This document discusses social research methods and key concepts in social science research. It covers topics like hypothesis, correlation vs causation, independent and dependent variables, reliability and validity, and the role of smartphones in modern society. Specifically, it provides definitions and examples of key research terms like hypothesis, correlation, causation, independent and dependent variables. It also examines how smartphones have replaced other devices and become integral to communication and data collection in today's world.

1. A NEW WAY TO THINK
SOCIAL FACTS
Social Problems

2. {
Research Methods
Quantitative, qualitative and critical thinking

3. Keeping it real.
http://www.ted.com/talks/ben_goldacre_battling_bad_science.html
RESEARCH

4. Where to begin?

5. Hypothesis:
a proposed explanation to a phenomenon
A hypothesis is an assumption made from your own
knowledge or common sense.

6. Correlation refers to a relationship between two (or more) variables in which
they change together.
A positive correlation means that as one variable increases(e.g., ice cream consumption) the
other variable also increases (e.g., crime).
A negative correlation is just the opposite; as one variable increases (e.g., socioeconomic
status), the other variable decreases (e.g., infant mortality rates).
What is correlation?

7. Yes…there is a correlation.

8. Causation refers to a relationship between two (or more) variables where one variable causes
the other. In order for a variable to cause another, it must meet the following three criteria:
1. the variables must be correlated
2. one variable must precede the other variable in time
3. it must be shown that a different (third) variable is not causing the change in the two
variables of interest (a.k.a., spurious correlation)
What is causality?

9. Correlation is not causation.

10. Does it meet all three criteria?
Spurious Correlation

11. Independent Variables
1. These variables are ones that are more or less controlled.
2. Scientists manipulate these variables as they see fit.
3. They still vary, but the variation is relatively known or taken into
account.
4. Often there are many in a given study.

12. Dependent Variables
1. Dependent variables are not controlled or manipulated in any way, but
instead are simply measured or registered.
2. These vary in relation to the independent variables, and while results
can be predicted, the data is always measured.
3. There can be any number of dependent variables, but usually there is
one to isolate reason for variation.

13. Independent
(input)
1. Intentionally manipulated
2. Controlled
3. Vary at known rate
4. Cause
1. Intentionally left alone
2. Measured
3. Vary at unknown rate
4. EffectFor example:
•If a scientist conducts an experiment to test the theory that a vitamin could extend a person’s life-
expectancy, then the independent variable is the amount of vitamin that is given to the subjects within
the experiment. This is controlled by the experimenting scientist.
•The dependent variable, or the variable being affected by the independent variable in this case, is life
span.
Dependent
(output)

14. Example: What affects a student’s
arrival to class?
Variables:
Type of School
Liberals Arts v. University
Type of Student
Athlete? Gender? GPA?
Time
Bedtime, Waking, Arrival
Mode of Transportation

15. http://www.wired.com/medtech/drugs/magazine/17-
09/ff_placebo_effect?currentPage=all

16. Researchers beware!

17. Reliability and Validity
http://www.wadsworth.com/psychology_d/special_features/ext/workshops/reliability3.html

18. Reliability and Validity
http://www.wadsworth.com/psychology_d/special_features/ext/workshops/reliability3.html

19. Reliability and Validity

20. They are the last thing we look at before sleep
each night, and the first thing we reach for
upon waking.

22. This single platform
swallowed most all the
other things people once
had floating around in
their pockets and purses,
and in so doing it became
something else entirely.

23. The arrangements through which we allocate
resources, transact value, seek to exert form on the
material world, share our stories with one another,
and organize ourselves into communities and
polities will from now on draw upon a fundamentally
new set of concepts and practices, and this is a horizon
of possibilities that first opened up to us in equipping
ourselves with the smartphone.

24. What did the smartphone replace?
Three sociological paradigms
https://youtu.be/DbTt_ySTjaY

25. We need to understand ourselves as nervous
systems that are virtually continuous with the world
beyond the walls, fused to it through the juncture of
our smartphones. And what keeps us twitching at
our screens, more even than the satisfaction of any
practical need, is the continuously renewed
opportunity to bathe in
the primal rush of communion.

26. if the smartphone is becoming a de facto necessity,
it is at the same time impossible to use the device
as intended without, in turn, surrendering data to it
and the network beyond
https://youtu.be/4q1dgn_C0AU