Social Research Final
Terms
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- Definition of science?
- Trying to systematically observe, directly or indirectly, empirical reality.
- Differences between social science and natural science
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1. 'Reactive problem' - molecules don't blush
2. More alternative explanations
3. more opportunity for selective perception and bias
4. few true laws - Reactive problem
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'molecules don't blush
influences how we ask questions
even anonymous polling gets false responses
most statistics are too low - Law of reciprocity
- we respond accordingly to whatever people do for us - good for good and bad for bad
- Three observables: who and what?
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Abraham Kaplan
directly observable: things we can directly observe
indirectly observable: asking someone what their race is over the phone
Construct: theoretical - can't be observed at all, either directly or indirectly (like intelligence, conservatism, etc.) - Four (4) tasks of social science
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Description
(Interpretation: what do the facts mean?)
Exploration: pilot studies, getting a general idea about something, initial look
Explanation: has to do with cause and effect - the other two point us here - it all has to do with probability: what is 'most likely' to occur
4.Prediction! - Is sociological explanation deterministic?
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Social science is not like natural science - we can't predict with 100% accuracy what will or will not happen
People are predictable, but not perfectly so
Cause and effect don't always work because people have free agency - multicausal/multidirectional
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Most effects in social science have more than one cause
The causal arrows may go both ways in many cases as well
i.e. church attendance and divorce rate/suicide rate - Ideographic vs. Nomothetic
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Ideographic: tries to find all causes for an effect
Nomothetic: tries to find the most important for an effect - Does social research deal with individuals or aggregates?
- Aggregates
- Inductive vs. Deductive Reasoning
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Inductive: starts with empirical observations and develops a theory - used in criminology to construct criminal profiles
Deductive: theory constructed by abstract reasoning - fact gathering used to determine whether or not the theory is true - Theory vs. hypothesis
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Theory: complex - involves lots of concepts and propositions
Hypothesis: specific prediction usually only consisting of 2 variables - Three parts of a theory
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concepts: theories can be very different depending on how these are defined (i.e. Weber and Marx on stratification) - definitons are never perfect, but you must define them as clearly as possible
Propositions: general statements regarding relationships between concepts - related to each other by systems
Systems: relationships between propositions and concepts on a general level - Paradigms
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Theories exist within them
Theories within a paradigm may conflict
i.e. social behaviorism, social factism, etc.
different paradigms are related with different kinds of research - Micro vs. Macro
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Micro: focuses on interaction between individuals and small groups - directly observable - experiments, field research, interviews, etc.
Macro: functioning of larger entities, like economies, governments, counties, etc. - not directly observable - uses historical trends and ecological data