Schedule

THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD(S) OF SOCIOLOGY

Tuesday, September 4 

Introduction. 

Thursday, September 6

Babbie, Earl. 1992. "Theory and Research." Pp. 39-65 in The Practice of Social Research. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Pub. [hand-out]

Scientific method

Theory

Concepts and Variables

Indicators

Operationalization

Falsification

Objectivity versus Intersubjectivity

Paradigm

Induction versus Deduction

ANALYZING SOCIAL DATA 

Tuesday, September 11

Carter, "A Primer on Critical Reading." 

Explanation, Description, and Understanding

Independent Variable (X)

Dependent Variable (Y)

Intervening Variables

Relationships between variables: Positive, Negative, Linear

Validity and Reliability

Error: Random versus Systematic

Categorical variables: Nominal and Ordinal

Numerical variables: Interval and Ratio

Controlling for variables

Thursday, September 13

Note: class has been rescheduled to meet in the regular place, Blodgett Hall 105.

Carter, "A Primer on Elementary Data Analysis."

Mean, Median and Mode

Correlation Coefficient (r)

Statistical Significance

Crosstabulation

Causality

Spuriousness

Multivariate model

Intervening variable

Interaction effect

Tuesday, September 18

Meet in the library's electronic classroom (room 160, before the reserve room). Bring the Carter textbook with CD-ROM to class.

Carter, chap. 1

STUDYING SOCIAL ATTITUDES AND BEHAVIOR WITH SURVEYS 

Thursday, September 20

Student CHIP report due. 

Neuman, W. Lawrence. 2001. "Survey Research." Pp. 246-289 in Social Research Methods. 4th ed. Boston: Allyn and Bacon. [hand-out]

Survey research

Questionnaire

Interview schedule

Secondary data analysis

Closed-ended versus open-ended questions

Unit of analysis

Response rate

Index

Scale 

Recommended: View the 2000 Census (long and short form) questionnaires.

INTERVIEWING SINGLE MOTHERS ABOUT THEIR SURVIVAL STRATEGIES

Tuesday, September 25

Edin & Lein, chaps. 1-3.

Recommended

Smith, D. Clayton. 2001. "Environmentalism, Feminism, and Gender." Sociological Inquiry 71(3): 314-34. [hand-out]

View the latest data on US poverty by state and county at the US Census Bureau's Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates website. 

Thursday, September 27

Edin & Lein, chapters 4-6.

Tuesday, October 2

Edin & Lein, chapters 7-8.

Steffensmeier, Darrell, and Stephen Demuth. 2000. "Ethnicity and Sentencing Outcomes in U.S. Federal Courts: Who is Punished More Harshly?" American Sociological Review 65(5): 705-729. [hand-out]

Regression analysis

Dummy variable

SAMPLING

Thursday, October 4

Schutt, Russell K. 1996. "Sampling." Pp. 147-185 in Investigating the Social World. Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge. [hand-out]

Sample

Population

Elements

Probability vs. nonprobability sampling methods

Sampling frame

Availability sample

Snowball sample

Purposive sample

Stratified random sample

Tuesday, October 9

Midterm review: catch up on old reading. 

Thursday, October 11

Midterm.

SPRING BREAK: October 15-19

OBSERVING INFORMAL GROUPS ON THE STREET

Tuesday, October 23

Duneier, Introduction and Parts 1-3 (important: read all footnotes).

Field research

Ethnography

Inductive research

Participant observation

Reactivity

Field notes

Thursday, October 25

Duneier, Parts 4-5 and Afterword by Hakim Hasan (important: read all footnotes).

Triangulation

Control group

Tuesday, October 30

Duneier, Appendix

Hilbert, Richard A. 1980. "Covert Participant Observation." Urban Life & Culture 9(1): 51-78. [hand-out]

Covert research

Open vs. closed settings

Recommended

American Sociological Association Code of Ethics: General Principles

Thursday, November 1

Receive fieldwork assignment in class.

Film: "High School" (d. Frederick Wiseman) 

EXPLAINING OBEDIENCE USING SOCIAL EXPERIMENTS

Tuesday, November 6

Fieldwork assignment due. 

Leavitt, Fred. 2001. "Experimenting: Two Groups." Pp. 90-107 in Evaluating Scientific Research. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. [hand-out]

Experiment

Treatment

Experimental versus control group

Pretest versus posttest measures

Internal versus external validity

Posttest distortion

Hawthorne effect

Classical experiment

Solomon four group design

Posttest-only control group design

Thursday, November 8

Milgram, chaps. 1-5.

Recommended

Take the F Scale questionnaire to measure the degree to which you have an "authoritarian personality."

Tuesday, November 13

Milgram, chaps. 6-7, 10, 12-14, Epilogue, Appendix I.

Risk-benefit ratio

Thursday, November 15

No class. Go to library and find article for methodological critique and comparison paper.

Tuesday, November 20

Methodological critique and comparison paper due. 

THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY: Thursday, November 22

EXAMINING MEDIA EFFECTS WITH CONTENT ANALYSIS  

Tuesday, November 27

Berg, Bruce L. 2001. "An Introduction to Content Analysis." Pp. 238-267 in Qualitative Research Methods for the Social Sciences. Boston: Allyn and Bacon. [hand-out] 

Van den Bulck, Hilde. 2001. "Public Service Television and National Identity as a Project of Modernity: The Example of Flemish Television." Media, Culture & Society 23: 53-69. [hand-out]

Content analysis

Manifest versus latent content

Intercoder reliability

Thursday, November 29

Roscigno, Vincent J. and William F. Danaher. 2001. "Media and Mobilization: The Case of Radio and Southern Textile Worker Insurgency, 1929 to 1934." American Sociological Review 61: 21-48. [hand-out] 

Tuesday, December 4

Class cancelled: attend office hour appointments this week.

THE PRACTICAL AND MORAL VIABILITY OF SOCIAL RESEARCH 

Thursday, December 6

Reinharz, Shulamit. 1984. "The Integration of Person, Problem, and Method." Pp. 369-382 in On Becoming a Social Scientist. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Books. [hand-out]

Mills, C. Wright. 1959. "On Intellectual Craftsmanship." Pp. 195-226 in The Sociological Imagination. New York: Grove Press. [hand-out]

LAST DAY OF CLASS: Tuesday, December 11

Research proposal due.   

Receive take-home final exam.

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