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INTRODUCTION TO THE SOCIAL SCIENCES
Social Sciences and Inquiry Text reference: Chapter 2
What would you do?
Poll Everywhere Questions…
Snowball
Altruism: Behaviour intended to help others and done without any expectation of personal benefit
Explain whether or not you believe that altruism exists?
What would you do?
Kitty Genovese
Landmark in social science research
Personal ExperienceWe learn from experience –often the hard way!
Tradition“Everyone knows” it to be true- we accept what has always been believed
AuthorityExperts tell us that something is true.
ReligionWe accept the truths that religious officials/ theology provides
ScienceControlled, systematic observation- all statements are tested and open to public inspection
Page 36 in your text
Q: What difficulties are present when using the first 4 ways of knowing together information?
It’s hard to resolve disagreements when people have different experiences, different religious view
Q: How do scientists resolve such conflicts?
Empirical approach- direct systematic observationProcedures are organized public and recognized by other scientistsSelf-correction – hypotheses- truth changes over time with changes in evidenceObjective- try to ensure biases and values do not affect research
Example: Altruism
How could a social scientist determine if altruism exists?
Brainstorm
Descriptive Studies & Explanatory Studies
Descriptive studies attempt to describe social reality or provide facts about a group, practice or event. What is happening to whom, where and when?
Page 38
Altruism: What percentage of people wouldreturn a lost wallet?
Explanatory Studies attempt to explain relationships and provide information on why certain events do or do not occur.Page 39
Altruism: Why do some countries rely uponvoluntary blood donations while othershave to offer incentives?
Descriptive Studies & Explanatory Studies
Inductive vs Deductive Approaches
Deductive: start with a theory and use research to test the theory (pg 39)
1)Start with a question ie: Why do people help each other?
2)Formulate a theory about the causes of altruism
3)Test the theory
Inductive vs Deductive Approaches
Inductive: collect data (facts/evidence) and then generate the theories (Pg 39 )
1) Collect/ analyze data related to helping behaviour ( altruism)
2) Generate a tentative theory
THEORIES
HYPOTHESIS
OBSERVATIONS
GENERALIZATIONS
DEDUCTIVE SCIENCE
INDUCTIVE SCIENCE
The Theory &
Research Cycle
RESEARCH METHODS
Quantitative Research Methods
The goal is scientific objectivity and the focus is on data that can be measured numerically
Deals with a large number of cases
Follows specific procedures and steps to gather and analyze data
RESEARCH METHODS
Qualitative Research Methods
Words are used rather than statistics to analyze meanings and patterns in social relationships
Deals with a smaller number of cases
Provides a more detailed picture of a social phenomenon or problem
The Quantitative Research Model
Identify a problem
Develop a hypothesis
Develop the research design
Gather data
Analyze data
Draw conclusions and report the findings
Is there a relationship between having a part time job and resulting grades in school?
Stop and Think!
Work with a partner.Apply the research method and design a study! How would you approach this
problem
So…how did you do?
What are the 6 steps in the Quantitative approach?
How could you determine if in fact there is a relationship? What are the possible research designs that might be effective?
Similar steps to quantitative model in that you have a question, collect and analyse data and report findings
The Qualitative Research Model
The Qualitative Research Model
Distinctions:The researcher begins with a general approach rather than a highly detailed planUsually provides a detailed view with a smaller number of cases and many variablesConducted in natural settingsIs more likely to involve concerns, interests and perspectives of the participants themselves
Ways to Gather Data
1) Observation
Natural (essentially “people watching”, park bench, bar…)
Participant (Inside a Glasgow gang)
Observation (continued)
Structured (compare data sets such as age, gender)
Unstructured (behaviours, attitudes, ideas- no preconceived notions)
Observation (continued)
“Hawthorne Effect”-when subjects perform differently because they know they are being watched
Formal term is “reactivity”
2) Experiment
Cause-effect relationships-control group to test against experimental group
One factor is related to another
Ex: Does watching violent TV increase aggression in children?
2) Experiment
The control group does not watch violent TV
The experimental group is exposed to the independent variable or experimental condition, to study the effect it has on them.
Terms to remember…Variable- any concept with measurable traits that can change or vary from one person, time situation or society to anotherIndependent variable- causes or determines the dependent variable(race, gender, age, ethnicity)Dependent variable- depends upon or is cause by the independent variable
(Can be known as the outcome or effect- ex: women are more likely to be altruistic- the degree of altruism is dependent upon gender)
Experiment (continued)
Example for Altruism
Latane and Darley (1970)
pg 45 in your text
Proximity of others decreases the chance that you will help another
Relates back to the tragedy of Kitty Genovese
Example: Obedience to Authority
What happened if one person was given direct orders to hurt another human being?
Famous experiment conducted by Stanley Milgram
Page 171-173
Experiment (continued)
3) Case Studies
An in-depth investigation of an event, person or social grouping
Repeated observations over a period of time (Queue Culture in Australia)
Most participant observation relies upon case studies
Example for Altruism: Red River Floods
Page 56 in text
4) Surveys
random sample (subjects chosen by chance from population)-representative sample (subjects have essential characteristics of large population)-usually in question format (Gallop poll, census)Example for Altruism: Blood donation
5) Interviews detailed information Open ended
6) Historical Analysis
changing patterns over a period of time
diaries, journals, media, pictures, census data
Association or relationship between events/variables
Spearman’s Rank Correlation Coefficient
7) Correlational Study
Group Work: Research Methods
List of HypothesesRising unemployment has led to more children living in poverty. Increasing stress in daily life has led to more crime.Younger teenagers are heavier smokers than older teenagers.Students who do well in high school are more successful in later life.Females are better than males at picking up non-verbal communication.
Decide which method is most useful and why?
Group Work: Research Methods
List of Hypotheses: For each decide which method is most useful and explain why.
1) Rising unemployment has led to more children living in poverty.
2) Increasing stress in daily life has led to more crime.
3) Younger teenagers are heavier smokers than older teenagers.
4) Students who do well in high school are more successful in later life.
5) Females are better than males at picking up non-verbal communication.
Group work
With a partner consider each of themethods of gathering data that werecovered today.
For each suggest advantages anddisadvantages that would be faced bythat a sociologist using the researchmethod in question.
Forming Generalizations
-make sure the data is relevant
-organize the data, create charts, calculate percentages (median, frequency distribution)
-make conclusions (accept or reject hypothesis)
* beware of biases!!! (culture, geography, personal, gender)
Terms to remember…
Reliability- consistency in results
Validity- the accurate measurement of what is being measured
Analysis- the process by which data is organized so comparisons can be made and conclusions drawn
Replication-the repetition of the investigation in the same way as it was originally conducted