Concepts

• Highest level of generality• “A formal definition of what is being studied.”• “The mental images we use to bring order to the mass of” things in

the social world

• Examples:

• Adjustment to college (academic, social, and psychological adjustment)

• Collective efficacy: social cohesion/trust & informal social control…..

What is a variable?

• Variables

• Logical groupings of attributes.

What is a variable?

• Example: To measure adjustment, you can think of questions such as the following:

• Academic: Are you doing in your work? Are you attending your classes?Social: Have you made any friends? What degree of social life do you have?

• 3. Attributes The categories of a variable

• Example: The attributes of the variable, religion….

Making an argument

• Relationship between two or variables

• Example: Is low voter turnout explained by the educational levels of the population?

– Do you buy the relationship exists?– How will you support your case?

StatisticStatistic

• Categories of one VAR are related to Categories of one VAR are related to the categories of anotherthe categories of another

Causal

• 0ne variable is the cause, and the other variable is the effect.

Causal

• Causal variable -- independent variable

• "effect" variable --dependent variable. – The dependent variable (attitude or behavior)– The independent variable (age, income,

race..)

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Causal relationshipCausal relationship

• differences in one VAR differences in one VAR explainexplain differences in the differences in the other VARother VAR

Four types of social research

• Descriptive Research: research that defines and describes social phenomena

• Example: Shows frequencies (how many are doing something)

• Focus is on describing some phenomenon…..

Four types of social research

• Exploratory Research: investigation of social phenomena without expectations

• Meanings– actions and issues.

• Large amounts (unstructured information)

• New direction of inquiry

Four types of social research

• Explanatory Research

• research that identifies causes and effects of social phenomena

• Goal: predict how one thing will change when another.

Four types of social research

Evaluation Research: research that determines the effects of a social program or other type of intervention. How effect is a particular program?

–Is our smoking prevention program working?–Is our needle exchange program working?

Two TraditionsTwo Traditions• Qualitative

– Microsociology– Study of everyday life– Acknowledges

subjectivity of research– Methods:

• Observation• Interviews• Visual analysis

• Quantitative– Macrosociology– Study of large-scale

patterns– Assumes research

objectivity– Methods:

• Surveys• Scales• Databases

Two TraditionsTwo Traditions• Quantitative

– Relationships between variable

– Gender and income

Qualitative ApproachQualitative Approach

Issue or Setting

Observations and/or

InterviewsImages or Documents

Data Collection

Fieldnotes, interview transcripts

Researcher Analysis and Interpretation

Representation

Review of the Literature (theories)

QualitativeQualitative• interactions, behaviors, and attitudes

– narrative representations

QualitativeQualitative• Researcher does the analysis through

careful, ongoing “readings” of data

Value of Qualitative ResearchValue of Qualitative Research

• Debated within discipline for decades

• “legitimacy” as a science

A Striking DifferenceA Striking Difference• Qualitative researchers: enter a setting (the

field) and spend significant amounts of time (often years) interviewing and observing. – They are known by their subjects and come to know

their subjects well.

• Quantitative researchers: don’t meet their subjects. Data is often collected through other organizations (e.g., U.S. Census) or through mail surveys.

Research Design and theory

• Quant: Theory -> hypothesis -> DATA (deductive)

• Qual: Data – Take findings and then link to theory (inductive)