order of variables and therefore may be more able to allow causal inferences to be made.
But, one of the major flaws of a longitudinal study, the problem that there can be no retesting or restart.

Cohort
* Are the participants in waves sufficiently comparable?
Internal validity?

Panels
* People stop participating (attrition).
External validity?
* People get used to participation.
Internal validity?

Question 39

Case study design

Answer 39

In-depth analysis of the details of a single, interesting case (person, community, organisation, event, etc.) not just a sweeping statistical survey. It’s often qualitative research. The basic case study entails the detailed and intensive analysis of a single case. As Stake (1995) observes, case study research is concerned with the complexity and particular nature of the case in question.
This method of study is especially useful for trying to test theoretical models by using them in real world situations. For example, if an anthropologist were to live amongst a remote tribe, whilst their observations might produce no quantitative data, they are still useful to science.

Case is selected for being representative for a certain theory or extreme.
 Ecological validity is high, but external validity is lower.
How can a single case possibly be representative so that it might yield findings that can be applied more generally to other cases.

Question 40

Comparative design

Answer 40

Put simply, this design entails studying two contrasting cases using more or less identical methods. It embodies the logic of comparison; in that it implies that we can understand social phenomena better when they are compared in relation to two or more meaningfully contrasting cases or situations. The aim may be to seek explanations for similarities and differences or to gain a greater awareness and a deeper understanding of social reality in different (usually national) contexts.
In terms of issues of reliability, validity, replicability, and generalisability, the comparative study is no different from the cross-sectional design. The comparative design is essentially two or more cross-sectional studies carried out at more or less the same point in time. By comparing two or more cases, the researcher is in a better position to establish the circumstances in which a theory will or will not hold.

Comparing two (or more) research contexts:
* Comparing cross-sections.
o A research study being conducted at a point in time at two or more geographical locations or for two or more groups of people etc. for comparison purposes.

• Comparing cases.
  o Survey in various countries, comparing two organisations, etc.
• ‘Second order’ comparison.
  o Not just comparing differences in cross-sections.
  o Not just comparing conditions in experiment.

Comparative and longitudinal are sub-forms of cross-sectional and case study designs.