What is Science?

Book # 1

What are the Ways of Knowing?

• Experience

• Authority

• Tradition

• Intuition

Try These Questions

Answer the Following True/False• 1. Lower class youths are more likely to commit crimes than

middle class youths

• 2. Revolutions are more likely to occur when conditions remain very bad than when very bad conditions are improving.

• 3. The more people polled, the more accurate the assessment of public opinion

• 4. The income gap between men and women has narrowed in recent year

• 5. Husbands are more likely to kill their wives in family fights

than wives are to kill their husbands

Events Concepts

HypothesesVerification

Operational DefinitionsReplication

Paradigm of Science

Science is an Iterative Process?

There is a pattern to the universe - Reliability

We are accurately measuring that pattern - Validity

These patterns are causally connected – Cause/Effect

Knowledge is superior to ignorance

Assumptions of Science

There is a pattern to the universe - Reliability

Assumptions of Science

Click here to see more about matters such as the golden proportion - phi

Assumptions of Science

These patterns are causally connected – Cause/Effect

L.A. Times 8-26-03

Where Does Research Come From?

I. Personal Characteristics and Interests

II. Intellectual Socialization

III. Institutional / Market Forces

•Humphreys - The Tea Room Trade

•Becker - "On Becoming a Marijuana Smoker"

•Macro approaches - Functionalism vs. Conflict Theory (Structural Variables)

•Micro approaches - Symbolic Interaction vs. Exchange (Interpersonal Variables)

•Grants vs. Contracts (20% - 80%) •Public vs. Private (esp. the 1986 Tax Reform Act)

The Basic Steps in Research

1. Determine the Event of Interest – the Dependent Concept

2. Ask the Question – Developing the Independent Concept

3. Research the Literature

a. Find the Purpose (Explore, Explain or Predict)b. Understand the Time Frame (Cross-sectional vs. Longitudinal)c. State the Unit of Analysis (Macro vs. Micro)

a. Determine the Sequence (Antecedent vs. Intervening)b. Developing the Causal System (Deductive vs. Inductive)

a. Journals (e.g. Infotrac or JStor) b. Periodicals (e.g. Lexus-Nexus) c. Books (e.g. Suncat or Melvyl)d. The Web (e.g. Yahoo or Google)e. Data Archives (e.g. The Census or ICPSR)