Slide 1 what is social science social science is about examinin

1. Slide 1: What is social science?
Social science is about examining how people interact with one
another using the empirical and scientific methods. Essentially,
this means that when researchers are conducting social science
research, they are conducting studies that are empirical,
meaning that they are based on experience, and scientific,
meaning that studies follow strict rules and guidelines that
ensure that it is as objective and unbiased as possible.
There are fundamental differences between natural sciences and
social sciences. Natural sciences study natural processes such as
chemistry and biology, whereas social science studies human
behaviors and societies. Essentially, social scientists ask how
and why questions about humans, behaviors, and cultures.
Despite these fundamental differences between natural sciences
and social sciences, they do share some common standards to be
considered “sciences”. Both use verifiable data that is
systematically collected and analyzed. Additionally, logical
reasoning is used to move between theory and data. The
standards of research, or the scientific method, also requires
both sciences to follow a process and series of steps in order to
make sure that research is done properly.
We must keep in mind however, that social science is a product
of where and when scientists live. Because society is constantly
shifting and cultures can define the way that humans interpret
events, we must be cognizant of how research is a product of
time and space and how it may change in the future.
Slide 2: Why do research?
There are various reasons that researchers are motivated to do
research, including influencing policy, academic inquiry, and
personal interests and motivations.
When researchers are motivated by influencing policy, they are
generally conducting research in order to assess programs and
determine their success. It is especially important for

2. criminology and criminal justice that the policies and programs
we are implementing are unbiased and effective, so this
research motivation is very valuable.
Various academic trends may also influence research.
Academic motivations are often based on what we as academics
and researchers want to learn more about or better understand.
For example, as new theories become more popular, a
researcher may be academically motivated to study their
empirical nature in order to better support or disprove said
theories.
Lastly, and individual researchers interests often motivate what
research they decide to do. Personal motivations may determine
why researchers do research if they want to improve society or
solve a personal problem. Researchers who are passionate about
gendered violence may do research on sexual assault and
domestic violence in order to improve the way that society
addresses these issues or reduce the rates of gendered violence.
Slide 3: Types of Research
There are three common types of research that will influence
the type of methodology used to perform studies. These types of
research are descriptive, exploratory, explanatory, and
evaluation research.
Descriptive research asks questions such as who, what, where,
when, and how many. It is a form of research that attempts to
define, describe, or count observed social phenomena. An
example of descriptive research may be defining property crime
and then providing data that describes and counts the rates of
different types of property crime in the United States.
Exploratory research attempts to find there meaning behind
actions and how people get along. It has the goal of answering
the question: what is going on? An example of exploratory
research may be thinking that the reason women commit petty
theft may be different than the reasons why males commit petty
theft. A researcher may conduct interviews with women and
male offenders convicted of petty theft in order to increase their
understanding of the motivations behind why said female or

3. male offenders committed their crimes.
Explanatory research seeks to identify the causes and effects
beyond social phenomenon, or predict how when phenomenon
will change or vary the response of other phenomena. An
example of explanatory research may be the implementation of
a mandatory arrest policy for police in domestic violence
situations. Explanatory research may examine how this arrest
policy effects the rates of domestic violence in a community.
Evaluation research is related to explanatory research, because
it deals with cause and effect, but it is unique due to its focus
on implementation and social policy outcomes. It seeks to
determine the effects of social programs or other types of
interventions. A form of evaluation research may be looking at
how a prison rehabilitation program is implemented and whether
or not it decreases recidivism.
Slide 4: Types of Research Methods
Most broadly, research methods are separated into quantitative
and qualitative methodologies. Quantitative methods use
numbers to describe social phenomena while qualitative
research uses written or spoken words with no direct numerical
interpretation to achieve the same goal of describing or
explaining social phenomena. Quantitative and qualitative
methods may be achieved with a variety of different methods,
but the most common are experiments, asking questions via
surveys or interviews, using participant or field observations,
and using secondary data.
Experiments are a research method that manipulates specific
variables in a controlled environment in order to observe
changes in behavior. Additionally, experiments require a group
where no manipulations occurred in order to compare their
reactions to the group that was affected.
Surveys are a research method that includes forms of questions
that can be distributed to large populations. Interviews are an
alternative method that asks populations questions face-to-face,
and is often only achievable on smaller groups of people.
Participant and field observations are a research method that

4. focuses on observing people in order to develop non-numerical
data.
Lastly, secondary data analysis is a methodology that allows
researchers to use data not gathered by the researcher that they
can manipulate or analyze in order to answer their own research
question.
Slide 5: Research Concerns
When conducting research, there are various concerns that
researchers must acknowledge when choosing the methodology
and interpreting their results. The first concern is validity, or
whether or not the measurement we are using measures what we
think it measures. For example, if we are using a scale to
measure self-control, we want to be sure that the questions
making up the scale are actually measuring self-control and not
obedience.
A second concern is generalizability, or the concern of whether
or not our conclusions hold up in different environments. The
image on this slide shows a representation of two generalization
concerns, overgeneralization and selective observation.
Overgeneralization is when a researcher bases a conclusion on
too few observations and tries to apply them to the entire
population. Alternatively, selective observation is when a
researcher puts too much focus on a specific or biased group of
people or person and uses those observations to interpret an
entire population. The best method to increase generalizability
is to study or get data from diverse individuals that are
representative of the population you are attempting to study.
The last concern is causality. Causality is the assumption that A
causes B. If researchers erroneously assume or conclude that an
event A causes event B when in reality this is not the true
relationship, they can unintentionally negatively affect their
conclusions.
Slide 7: Key Aspects of Research Methods
Before doing research, you must understand what these concepts
of theory, hypothesis, independent and dependent variables, and
operational definitions are.

5. Theories consist of interconnected sets of propositions that
show how or why something occurs. Theories cannot be proven,
but research can disprove alternatives and thus show support for
theory.
Data is any information that is recorded from an observation.
Data can be both numerical or non-numerical.
A hypothesis is an expected buy uniformed relationship among
two or more phenomena. A hypothesis is essentially an educated
guess of what will happen when a change in one variable is
related to a change in a second variable.
The independent variable in a study is a variable that is
hypothesized to cause variation in another variable whereas the
dependent variable is a variable that is hypothesized to vary
depending on the independent variable.
So for example, if we are hypothesizing that increased school
attendance results in a higher GPA, the independent variable
would be school attendance (the thing that is changing) and the
dependent variable would be GPA (the thing affected by the
changing variable).
Lastly, operationalization is the process of identifying empirical
indicators and procedures for applying them to measure a
concept, thus the operational definition is a detailed description
of the research procedures necessary to assign units of analysis
to variable categories. For example, if we were to create an
operational definition for temperature, it would be how much a
column of mercury or alcohol expands in a tube that has
increments of the temperature you are trying to measure. If that
temperature is Fahrenheit, a research would explain that the
increments on the thermometer were defined by Gabriel
Fahrenheit in 1917, with 32 degrees as the temperature at which
water freezes with any increment above or below relative to that
temperature.
Slide 8: Research Strategies
Research can be done using two methods of reasoning:
inductive and deductive.
Deductive is reasoning in which the conclusion a researcher

6. makes follows collected evidence. Inductive reasoning is when
conclusions are implied, but go beyond the evidence at hand.
The scientific method used to conduct research is going to be
affected based on whether or not a researcher uses deductive or
inductive research.
Slide 9: Deductive Research
In deductive research, questions are asked about some aspect of
crime and processes or method are used to create unbiased
research. In deductive research, a researcher starts with a pre -
established theory, and moves to a specific reality where a
hypothesis can be formulated, variables are formulated to
collect data, and specific processes are used to analyze data.
Lastly, a conclusion is drawn based on the data that supports or
does not support the hypothesis and the theory which was used
to develop the hypotheses and research questions.
The majority of quantitative is deductive. Researchers start with
a theory, such as routine activities theory which believes that
for a crime to occur, there needs to be a motivated offender,
vulnerable victim, and a lack of a guardian. Based on this
theory, a research question can be formed, such as: how long
does a house need to be vacant before it is vulnerable to
burglary? To answer this research question, a hypothesis is
created. In this case, the hypothesis could be: Victims of
burglary are more vulnerable when their homes are abandoned
for longer periods of time. Data can then be collected using
surveys to measure how long people who were burglarized were
absent prior to the burglary occurring. The conclusion of this
survey would then support or not support the theory.
Slide 10: Inductive research
Inductive research begins with a specific set of data, and
analysis of said data leads to a theory being developed. Patterns
represented within data are summarized into generalizations.
This is often part of exploratory research, and is common in
qualitative research as well. After a theory has been developed
using the inductive approach, it can then be tested using
deductive methods.

7. An example of inductive research is having a data set consisting
of pre-trial probation officer reports. These reports may include
information about the defendant’s lifestyle as well as
information provided by interviews with various members of the
defendant’s family or authority figures such as teachers.
Content analysis of these forms may display a pattern that
defendants consistently had behavior problems as a child and
often took risks. These actions may be both criminal and simply
deviant or risky in nature. After considering these forms and the
patterns that emerged, you could conclude that self-control
influences whether or not a person commits a crime. Tests can
then be developed deductively to test this theoretical
conclusion.
Slide 11: Module 1 Wrap Up
After reading the texts and listening to the lecture prepared for
this module, you should be confident in your ability in
completing the learning objectives from the unit.
In particular, you should be able to explain how social science
is empirical and what being empirical means. Social science is
empirical because it bases research off of experiences, and the
methods researchers use to study these experiences is scientific
in order to reduce biases and increase objectivity. Researchers
should always consider the scientific method and their research
methodologies in order to reduce the issues of bias they may
encounter throughout the research process.
The four types of research are descriptive, exploratory,
explanatory, and evaluation. Due to the differences in goals that
these types of research have, different methods of research may
be more appropriate for each type of research.
You should be able to define and identify the various key
aspects of research methods including theory, data, hypotheses,
independent and dependent variables, and operational
definitions. Your first assignment which will be due at the end
of this module, will require you to apply these various aspects
of research methodology when developing your own research
question and project for the semester. If you have any questions

8. or concerns regarding these terms, please ask your professor for
further explanations and examples.
Lastly, you should be able to differentiate between inductive
and deductive research and apply when using these two methods
is most appropriate for the type of research being conducted.
For example, when conducti ng exploratory research, inductive
reasoning may be more appropriate, but when conducting
explanatory or evaluation research, deductive methods may be a
better fit.