Sociology: A Brief Introduction 14e PDF

Because learning changes everything. ® Sociology: A Brief Introduction 14e Richard T. Schaefer Copyright 2022 © McGraw Hill LLC. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw Hill LLC. ...

Because learning changes everything. ® Sociology: A Brief Introduction 14e Richard T. Schaefer Copyright 2022 © McGraw Hill LLC. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw Hill LLC.  Because learning changes everything. ® Chapter 2 Sociological Research Copyright 2022 © McGraw Hill LLC. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw Hill LLC.  Inside What Is the Scientific Method? Major Research Designs Ethics of Research Feminist Methodology Queer Theory and Methodology The Data-Rich Future Social Policy and Sociological Research: Studying Human Sexuality Using Statistics and Graphs Writing a Research Report © McGraw Hill LLC 3  A Look Ahead Questions addressed in this chapter include: How do sociologists go about setting up a research project? How do sociologists ensure that the results of the research are reliable and accurate? Can sociologists carry out their research without violating the rights of those they study? © McGraw Hill LLC 4  What Is the Scientific Method? Scientific method: a systematic, organized series of steps that ensures maximum objectivity and consistency in researching a problem. Five basic steps of the scientific method: 1. Defining the problem. 2. Reviewing the literature. 3. Formulating the hypothesis. 4. Selecting the research design and then collecting and analyzing data. 5. Developing the conclusion. © McGraw Hill LLC 5  FIGURE 2-1: THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD The scientific method allows sociologists to objectively and logically evaluate the data they collect. Their findings can suggest ideas for further sociological research. Access the text alternative for slide image © McGraw Hill LLC 6  Defining the Problem The first step in a research project is to define the problem as clearly as possible. Operational definition: an explanation of an abstract concept that is specific enough to allow a researcher to assess the concept. For example, for research purposes education could be defined as the number of years of schooling a person has achieved, and earnings as the income a person reports having received in the past year. © McGraw Hill LLC 7  Reviewing the Literature A review of the literature involves examining the relevant scholarly studies and information. This allows researchers to: Refine the problem under study. Clarify possible techniques to be used in data collection. Eliminate or reduce avoidable mistakes. © McGraw Hill LLC 8  Formulating the Hypothesis 1 Hypothesis: a speculative statement about the relationship between two or more factors known as variables. Variable: a measurable trait or characteristic subject to change under different conditions. Independent variable: the variable hypothesized to cause or influence another. Dependent variable: the variable whose action depends on the influence of the independent variable. © McGraw Hill LLC 9  Formulating the Hypothesis 2 Causal logic: involves the relationship between a condition or variable and a particular consequence, with one leading to the other. Correlation: exists when a change in one variable coincides with a change in the other. Correlation does not necessarily indicate causation. Sociologists seek to identify the causal link between variables. © McGraw Hill LLC 10  Collecting and Analyzing Data 1 Sample: a selection from a larger population that is statistically representative of that population. Random sample: when every member of an entire population being studied has the same chance of being selected. Snowball or convenience samples: participants are recruited through word of mouth or by posting notices on the Internet. © McGraw Hill LLC 11  Collecting and Analyzing Data 2 The scientific method requires that research results be both valid and reliable. Validity: the degree to which a measure or scale truly reflects the phenomenon being studied. Reliability: refers to the extent to which a measure produces consistent results. © McGraw Hill LLC 12  Developing the Conclusion The conclusion of a research study represents an end and a beginning. Additional research questions or ideas should be generated from a study’s conclusions. Sociological studies do not always generate data that support the original hypothesis. Control variable: a factor held constant in order to test the relative impact of an independent variable. © McGraw Hill LLC 13  In Summary: The Scientific Method 1. Defining the problem. 2. Reviewing the literature. 3. Formulating a hypothesis. 4. Collecting and analyzing data. 5. Developing the conclusion. © McGraw Hill LLC 14  The Scientific Method: An Example Problem: Does it pay to get a higher educational degree? Operational definitions for education and earnings. Literature review: other studies of the relationship between education and income are reviewed (Figure 2-2). Hypothesis: the higher one’s educational degree, the more money one will earn (Figure 2-3). Data collection and analysis: the sample is determined to be representative, and the data are valid and reliable. Conclusion: the data do support our hypothesis (Figure 2-4). © McGraw Hill LLC 15  FIGURE 2-2: EDUCATIONAL LEVEL AND HOUSEHOLD INCOME IN THE UNITED STATES Note: Incomes declined following the coronavirus pandemic affecting data such as these. However the relative relationship between states has not changed. Median percentage for the entire nation of those 25 years of age and over completing college was 32.6 percent in 2018 and the national household median income was $61,927. © McGraw Hill LLC Source: American Community Survey. 2019a. 16  FIGURE 2-3 CAUSAL LOGIC In causal logic, an independent variable (often designated by the symbol x) influences a dependent variable (often designated as y); thus, x leads to y. For example, parents who attend church regularly (x) are more likely to have children who are churchgoers (y). Notice that the first two pairs of variables are taken from studies already described in this textbook. Access the text alternative for slide image © McGraw Hill LLC Mark Dierker/McGraw-Hill Education 17  FIGURE 2-4 IMPACT OF A COLLEGE EDUCATION ON INCOME Eighteen percent of people with a high school diploma or less (left) earn under $25,000 per year, while only 25 percent earn $60,000 or more. In contrast, only 5 percent of those with an associate’s degree or higher (right) earn less than $25,000, while 58 percent earn $60,000 or more. Access the text alternative for slide image © McGraw Hill LLC Source: Author’s analysis of Census data in Semega et al. 2019:PINC-03. Photo: Rob Bartee/Alamy Stock Photo 18  Major Research Designs Research design: a detailed plan or method for obtaining data scientifically. Selection is often based on the theories and hypotheses the researcher starts with. Types of research designs: Surveys. Ethnography. Experiments. Existing sources. © McGraw Hill LLC 19  Surveys 1 Survey: a study, generally an interview or questionnaire, that provides sociologists with information about how people think and act. Interview: a researcher obtains information through face-to- face, phone, or online questioning. Questionnaire: a researcher uses a printed or written form to obtain information from a respondent. © McGraw Hill LLC 20  Surveys 2 Survey questions must be worded carefully. Researchers must pay attention to changes in society. For example, relationship questions in the Census must now take into consideration the possibility of same-sex partners. Surveys are an example of quantitative research. © McGraw Hill LLC 21  Our Wired World 2-1 Surveying Cell Phone Users: Are you a cell phone–only user? If so, do you generally accept calls from unknown numbers? Aside from underestimating certain health problems and distorting the degree of support for certain politicians, what other problems might result from excluding cell phone–only users from survey research? Apply what you have just learned to the task of surveying Internet users. Which of the problems that arise during telephone surveys might also arise during Internet surveys? Might Internet surveys involve some unique problems? © McGraw Hill LLC 22  Surveys 3 Quantitative research: research that collects and reports data primarily in numerical form. Qualitative research: research that relies on what is seen in field and naturalistic settings and often focuses on small groups and communities rather than on large groups or whole nations. © McGraw Hill LLC 23  Ethnography 1 Ethnography: the study of an entire social setting through extended systematic fieldwork. Observation: direct participation in closely watching a group or organization—the basic technique of ethnography. Ethnographic research also includes the collection of historical information and in-person interviews. Participant observation: a method in which a sociologist joins a group for a period to get an accurate sense of how it operates. © McGraw Hill LLC 24  Ethnography 2 Ethnographic research poses complex challenges. Sociologists must be able to fully understand what they are observing. Researchers must also try to stay detached from the group being studied. © McGraw Hill LLC 25  Research Today 2-2 Visual Sociology: Visual sociology: the use of photographs, film, and video to study society. Applied sociology: the use of the discipline of sociology to yield practical applications for human behavior and organizations. Choose an image or series of images from reality TV or social media and discuss it from a sociological perspective. What can you learn from it? What sociological concepts can you relate to it? Might some images be misinterpreted by researchers? Give an example. How might scholars guard against such misinterpretation? © McGraw Hill LLC 26  Experiments Experiment: an artificially created situation that allows a researcher to manipulate variables. Experimental group: the group of experimental subjects exposed to an independent variable. Control group: the group that is not exposed to the independent variable. Hawthorne effect: the unintended influence that observers of experiments can have on their subjects. © McGraw Hill LLC 27  Use of Existing Sources 1 Secondary analysis: a variety of research techniques that make use of previously collected and publicly accessible information and data. Considered to be nonreactive—that is, it does not influence people’s behavior. Data collected by others may not be exactly what the researcher needs. Census data, crime statistics, and statistics on births, deaths, marriages, divorces, and health are the most frequently used sources. © McGraw Hill LLC 28  Use of Existing Sources 2 Content analysis: the systematic coding and objective recording of data, guided by some rationale. Researchers may study documents such as newspapers, periodicals, radio and television tapes, the Internet, scripts, diaries, songs, folklore, and legal papers. © McGraw Hill LLC 29  TABLE 2-3 MAJOR RESEARCH DESIGNS Method Examples Advantages Limitations Survey Questionnaires; Yields information Can be expensive Interviews about specific issues and time-consuming Ethnography Observation Yields detailed Involves months Table divided into four columns summarizesinformation about four if not years, major research of labor- designs. specific groups or intensive data The column headers are marked fromorganizations left to right as: Method, examples, advantages, Experiment and limitations. Deliberate Yields direct Ethical limitations on manipulation of measures of people’s the degree to which people’s social behavior subjects’ behavior behavior can be manipulated Existing sources/ Analysis of census or Cost-efficiency Limited to data Secondary analysis health data collected for some other purpose © McGraw Hill LLC 30  Ethics of Research Code of ethics: the standards of acceptable behavior developed by and for members of a profession. Code of Ethics of the American Sociology Association (ASA): Maintain objectivity and integrity in research. Respect the subject’s right to privacy and dignity. Protect subjects from personal harm. Preserve confidentiality. Seek informed consent when data are collected from research participants or when behavior occurs in a private context. Acknowledge research collaboration and assistance. Disclose all sources of financial support. © McGraw Hill LLC 31  Confidentiality Confidentiality involves keeping information secret. Rik Scarce case: Scarce was conducting research on environmental protesters. He was jailed in 1993 for refusing to answer questions to a grand jury about an animal rights activist raid on a university research laboratory. He spent 159 days in jail. The ASA supported Scarce’s position. © McGraw Hill LLC 32  Conflict of Interest Accepting funds from a private organization or even a government agency that stands to benefit from a study’s results can call into question a researcher’s objectivity and integrity. Exxon Corporation’s research on jury verdicts: A federal jury had ordered Exxon to pay $5.3 billion in damages for the Valdez accident. The company approached legal scholars, sociologists, and psychologists to study jury deliberations to develop evidence for an appeal. Scholars who accepted funding were questioned about the possible conflict of interest. © McGraw Hill LLC 33  Value Neutrality Value neutrality: Max Weber’s term for the objectivity of sociologists in the interpretation of data. Investigators have an ethical obligation to accept research findings even when the data run counter to their personal views, to theoretically based explanations, or to widely accepted beliefs. Sociologists can have personal opinions; but they must overcome any biases when analyzing their research. © McGraw Hill LLC 34  Feminist Methodology The feminist perspective has had a great impact on the current generation of social researchers. See work and family as closely integrated. Recently interested in victimization and self-injury. Impact on global research. Tend to involve and consult subjects more. More oriented toward social change, raising the public consciousness, and influencing policy. More open to a multidisciplinary approach. © McGraw Hill LLC 35  Queer Theory and Methodology Exponents of queer theory ask whether researchers consider gays and lesbians in their studies or assume any generalizations they make apply to all people. For example, how might being gay influence a person’s behavior, beyond sexual activity? Most research underreports the proportion of gays and lesbians in the population and the percentage of people holding anti-gay views. The National Bureau of Economic Research recommends a “veiled reporting” technique, asking respondents whether they consider themselves to be heterosexual in the context of other much less sensitive questions. © McGraw Hill LLC 36  The Data-Rich Future Massive increases in available data allow sociologists to undertake new research. Big data enabled a large-scale evaluation of programs to help children of people in prison or jail. The hypothesis was that social intervention would reduce problem behaviors. The data showed that children who were mentored had more problems than a similar group who were not. The data did not reveal a simple causal effect. © McGraw Hill LLC 37  Social Policy and Sociological Research: Studying Human Sexuality 1 Looking at the Issue: In this age of devastating sexually transmitted diseases, there is no time more important to increase our scientific understanding of human sexuality. It is a difficult topic to research. Privacy concerns. Preconceptions, myths, and beliefs people bring to the subject. Opposition to research on human sexuality. © McGraw Hill LLC 38  Social Policy and Sociological Research: Studying Human Sexuality 2 Applying Sociology: Sociologists have little reliable national data on patterns of sexual behavior in the United States. Sensitive subject. Until AIDS emerged, there was little scientific demand. The federal government has become the major source of funding for sociological research. According to Max Weber’s ideal of value neutrality, sociologists must remain free to reveal information that is embarrassing to or supportive of government institutions. © McGraw Hill LLC 39  Social Policy and Sociological Research: Studying Human Sexuality 3 Initiating Policy: Sociologists developed the National Health and Social Life Survey (NHSLS) to better understand the sexual practices of adults in the United States. Because the U.S. Senate forbade federal funding for surveys of adults’ sexual health practices in 1991, the study relies on private funding. NHSLS data allow interest groups to better address public policy issues. Moreover, the findings help counter some erroneous commonsense notions. © McGraw Hill LLC 40  FIGURE 2-5 WOMEN MORE SEXUALIZED THAN MEN IN TOP FILMS OF 2017 As a study released in 2018 reveals, it is women rather than men who are disproportionately sexualized. Note: Based on analysis of 100 top-grossing movies of 2017. Access the text alternative for slide image © McGraw Hill LLC Source: Smith, Stacy L., et al. 2018. 41  FIGURE 2-6 MEDIAN AGE OF FIRST SEX Scholars around the world are now studying human sexual behavior. Access the text alternative for slide image © McGraw Hill LLC Source: Durex 2013. Flags: admin_design/Shutterstock 42  Taking Sociology to Work Dave Eberbach, Associate Director, Iowa Institute for Community Alliances: Do you know what you want to be doing 10 years from now? If so, how might a knowledge of statistics help you in your future occupation? What kinds of statistics, specifically, might you find in the Human Service Planning Alliance’s data warehouse? Where would they come from? © McGraw Hill LLC 43  Using Statistics and Graphs 1 Percentage: a portion of 100. Mean: average; the sum of a series of values divided by the number of values. Mode: the single most common value in a series of values Median: the midpoint that divides a series of values into two groups with equal numbers of values. © McGraw Hill LLC 44  Using Statistics and Graphs 2 Tables and figures allow social scientists to display data and make it easier to develop conclusions. Cross-tabulation: shows the relationship between two or more variables. Graphs are often easier for the public to understand. © McGraw Hill LLC 45  FIGURE 2-7 CHANGING ATTITUDES TOWARD THE LEGALIZATION OF MARIJUANA A quick look at the results of 20 national surveys shows that support for legalization of marijuana has increased, to the point that the most recent survey shows almost majority support for legalization. Source: McCarthy, Justin. ‘’Two in Three Americans Now Support Legalizing Marijuana.’’ Gallup, October 22, 2018. © McGraw Hill LLC https://news.gallup.com/poll/243908/two-three-americans-support-legalizing-marijuana.aspx. 46  FIGURE 2-8 PEOPLE WHO FAVOR LEGALIZATION OF MARIJUANA BY POLITICAL AFFILIATION AND AGE When the cross-tabulation is presented graphically, we can quickly see that older people are less likely to favor the legalization of marijuana than younger people, and that Republicans are less supportive of legalization than Democrats. Access the text alternative for slide image © McGraw Hill LLC Source: McCarthy 2018. 47  Writing a Research Report 1 The following steps will be helpful in finding information: Check your textbooks. Use the library’s online catalog. Investigate using computerized periodical indexes. Examine government documents. Ask people, organizations, and agencies concerned with the topic for information and assistance. Consult the instructor or the reference librarian. Be extremely careful in using the Internet to do research. Much of the information is incorrect. © McGraw Hill LLC 48  Writing a Research Report 2 Once you have completed your research, you can begin writing the report. Some tips: Focus your topic. Develop an outline. Begin with a draft; let it sit a few days; then begin revisions. Read your paper aloud. Remember that you must cite all references. © McGraw Hill LLC 49  End of Main Content Because learning changes everything. ® www.mheducation.com Copyright 2022 © McGraw Hill LLC. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw Hill LLC.