This document provides an overview of the topics and activities covered in the Week 1 Day 2 session of the SOC 311 Introduction to Social Research course. The session covered research design basics including formulating research questions and hypotheses. Students reviewed key concepts like the characteristics of science, types of research methods, purposes of research, and quantitative and qualitative perspectives. New material introduced variables, units of analysis, and the relationship between independent and dependent variables. The session concluded with an exercise to review concepts and the assignment of initial homework.

1. SOC 311
INTRODUCTION TO SOCIAL RESEARCH
Summer 2012
Week 1: Day 2
Shih-Chi Lin
slin4@uoregon.edu

2. Plan of The Day
 Research Design I: Basics, Babbie:
chapter 4
 Formulating Questions and Hypotheses
 Exercise and homework

3. Review
 Characteristics of Science: empiricism,
objectivity, control.
 Errors in inquiry
o1. Inaccurate observations (bad observers)
o2. Overgeneralization (one example for all)
o3. Selective observation ( selection bias/only
see what they believe)
o4. Illogical reasoning (gambler’s fallacy)
 Inductive and deductive theory
 Scientific statement vs. value judgment

4. What is a Scientific Research
Question?
 Why (common sense) “What is the
relationship between…” or, “Under what
conditions…”
(1a) Is capital punishment morally wrong?
(1b) Why is capital punishment legal in some
states but not in others?
(2a) Should abortion be legalized?
(2b) How are attitudes toward abortion
related to religious affiliation?

5. Research design I: basics
THE RESEARCH DESIGN
PROCESS AND COMMON
TERMINOLOGY

6. The Aim of Sociological Research
To move from subjective to more objective
knowledge of something:
Subjective Objective
knowledge knowledge
An individual’s everyday Knowledge that is value
understanding (common free, independent of
senses) that comes from opinion, prejudice and bias.
their values, experiences
and beliefs.

7. What is Research?
 Research is the systematic process of
collecting and analysing information (data) in
order to increase our understanding of the
phenomenon with which we are concerned or
interested.
 Research involves three main stages:
Deductive
Data
? Analysis
Collection

9. Types of Research Methods
 Experimental
◦ Used most often in evaluation research
 Asking questions
◦ Directly: Use surveys and face-to-face interviews
◦ Indirectly: Use records to answer questions by
extracting specific items of information
 Participant and other field observation
◦ Observe something in its natural environment, as
it happens (i.e. reporters)
◦ Intensive interviews to obtain in-depth information
 Secondary data
◦ Content analysis (i.e. Mac user vs. PC user)
◦ Analysis of data collected for another study or
purpose (Census)

10. Three Purposes of Research
1. Exploration
◦ To satisfy the researcher’s curiosity and
desire for better understanding
◦ To test the feasibility of undertaking a more
extensive study
◦ To develop the methods to be employed in
any subsequent study
◦ Examples?

11. Three Purposes of Research
2. Description
◦ Describe situations and events through
scientific observation
◦ Examples?

12. Three Purposes of Research
3. Explanation
◦ Descriptive studies answer questions of
what, where, when, and how
◦ Explanatory studies answer questions of
why
◦ Examples?

13. Three Purposes of Research
 Review Question
◦ A researcher wants to determine why people
of differing political orientations have
different opinions on environmental
regulations.
 What purpose does this research project fulfill?
◦ A. Exploratory
◦ B. Descriptive
◦ C.Explanatory

14. Quantitative and Qualitative
Perspectives
 "There's no such thing as
qualitative data. Everything
is either 1 or 0“
◦ Fred Kerlinger
Deductive
 "All research ultimately has
a qualitative grounding“
◦ Donald Campbell
Inductive

15. The Time Dimension
 Cross-Sectional Study – a study based on
observations representing a single point in time,
a cross section of a population.
 i.e. course evaluation, Gallup poll, and?
 Longitudinal Study – a study design involving
the collection of data at different points in time.
 Very time-consuming and costly. i.e. Bogalusa Heart
Study (1972-2005)

16. Longitudinal Studies
◦ Trend Study – a study in which a given
characteristic of some population is monitored
over time. (A comparison of US racial composition over time;
unemployment rate)
◦ Cohort Study – a study in which some specific
subpopulation, or cohort, is studied over time.
i.e. Baby boomers (born b/w 1946-1964)
◦ Panel Study – a study in which data are
collected from the same set of people at several
points in time. Bogalusa Heart Study (1972-2005)

17. Trend Study

20. Some special cohort is studied over time, but members of the cohort
might change.

21. Unit of Analysis
 Units of Analysis – the what or whom
being studied (most often individuals in
social science research).
 The objects we study
◦ People
◦ Families
◦ Cities
◦ Newspaper articles
◦ Classes, schools, organizations

22. Review Exercise
◦ For each study description below, identify the unit of
analysis.
1. A study of state regulatory agencies’ enforcement of
environmental laws.
2. A study of opinion toward environmental regulations.
3. A study of environmental law passage in the U.S.
and the E.U.
4. A study of environmental law compliance by power
plants.

23. Ecological Fallacy
 Faulty Reasoning about Units of Analysis
◦ The Ecological Fallacy – occurs when relationships
between properties of groups or geographic areas
are used to make inferences about the individuals
within those groups or areas.
◦ Example 1: Knowing that Sally attended UO, you
would assume she must be a duck.
◦ Example 2: Political analysts who use aggregate
data from elections to study individual voting
behavior.

24. Variables
• Variables –
• Dimensions or aspects of units of analysis
which vary.
• Logical groupings of attributes.
• Formal definition of a variable is a set of
exhaustive and mutually exclusive
categories. –every unit of analysis must fall
into exactly one category of a variable
• Variables are defined by researchers.

25. The Vocabulary of Science
 From concepts to variables.
◦ Gender is thought to influence hair length.
◦ Educational attainment is thought to influence
income.
 To be a variable, a thing must have at
least two attributes.
 Exercise : Please list at least six
attributes of religious affiliation.

26. Examples
UNIT OF ANALYSIS VARIABLE CATEGORIES OF VARIABLE
Individual income <$10,000
$10,000~$24,999
$25,000~$34,999
Over $100,000
individual Eye color Blue, brown, green, hazel, etc.
Family Average
annual
household
income
Organization Sex <20% male
20-50% male
composition (% 51-80% male
male) >80% male

27. Two Kinds of Variables
 Independent Variable – a presumed cause
of a dependent variable
 Dependent Variable – a variable that the
researcher tries to explain or predict.

28. Independent V. Dependent
 Intentionally manipulated  Intentionally left alone
 Controlled  Measured
 Vary at known rate  Vary at unknown rate
 Cause  Effect
 i.e. Gender  i.e. income, GPA

30. RESEARCH DESIGN II:
FORMULATING QUESTIONS
AND HYPOTHESES

31. Hypotheses
 After identifying the variables of interest
to us, we posit a relationship b/w them.
Here are some simple hypotheses.
 H1a: Gender affects occupation.
 H2a: Age affects income.
 H3a: Social class affects voting behavior.
 H1b: Differences in gender are related to
differences in occupation. [That is, men and women
tend to be employed in different occupations.]

32. STOP AND REVIEW
EXERCISE

33. Readings and Homework
 Some readings will be optional. Answer
questions on optional readings will get
extra credit.
 Short homework assignments during
weekdays and longer ones for the
weekends. (Due Midnight)
 Homework #1, #2.