Concepts of Social Research GOAL: All research results be verifiable by other investigators

1 st Rule of Research We must deal with what is observable We must deal with what is observable

I.Observable vs. Unobservable A. Friend seeing a GHOST…do we study the ghost?

Observable vs. Unobservable cont… B. We study the friend who believes in ghosts 1. family 2. friends 3. education 4. religion

Observable vs. Unobservable cont… C. We may be able to find out if these factors cause people to believe in ghosts D. Other researchers can check our findings because we are not dealing with the unobservable (ghosts) but with the observable (ghost believers)

II. Operational Definition Specifies an action for translating what is unobservable into something that can be observed or measured (definitions to beat the problem of studying the unobservable) Specifies an action for translating what is unobservable into something that can be observed or measured (definitions to beat the problem of studying the unobservable)

Example SOCIAL CLASS: Annual household income in dollars $0-20,000= lower class $20,000-50,000= middle class $50,000+= upper class Operational definition tells us to find something concrete that may represent a social class

III. Variable How elements are related; which is the cause and which is the effect Both causes and effects are known as variables

III. Variable cont… INDEPENDENT VARIABLE: The cause DEPENDENT VARIABLE: The effect

III. Variable cont… STUDY: amount of sleep on the effects of quality of homework IV: SLEEP DV: QUALITY OF HOMEWORK Quality of Homework:

IV. Correlation As one variable changes, the other variable also changes As one variable changes, the other variable also changes 1. POSITIVE CORRELATION: an increase in one variable is associated with an increase in the other variable (education & income) 2. NEGATIVE CORRELATION: a decrease in one variable is associated with an increase in other variable (education & racial prejudice)