This document discusses key concepts in social research methods. It defines concepts as the highest level of generality used to study a topic. Variables are logical groupings of attributes that are measured, such as levels of academic, social, and psychological adjustment in students. The attributes that make up a variable can be examined to look for relationships between variables or to explore causal relationships where one variable causes changes in another. Research can be descriptive, exploratory, explanatory, or evaluative. Qualitative and quantitative approaches differ in that qualitative focuses on micro-level interactions through techniques like observation and interviews, while quantitative examines macro-level patterns through surveys and databases.

2. Concepts
• Highest level of generality
• “A formal definition of what is being studied.”
• “The mental images we use to bring order to the mass of” things in
the social world
• Examples:
• Adjustment to college (academic, social, and psychological adjustment)
• Collective efficacy: social cohesion/trust & informal social control…..

3. What is a variable?
• Variables
• Logical groupings of attributes.

4. What is a variable?
• Example: To measure adjustment, you can think of questions such
as the following:
• Academic: Are you doing in your work? Are you attending your
classes?
Social: Have you made any friends? What degree of social life do
you have?

5. • 3. Attributes The categories of a variable
• Example: The attributes of the variable,
religion….

6. Making an argument
• Relationship between two or variables
• Example: Is low voter turnout explained by
the educational levels of the population?
– Do you buy the relationship exists?
– How will you support your case?

7. Statistic
• Categories of one VAR are related to
the categories of another

8. Causal
• 0ne variable is the cause, and the other
variable is the effect.

9. Causal
• Causal variable -- independent variable
• "effect" variable --dependent variable.
– The dependent variable (attitude or behavior)
– The independent variable (age, income,
race..)

10. Causal relationship
• differences in one VAR explain differences in the
other VAR
10

11. Four types of social research
• Descriptive Research: research that defines and describes
social phenomena
• Example: Shows frequencies (how many are doing something)
• Focus is on describing some phenomenon…..

12. Four types of social research
• Exploratory Research: investigation of social phenomena
without expectations
• Meanings
– actions and issues.
• Large amounts (unstructured information)
• New direction of inquiry

13. Four types of social research
• Explanatory Research
• research that identifies causes and effects of social phenomena
• Goal: predict how one thing will change when another.

14. Four types of social research
Evaluation Research: research that determines
the effects of a social program or other type of
intervention. How effect is a particular program?
–Is our smoking prevention program working?
–Is our needle exchange program working?

15. Two Traditions
• Qualitative • Quantitative
– Microsociology – Macrosociology
– Study of everyday life – Study of large-scale
– Acknowledges patterns
subjectivity of research – Assumes research
– Methods: objectivity
• Observation – Methods:
• Interviews • Surveys
• Visual analysis • Scales
• Databases

16. Two Traditions
• Quantitative
– Relationships between
variable
– Gender and income

17. Qualitative Approach
Issue or
Setting
Representation
Observations
and/or
Researcher Analysis and Interviews
Interpretation Images or Documents
Review of the Literature
(theories) Data Collection
Fieldnotes, interview
transcripts

18. Qualitative
• interactions, behaviors, and attitudes
– narrative representations

19. Qualitative
• Researcher does the analysis through
careful, ongoing “readings” of data

20. Value of Qualitative Research
• Debated within discipline for decades
• “legitimacy” as a science

21. A Striking Difference
• Qualitative researchers: enter a setting (the
field) and spend significant amounts of time
(often years) interviewing and observing.
– They are known by their subjects and come to know
their subjects well.
• Quantitative researchers: don’t meet their
subjects. Data is often collected through other
organizations (e.g., U.S. Census) or through
mail surveys.

22. Research Design and theory
• Quant: Theory -> hypothesis -> DATA
(deductive)
• Qual: Data – Take findings and then link to
theory (inductive)