negotiating access to a paretic. soc.

access
setting is critical

1. opens info diff. to get

2. allows access to soc. worlds the researcher cannot otherwise
ads of existing sources access
3. pooling resources
4. allows rep. of past research

1. allows study of lg. groups

2. saves time and money
3. strong replicability and reliability (but not validity b/c people lie on surveys)

ads of surveys
4. strong generalizability
5. less concern of bias
6. produces anonymity
7. easier to get $ to conduce research (b/c surveys are almost always quantitative)
8. effective at getting attention of policy makers and those w/ power who can create change

1. means of studying under-rep. and often over-looked groups

2. can help challenge taken-for-granted notions
advantages of ethnography 3. may help debunk myths and reshape stereotypes
4. detailed
5. high degree of validity

1. allows respondents to speak in their own words and inclusion of direct quotes
2. help dispel certain preconceptions (we actually hear thins from people's own words,
advantages of interviews and can try to break stereotypes and find out from their perspective)
3. detailed
4. can discover issues that may otherwise be overlooked completely

applied research using knowledge to create change

basic research -creating knowledge for its own sake

1. did covert research (secretly tape-recorded covos...)

2. her published findings were quite unflattering to her subjects
Carolyn Ellis 3. cont/ to visit like always w/ out mentioning her research
4. many participants del angry and betrayed

req. that a change in one variable directly produces

a change in the other
causation ex: heavy marijauna use causes poor grades (but we
might need an intervening variable)

response-very limited
closed-ended question ex: Do you believe you are a hard worker: yes or no?
ex: Are you for or against Obama's policies?
 control group left along for comparison

shows two variables that change together

correlation (ex: ice cream sales does not affect crime
rate, but they can both go up)

correlation and causation not equal

covert research people don't have informed consent

secrecy, lying, or withholding information

deception ex: writing about masculinity, but telling
them you're writing about boys

factor that is changed-outcome

dep. variable
(whether or not the person is hired)

1. respondents hold back info and may even lie

2. what people say and how they act are not always congruent
disad. of interviews 3. claiming representativeness can be difficult
4. people-not always able to articulately explain their beliefs
and behaviors

1. lack of replicability
2. issues w/ representativeness (ethnographies- weak w/ representativeness
b/c detailed study of one group of people)
disads. of ethnogrophy 3. poss. of bias
4. difficult to get $ for ethnographic research
5. very time-consuming

1. diff. to ask q's that orig. author didn't have in mind

2. content analysis usually can't describe how
disads. of existing sources messages are interpreted
3. detached

1. cannot get at meaning very well

2. req. respondents to answer in overly simplified ways
3. weak in vailidy (due to respondents not being honest)
disads of surveys 4. no opp. to build rapport
5. sampling techniques are very imp. and complicated
6. more detached approach
 naturalistic method studying people in their own environment in order to
understand the meanings they attribute to their activities and soc. world

ethnography -(also refers to a written product)

ethnographer-goes into environment and becomes part of it: immersing
themselves in the culture

sources of data that already exist

ex: historical records, documents, newspapers,
existing sources letters, emails, culture/ media (films, TV, music), the
census

1. control
2. allows researcher to study situations stat are diff. to
exp. advantages control in the outside world
3. replicable

1. difficult to describe complex processes or

interactions
exp. disadvantages 2. much of soc. world cannot be manipulated as
indep. variables

experimental group receives the exp. treatment

formal tests performed in a controlled

experiments
setting

notes the ethnographer takes in the

field notes
setting

1. using pseudonyms for names and places

2. keeping notes and recordings confidential
How to avoid risks of soc. research 3. recordings often destroyed after a certain amnt of time
4. informed consent

factor predicted to cause changes (ex:

independent variable
listing "mother" on a job app)

explaining the nature of research as

informed consent fully and honestly as possible
-participation is voluntary
 ex: depression might explain the
intervening variable relationship b/w marijuana use and
grades

face-to-face information seeking

interviews
conversations

Laud Humphreys and the Tea room study of homosexual encounters in

trade men's bathrooms an public parks

way of organizing categories on a a

Likert scale survey so that the respondent can
choose an answer along a continum

mixed methods combining methods

impartiality-allowing facts to speak for

objectivity
themselves (w/ out pers. beliefs or bias)

respondent has more freedom to answer

open-ended q's ex: tell me what you think of Obama's
policies

a clear and precise defn. of a variable that facilitates

its measurement
operation defn' ex: "for the purposes of this survey, a smoker is a
person who smokes at least 5 times a month."

overt research people have informed consent

-(Part of ethnography)
-researcher is both observing and becoming a
participant observation member in soc. setting
ex: in volunteer organization

potential risks of social research
1. deception
2. breaching of confidentiality
3. psychological and emotional distress
4. difficult moral dilemmas (ex: if you witness an illegal act in
field research)

does not work w/ #'s method gets more

qualitative research
at meaning

convert data to #'s, statistical

quantitative
comparison

close relationship; emotional closeness;

rapport
harmony

how the identity and activities to the

reflexivity researcher influence what is going on in
the field setting

reliability consistency of a question

replicability can be repeated

feinged conservative views (didn't object)

Richard Leo -did go through the process of informed
consent

approached UFO cult and was denied access

Robert Balch and Heaven's gate -spent 2 months posing as a member and
promoting its beleifs

the part of a a pop that will accurately

sample
be studied
 1. provides a general plan for conducting
sci. method research
2. not fully adhered to in all sci. soc. research

1. most common int. in soc.

2. everyone gets asked the same lead q,
semi-structured inverview 3. respondent has some control, but interviewer has a direction
where he wants to go
4. ex: "tell me about academics..."

the appearance of causation (lower grades caused by heavy

marijuana use)-produced by intervening variable (depression)
spurious correlation
(depression may influence marijuana use,
and depression may cause lower grades)

1. each question asked in order

Structured interview 2. every question asked to every person
3. sociologist has a lot of control over the interview

questionnaires that are administered to a sample

surveys of respondents selected from a target pop.
-tend to be micro and quantitative

1. much more like a conversation

2. broad topic that you want to know about
unstructured interviews 3. respondent has a lot more control- leads the
interviewer in a direction (ex: "tell me a story..."

accuracy of a question of measurement

validity tool to the degree to which researcher is
measuring what she thinks she's getting

an ideal whereby researchers identify

value-free society facts w/ out allowing their own personal
beliefs or biases to interfere