Spring, 2015 (Roos, Soc. 311)
Study Guide: Exam #2 (Date: Thursday, April 2nd)
NOTE: These questions are broad study questions only; the actual test questions will be
more specific. The second exam will focus on the material discussed since the last test
Visual Sociology&Ethics
Feb 9, 2016
Methodology:
The scientific method includes selecting a researchable problem, reviewing the
literature, formulating a hypothesis, creating an operational definition, choosing a
research design, collecting the data, anal
Logic of Causation
Cause and effect
Determinism vs. free will
Explanation:
Answering the WHY Q
Causality
Bivariate relationship (2 variables)
X
Y
(Cause)
(Effect)
Independent
variable
Dependent
variable
Causality
Multivariate relationship
(3+ variables
Spring, 2015 (Roos, Soc. 311)
Study Guide: Exam #1 (Date: Thursday, February 26th)
[Don't be late, this test will likely take the full time available to you!]
NOTE: These are broad study questions only; the actual test questions will be more
specific. Som
Survey Research and
Sampling Theory
Survey research: relies primarily on
probability sampling
Uses findings from a smaller sample to
generalize to a larger target population
Focus on sampling theory
Sampling Theory
Descriptive: describing attributes of
Measures of variability
Measures of central tendency: typical or
average value for a sample or population
Can be misleading
How values distributed?
Measures of variability
How much variability is there, in a sample,
or in a population?
Crude measure:
Traditional model of science
Ideas/interests
Theory
Theoretical understandings
Hypotheses
Method
Test using data
Traditional model of science:
Definitions
Theory: proposition to explain social regularity
Hypothesis: expectation derived from theory
Method:
Prof: Patricia A. Roos
TA: Tsai-Yen Han
Contact Info:
Roos: [email protected]
Han: [email protected]
Sakai website:
sakai.rutgers.edu
Remember:
Next class: Monday
Read through syllabus
Recitations start next Monday!
Make sure youre on our roster!
Beg
Basic Concepts
Purpose of Science:
exploration, description, explanation
Attributes:
descriptive characteristics
Variables:
logical groupings of attributes
Association
X
Y
Causality
X
Y
Positive association
(hypothetical)
Percentage Supporting Abortion, b
Logic of Causation
Cause and effect
Determinism vs. free will
Explanation:
Answering the WHY Q
Causality
Bivariate relationship (2 variables)
X
Y
(Cause)
(Effect)
Independent
variable
Dependent
variable
Causality
Multivariate relationship
(3+ variables
Ethics and Politics
of Social Research
We study . . . . .
-not atoms
-not black holes
-not cells
-but people!
3 components
Ethics of research and
researcher
Politics of research and
researcher
Political uses of social research,
by original researchers or
Chi square test of independence
Eyeball differences between
percentages: big enough to be
important?
Better: Are differences in percentages
statistically significant?
Statistical significance: are observed
differences significantly different from
zero
Classical Experiments
Most clear-cut example of how data are
collected and used to test hypotheses
Closest thing social scientists have to the
labs of physical scientists
Best for small-group research
The Marshmallow Experiment:
Basic Research Applied
Durkheim
- April 15, 1858 November 15, 1917
- French sociologist one of the
founders
of
Western
modern
sociology.
- was born into a French Jewish family,
his father, grandfather, and greatgrandfather had been rabbis.
- He became professor in Germany
since
Theory and Social Research
Feb 2, 2016
Social / Sociological Theory
- explain or answer why the social world has certain
patterns, observations, or events.
- a perspective on a certain phenomenon.
- basic assumptions on human nature and how society
functi
What is social research?
Research is a way to find answers to questions.
Do you agree? Why/why not?
What are the other ways?
Authority
Tradition
Common sense
Media distortion
Personal experience (?)
Authority
When you accept something is true because
some
More on reading and reviewing
February 18, 2016
How to read an article?
Organize Your notes
- Read the abstract first and skim the article. Is it relevant to your
question, your topic?
If yes-continue on other steps.
If no-keep searching for new readings.
Research Ethics
Feb 11, 2016
Case study
Kate is a graduate student in Professor Brigg's lab. She
started a project examining the effects of certain video games
in children during her first year of graduate school. She
knows that some of the funding for he
Introduction to Social
Research
F.Dilara Demir,
Jan 21, 2016
What is social research?
- It is a process in which we combine principles, outlooks,
ideas (methodologies), with a collection of specific
practices, techniques and strategies.
- It requires pers
Field Research
Observing
social
behavior
Field Research
DOs:
DONTS:
Source:
http:/wickedmoon.com/cards/explodingd
og/stuckin.gif
Field Research
When rules dont apply:
Field Research
Mode of data collection
Observe social behavior in natural setting
Unders
Content analysis
Karen Cerulo. 1995. "Designs on
the White House: TV Ads, Message
Structure, and Election Outcome."
Research in Political Sociology
7:63-88
Karen Cerulo: theory
How do presidential campaign ads
influence the electorate?
Ads are purposive
Operationalization:
developing indicators
Operationalization:
process of developing operational indicators (actual
measurement)
Responses to questions:
must be exhaustive (exhaust every possible response)
must be mutually exclusive (responses must not ove
Measures of central tendency
Used for interval or ordinal data
average or typical value
3 averages: arithmetic mean, median,
mode
Sometimes equal, sometimes not
Arithmetic mean
Assume 10 students have the following
academic year earnings
$7,000
$4,00
For my research project I will be studying the effects on income by age as well as education. The initial research question asks: what is the effect that age has on the respondents income? The reader should be interested to know whether or not a pers
Without a real hypothesis it is difficult to make an assumption about the validity of our research, but we can get a general idea of the measurement validity of our study. Researching alcohol advertisements has good face validity because it directly
Topic: Alcohol advertisements in men's and women's magazines Specific Unit of Analysis: Men's and women's magazines Variable: Type of alcohol advertisement (beer or liquor/wine) Conceptualization: Beer and wine advertisements depict their product cle
Topic: alcohol advertisements Specific Unit of Analysis: men's and women's magazines To gather data for this project our group will have to find archives for several different magazines, dating back about one or two years. Our variables are very stra
Our project began with finding alcohol advertisements in various magazines. In the magazines that had alcohol ads we needed to count the pages in order to determine the first variable which was the location of the advertisement in the magazine, first
