SOCY 1101 – Chapter

6
“Doing Social
Mary McKenzie
UNC Charlotte
The nature of the questions to
which you want to find answers
determines yourapproaches
 There are two major choice of research
to sociological
inquiry:
 Durkheim saw sociology as the study of social
facts and proposed that sociology follow the
research model established by the natural
sciences
◦ Sociologists should observe and measure the actions of
social facts
◦ The goal of sociology was to discover the laws that govern
social behavior
◦ The research tradition is often referred to quantitative
research since the data is easily expressed in numbers.
 Durkheim suggested that social facts
be quantitatively observed and
measured in an attempt to discover
the laws that govern social behavior.
 
 True
 
 False
 Weber saw sociology as a science, but argued that
since the subject matter of sociology differs from
that of the natural sciences, its research
techniques should also differ.
◦ Sociology must go beyond the natural sciences model and
be an interpretative science – it must take into account the
social meanings/reasons attached to behaviors.
◦ Proposed sociologists adopt two goals: predicting and
understanding social behavior – qualitative research
because it focuses not only on the objective nature of
behavior but on its meaning (or quality).
Often use numbers to quantify certain kinds of data, they
are focused on obtaining data that are difficult to
quantify
Qualitative research reports generally devote more space
to people’s descriptive accounts of their own experiences
than to numbers to quantify these experiences.
 Qualitative researchers in social
science follow the natural science
model of research
whenever possible.

 True
 
 False
 No matter which research method you choose,
the first stage is always to review the existing
literature on the topic. This is the lit review.
 Someone may have already found an answer to
your question – start by determining what is
already known.
 Even if the literature does not answer your
particular question, it will give you clues as to
ways to phrase the questions or focus your
research in a more interesting way.
 The more you know about work already done,
the better you will be prepared to make your
own contribution.
A literature review is only done
after deciding your hypotheses
and research method that
will be used in your study.

 True
 
 False
The Survey:
 If you want answers to your questions, ask.
 Research questions about who people are
and/or what they think about something
are answered very well by surveys.
 A survey is a series of questions asked of a
number of people
◦ The questions can be asked orally, either face-to-
face or over the phone. (interview)
◦ The questions are often a list and people answer
them on paper (self-administered questionnaire)
 Surveys are particularly suited to obtaining
data from large numbers of people (main
strength)
 Especially appropriate for discovering basic
“demographic information” (age, gender,
income, education, religious affiliation)
 Another strength is that it allows researchers
to obtain information about things that
cannot be observed directly, such as
attitudes.
 The weakness of the survey method is that
it is not a good way to measure people’s
actual behavior. If you want to know what
people do, a survey might provide you with
misleading information.
◦ People may not want to admit certain behaviors
◦ Many people cannot give an accurate account of
their behaviors even when they want to because
they may not remember accurately
 It is important to phrase questions in a survey
in ways that make it possible for respondents
to answer: closed-ended and open-ended
◦ Closed-ended questions require that you not only ask
the questions but also provide answer categories.
The respondent answers the question by picking a
particular category.
Some closed-ended questions frequently used to
ask people about their attitudes on sets of issues
are called matrix questions because the answer
category looks like a matrix or array of numbers.
◦ Open-ended questions are used when you have not
determined the categories of responses in advance or
when you want to read the respondents’ answers in
their own words.
 Six Guidelines for Crafting Survey
Questions:
◦ Adapt the phrasing of questions to the
educational level of respondents, but do not be
insulting.
◦ Avoid double negatives in a question.
◦ Avoid “marathon” questions.
◦ Don’t ask “double-barreled” questions.
◦ Don’t ask “leading” or “loaded” questions
◦ Don’t ask questions that your respondents
cannot answer.
 The best way to gather
demographic information about a
large number of people is to do a
survey.
 
 True

 False
 An experiment involves manivariable.
 The strength of the experimental pulating the independent variable and observing the
effect on the dependent method is that it is really the only means by which we can
explore causal relationships among variables.
◦ It is the only way to determine for sure that changes in the IV cause changes in the
DV
◦ A true or classic experiment manipulates the IV and observes the outcome. To really
know whether the IV is the cause of the difference, the researcher needs at least
two groups: (1) an experimental group which receives the treatment or experiences
the manipulation of the IV, and (2) the control group which the researcher pretty
much leaves alone.
◦ It is crucial that the subjects be assigned randomly to the control and experimental
groups.
◦ After following the rules of experimentation and it turns out that the members of the
experimental group changed and the control group did not, then we can be
reasonably confident that the IV is what caused the difference.
◦ The weakness of the experimental method is that only rarely is one variable actually
a cause of another. It is very difficult to test very complex hypotheses in an
experiment because it is difficult to manipulate and control more than one or two
variables at a time.
◦ Experiments can be done only when the researcher knows exactly which variables
he or she wishes to test.
 Five Rules for Doing True Experiments:
◦ Have at least two groups (control and
experimental)
◦ Randomly assign people to groups
◦ Treat the experimental group by manipulating
the IV
◦ Observe the effect of the treatment on the DV in
the experimental group
◦ Compare the DV differences (the outcome of
treatment) in the experimental and control
groups.
A true experiment involves one or
two groups to which participants
are randomly assigned.

 True

 False
Observation:
A particular research technique in which the researcher
directly observes the behavior of individuals in their usual
social environments, not in a laboratory.
 Sometimes referred to as field research because the
normal social world is the field in which sociologists
conduct their research
 Complete participant is where the researcher goes
“undercover” and does not tell the people being observed
that he or she is doing research. Is generally unknown to
the people being observed.
 Complete observer views things from a distance (or from
behind a one-way mirror) or somehow blends into the
social scenery.
 Midway between these extremes is the participant
observer who admits to being a researcher so that people
know they are being studied.
 Strength of observing people in the field is that this
technique enables researchers not only to observe
behavior (that can be done in a lab) but to observe
behavior in its natural context. (We get important
clues about the impact of context on behavior)
 Enables researchers to get information about
individuals who are not able to fill out questionnaires
or respond to oral survey questions.
 The weakness of observational methods includes the
fact that only relatively small groups can be
observed at once.
 Probably the most labor intensive kind of research.
 The very fact of researcher participation in the field
research can influence subjects and therefore
findings in what is known as the Hawthorne effect. –
the reactive effects of research
 The term "Hawthorne effect" has to
do with the notion that people's
behavior may be affected when they
are being studied using any obtrusive
research method.
 
 True
 
 False
Unobtrusive
 Most research has (Nonreactive)
some effect on the people being
studied.
◦ People may respond to surveys in ways they think the
interviewer wants them to respond or in ways they thing make
them seem to be better people.
◦ Simply knowing that one is being studied can have an effect
on one’s behavior.
 Unobtrusive methods are strategies for studying
people’s behavior in ways that do not have an impact
on the subjects.
◦ A great deal of information can be obtained from what people
throw away (accretion measures – what artifacts people left
behind)
◦ The use of existing statistics
◦ Content Analysis – carefully studying texts to see what it
reveals about its author, the times in which it was written, etc.
Texts may include personal diaries, literature, TV, radio
commercials, magazines and newspapers, music, children’s
books
 The strength of unobtrusive methods is that
they do not require the cooperation of the
people being studied
 The research process does not affect the
behavior being studied.
 Unobtrusive researchers study social things
after they have occurred.
 The weakness is that unobtrusive research
can study only things that leave traces
 Unobtusive methods of research
involve the content analysis of
television and radio
commercials.

 True

 False
 Triangulation refers to a research strategy
that helps us zero in on social phenomena –
use more than one method to obtain data.
 Combine methods whose strengths
overcome weaknesses of another method
 The term “triangulation” refers to a
research strategy in which the weaknesses
of a
particular method are compensated for
by the use of other methods that don't
share those weaknesses.
 

True
 

False
 That portion of the larger population that you will study
Sampling
to make inferences about the larger population
 If one’s sample is selected properly, the results can be
as valid as results obtained from the entire population.
 Drawing a sample is both science and art
◦ How big of a sample depends particularly on how
diverse the population is
A very diverse or heterogeneous population will
require a large sample to get representativeness.
◦ A scientific survey uses samples that are drawn
according to the rules of random sampling
Random – every element in the population has the
same probability of being in the sample
◦ Unscientific surveys us nonrandom sampling
techniques.
◦ Convenience sampling – standing on the corner and
asking people who pass questions is not random
 As a general rule, the more
diverse a population is, the larger
the sample must be in order to be
representative.

 A True

 B False
Ethics and Social
 Today’s researcher Research
is required to reduce risk
as much as possible
 Required to get informed consent from any
person who participates in research
A sociologist does not have to be
concerned about the risk of harm to
participants in their study as long as
the study will provide answers for
questions in society.
 
 True
 
 False