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Summary Babbie here: Introduction to social science research
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- Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam (EUR)
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// CHAPTER 1 - HUMAN INQUIRY & SCIENCE //What is research: Knowing things (what we know vs how we know), observing reality/
experiencing reality, methodology. Traditions within what research is - physics, social
science, literary studies.
How to start you research
1. Concepts and relation —> Look at theories and conceptualise
2. From abstract to concrete —> operationalise your detailed concepts, and choose
method to make observation (experiment, survey, ethnography, content analysis). e.g.
concept is digital skills —> operationalisation is all the task that someone is able to
do on the internet.
3. Procedure —> Inductive or deductive
Types of research relevance
• Scienti c relevance- researching someones knitting behaviour is not science relevant,
but research that people do on black holes.
• Social relevance- We do not research physics or anything, only social phenomena. We
also do not research philosophical issues (‘what is the meaning of life’), aesthetically
issues (‘who is the best artist’) or moral issues (‘what position should women have in
society’). What do we do with the knowledge that we produce in our society, we create
policies for example. We do not study unique cases, rather patterns/collective of cases.
For example we do not study a case of a single person, but a case of class room.
Assertion must have both logical and empirical support-must make sense, must not
contradict actual observation.
‘Agreement Reality’ - Those things we ‘know’ as part and parcel of the culture we share
with those around us (secondhand knowledge). Much of what we know, we know by
agreement rather than by experience. Scientists accept an agreement reality but have
special standards for doing so.
• ‘Tradition’ - Accepting what everybody knows.
- Inherited body of knowledge is the starting point of developing more of it.
- No new di erent understanding of something we all know to be true.
• ‘Authority’ - Acceptance of new acquisitions depends on the status of the discoverer.
- Trusting judgement of persons with a certain expertise.
- Authorities can be wrong within their eld, & can speak outside the expertise realm.
Science
is a combination of agreement reality & experiential reality. The foundation of science; it
must make sense, not from ideology or religion, must not contradict actual observation,
others need to be able to check.
• ‘Epistemology’ - The science of knowing; systems of knowledge.
• ‘Methodology’ - The science of nding out; procedure for scienti c investigations;
methods to do research, concepts (abstract) —> measurements (concrete).
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,Causal Reasoning - If I do A, B happens, or One thing causes the other.
Variable 1 explain variable 2 | variable 1 a ects variable 2 | Variable 1 is independent,
variable 2 is dependent
E.g. Socialisation -> Media Behaviour
‘Probabilistic reasoning’ - Certain e ect occur more often when certain causes occur
than when the causes are absent. In other words, things might happen, and the more you
do A, the higher the chance B will happen too (study hard, get good grades). There is
never doubt in this reasoning.
‘Inquiry’ - is a natural human activity. Much of ordinary human inquiry seeks to explain
events and predict future event. When we understand through direct experience, we make
observations and seek patterns or regularities in what we observe
‘Replication’ - Repeating an experiment to expose or reduce error.
‘Theory’ - A systematic explanation for the observations that relate to a particular aspect
of life. Coherent explanation of one or more concepts and their relation. Descriptions,
explanation, prediction of a phenomenon. Theories seek to provide logical explanations.
Theory or science itself cannot settle debates on value.
- We can only prove a theory is wrong, but not correct.
- Can be incorrect, can be tested.
- The most important aspect of a theory is that is should be easily tested.
- Theories usually happen very often/ have patterns/social regularities (gravity, social
media use), Aggregates/ its not about a unique case rather social one, composed of
theoretical concepts/ most important terms or keywords in the concept, brings forward
prediction.
Theory functions in three ways in research
1. Preventing our being taken in by ukes.
2. Make sense of observed patterns in ways that suggest other possibilities.
3. It shape and direct research e orts, towards discoveries through empirical research.
How to construct your theory
1. Specify the topic
2. Specify the range of phenomena your theory addresses
3. Identify and specify your major concepts and variables
4. Find out what is known about the relationships among those variables
5. Reason logically from those proposition to the speci c topic you’re examining
Links between theory and research
Using theory to understand how society works is key to o ering practical solutions to
society problems.
The importance of theory in the real world
No matter the aim of the researcher in conducting social research, a theoretical
understanding of his or her subject may spell the di erence between success and failure.
If one wants to change society, one needs to understand the logic of how it operates.
We need theories because things must make sense, it’s a perfect starting point of where
to look for. By this we can also avoid making e.g. incorrect inquiries.
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, Research and Theory
Researchers must guard against letting their choice of theory or paradigms bias their
research results. The collective nature of social research o ers protection against biased
research funding.
‘Model’ - Simpli ed depiction of reality (two concept and their relation)
Emperical research - Reality Research that is based on observation and measurement of
phenomena/experiment, as directly experienced by the researcher. Data gathered is
compared against a theory or hypothesis, but results are based of real life experience.
It’s all about examining and observing a situation, not reading or writing.
E.g. if a researcher was interested in nding out whether listening to happy music
promotes prosocial behaviour.
Emperical observation - Relying on or derived from observation or experiment:
empirical results that supported the hypothesis. Or observing a phenomenon and
collecting info from it. In social sciences, interviewing is also a form of empirical
observation. Observations can be direct or mediated.
E.g. The ndings of a DNA test.
Tradition & Authority
Are two important sources of agreed-on knowledge which can both assist and hinder
human inquiry. They provide us with a starting point for our own inquiry, they can lead us
to start at the wrong point, and push us o the wrong direction.
Tradition o ers some clear advantages to human inquiry. By accepting what everybody
knows, we avoid the overwhelming task of starting from scratch. A downfall of tradition,
however, is that most of us rarely even think of seeking a di erent understanding of
something we all “know” to be true.
Authority refers to the fact that acceptance of new discoveries often depends on the
status of the discoverer. Authority, just like tradition, also has its pros and cons in human
inquiry. We trust the judgement of a person with special training and knowledge, yet
these people can make mistakes as well. Moreover, inquiry is hindered when we depend
on the authority of experts speaking outside their realm of expertise (politician talking
about marihuana).
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, Errors in inquiries & solutions
• Inaccurate observations - We often disagree with what really happened, because our
daily observations are casual/semiconscious. However scienti c observations are
conscious activity.
• Overgeneralisation - We assume that a few similar events are evidence of a general
pattern, based of limited observation. We tend to overgeneralise on the basis of limited
observations. This can misdirect or impede inquiry. This can be avoided by getting a
large sample or replication.
• Selective observation - Ignoring cases that do not t the pattern of overgeneralised
conclusions. only paying attention to observations that t with our expectations.
Leading one to ignore those that do not t the pattern - deviant cases.
• Illogical Reasoning - prematurely jump to conclusions or argue on the basis of invalid
assumptions. Scientist avoid this pitfall by using systems of logic consciously and
explicitly. The exception process the rule - gamblers fallacy.
Gambler’s fallacy: a consistent run of either good or bad luck is presumed to foreshadow
its opposite. E.g., losing a game of poker 10 times, makes a person believe that winning
is just around the corner.
Three Aspects of Social Science
• Theory - Deals with logic
• Data collection - Deals with observation; surveys, experiments, etc.
• Data analysis - Deals with patterns of what is observed, comparing what is logically
expected with what is actually observed.
Two pillars of science - Logic & observation.
A scienti c understanding of the world must
1. Make sense
2. Correspond with what we observe.
Social Research purpose -Exploring, Describing, Explaining Social Phenomena.
Research projects re ect more than one of these purposes. Ethics play in social research
a key role. Social theories tries to discuss an explain what is, not what should be. Theory
should not be confused with philosophy or belief. Social science looks for regularities in
social life.
Not all social research is intertwined with social theory, sometimes social scientist simply
want to discover the state of a airs.
Fundamental bases social science builds theories upon
• Social regularities, Aggregates (not individuals), Concepts and variables
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