Research Methods and Statistics

Research Methods and Study Types

• The Hawthorne effect refers to the modifications in conduct when the individual knows they are being watched.
• Data gathering involves various methods, including experiments, complicated interviews, observation, existing resources, and surveys.
• Representative samples are crucial, and probability random selection ensures unbiased inferential models.
• Descriptive statistics include mode, mean (average), and median.

Correlation and Causality

• Correlation coefficient measures the relationship between variables.
• Causality refers to the cause-and-effect relationship between variables.

Phenomenological Approach

• Alfred Schutz's phenomenological approach emphasizes that facts are always interpreted and qualitative research studies how reality is constructed.
• Ethnography involves participatory observations, face-to-face interviews, and immersion in participants' lives.

Scientific Rigor

Quantitative Research

• Internal validity ensures accuracy.
• External validity ensures that findings can be generalized.
• Reliability ensures consistency.
• Objectivity ensures unbiased results.

Qualitative Research

• Credibility ensures confidence in the 'truth' of the findings.
• Transferability shows that the findings have applicability in other contexts.
• Dependability ensures that the findings are consistent and could be repeated.
• Confirmability ensures that the findings are shaped by the respondents.

Study Types

• Explanatory studies explain the causes of a phenomenon and interactions between causes.
• Exploratory studies investigate phenomena with little knowledge and generate hypotheses.
• Descriptive studies describe and document the phenomenon.
• Predictive studies predict the evolution of the phenomenon and identify causes and determinants.

Research Questions

• Factual questions ask what happened.
• Comparative questions ask if this happened everywhere.
• Developmental questions ask if this has happened over time.
• Theoretical questions ask what underlies this phenomenon.

Sociological Approaches

• Positivist sociology involves systematic observation of social behavior.
• Critical sociology focuses on the need for social change.
• Interpretive sociology aims to understand the constructed meanings of social interactions.