1. KU-MIT FRESHMAN SCHOLARS PROGRAM
Program: Each year the university will send six or seven of the top freshman students to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) during spring break.
Purpose: The purpose is to broaden the horizon of students by exposing them to a new academic environment. Students stay in the MIT dormitory, attend 20 hours of classes in their discipline, and participate in campus life. There will be ample opportunity to explore some of the historical and cultural amenities of Boston.
Eligibility and selection criterion: The freshman student with the highest grade (normalized to class average) from each discipline’s core course, including our Fall and Spring SOCI 100/101/102/103 sections, will be selected to participate in the program.
Cost: The trip is “all expenses paid” and will not cost the student anything.

2. Sociological Research
What is a sociological truth?
How do we do research?
What are the major political and ethical issues we are likely to encounter?

3. The Research Process Theoretical/epistemological questions
Technical questions
Ethical, political and policy questions

4. What is a sociological truth? Matters of epistemology
Epistemology: that branch of philosophy that investigates the nature of knowledge and truth.

5. The Two Sociologies
Positivist
Humanist

6. Positivism: Overview
Logical system that bases knowledge on direct, systematic observation.
Scientific knowledge rests on empirical evidence: information we can verify with our senses
Seeks out law-like statements
Data is typically quantitative

7. The Scientific Method

8. Gender & Majoring: A Positivistic Approach
Research Question: Are there gender differences in majoring among freshman who attend elite private universities in Turkey?

9. Data from Questionnaire
case# gender major socsci
1 male math 0
2 male econ 1
3 male bus adm 0
4 female int rel
5 female int rel
6 female econ
male phys

10. Table 1

11. Table 2

12. Humanism (interpretivist) Overview
Humanist epistemology: the human world is different from the physical or biological
Social science should seek to understand “meaning”
Highlight human subjectivity and creativity
The moral/political duty of social scientists.
Data is typically qualitative

13. Gender & Majoring: A Humanistic Approach
Select a small group of students
Conduct in-depth interviews with them
(Let subjects speak for themselves)
Compare their stories, looking for commonalities and differences

14. Comparing Research Methods
Subject
Procedure
Strengths
Weaknesses
Experiment
Lab subjects or
study of an
existing group
Subjects take
tests under
controlled
conditions
Better controls for causal
analysis
Cost; limited application
because of ethical
considerations
Survey
Sample of a
population
Various survey
methods
Generalizability;
establishing
relationships between
variables (especially
attitudes); quantitative
data
Accuracy; misses
complexity; cost
(if large)
Participant
Observation
(ethnography)
A particular
group
Researcher
immerses self in
setting to
understand
culture
Studies behavior in
context; a view from the
inside of a group’s culture
Not generalizable;
interpretation difficult
Secondary
Data
Analysis
Various (often
used for
historical
studies)
Use of data
collected by others
(e.g., govt. or other
researchers)
Saves time and money
Researcher has no
control over data quality
or suitability for research
question

15. Emerging Research Methods:
Life histories
Diaries
Logs and time budgets
Letters
Photographs
Film and video
Cyberspace

16. American Sociological Association Code of Ethics
Maintain objectivity and integrity in research
Respect the subject’s right to privacy and dignity
Protect subjects from personal harm
Preserve confidentiality
Seek informed consent
Acknowledge research collaboration and assistance
Disclose all sources of financial support

17. The “Politics” of Research Debate
Value neutrality (Weber)
Political engagement (Marx)