Quantitative Research in the Social Sciences

Course Goals Methodology ---research strategies and tactics To make you better social science research: –consumers-reading and critiquing –producers-doing another kind of research Evidence of success???

Controversial. Why??? concept of social science paradigms members share a way of looking at social phenomena that determines both questions that get asked and procedures deemed appropriate to answer them. Disagreement is the norm

SCIENTIFIC EXPLANATION Application to social phenomena of model of explanation of natural sciences. GOALS? Establish general laws to permit prediction e.g. F 12 = g ( M 1 M 2 / d 12 2 ) which has become I 12 = ( P 1 P 2 / d 12 d )

How to Achieve this Goal??? follow a prescribed set of procedures and guidelines within the guiding framework of an organized sequence of activities

1. Statement of Research Problem State as a question--rationale? –real world concern? Family planning programs & fertility declines immigration impact on labor markets –triggered by previous research? State with clarity and precision

2. Conceptualization theoretical phase of the inquiry consists of a series of propositions hypotheses are propositions stated in a testable form which predict a particular form of relationship hypos. should be embedded in rich theoretical framework. Why??? concepts (constructs) must be clear enough to permit operationalization

3. Research Design and Measurement RESEARCH DESIGN: the broad strategy to be used to gather the data needed –Experimental vs. non-experimental –social survey? MEASUREMENT: the selection of measurement procedures for the key concepts

4. Data Analysis Manipulation of data to assess whether the data is consistent with hypos. A central ingredient must be the search for relationships. So researchers must know how to identify the nature and strength of relationships present objectively.

5. Conclusions There are 2 kinds of conclusions using results to accept/reject hypotheses drawing out broader implications of findings

How to assess quantitative research??? Consider these phases or tasks as a series of prerequisites evaluate how well these tasks are performed by posing questions or making demands

Problem Statement example Is the research problem stated carefully and simply? On the face of it, does the problem seem worth investigating? If not, is previous research used to ground the problem?

EXAMPLE: Elgie, Suskauer and Weyer, The structure of environmentally responsible behavior among college students. In GEOG 225 Resource Packet Read the article through quickly Look carefully at the evaluative criteria Read the article again and apply these criteria.