Principles of Sociology
Darryl Hall
Department of Sociology
University of Nevada, Reno

Sociological Research

 

- Science refers to the application of systematic methods of observation to obtain knowledge and the knowledge obtained by those methods.

- Science possesses the following four elements:
1) Objective procedures
2) Precise measurement
3) Full disclosure and replication
4) Empirically falsifiable propositions

Non-scientific Ways of Knowing
• Authority
• Media Myths
• Tradition
• Common Sense
• Personal Experience
• Faith

The Research Process

• Selecting a Topic
• Defining the Problem
• Reviewing the Literature
• Formulating a Hypothesis
• Choosing a Research Method
• Collecting the Data
• Analyzing the Data
• Reporting the Results

Components of Scientific Theory

- Research questions (or propositions): statements that inter-relate two or more variables.

- Hypothesis: a testable formulation of a research question.

- Theory: a set of logically inter-related propositions that explain some process or set of phenomenon in a testable fashion.

- Validity: the extent to which an operational definition measures what it was intended to measure

- Reliability: the extent to which research produces consistent results

• It is possible to have reliability without validity, but not validity without reliability

- Correlation: a consistent association between two or more variables. (e.g., income and health)

a) Positive correlation: when an increase in one variable is associated with an increase in another variable. (e.g., income and health)

b) Negative correlation: when an increase in one variable is associated with a decrease in another variable (e.g., income and number of cigarettes smoked per month)

Minimal requirements for establishing a causal relationship:
1) Correlation or association between variables
2) Temporal priority of causal variable
3) Relationship between variables is not spurious

- Quantitative research methods – research in which the emphasis is placed on precise measurement and the use of statistics and numbers to describe results

- Qualitative research methods – research in which the emphasis is placed on observing, describing, and interpreting people’s behavior

Sociological Research Methods

• Experiments
• Survey Research
• Field Research
• Content Analysis
• Secondary Analysis
• Unobtrusive Measures

1) Experimental Method

- The experiment is unique in its control over variables; it is useful for determining cause and effect.

- Independent variables: those variables that are thought to produce a change in some variable.

- Dependent variables: those variables that are influenced by independent variables. Example: smoking (as a dependent variable) is presumed to be influenced by income and education (independent variables).

- Experimental group: the group of subjects exposed to the independent variable

- Control group: the group of subjects not exposed to the independent variable

Steps in the experimental method:
1) Randomly assign participants to the experimental and control groups
2) Measure the dependent variable for the experimental and control groups
3) Apply the independent variable to the experimental group only
4) Measure the dependent variable for the experimental and control groups

Classic experiments in sociology and social psychology include:

1) Stanley Milgram’s “shocking” findings about obedience
2) Solomon Asch’s study of conformity
3) Phillip Zimbardo’s prison study
4) Elton Mayo’s discovery of the Hawthorne Effect

2) Survey Method

- In a survey, data is collected by having people answer a series of questions

- It is important to properly sample the population (the target group to be studied) in order to ensure that the research can be generalized to the population of interest.

- There are two main ways to conduct survey research:

1) Questionnaires – respondents answer questions on their own (e.g., mail surveys)
2) Interviews– respondents are directly questioned by researchers (e.g., telephone surveys, in-person interviews)

Notable examples of the survey method include:

1) Scully and Marolla – Rapists’ Vocabulary of Motives
2) The U.S. census

3) Field Research/Participant Observation

- In participant observation, the researcher participates in a research setting while observing what is happening in that setting

- The researcher may choose whether or not to disclose his or her identity and motives to the subjects

Prominent examples of field research include:

1) Elliot Liebow – Tally’s Corner
2) William Foote Whyte – Street Corner Society
3) Laud Humphreys – Tearoom Trade


4) Content Analysis, Secondary Analysis, and Unobtrusive Measures

- Content analysis involves the examination of written sources that provide data (e.g., books, newspapers, magazines) as well as photographs, movies, television programs, and other archival material.

- Secondary analysis involves the analysis of data already collected by other researchers.

- Unobtrusive measures include various ways of observing people who do not know they are being studied.

Measures of central tendency

- The Mean: the sum of scores divided by the number of cases; the mean is strongly influenced by extreme scores, either high or low

- The Median: the middle case in a series of numbers; when there is an even number of cases, take the mean of the two middle cases

- The Mode: the cases that occur with the most frequency

• In the series 1, 2, 2, 2, 3, 4, 4, 10, 17:

The mean is 45/9=5
The median is 3
The mode is 2

Nonscientific and Ethical Considerations

• Subjective Interpretation
• Value Judgments
• Reliance on Outside Funding
• Deception and Other Ethical Issues


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