Introduction to Research Methods

CRIJ 3378.05
Research Questions and Foundations
Ghady Hbeilini
 AQ
List the four errors in reasoning
Last Week
• Common Errors in Reasoning
• Overgeneralization; Observations (selective, inaccurate); Illogical Reasoning;
Resistance to change (ego, tradition, disagreement)
• Social Science vs. Pseudoscience
• Types of Social Research
• Descriptive; Exploratory; Explanatory; Evaluation
• Orientation in Social Research
• Positivism vs. Interpretivism
• Research Methods
• Quantitative vs. Qualitative
• Integrated Approach
Objectives
• Understand the research process
• Describe the importance of theory
research
• Discuss differences between deductive and
inductive reasoning
• Discuss difference between research
question and hypothesis
• Explain research circle vs. research spiral
• Identify difference between independent
and dependent variable
• Define types of validity and reliability
 Replication: the ability of an
Research Project entire study or experiment to be
duplicated
Formulating a Research Question
• What is a research question?
• A question about some aspect of a topic, in this case of crime, criminals, or
the criminal justice system, the answer to which is sought through collection
and analysis of firsthand, verifiable, empirical data

Identify Refine Evaluate

 Social Research Foundation

Need Look Expand Identify Pay

Need to go in- Look at reports Expand your Identify how Pay attention:
depth of the same search based on your proposed Items you
research a solid basis of study adds to rejected when
question, or your primary the existing formulating
ones closely one body of your research
related to it literature question might
become
relevant moving
forward
Searching Literature
• Main Source: Refereed Journals
• Journals that select research papers for publication
based on the peer reviews of other social scientists
• Online, Library, Books, Encyclopedias, Reference Lists
• Thorough search of the research literature and then
reviewing critically lays an essential foundation for any
research project
• You do NOT need to find it all
• Develop a search method
 Search method
• Specify research question
• Identify bibliographic databases
• Create a tentative list of search terms
• Narrow your search
• Use Boolean search logic
• “and”, “or”

• Use appropriate subject descriptors

• Check the results
• Locate the articles
• Organize into an Annotated Bibliography
• Review research critically
Example Literature Search
Literature Review

• Should accomplish the following goals:

• Summarize prior research
• Provide more general background still, don’t
just discuss prior research

• Critique prior research

• Present pertinent conclusion

• Don’t leave the reader hanging
• Imagine a friend texting you “I have something
to tell you” and then goes “offline”
Theory
A logically interrelated set of proportions about empirical reality
• Social learning, routine activities, labeling, general strain, and social disorganization theory

Variety of theories
• Criminological, Sociological, Psychological among others

Rich source of research questions

Explain and understand things

Make predictions

Organize and make sense of empirical findings

Guide future research

Guide public policy

Theoretical Constructs
Describe what is important to look at to understand, explain, predict and “do
something about” crime
Research aims to examine the empirical validity of theories (relationships or
hypotheses)
Theories are not facts, they are concepts suggested to test or to be falsifiable

Theoretical Relationship Link to

construct statements crime
 Research is mainly an effort to connect theory and empirical
data

Social Deductive
Reasoning
• Moves from general to specific
• Starting with a theory and testing its components
• Largely used for quantitative methodology

Research
Strategies • Moves from specific to general
Inductive Reasoning • Starting with the data and then developing the theory
• Usually used for qualitative methodology

Serendipitous • Unexpected patterns in data, which stimulate new

findings (anomalous ideas or theoretical approaches.
findings)
 The Research Circle
• Deductive research: The type of research
in which a specific expectation is deduced
from a general premise and is then tested.
• Hypothesis: A tentative statement about
empirical reality involving the relationship
between two or more variables.
• Variable: Characteristics or properties that
can vary (take on different values or
attributes).
• Constant: A variable that has a fixed value
in a given situation; a characteristic or
value that does not change.
Hypothesis
• Independent variable: A variable that is hypothesized
to cause or lead to variation in another variable.
• Dependent variable: A variable that is hypothesized to
change or vary depending on the variation in another
variable.
• If the independent variable increases (or decreases),
then the dependent variable increases (or decreases).”
• Direction of association: When the values of variables
tend to change consistently in relation to change in the
other variable. Direction of association can be either
positive or negative.
• Positive relationship: The independent and
dependent variables move in the same direction;
as one increases, the other increases.
• Negative relationship: The independent and
dependent variables move in opposite directions;
as one increases, the other decreases.
 The Research Circle

• Inductive research: The type of research in

which specific data are used to develop (induce)
a general explanation.
• Empirical generalizations: Statements that
describe patterns found in data.
• The inductive researcher begins with specific
data, which are then used to develop (induce) a
general explanation (a theory) to account for the
data.
 Deductive
research –
Theory

The Phases Deductive

Research -
Deductive
Research –

of Research Theory Hypothesis

Indictive
Research –
Empirical
Generalization
Activity
The
Research
Spiral
Social Research Standards
• Measurement validity
• The type of validity that is achieved when a measure
measures what it is presumed to measure
• Generalizability
• The type of validity that is achieved when a conclusion
holds true for the population, group, or groups that we
say it does, given the conditions that we specify
• Sample generalizability: Exists when a conclusion
based on a sample or subset of a larger population
holds true for that population
• Cross-population generalizability (external validity):
Exists when findings about one group, population, or
setting hold true for other groups, populations, or
settings
Social Research
Standards
• Causal validity (internal validity):
The type of validity that is
achieved when a conclusion that
one phenomenon leads to or results
in another phenomenon—or
doesn’t lead to or result in another
—is correct
• Authenticity: When the
understanding of a social process
or social setting is one that reflects
fairly the various perspectives of
participants in that setting.
Contact
information
• Ghady Hbeilini
• gxh040@shsu.edu
• Office hours: Mon. 2:00-3:00 pm;
Wed. 2:00-3:00 pm; or by
appointment