Methods Of Social Research (2)

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Primary Goals
of
Social Science Research (2)

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1) Description - describe systematic patterns of human behavior
2) Explanation - explain how & why a systematic pattern of behavior occurs

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Variation

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the extent to which units of analysis exhibit differences in a behavior or social attribute

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Variable

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a concept or indicator that exhibits variation in terms of the behavior or characteristic to which it refers

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Constant

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a concept or indicator that exhibits no variation in terms of the behavior or characteristic to which it refers

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Variable can be used interchangeably with

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concept & indicator

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Type of Variables (3)

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1) Actions
2) Orientations
3) Characteristics

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Actions

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actual behaviors that have occurred
i.e. use of illicit drugs, divorce, extramarital sex

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Orientations

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psychological states
i.e. attitudes or beliefs, fear of crime, prejudice

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Characteristics

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conditions or states of being
i.e. gender, place of residence

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Indicators

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represent a way of measuring real instances of an action, orientation, or characteristic referred to by a concept

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Measurement

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the development of rules for assigning numbers to objects in such a way as to represent quantities of an action, orientation, or characteristic

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Precision in measurement

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refers to how fine a distinction is made between different quantities of an action, orientation, characteristic in measuring a variable

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Level of Precision in Measurement
(4)

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Categorical
1) Nominal Level
2) Ordinal Level
Quantitative Data
3) Interval Level
4) Ratio Level

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Nominal Level
(Categorical)

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(Unranked Categories) objects of study (or cases) are assigned to a category based on possessing a particular attribute. Numbers are assigned to each category.
i.e. 1. Male 2. Female; 1. Single 2. Married 3. Divorced 4. Widowed

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Ordinal Level
(Categorical)

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(Ranked Categories) objects of study are assigned to categories that are ranked in terms of the degree to which objects possess the attribute being measured. Numbers are assigned to each category to reflect the rand order of the categories.
i.e. Social Class 1. Upper 2. Middle 3. Lower; Age 1. 18-30 2. 31-49 3. 50-64 4. 65+; 1. Strongly Disagree 2. Disagree....

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Interval Level
(Quantitative)

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objects of study are assigned numbers that not only rank them in terms of the degree to which thtye possess the attribute of the variable being measured, but also measure the absolute difference between them. 0 ╪ 0
i.e. Temp. 0° ╪ no temperature

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Ratio Level
(Quantitative)

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objects of study are assigned numbers that not only rank them in terms of the degree to which they possess the attribute of the variable being measured, but also measure the absolute difference between them. 0 = 0
i.e. Annual Income, number of violent crimes committed, number of times you drank a beer

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Accuracy of measurement

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the degree of error in the measurement taken by an indicator

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Measurement Error

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the assignment of incorrect numbers to units of analysis which do not represent the true attributes of those units

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Reliability in Measurement

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the degree to which the measurement taken by an indicator provided consistent results over repeated observations

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Test-Retest Reliability

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the same units or cases are measured at 2 different points in time. The correlation among the scores from each time point indicates the degree of reliability

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Internal Consistency Method of Assessing Reliability

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units are administered multiple indicators of the same variable in succession. The average correlation among the multiple indicators indicates the degree of reliability

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Validity in Measurement

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the extent to which a measure (i.e. indicator) actually measures the concept it is meant to measure

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Face Validity

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a measure (i.e. indicator) is considered to have face validity if it makes logical sense that it measures the concept that is intended to measure

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Criterion (Predictive) Validity

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the degree to which a measure (i.e. indicator) is found to be correlated with another indicator (or external criterion) that measures future behavior

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Construct Validity

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when an indicator of a concept is found to be highly correlated with an indicator of another concept with which it logically should be related

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Content Validity

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the degree to which a measure (indicator) covers the full range of meaning of the concept it is intended to measure

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Survey Research

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researcher constructs a survey QUESTIONNAIRE which consists of a set of questions designed to measure the dependent & independent variables of interest

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Respondents

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a study population selected for the study

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Methods for Administering a Survey
(4)

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1. Mail Survey
2. Personal Interviews
3. Telephone Survey
4. Internet (Online) Survey

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Basic Response Formats/Structures for Survey Questions

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1) open-ended questions
2) close-ended questions