Soc 254 (Spring 2001): Research Methods

Schedule

January

February

March

April

May

Wednesday, January 17

Introduction

THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD

Monday, January 22

Leavitt, chap. 1

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

Methods

Paradigm

Induction and Deduction

Falsifiability

Objectivity, Subjectivity and Intersubjectivity

Wednesday, January 24

Leavitt, chap. 5

Variables: Independent and Dependent
Validity

Reliability

Operationalization

Indicators

Triangulation

Monday, January 29

Schor, chaps. 1, 3

Leavitt, chap. 10

Recommended reading

Schor, chap. 2

Qualitative vs. quantitative variables
Categorical variables: nominal and ordinal

Numerical variables: interval and ratio

Accuracy and precision

Controlling for variables

Relationships between variables: direct, indirect, positive, negative, linear

Correlation

Causality

Wednesday, January 31

Leavitt, pp. 210-219

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]

Surprise! Elections Have Margins of Error, Too (by George Johnson, New York Times, November 19, 2000).

Sample
Scientific generalization

Null hypothesis

Type I and Type II error

Statistical significance

Monday, February 5

Exam review: no reading

Wednesday, February 7

In-class exam

SOCIOLOGICAL RESEARCH DESIGNS: SURVEYS

Monday, February 12

Leavitt, chap. 13

Fraser, James, and Michael Hodge. 2000. "Job Satisfaction in Higher Education: Examining Gender in Professional Work Settings." Sociological Inquiry 70(2): 172-187. [hand-out]

Hospitals told to treat patients' pain (CNN.com, December 25, 2000).

Wednesday, February 14

Schor, chapter 4

Recommended exercise

See what "lifestyle clusters" (cf. Schnor, pg. 32) characterize your neighborhood at the You Are Where You Live website (maintained by the Claritas marketing group).

SOCIOLOGICAL RESEARCH DESIGNS: INTENSIVE INTERVIEWING

Monday, February 19

Bruce L. Berg, "A Dramaturgical Look at Interviewing" [hand-out]

Schor, chapter 5

Recommended reading

Schor, chap. 6

Focus group
Schedule

Interviewer effects

What are the strengths and weaknesses of intensive interviewing vis-a-vis traditional survey research?

Wednesday, February 21

Laureau, Annette. 2000. "My Wife Can Tell Me Who I Know: Methodological and Conceptual Problems in Studying Fathers." Qualitative Sociology 23(4): 407-433. [hand-out]

What are the problems of using survey and interview methods when studying social facts like gender roles in the family?

FINDING A RESEARCH QUESTION

Monday, February 26

Leavitt, chaps. 2, 4

Howard Becker, "Concepts" [hand-out]

SOCIOLOGICAL RESEARCH DESIGNS: PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION

Wednesday, February 28

Duneier, Introduction, Appendix A (important: read all footnotes)

How valid and reliable is participant observation?
Why can the participant observation methodology not determine causality?

Monday, March 5

Duneier, "The Book Vendor," "The Magazine Vendors," "How Sixth Avenue Became a Sustaining Habitat," "Sidewalk Sleeping" (important: read all footnotes)

Recommended reading

Duneier, "The Men Without Accounts," "When You Gotta Go"

What dependent and independent variables does Duneier study?
How does his observations of these empirical relationships between concepts differ from the observations produced by survey research?

Wednesday, March 7

Due: part one of research proposal

Duneier, "A Christmas on Sixth Avenue," "Conclusion," "Afterword by Hakim Hasan" (important: read all footnotes)

Recommended reading

Duneier, "Talking To Women," "Accusations: Caveat Vendor?" "The Space Wars: Competing Legalities"

Are Duneier's observations objective? Valid? Reliable?

FALL BREAK: March 10-25

SOCIOLOGICAL RESEARCH DESIGNS: EXPERIMENTS

Monday, March 26

Milgram, chaps. 1-14

Leavitt, chapter 7

Randomization of subjects to groups
Experimental and control groups

Pretest and posttest measures

Do Milgram's experiments meet the characteristics of the classical experiment?

Wednesday, March 28

Milgram, chap. 15 Appendix 1-2.

Film: The Stanford Prison Experiment.

Coercion of subjects
Hawthorne effect

Do Milgram's experiments validly reproduce the dynamics of obedience found in the real world (e.g., Nazi concentration camps, the massacre at My Lai)?

Are Milgram's experiments ethically objectionable?

Monday, April 2

Duneier, "A Scene from Jane Street."

Health Business Thrives on Unproven Treatment, Leaving Science Behind (By Gina Kolata and Kurt Eichenwald, New York Times, October 2, 1999)

Field experiment
What is the independent variable that Duneier's field experiment controls for?

Wednesday, April 4

NO CLASS: DAY OFF FOR LIBRARY RESEARCH.

SAMPLING

Monday, April 9

Due: methodological critique and comparison paper

SOCIOLOGICAL RESEARCH DESIGNS: CONTENT ANALYSIS

Wednesday, April 11

Adkins-Covert, Tawnya, Denise P. Ferguson, Selene Phillips, and Philo C. Wasburn. 2000. "News in my Backyard: Media and Democracy in an 'All American' City." Sociological Quarterly 41(2): 227-244. [hand-out]