socI 100: INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLOGY Chapter 5: How Sociologists Do Research Instructor: Deniz Yükseker Spring 2013

How do we conduct sociological research? What research methods can we use? Ethical and other issues in research

Common sense versus scientific evidence: Sometimes, what seems to be common sense might be incorrect. Sociologists must evaluate critically what they hear, see and read. Therefore, we need to conduct social scientific research to test “common sense” ideas.

A Research model 1- Select a topic 2- Define the problem 3- Review the literature 4- Formulate a hypothesis 5- Choose a research method 6- Collect the data 7- Analyze the results 8- Share the results

HYPOTHETICAL RESEARCH DESIGN: KOC STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES ABOUT MARRIAGE 1- More and more young people get university education in Turkey. One might expect that exposure to higher education, intermingling with young people of different regional, religious and ethnic backgrounds of both sexes coming from different parts of Turkey on university campuses would have an effect on views about dating and marriage. 2- Our research problem is to determine the gender, socio-economic, urban-rural, ethnic and religious differences among youth regarding attitudes on marriage and dating. 3- Sociology of marriage, dating and marriage markets, previous college-wide surveys in Turkey 4- Possible hypotheses: H2- Male university students are more likely to prefer to marry at a later age than female students. H3- University students are more likely to prefer to date and marry within their religious and ethnic in-group H4- Students with rural backgrounds may be more likely than students with urban backgrounds to seek their parents’ permission before deciding to marry. H5- Koc students are likely to postpone marriage decisions until they find employment. 5- Survey with representantive sample or participant observation? 6- Face to face interviews or web-based questionnaires? 7- Analysis using statistical techniques 8- Sharing the results:articles, presentations, etc.

Some essentIAL Tools OF RESEARCH Concept: a mental construct that represents some part of the world in a simplified form (e.g. family, society, social class) Variable: a concept whose value changes from case to case Hypothesis: a statement of how variables are expected to be related to one another, often according to predictions based on a theory

Tools of research Theory: a general statement about how some parts of the world fit together or how they work. Measurement: process of determining the value of a variable in a specific case Operationalizing a variable: specifying what one is going to measure by assigning a value to a variable

Tools of research Useful measurement requires reliability and validity Reliability: the extent to which research produces consistent or dependable results Validity: the extent to which an operational definition measures what it is intended to measure

Research methods Procedures sociologists use to collect data 1- Experiment: investigating cause and effect under controlled conditions 2- Survey: a research method based on answering a series of questions in a questionnaire or an interview Questionnaires: open-ended, closed-ended Interviews: open-ended, closed-ended, in-depth 3– Fieldwork, ethnography, participant observation Participant observation: a method by which researchers systematically observe people while joining in their routine activities  gaining the “insider’s view point” 4– Secondary analysis 5- Archival research, or analysis of documents 6- Unobtrusive measures

Relationships among variables Causation: a relationship in which change in one variable causes changes in the other independent variable, dependent variable Correlation: a relationship by which two or more variables change together Spurious correlations: Not all correlations are meaningful; sometimes there is false association between two variables) To eliminate spurious correlations, we use ‘controls’ holding constant all relevant variables except one

How to choose the people you study Sampling: Population: the people who are the focus of research Sample: a part of the population that represents the whole Probability (random) sampling  representative samples (each member of the population has the same chance of being included in the sample) -- simple random samples -- stratified random samples Non-probability sampling  non-representative samples -- quota samples -- snowball samples

How to decIDE on a research method What are the advantages and drawbacks of the survey method? What are the advantages and disadvantages of participant observation?

HOW TO ENSURE THE “VALIDITY” AND “RELIABILITY” OF RESEARCH Selecting an unbiased sample Asking unbiased questions Providing unbiased choices to close-ended questions Establishing rapport with respondents (see cartoon) Gaining the trust of participants in fieldwork Not discarding undesirable results Trying to understand the “insiders’ point of view” (the importance of values) Analyzing the data correctly (I adopted this from p. 128 in the textbook)

Being observed changes the behavior of those observed!

ETHICAL AND polITICAL Questions in Research Can politics and science be completely independent of each other? In other words, can social scientific research be completely “value-free”? The feminist response: In most societies, women are subordinated by men  feminist sociology rejects “value-free” sociology, and adopts the political standpoint that male- female equality should be achieved. Public sociology: sociology should be applied for the public good; research based on sociological perspectives should guide politicians and policy-makers.

GENDER CONCERNS IN RESEARCH Androcentricity (male-perspective) Generalizations based on observations of a single sex Gender blindness Difficulty of establishing rapport and trust between respondents and researchers of different genders

Ethical Questions in Research Protecting the safety of people involved in a research project: confidentiality informed consent honesty avoiding hurt and harm to the people involved Openness Truth