Research Methods Flashcards
How do sociologists investigate social processes?
Empirical Research and Research questions
Empirical research
Gathering and analyzing data to answer questions about our social world
Why do we need methods?
A method is a study design that allows us to systematically study the social world and makes our conclusions more reliable.
Variables
Observable characteristics that can have more than one possible answer or value
Are able to vary
Ex. income or education
Independent variable
a variable that causes a change
Dependent variable
affected by the independent variable
this is the item we’re trying to explain
Which are quantitative research methods?
Experiments and Surveys
What are experiments?
Control the environment to isolate the effects of one item
Can be done in the lab or field experiments
What are the strengths of experiments?
Able to make causal claims
What are the weaknesses of experiments?
What we observe in a carefully controlled lab setting can be different in reality
Can’t reveal processes by which one variable causes another
Potentially oversimplifies the complexity of our social world since in reality, we’re never influenced by just one social factor at a time
Can’t ethically study some topics experimentally
What are surveys?
Set of questions subjects respond to
What are the strengths of surveys?
Relatively quick and cheap
Can be done online, by mail
Can get lots of data from many people
Collects data that are generalizable
What are the weaknesses of surveys?
Cannot be used to infer why variables correlate with one another
It can be hard to get people to respond (survey fatigue)
Different people may have different interpretations of the questions you ask on the survey, - the way you word a question can elicit different types of responses (wording issues)
What is generalizability?
The extent to which data apply to the entire population from which the sample is drawn, not just the sample itself
Random samples allow you to generalize to a population
What are examples of qualitative research?
Participant observation
In-depth interviews
Historical & content analysis
What is participant observation?
Researcher directly observes and participates in the social world they’re studying
What are the strengths of participant observation?
Get detailed information about how people act in a certain context
Develop a personal understanding of what it feels like to take parts in that social world
What are the weaknesses of participant observation?
Time-consuming and expensive
You can only have a small sample
Findings can only shed light on the field site(s) under study
What is In-Depth Interviewing?
Eliciting information through semi-structured, open-minded, probing conversations between researcher and participant
What are the strengths of In-Depth Interviews?
You can go deep by asking probing questions about how people think, feel, make meaning about a certain topic/social phenomena
What are the limitations of In-Depth Interviews?
Often times time-consuming and expensive
Researchers only gather information from the individual respondent’s point of view
Relatedly, what people say and what they can do can be different
What is historical & content analysis?
Examine existing artifacts produced by people
Ex. newspapers, transcripts, magazines
What are the strengths of historical and content analysis?
By examining existing artifacts produced by people, we can understand how we got to where we are and study the past
What are the weaknesses of historical & content analysis?
Since the data is already collected, we can’t control the nature or quality of the data that is available to us
Relatedly, it is difficult to know the intentions of the content creators or how the content was received by audiences
What good is qualitative research if you can’t generalize to a population?
Can lead to quantitative research
Maybe if you are trying to diagnose a specific population
Multiple studies using different methods can help scholars get a fuller picture of reality
What are sociological theories?
Theories help us to interpret or explain observed patterns in the social world, and help us to make predictions about what might happen in the future
Theories are probabilistic, not iron-clad laws
Theories are grounded in empirical inquiry and can be proven wrong (falsifiable) with more empirical inquiry
