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Lecture notes: Social Research Methodology
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Notes from the course Social Research Methodology, from the Sociology bachelor at UvA.
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Social Research Methodology, lecture 1, 31-10-2022 Gerben’s beliefs:
o Methodology is related to philosophy of science, but not identical.
o The research question determines the superiority of a particular method
or research strategy.
o Students determine their own theoretical position on the basis of
substantiation.
o To know for sure must be doubted ferociously.
Concept abstract tern that describes a phenomenon.
Law regularity of facts (observations).
Postulate basic assumption in a theory.
Proposition explanatory relationship between concepts.
Types of use of theories (distinction by Merton):
o Grand theories: abstract, very large scope
o Middle range theories: useful for empirical research, limited scope
o Background literature: focussed search for theories, empirical research,
limited scope
o Fact collection: hardly any theory, ad-hoc selection (when needed or
when there was a particular purpose)
Induction (empirical theoretical): verification logic the form of reasoning,
in which from a limited number of observations a universal statement is made
about all cases.
Deduction (theoretical empirical): falsification logic the form of reasoning,
in which from general statements predictions about observations are made.
Verification logic (induction): A1, A2, A3, A4 and A5 have property P = all A
have property P.
Falsification logic (deduction): all A have property P, K is an A = K has
property P.
Inductive empirical cycle: observations before theory
Problem
Evaluation
Observation
Theory
Only after the observation you create a theory, mostly because you see it
occurs more often. Then you evaluate your theory. (Continuing cycle)
Induction problem: how many observations are needed to arrive at a valid
general statement?
, o Solution 1: use falsification logic, falsification is stronger than
verification.
o solution 2: use probability.
Deductive empirical cycle: theory before observations
Problem
Evaluation Theory
Test Hypothesis
Observation
In a deductive empirical cycle, the problem you start with is more theoretical.
In the theory we try to explain the problem. The hypothesis is a part of
the theory (a statement) that we can actually test. Only then we do
observations! We test the hypothesis in our observation. Evaluate if
there is falsification. (Continuing cycle)
Induction is not tabula rasa (wiped clean): ‘open mind’
Two main points of criticism:
1. A-priori assumptions and selections are necessary, because there are too
much data.
2. Observations are influenced by conscious or unconscious assumptions
about certain facts.
‘Complete’ empirical cycle:
, ‘Complete’ empirical cycle in real life pragmatic empirical cycle:
, Lecture 2, 02-11-2022
Culture of poverty, Oscar Lewis (1959) lived with five families in Mexico.
Generations poverty People enter a culture of poverty.
Culture of Poverty:
- Marginalized feeling: political and economic apathy.
- Attitude focused on the present: quick gain.
- Free sexual morals: free relationship forms, divorces and matrifocal
families. (Mother was central figure, children with different parents)
- Little participations in community and society.
Reproduction of poverty. Not blaming the poor, he was trying to explain
how generations of poverty, led to a Culture of Poverty, led to a
reproduction of poverty, led to generations of poverty (circle).
If people live in poverty for generations, it does something to the families.
The main problem in this research is causality. Where does it start?
How do we look for causality? An experience (an intervention in a random
poor neighbourhood).
Research design field experiment: the poverty (part where people get money),
the culture (part where people get “rich culture”), control group (nothing and
the poverty and culture (get both).
How do we start? Establish how people think about poverty now?
Pre-test/post-test design. Everywhere the same interview/survey.
Then the experiment than the same test (post-test).
This is a classical experiment.
Criteria to asses social scientific research
Reliability: are measurements consistent? (Never talk about the research(ers),
only the measurements)
Replicability: is the procedure explained clearly enough? (About the whole
research, not just the measurements)
Validity: how accurate are findings? (Does A lead to B? How solid are the
conclusions?)
FOLLOW BOOK, NOT INTERNET ON THESE DEFINITIONS!!
Validity:
- Measurement/construct validity: are you measuring what you think you are
measuring?
- Internal validity: how unambiguous is A the cause of B? About causality.
- External validity: can results of the study be generalised to a larger
population?
- Ecological validity: are findings meaningful to everyday lives? Not about
populations but about reality.
You can use validity’s as criteria, example of lecturer and daughter about the
‘deaf situation’.
Back to the field experiment.
Measurement validity in a field experiment: do you determine what you
determine? How do we measure the concept of poverty? Example, looking if
income is under a certain level. Or, access to clean water, poor housing, time
to spend on good things etc. Samples of income.
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