INTRODUCTION TO THE SOCIAL SCIENCES

Social Sciences and Inquiry Text reference: Chapter 2

What would you do?

Poll Everywhere Questions…

Snowball

Altruism: Behaviour intended to help others and done without any expectation of personal benefit

Explain whether or not you believe that altruism exists?

What would you do?

Kitty Genovese

Landmark in social science research

Personal ExperienceWe learn from experience –often the hard way!

Tradition“Everyone knows” it to be true- we accept what has always been believed

AuthorityExperts tell us that something is true.

ReligionWe accept the truths that religious officials/ theology provides

ScienceControlled, systematic observation- all statements are tested and open to public inspection

Page 36 in your text

Q: What difficulties are present when using the first 4 ways of knowing together information?

It’s hard to resolve disagreements when people have different experiences, different religious view

Q: How do scientists resolve such conflicts?

Empirical approach- direct systematic observationProcedures are organized public and recognized by other scientistsSelf-correction – hypotheses- truth changes over time with changes in evidenceObjective- try to ensure biases and values do not affect research

Example: Altruism

How could a social scientist determine if altruism exists?

Brainstorm

Descriptive Studies & Explanatory Studies

Descriptive studies attempt to describe social reality or provide facts about a group, practice or event. What is happening to whom, where and when?

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Altruism: What percentage of people wouldreturn a lost wallet?

Explanatory Studies attempt to explain relationships and provide information on why certain events do or do not occur.Page 39

Altruism: Why do some countries rely uponvoluntary blood donations while othershave to offer incentives?

Descriptive Studies & Explanatory Studies

Inductive vs Deductive Approaches

Deductive: start with a theory and use research to test the theory (pg 39)

1)Start with a question ie: Why do people help each other?

2)Formulate a theory about the causes of altruism

3)Test the theory

Inductive vs Deductive Approaches

Inductive: collect data (facts/evidence) and then generate the theories (Pg 39 )

1) Collect/ analyze data related to helping behaviour ( altruism)

2) Generate a tentative theory

THEORIES

HYPOTHESIS

OBSERVATIONS

GENERALIZATIONS

DEDUCTIVE SCIENCE

INDUCTIVE SCIENCE

The Theory &

Research Cycle

RESEARCH METHODS

Quantitative Research Methods

The goal is scientific objectivity and the focus is on data that can be measured numerically

Deals with a large number of cases

Follows specific procedures and steps to gather and analyze data

RESEARCH METHODS

Qualitative Research Methods

Words are used rather than statistics to analyze meanings and patterns in social relationships

Deals with a smaller number of cases

Provides a more detailed picture of a social phenomenon or problem

The Quantitative Research Model

Identify a problem

Develop a hypothesis

Develop the research design

Gather data

Analyze data

Draw conclusions and report the findings

Is there a relationship between having a part time job and resulting grades in school?

Stop and Think!

Work with a partner.Apply the research method and design a study! How would you approach this

problem

So…how did you do?

What are the 6 steps in the Quantitative approach?

 

How could you determine if in fact there is a relationship? What are the possible research designs that might be effective?

Similar steps to quantitative model in that you have a question, collect and analyse data and report findings

The Qualitative Research Model

The Qualitative Research Model

Distinctions:The researcher begins with a general approach rather than a highly detailed planUsually provides a detailed view with a smaller number of cases and many variablesConducted in natural settingsIs more likely to involve concerns, interests and perspectives of the participants themselves

Ways to Gather Data

1) Observation

Natural (essentially “people watching”, park bench, bar…)

Participant (Inside a Glasgow gang)

Observation (continued)

Structured (compare data sets such as age, gender)

Unstructured (behaviours, attitudes, ideas- no preconceived notions)

Observation (continued)

“Hawthorne Effect”-when subjects perform differently because they know they are being watched

Formal term is “reactivity”

2) Experiment

Cause-effect relationships-control group to test against experimental group

One factor is related to another

Ex: Does watching violent TV increase aggression in children?

2) Experiment

The control group does not watch violent TV

The experimental group is exposed to the independent variable or experimental condition, to study the effect it has on them.

Terms to remember…Variable- any concept with measurable traits that can change or vary from one person, time situation or society to anotherIndependent variable- causes or determines the dependent variable(race, gender, age, ethnicity)Dependent variable- depends upon or is cause by the independent variable

(Can be known as the outcome or effect- ex: women are more likely to be altruistic- the degree of altruism is dependent upon gender)

Experiment (continued)

Example for Altruism

Latane and Darley (1970)

pg 45 in your text

Proximity of others decreases the chance that you will help another

Relates back to the tragedy of Kitty Genovese

Example: Obedience to Authority

What happened if one person was given direct orders to hurt another human being?

Famous experiment conducted by Stanley Milgram

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Experiment (continued)

3) Case Studies

An in-depth investigation of an event, person or social grouping

Repeated observations over a period of time (Queue Culture in Australia)

Most participant observation relies upon case studies

Example for Altruism: Red River Floods

Page 56 in text

4) Surveys

random sample (subjects chosen by chance from population)-representative sample (subjects have essential characteristics of large population)-usually in question format (Gallop poll, census)Example for Altruism: Blood donation

5) Interviews detailed information Open ended

6) Historical Analysis

changing patterns over a period of time

diaries, journals, media, pictures, census data

Association or relationship between events/variables

Spearman’s Rank Correlation Coefficient

7) Correlational Study

Group Work: Research Methods

List of HypothesesRising unemployment has led to more children living in poverty. Increasing stress in daily life has led to more crime.Younger teenagers are heavier smokers than older teenagers.Students who do well in high school are more successful in later life.Females are better than males at picking up non-verbal communication.

Decide which method is most useful and why?

Group Work: Research Methods

List of Hypotheses: For each decide which method is most useful and explain why.

1) Rising unemployment has led to more children living in poverty.

2) Increasing stress in daily life has led to more crime.

3) Younger teenagers are heavier smokers than older teenagers.

4) Students who do well in high school are more successful in later life.

5) Females are better than males at picking up non-verbal communication.

Group work

With a partner consider each of themethods of gathering data that werecovered today.

For each suggest advantages anddisadvantages that would be faced bythat a sociologist using the researchmethod in question.

Forming Generalizations

-make sure the data is relevant

-organize the data, create charts, calculate percentages (median, frequency distribution)

-make conclusions (accept or reject hypothesis)

* beware of biases!!! (culture, geography, personal, gender)

Terms to remember…

Reliability- consistency in results

Validity- the accurate measurement of what is being measured

Analysis- the process by which data is organized so comparisons can be made and conclusions drawn

Replication-the repetition of the investigation in the same way as it was originally conducted