Introduction to Social Science Research
CH1. Human Inquiry and Science
• Knowing things – what we know vs. how we know
o Epistemology => science of knowing
o Methodology => science of finding out
o Agreement reality => those things we ‘know’ as part and parcel of the culture we share with
those around us
▪ Two important sources for our second-hand knowledge are: Tradition and Authority
• Observing reality / experiencing reality
• Methods to do so -> methodology
An assertion must have both logical and empirical support; it must make sense, and it must not
contradict actual observations.
Different traditions
• Physics (laws of nature)
• Literature studies (meaning of literary texts)
• Social science (laws of social reality)
Foundations of social science
Scientific understanding of the world must:
- Make sense
- Correspond with wat we observe
How to observe scientifically
➢ Be objective
➢ Be precise
➢ Be systematic
➢ Be reflective
Subject of research
What do we want to know?
- Interesting parts of reality -> relevance
- Usually not the unique, but the patterns
What we do not research -> at least what we can’t prove
- Philosophical issues (what is the meaning of life)
- Aesthetical issues (who is the best movie director ever)
- Moral issues (what is the best way to live or behave) (Mostly an issue between what is right and what is wrong)
How do we start?
1. Concepts and relations
▪ Theoretical concept -> a (social) phenomenon that is considered relevant to study
▪ Conceptualization -> translating ‘topic’ into ‘concept’
▪ Theory -> coherent explanation of one or more concepts and their relations
▪ Theory = systematic explanation for the observation that relate to a particular aspect of life:
juvenile delinquency, for example or perhaps social stratification or political revolution
(Babbie:12)
o Big Bang Theory / evolution theory
, 2. From abstract tot concrete
▪ Making things concrete
▪ A lot of different methods to help with it
o Experiments
o Content analysis Empirical cycle
o Survey
o Online ethnography
3. Procedure
▪ Logic => General principles → deductive → specific instances → inductive → general
principles
▪ Deductive => general -> specific
o Quantitative methods (numbers)
o Building on what we already know
o Theory -> observations (that test whether the pattern actually occurs)
o Survey
▪ Inductive => specific -> general
o Qualitive methods (words)
o If there is hardly any theory
o Specific observation -> theory/pattern
o Interview
Quantification often makes our observations more explicit. It can also make aggregating and
summarizing data easier. It also opens the possibility of statistical analyses
Qualitative data are richer in meaning and detail than quantified data.
Qualitative data approach seems more aligned with idiographic explanations, whereas nomothetic
explanations are more easily achieved through quantification. (Note! These relationships are not absolute
Idiographic => an approach to explanation in which we seek to exhaust the idiosyncratic causes of a particular
condition or event
▪ After in idiographic explanation we feel like we fully understand the causes of what happened in this instance.
▪ Seek to present a full understanding of specific cases
Nomothetic => an approach to explanation in which we seek to identify a few casual factors that generally
impact a class of conditions or events
▪ It settles for a partial rather than a full explanation
▪ It seeks to explain ‘economically’ using only one or just a few explanatory factors.
▪ Seek to present a generalized account of many cases
Example
,Social science theory has to do with what is, not with what should be
Social science theory aims to find patterns in social life. They try to understand the systems in which
people operate, which in turn explain why people do what they do. The elements in such systems
are not people but variables.
There is a slightly different form of human interface that makes social research particularly
challenging. Social research has a recursive quality, in that what we learn about society can end up
chaining things so that we learned is no longer true.
Social regularities do exist, then, and we are worthy of theoretical and empirical study. As such,
social scientists’ study primarily social patterns rather than individual ones. These patterns reflect
the aggregate or collective actions and situation of many individuals.
Social research occurs in the context of a sociopolitical debate concerning who is responsible for a
person's situation and their experiences in life. (e.g.: are poor people responsible for their low economic status?)
Social research typically looks for ways that social structures (from interaction patterns to whole societies),
affect the experiences and situations of individual members of society
Tolerance for ambiguity => the ability to hold conflicting ideas in your mind simultaneously without
denying or dismissing any of them (Important ability in the world of social research!)
Social science = tries to explain why aggregated patterns of behaviour are so regular
- Attributes/values -> characteristics or qualities that describe an object (e.g.: person)
o They are kind of the categories that make up a variable
- Variables -> logical sets of attributes (e.g.: variable sex is made of attributes male and female)
o Independent -> variable with values that are not problematical in an analysis but are taken as
simply given. Presumed to cause or determine a dependent variable, the cause.
o Dependent -> variable assumed to depend on or be caused by another (independent
variable), the effect.
o Theories describe the relationships we might logically except among variables
o Theories are written in the language of variables
o In causal explanation, the presumed cause is the independent variable, and the affected variable is the
dependent variable
o In constructing a social science theory, we would derive an expectation regarding the relationship
between the two variables, based on what we know about each
The methods used in social research very greatly and the conclusions are usually suggestive rather
than definitive. Some social research is done for the purpose of describing the state of social affairs.
Often, social research aims at explaining something – providing reasons for phenomena, in terms of
casual relationships.
Explanatory social research provides explanations that are more trustworthy
Social research has three main purposes:
- Exploring
- Describing
- Explaining
, Sources of agreed-on knowledge
Tradition => accepting ‘what everybody knows’
Inherited body of knowledge is the starting point for developing more of it
No new different understanding of something we all ‘know’ to be true
Authority => acceptance of new acquisitions depends on the status of the discoverer
Trusting judgement of persons with a certain expertise
Authorities can be wrong withing their field
Authorities can speak outside their real of expertise
Replication = repeating an experiment to expose or reduce error
Agency -> ‘choice’ or ‘free will’
Science
➢ Foundations
o Logic -> must make sense
o Observation -> must correspond with what we observe
➢ Major elements
o Theory
o Data collection
o Data analysis
Quantitative research question:
- Usually ask for amount, extent
- Can also ask for effect
- Can also ask for explanation
- RQs are more about behaviour, opinions, etc.
Qualitative research question:
- More descriptive
- Often ask for how or why
- RQs are more about experience, perceptions, etc.
CH1. Human Inquiry and Science
• Knowing things – what we know vs. how we know
o Epistemology => science of knowing
o Methodology => science of finding out
o Agreement reality => those things we ‘know’ as part and parcel of the culture we share with
those around us
▪ Two important sources for our second-hand knowledge are: Tradition and Authority
• Observing reality / experiencing reality
• Methods to do so -> methodology
An assertion must have both logical and empirical support; it must make sense, and it must not
contradict actual observations.
Different traditions
• Physics (laws of nature)
• Literature studies (meaning of literary texts)
• Social science (laws of social reality)
Foundations of social science
Scientific understanding of the world must:
- Make sense
- Correspond with wat we observe
How to observe scientifically
➢ Be objective
➢ Be precise
➢ Be systematic
➢ Be reflective
Subject of research
What do we want to know?
- Interesting parts of reality -> relevance
- Usually not the unique, but the patterns
What we do not research -> at least what we can’t prove
- Philosophical issues (what is the meaning of life)
- Aesthetical issues (who is the best movie director ever)
- Moral issues (what is the best way to live or behave) (Mostly an issue between what is right and what is wrong)
How do we start?
1. Concepts and relations
▪ Theoretical concept -> a (social) phenomenon that is considered relevant to study
▪ Conceptualization -> translating ‘topic’ into ‘concept’
▪ Theory -> coherent explanation of one or more concepts and their relations
▪ Theory = systematic explanation for the observation that relate to a particular aspect of life:
juvenile delinquency, for example or perhaps social stratification or political revolution
(Babbie:12)
o Big Bang Theory / evolution theory
, 2. From abstract tot concrete
▪ Making things concrete
▪ A lot of different methods to help with it
o Experiments
o Content analysis Empirical cycle
o Survey
o Online ethnography
3. Procedure
▪ Logic => General principles → deductive → specific instances → inductive → general
principles
▪ Deductive => general -> specific
o Quantitative methods (numbers)
o Building on what we already know
o Theory -> observations (that test whether the pattern actually occurs)
o Survey
▪ Inductive => specific -> general
o Qualitive methods (words)
o If there is hardly any theory
o Specific observation -> theory/pattern
o Interview
Quantification often makes our observations more explicit. It can also make aggregating and
summarizing data easier. It also opens the possibility of statistical analyses
Qualitative data are richer in meaning and detail than quantified data.
Qualitative data approach seems more aligned with idiographic explanations, whereas nomothetic
explanations are more easily achieved through quantification. (Note! These relationships are not absolute
Idiographic => an approach to explanation in which we seek to exhaust the idiosyncratic causes of a particular
condition or event
▪ After in idiographic explanation we feel like we fully understand the causes of what happened in this instance.
▪ Seek to present a full understanding of specific cases
Nomothetic => an approach to explanation in which we seek to identify a few casual factors that generally
impact a class of conditions or events
▪ It settles for a partial rather than a full explanation
▪ It seeks to explain ‘economically’ using only one or just a few explanatory factors.
▪ Seek to present a generalized account of many cases
Example
,Social science theory has to do with what is, not with what should be
Social science theory aims to find patterns in social life. They try to understand the systems in which
people operate, which in turn explain why people do what they do. The elements in such systems
are not people but variables.
There is a slightly different form of human interface that makes social research particularly
challenging. Social research has a recursive quality, in that what we learn about society can end up
chaining things so that we learned is no longer true.
Social regularities do exist, then, and we are worthy of theoretical and empirical study. As such,
social scientists’ study primarily social patterns rather than individual ones. These patterns reflect
the aggregate or collective actions and situation of many individuals.
Social research occurs in the context of a sociopolitical debate concerning who is responsible for a
person's situation and their experiences in life. (e.g.: are poor people responsible for their low economic status?)
Social research typically looks for ways that social structures (from interaction patterns to whole societies),
affect the experiences and situations of individual members of society
Tolerance for ambiguity => the ability to hold conflicting ideas in your mind simultaneously without
denying or dismissing any of them (Important ability in the world of social research!)
Social science = tries to explain why aggregated patterns of behaviour are so regular
- Attributes/values -> characteristics or qualities that describe an object (e.g.: person)
o They are kind of the categories that make up a variable
- Variables -> logical sets of attributes (e.g.: variable sex is made of attributes male and female)
o Independent -> variable with values that are not problematical in an analysis but are taken as
simply given. Presumed to cause or determine a dependent variable, the cause.
o Dependent -> variable assumed to depend on or be caused by another (independent
variable), the effect.
o Theories describe the relationships we might logically except among variables
o Theories are written in the language of variables
o In causal explanation, the presumed cause is the independent variable, and the affected variable is the
dependent variable
o In constructing a social science theory, we would derive an expectation regarding the relationship
between the two variables, based on what we know about each
The methods used in social research very greatly and the conclusions are usually suggestive rather
than definitive. Some social research is done for the purpose of describing the state of social affairs.
Often, social research aims at explaining something – providing reasons for phenomena, in terms of
casual relationships.
Explanatory social research provides explanations that are more trustworthy
Social research has three main purposes:
- Exploring
- Describing
- Explaining
, Sources of agreed-on knowledge
Tradition => accepting ‘what everybody knows’
Inherited body of knowledge is the starting point for developing more of it
No new different understanding of something we all ‘know’ to be true
Authority => acceptance of new acquisitions depends on the status of the discoverer
Trusting judgement of persons with a certain expertise
Authorities can be wrong withing their field
Authorities can speak outside their real of expertise
Replication = repeating an experiment to expose or reduce error
Agency -> ‘choice’ or ‘free will’
Science
➢ Foundations
o Logic -> must make sense
o Observation -> must correspond with what we observe
➢ Major elements
o Theory
o Data collection
o Data analysis
Quantitative research question:
- Usually ask for amount, extent
- Can also ask for effect
- Can also ask for explanation
- RQs are more about behaviour, opinions, etc.
Qualitative research question:
- More descriptive
- Often ask for how or why
- RQs are more about experience, perceptions, etc.
