Summary Basics of Social Research - Neuman, chapters 1-7

RESEARCH METHODS SUMMARY/NOTES

*Highlighted or written in red are things mentioned in the slides*



- Scientific research is:
o Made by the scientific community – a collection of people who share a system of
rules and attitudes that sustain the process of producing scientific knowledge
o Uses scientific method – the process of creating new knowledge using the ideas,
techniques and rules of the scientific community
o Relies on empirical data and systematic analysis for drawing conclusions
 Data are the empirical evidence or information that one gathers carefully
according to the rules or procedures
 Can be qualitative and quantitative
o *it is NOT based on
 authority
 Relying on the wisdom of authorities is a quick, simple, and cheap
way to learn something
 it is easy to overestimate the expertise of others
 authorities may not agree, and not all authorities are equally
dependable
 authorities may speak on fields about which they know little about
 Tradition
 you accept something as being true because “it’s the way things
have always been”
 common sense
 relying on what everyone knows and what “just makes sense”
 contains contradictory ideas that often go unnoticed because people
use the ideas at different times
 media distortion
 do not accurately reflect social reality because their primary goal is
to entertain
 personal experience
 “seeing is believing”
 Four errors in personal experience: overgeneralization (happens
when some evidence supports your belief, but you falsely assume
that it applies to most situations), selective observation (we take
special notice of some people or events and tend to seek out
evidence that confirms what we already believe and ignore
contradictory information), premature closure (we feel we have the
answer and do not need to listen, seek information, or raise
questions any longer), and halo effect (we overgeneralize from a
highly positive or prestigious source and let its strong reputation or
prestige “rub off” onto other areas)
- 7 steps in the research process:
o Select a topic – a general area of study or an issue
o Focus on research question – specific; narrowing the topic

, o Design a study
o Collect, analyze and interpret data
o Inform others
o **this 7-step-process is oversimplified; the process is interactive (doing research
step-by-step is not often the case; it may flow back and forth before reaching an
end)
- Research usage: two primary uses of a research
o Basic/fundamental research
 advances fundamental knowledge about the world
 focuses on developing, testing and supporting theories
o applied research
 addresses a specific concern or offers solutions to a practical problem
 looks for clear and practical results that can be used
 initiative outside the scientific community
 three types: evaluation (designed to find out whether something works),
action (treats knowledge as a form of power), and social impact assessment
(estimates the likely consequences of a planned intervention or intentional
change to occur in the future)




- research purpose:
o exploratory
 researcher examines a new area to formulate questions that he or she can
address more specifically in future research
 Fields where there is little research about, open questions, “mapping”
questions
o Descriptive
 Describing an existing phenomenon
o explanatory
 Explaining an existing phenomenon, often using causal or structural
explaining
 identifies the sources of social behaviors, beliefs, conditions, and events; it
documents causes, tests theories, and provides reasons

, -
time




dimensions in research:
o cross-sectional – examine one time point  (sometimes) comparing groups
o longitudinal – multiple time points  measuring a process or change over time
 **time-series study – researcher gathers the same type of information
across two or more time periods (allows the researcher to observe stability
or change in the features of the units and to track conditions over time)
 **panel study – researcher observes exactly the same people, group, or
organization across multiple time points
 **cohort study – focuses on a category of people who share a similar life
experience in a specified time period
- data collection techniques and designs
o Quantitative – look at a large number of cases, people, or units, and measure
features about them in the form of numbers
 Experimental research (researchers create situations and examine their
effects on participants)
 Survey research (asking people questions in a written questionnaire or
during an interview and record answers)
 Content analyses - identifies a body of material to analyze and then creates
a system for recording specific aspects of it
 Existing statistics – locates previously collected information and reorganizes
or combines the information in new ways to address a research question
 **content analysis, existing statistics and secondary data analysis are the
non-obtrusive measures
 **generally fit assumptions interpretative paradigm
o Qualitative – examine many diverse features of a small number of cases across time
 field research – begins with a loosely formulated idea or topic, selects a
social group or natural setting for study, gains access and adopts a social role
in the setting, and observes in detail
 historical comparative research – examines aspects of social life in a past
historical era or across different cultures
 **generally fit assumptions (post-)positivistic paradigm

SOCIAL THEORY

- Social theory is defined as a system of interconnected abstractions or ideas

, - It is a coherent story that summarizes and explains an observed phenomenon and that
serves as a basis for making predictions for that phenomenon that in turn can be tested
empirically
- The parts of theory:
o Concepts – an idea expressed as a symbol or as one or more words
 Have two parts: symbol and definition
 contain built-in assumptions  statements about the nature of things that
are not observable or testable
o Concept clusters – interconnected groups of concepts which form a web of meaning
o Classification concepts – a partway between a single concept and a theory
 Help to organize abstract/complex concepts  to create a new
classification, we logically specify and combine characteristics of simpler
concepts
 E.g. Ideal types – pure, abstract models that define the essence of the
phenomenon in question
o Scope – concepts vary by scope (some are highly abstract – wider scope, some in the
middle, some at a concrete level – narrow scope)
- The aspects of a theory:
o The direction of reasoning used
 Deductive – begins with theory or an abstract relationship among concepts,
and moves toward concrete empirical evidence
 Inductive – begins with detailed empirical observations and moves toward
abstract generalizations  also called grounded theory = a qualitative
research method that uses a systematic set of procedures to develop an
inductively derived theory about a phenomenon
o The level of social reality explained
o The form of explanation employed
o The board framework of assumptions and concepts in which it is embedded
- Range of theory:
o Empirical generalization – least abstract theoretical statement and has a very narrow
range
 generalization among two or more concrete concepts.
o Middle-range theory – focuses on a specific substantive topic area, includes a
multiple empirical generalization and builds a theoretical explanation
o Theoretical framework – frameworks are orientations or sweeping ways of looking
at the social world
 include theories for many substantive areas
- levels of theory:
o micro – deals with small slices of time, space, or numbers of people
 concepts are usually not very abstract
o meso – links macro and micro levels and operates at an intermediate level
 theories of organizations, social movements, and communities are often at
this level.
o Macro – concerns the operation of larger aggregates such as social institutions,
entire cultural systems, and whole societies
 uses more concepts that are abstract