Methods + Measurement Lecture 1
Defining research questions: quantitative and qualitative
a) Quantitative research questions (= verzamelen van een grote hoeveelheid
numerieke data).
o Descriptive questions: “What is the average number of days of sick leave per
year due to burn-out?”.
- Beschrijvende vragen = dragen bij aan het in kaart brengen van het
onderwerp. Je beschrijft een situatie, gebeurtenis of ontwikkeling.
o Explanatory questions: “To what extent does the average number of days of sick
leave due to burn-out differ across sectors of employment?”.
- Verklarende vragen = vragen om de oorzaak van het probleem te
achterhalen. Je gaat op zoek naar de oorzaken, processen of gevolgen van
een gebeurtenis of ontwikkeling. Deze vragen beginnen vaak met ‘waarom’.
=> Focus on nomothetic ‘causal’ relationships (‘predicting’ the outcome variable).
• In een nomothetische causale relatie veroorzaakt de onafhankelijke variabele
veranderingen in een afhankelijke variabele. Een relatie moet plausibel en
onecht zijn, en moet de oorzaak in de tijd aan het gevolg voorafgaan.
• Nomothetic research = kijken naar heel grote groepen mensen om dan te kijken
naar de verschillen in persoonlijkheid.
- Causaal = een verandering in de ene variabele veroorzaakt een verandering in de
andere variabele. Er is dus een oorzaak-gevolgrelatie tussen variabelen. De twee
variabelen zijn gecorreleerd én er is sprake van een causale relatie.
- Plausibel = mogelijk, aannemelijk.
> establishing generalizations that apply to everyone (idiographic casual relationship)
• Idiographic causal relationship = het vaststellen van generalisaties die voor
iedereen gelden.
Naive statistics
- A journal reported that the economy of country X was under severe stress in
2021 because of the finding that approximately 16% of all employees suffered
from burnout, seems very interested, but the detailed information from NBS also
indicated that:
1
, - 80% suffered from mild burnout and were on sick leave for – on average – 2
months.
- 15% had regular amount of burnout 6 months
- 5% didn’t work for longer than a year because of the burnout
Assume (= aannemen):
b) Qualitative research questions (= achterhalen van diepgaande informatie
over motivaties, gedachten en verwachtingen van mensen).
- Questions about lived personal experience, understanding and meaning of
stories:
“How did employees who suffered from burn-out last year link this to personal
experiences at work before and after their burn-out?”.
ð Focuses on ideographic relationships (rather than on nomothetic ‘causal’
relationships).
• Ideographic relationships = gepersonaliseerde vragen op individueel niveau te
beantwoorden in tegenstelling tot onderzoek uitgevoerd op nomothetisch of
groepsniveau.
c) Comparing research questions
Quantitative Qualitative
Do positive experiences with refugees increase a How do people with different experiences in their
person's tolerance towards a new refugee centre in the contact with refugees understand how it affects their
neighborhood? feelings towards the opening of a new refugee centre in
the neighborhood?
To what extent do childhood experiences regarding the What is the experience of outing as LGBTQ in a situation
quality of the relationship of parents impact on gender in which one is the first to out within the family as
identification amongst LGBTQ community? compared to when a relative already outed as LGBTQ
before one did?
Does autocratic leadership of the direct supervisor What does autocratic leadership of a direct supervisor
decrease the work performance and motivation of mean to employees in terms of their motivation and
employees? performance at work?
Theory(-ies) <- propositions -> hypotheses
a) Proposition:
Example:
“When an individual manages a particular task well, then (s)he will perform that
task better in the presence of others than when nobody else is present.”
(= social facilitation effect (SFE))
= general statement regarding a regularity in the behavior or opinion of subjects
2
, • Social facilitation effect = algemene uitspraak over een regelmaat in het gedrag
of de mening van proefpersonen.
Proposition is a general statement, and then the why question is the theory question.
- The question is: why is this the case?
b) Theory:
= provides an explanation for a proposition or set of propositions ≠ speculation!
ex. Alternative theories for the SFE proposition: biological versus psychological
‘explanation’.
- ‘biological’: the presence of others activates physiological triggers.
- ‘psychological’: people perform better when they believe they are being
watched/evaluated.
= nature versus nurture debate in many social and behavioral sciences.
=> Next question: how can we research that? à applying it in a concrete situation.
e.g.: athletics.
c) Hypotheses:
= athletes will perform better:
(a) the more spectators there are;
(b) the more journalists there are that will comment on their
performances;
(c) when there is direct coverage of the event by the media (television,…)
1. Cornerstones of social research (chapter 2)
Science as a process: induction – deduction
theories deduction
empirical
hypotheses
generalisations
induction observations
Deductive kind of person start with theories.
3
, • Deductive = bij het redeneringsproces probeer je een bestaande theorie te
toetsen. Je start met de theorie (generalisering), hypothese formuleren,
observeren of analyseren, hypothese bevestigen of verwerpen.
Induction kind of people start with observations.
• Inductive = bij het redeneringsproces probeer je nieuwe theorieën te creëren. Je
start met observaties, data verzamelen, patroon ontdekken, hyppthese of
theory formulieren (generaliseren).
Example
Inductively induced research project.
2. Concepts, variables and their relationship (chapter 3)
a) Concepts (or constructs):
= general/abstract description of a social phenomena
Example: e.g. ethnocentrism
b) Variable:
= empirical manifestation of a concept (observing)
Example: e.g. a scale that measures ethnocentrism
c) Hypotheses:
= an expected relationship between 2 or more variables that can be
researched/tested (it is an prediction).
Example: e.g. women are on average less ethnocentric than men
4
Defining research questions: quantitative and qualitative
a) Quantitative research questions (= verzamelen van een grote hoeveelheid
numerieke data).
o Descriptive questions: “What is the average number of days of sick leave per
year due to burn-out?”.
- Beschrijvende vragen = dragen bij aan het in kaart brengen van het
onderwerp. Je beschrijft een situatie, gebeurtenis of ontwikkeling.
o Explanatory questions: “To what extent does the average number of days of sick
leave due to burn-out differ across sectors of employment?”.
- Verklarende vragen = vragen om de oorzaak van het probleem te
achterhalen. Je gaat op zoek naar de oorzaken, processen of gevolgen van
een gebeurtenis of ontwikkeling. Deze vragen beginnen vaak met ‘waarom’.
=> Focus on nomothetic ‘causal’ relationships (‘predicting’ the outcome variable).
• In een nomothetische causale relatie veroorzaakt de onafhankelijke variabele
veranderingen in een afhankelijke variabele. Een relatie moet plausibel en
onecht zijn, en moet de oorzaak in de tijd aan het gevolg voorafgaan.
• Nomothetic research = kijken naar heel grote groepen mensen om dan te kijken
naar de verschillen in persoonlijkheid.
- Causaal = een verandering in de ene variabele veroorzaakt een verandering in de
andere variabele. Er is dus een oorzaak-gevolgrelatie tussen variabelen. De twee
variabelen zijn gecorreleerd én er is sprake van een causale relatie.
- Plausibel = mogelijk, aannemelijk.
> establishing generalizations that apply to everyone (idiographic casual relationship)
• Idiographic causal relationship = het vaststellen van generalisaties die voor
iedereen gelden.
Naive statistics
- A journal reported that the economy of country X was under severe stress in
2021 because of the finding that approximately 16% of all employees suffered
from burnout, seems very interested, but the detailed information from NBS also
indicated that:
1
, - 80% suffered from mild burnout and were on sick leave for – on average – 2
months.
- 15% had regular amount of burnout 6 months
- 5% didn’t work for longer than a year because of the burnout
Assume (= aannemen):
b) Qualitative research questions (= achterhalen van diepgaande informatie
over motivaties, gedachten en verwachtingen van mensen).
- Questions about lived personal experience, understanding and meaning of
stories:
“How did employees who suffered from burn-out last year link this to personal
experiences at work before and after their burn-out?”.
ð Focuses on ideographic relationships (rather than on nomothetic ‘causal’
relationships).
• Ideographic relationships = gepersonaliseerde vragen op individueel niveau te
beantwoorden in tegenstelling tot onderzoek uitgevoerd op nomothetisch of
groepsniveau.
c) Comparing research questions
Quantitative Qualitative
Do positive experiences with refugees increase a How do people with different experiences in their
person's tolerance towards a new refugee centre in the contact with refugees understand how it affects their
neighborhood? feelings towards the opening of a new refugee centre in
the neighborhood?
To what extent do childhood experiences regarding the What is the experience of outing as LGBTQ in a situation
quality of the relationship of parents impact on gender in which one is the first to out within the family as
identification amongst LGBTQ community? compared to when a relative already outed as LGBTQ
before one did?
Does autocratic leadership of the direct supervisor What does autocratic leadership of a direct supervisor
decrease the work performance and motivation of mean to employees in terms of their motivation and
employees? performance at work?
Theory(-ies) <- propositions -> hypotheses
a) Proposition:
Example:
“When an individual manages a particular task well, then (s)he will perform that
task better in the presence of others than when nobody else is present.”
(= social facilitation effect (SFE))
= general statement regarding a regularity in the behavior or opinion of subjects
2
, • Social facilitation effect = algemene uitspraak over een regelmaat in het gedrag
of de mening van proefpersonen.
Proposition is a general statement, and then the why question is the theory question.
- The question is: why is this the case?
b) Theory:
= provides an explanation for a proposition or set of propositions ≠ speculation!
ex. Alternative theories for the SFE proposition: biological versus psychological
‘explanation’.
- ‘biological’: the presence of others activates physiological triggers.
- ‘psychological’: people perform better when they believe they are being
watched/evaluated.
= nature versus nurture debate in many social and behavioral sciences.
=> Next question: how can we research that? à applying it in a concrete situation.
e.g.: athletics.
c) Hypotheses:
= athletes will perform better:
(a) the more spectators there are;
(b) the more journalists there are that will comment on their
performances;
(c) when there is direct coverage of the event by the media (television,…)
1. Cornerstones of social research (chapter 2)
Science as a process: induction – deduction
theories deduction
empirical
hypotheses
generalisations
induction observations
Deductive kind of person start with theories.
3
, • Deductive = bij het redeneringsproces probeer je een bestaande theorie te
toetsen. Je start met de theorie (generalisering), hypothese formuleren,
observeren of analyseren, hypothese bevestigen of verwerpen.
Induction kind of people start with observations.
• Inductive = bij het redeneringsproces probeer je nieuwe theorieën te creëren. Je
start met observaties, data verzamelen, patroon ontdekken, hyppthese of
theory formulieren (generaliseren).
Example
Inductively induced research project.
2. Concepts, variables and their relationship (chapter 3)
a) Concepts (or constructs):
= general/abstract description of a social phenomena
Example: e.g. ethnocentrism
b) Variable:
= empirical manifestation of a concept (observing)
Example: e.g. a scale that measures ethnocentrism
c) Hypotheses:
= an expected relationship between 2 or more variables that can be
researched/tested (it is an prediction).
Example: e.g. women are on average less ethnocentric than men
4
