A Definition of Science

Science is, “An objective, logical, and systematic method

of analysis of phenomena, devised to permit the
accumulation of reliable knowledge.” - Lastrucci 1963:3

Note the terms:

 Objective

 Method
 Reliable
 Inductive vs. Deductive Research

Inductive: Begins with specific data, looks for

patterns, moves towards broader hypothesis or
theories.

Deductive: Begins with theories, derives

hypothesis, and then observes cases or specific data
to confirm or falsify them.
 The Birth of Social Science

“I believe that I shall succeed in having it

recognized… that there are laws as well defined for
the development of the human species as for the fall
of a stone.”
- Auguste Comte (1798-1857)

 Comte also coined the term ‘Sociology’ from the Latin Societas
(society) and Greek Logo (study of).
 Reactions Against Positivism

Hermeneutics
 Used in law, literature, political speeches, biblical exegesis, etc.
 Continually interpret/reinterpret texts to understand their
original meaning and their directives for living in the present
 Reactions Against Positivism

Phenomenology
 Observing the essence of phenomena
 See reality through another’s eyes, describing their perceptions
 Reactions Against Positivism

Humanism
 Humanity is the measure of all things
 Truth is not absolute but decided by human judgment
 Humanism & Science

“It is certainly desirable to be precise, but it is quite

as needful to be precise about something worth
knowing.” -Robert Redfield, 1948

The tension between science and humanism is

characterized by the dual needs to:
 answer practical questions with evidence
 understand ourselves
 Quantitative & Qualitative

Numeric and non-numeric data supplement one

another:
1. Exploratory research tends to be qualitative, recognizing
initial patterns or hypothesis

2. Often research will then move towards greater quantification

for stronger (and more re-testable) evidence

3. Additional qualitative work then continues to more fully

characterize the causes and consequences of previous
findings
 Quantitative & Qualitative

Example of Supplemental Nature of Qual/Quant:

1. Qualitative finding: “Most students in the class doing well

seem to come from similar socio-economic backgrounds.”

2. Quantitative finding: “80% of the graduates came from

households making $60,000 or more annually.”

3. Qualitative finding: “The households with greater incomes

offered their students a variety of boosts, such as…”
 Ethics

Value Neutral: When doing social science we

should bracket our ideologies from our methodology.

Value Laden: Social Science is a tool for positive

social reform, in service to the betterment of society.

How do we reconcile these value sentiments?

 Ethics

Ethical reflection within research:

“Do the benefits of this experiment, outweigh the
costs to the participants?”
“Should I offer confidentiality or anonymity to my
respondents?”

Ethical reflection from research:

“How will the findings of this report be used?”
“Who will benefit (or be harmed) by the knowledge
contained in this work?”
 Researching the Social World

Research is essential to the discipline of sociology.

All sociologists are encouraged to utilize previously

conducted research while conducting their own.

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 The Scientific Method

Sociologists practice empiricism, which means they

gather information using their senses.
The scientific method is a structured way to find
answers to questions about the world.
The scientific method is a systematic search for a
thorough understanding of the world.

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 The Scientific Method

The scientific method uses steps.

 Uncover questions in need of answers.
 Review the relevant literature.
 Develop hypotheses (tentative statements about the
relationship between two or more variables).
 Choose a research method.
 Collect data.
 Analyze the data.

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 The Development of Scientific Knowledge

The scientific method implies that science develops

gradually and cumulatively.

Confidence in findings grows as they are confirmed

by additional research.

All sciences are built on such facts.

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 The Development of Scientific Knowledge

Thomas Kuhn (1962) proposed a different model of

scientific development in The Structure of Scientific
Revolutions.

A paradigm is a general model that is accepted by

most practitioners in a field.

However, scientific revolutions occur when one

paradigm replaces another after a scientific
breakthrough.

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Sociological Research: Qualitative and Quantitative Research

Qualitative Research
 A scientific method that does not require statistical methods
for collecting and reporting data

 Observation and open-ended questions are two examples.

 Capture descriptive information.

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Sociological Research: Qualitative and Quantitative Research

Quantitative Research
 Involves the analysis of numerical data typically obtained
from the administration of surveys and experiments.
 Can help us describe and understand observable social
realities
 Descriptive statistics are used to compare trends over time
 Inferential statistics rely on data from small groups to speculate
on the behavior of larger groups.

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 Sociological Research: Observational Research

Involves systematic watching, listening to, and

recording what takes place in a natural setting
over time

The most common observational methods used

by sociologists are participant and non-
participant observations, and ethnography.

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 Sociological Research: Observational Research

Dimensions to any type of observation in sociology

 Degree to which those being observed are aware that they are
being observed

 Degree to which the presence of the observer may affect those

being observed

 Degree to which the process is structured

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 Observational Research

Participant and nonparticipant observation

 In participant observation the researcher plays a role in the
group or setting being observed.

 In nonparticipant observation the researcher plays little or no

role in what is being observed.

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 Observational Research
Ethnography
 The creation of an account of what a group of people do and
the way they live
 Entails much more intensive and lengthy periods of
observation
 Global ethnography: a type of ethnography grounding in
understanding globalization
 Netnography is using the internet and social networking
places and events as the evaluative space of study

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 Sociological Research: Interviews

Information is sought from participants who are

asked a series of questions.

Types of interviews:
 Prestructured

 Unstructured

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 Sociological Research: Surveys

Questionnaires are self-administered, written sets

of questions.
Types of surveys
 Descriptive
 Explanatory
Sampling: a sample is a representative portion of
the overall population
 Random
 Stratified
 Convenience

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 Sociological Research: Experiments

Involves the manipulation of one or more

characteristics of an independent variable in order to
examine the effect of that manipulation
Types of experiments
 Laboratory
 Natural
 Field

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 Secondary Data Analysis

Refers to re-analyzing data that has been previously

collected and analyzed.
Historical-Comparative Analysis
 Goal is to contrast how different historical events and
conditions in various societies led to different societal
outcomes
Content Analysis
 The systematic and objective analysis of the content of cultural
artifacts

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 Issues in Social Research: Reliability and Validity

Reliability
 Involves the degree to which a given measure produces the
same results time after time
 Concern is with consistency
Validity
 Involves whether a researcher is measuring what he/she claims
to be
 Concern is with accuracy

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 Issues in Social Research: Research Ethics

Ethics is concerned with issues of right and wrong,

the choices that people make, and how they justify
them.

Research ethics is a balance of potential knowledge -

the goal is to increase knowledge - and potential
harm - the goal is to minimize or eliminate harm.

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 Issues in Social Research: Research Ethics

Physical and Psychological Harm

 Physical harm can be an unintended consequence of
sociological research.
 Psychological harm can be caused merely by asking people
about sensitive issues.
Illegal Acts
 A researcher might witness or even become entangled in illegal
acts during the course of his/her research.

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 Issues in Social Research: Research Ethics

Violation of Trust
 Possibility of inadvertently divulging the identity of
respondents even though they were promised anonymity or
confidentiality
Informed Consent and IRBs
 Institutional review boards are designed to deal with issues of
deception in social research and potential harm.

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Issues in Social Research: Objectivity or Value-Free Sociology

Have researchers been, or can they be, objective?

 Objectivity refers to suppressing personal bias and/or
value judgments from entering research
 Procedural objectivity involve reporting research
findings in a way that any reader will understand how
the research was conducted.

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Issues in Social Research: Objectivity or Value-Free Sociology

Many argue that value-laden research jeopardizes

sociology as it could destroy its credibility.

Others argue that it is appropriate for researchers

to be guided by their values or the values that
predominate their society.

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The Foundations of Social
Research

VARIABLES,
MEASURING COMPLEX CONCEPTS,
VALIDITY & RELIABILITY,
CAUSE & EFFECT
 Variables

Unidimensional Variables
 Height & weight

 Birth order
 Age

 Marital status

Multidimensional Variables
 Stress
 Wealth
 Political orientation
 Religiosity
 Variables

Dependent Variables
 The variable impacted by the independent variable(s)
 Example: Longevity

Independent Variables
 Logically prior to dependent variables

 Example: Sex, Education, Occupation, Diet, Smoking

 Example: How long one lives is impacted by, or ‘dependent’

on, these many variables. However, living to be 90 does not
change your gender or your occupation earlier in life because
they stand ‘independent’ of longevity.
 Defining Variables

Conceptual Definitions
 Abstractions, articulated in words, that facilitate
understanding.
 The kind of definitions you find in a dictionary.

Operational Definitions
 Consist of a set of instructions on how to measure a variable
that has been conceptually defined.
 Example: Measure ‘extroversion’ in a person by having them
take the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and record their
extroversion score.
 Variables: Level of Measurement

1. Nominal: An exhaustive, mutually exclusive, list of

names.
 Example: Ethnic groups, or religious identifications

2. Ordinal: Same as above, plus they can be rank

ordered.
 Example: Socioeconomic classes, or levels of agreement
 Variables: Level of Measurement

3. Interval: Same as above, plus each unit has a meaningful

quantitative distance from each other.
 Example: Degrees Fahrenheit, or points on an IQ score

4. Ratio: Same as above, plus there is a true zero point,

measuring the absence of the phenomenon being measured.
 Example: Age, or income in dollars

 Note: 80 degrees F, is not twice as hot as 40 degrees.

 But 80 years old, is twice as old as 40.
 Lowest Level Rule

Always try to collect data on the lowest level unit of

analysis possible.

You can always aggregate data collected on individuals,

but you can never disaggregate data collected on groups.

Ecological Fallacy: Drawing conclusions about the

wrong unit of analysis.
 Example: Drawing conclusions about ‘neighbors’ from data on
‘neighborhoods.’
 Instruments

Precision: The power of measurement, or the ‘number

of decimal points.’
 Example: Is the scale measuring to the nearest pound or to the
nearest ounce?

Accuracy: The correct calibration of the instrument; it

is not ‘off.’
 Example: The scale always measures 2 lbs too heavy.
 Instruments: Reliability

Reliability: Whether or not you get the same answer by

using an instrument to measure something more than
once.

 Example: Does the scale give you the same weight each time you
step on it (assuming you have not eaten or worked out between)?
 Instruments: Validity

Face Validity: On the ‘face of it’ do the operational

indicators of the concept make sense?
 Example: An instrument measuring educational aptitude asks
questions about study habits and eye color. Which one does not have
face validity?

Content Validity: When an instrument has

appropriate content for measuring a complex
concept/construct.
 Example: An instrument measuring ‘cultural identity’ that only
asks questions about food and clothing style preferences, but
neglects content on language and historical traditions. The content is
not broad enough to sufficiently represent ‘cultural identity.’
 Instruments: Validity

Construct Validity: A close fit between the construct it

supposedly measures and actual observations made with
the instrument.
 Example: A personality assessment lacks construct validity if it
identifies you as ‘introverted’ when you and your many friends would
say the opposite.

Criterion Validity: A close fit between the measures it

produces and measures produced by some other
instrument that is known to be valid.
 Example: A personality assessment that identified you as
‘extroverted’ when the Meyers Briggs assessment did too, has
criterion validity.
 Ockham’s Razor

The Principle of Parsimony:

“Don’t make things more complicated

than they need to be.”
- William Ockham (1285-1349)

In science, simpler explanations, theories, or measures are

preferred over more complicated ones.
 Correlation

When two variables are related they are said to co-vary.

This is also called correlation or simply association.

Many independent variables may each only contribute a

little to the outcome of the dependent variable, but the
correlation may still be quite direct and causal.
 Example: Having personally known someone who died of AIDS is
only one of many independent variables that is known to have a
causal impact on the choice of whether to use a condom during
sexual activity.
 Spurious Variables

Two variables are spurious when their correlation (no

matter how strong) is caused by a third variable.
 Example: There is a correlation between the number of firefighters
at a fire, and the amount of property damage caused. Should we
assume that the firefighters are causing greater damage?
 Theory

Theory: A mechanism that explains the association

between two or more correlated variables.

Theories are simply ideas about how things work. Frames

to help make sense of the world.

We all hold ‘informal theories’ or ‘axioms’ about many

things. Formal theory, however, can be tested and
revised.