Chapter 2
Asking and
Answering
Sociological
Questions
Anthony Giddens
Mitchell Duneier
Richard P. Appelbaum
Sociological Questions
Four Types of Questions Sociologists
Ask
– Factual (empirical)—collecting data
– Comparative—relating one social context to
another, within a society or between different
societies
– Developmental—comparing societies’ past
and present
– Theoretical—interpreting what facts mean
The Research Process
The Research Process
– The seven steps of the research process are:
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•
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•
•
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Defining the research problem
Reviewing the evidence
Making the problem precise
Working out a design
Carrying out the research
Interpreting the results
Reporting the findings
Understanding Cause and
Effect
Causation and Correlation
– Causation cannot be directly inferred from
correlation
• Causation: one event or situation produces
another
• Correlation: regular relationship existing between
two variables
Understanding Cause and
Effect
Causation and Correlation (cont)
– When assessing the cause that explains a
correlation we use:
• Independent variable
Produces an effect on another variable
• Dependent variable
The variable affected
• Control
Variables held constant in order to look at effects of
others
Research Methods
Ethnography
– Ethnography is the study of people firsthand
• Using participation observation or interviewing
• Investigator spends time living or working with
community
– Advantages
• Provides detailed information about group
– Disadvantages
• Only works with small groups
• Researcher must gain trust of group
• Researcher could lose perspective
Research Methods
Surveys
– Surveys are questionnaires given to selected
group of people
– Sampling concentrates on a small proportion
of overall group
– Advantages
• Answers are easily quantified
• Large groups can be studied
• Researchers can employ agency to collect
responses
– Disadvantages
• Findings might be superficial or doubtful
• Levels of nonresponse are high
Research Methods
Experiments
– Testing hypothesis under controlled conditions
– Advantages
• Easily controlled and repeated
– Disadvantages
• Only small groups can be tested
• People might behave unnaturally
Research Methods
Other Research Methods
– Life histories
• Assembling biographical material about individuals
– Comparative research
• Comparing various groups in different societies
– Historical analysis
• Studying past events directly through interviewing
or written record
Research in the Real World
Other Research Methods (cont)
– Triangulation
• Because all research methods have limitations,
researchers often combine several research
methods in order to check and supplement
material obtained from the others
Research in the Real World
Human Subjects and Ethical Problems
– All research involving humans can pose
ethical dilemmas
– Sociologists must ask:
• Does research pose risks to the subjects that are
greater than risks they face in daily lives?
– Federal government has gotten stricter with
universities about how they treat research
subjects
• Universities now review all research
Research in the Real World
Influence of Sociology
– Sociologists not only study society, they
shape society
– Sociological research is filtered down
– Sociological knowledge affects behavior
Review Questions
1. Which of the following are types of questions
that sociologists often use in their research?
a) functional questions
b) structural questions
c) developmental questions
d) All of the above
Review Questions
2. Which of the following are the standard
sequential steps in the research process?
a) ask empirical questions; define research problem; test
hypotheses; interpret results
b) review evidence; select a research design; interpret
results; report findings
c) find a previously unexplored research problem; conduct a
survey or experiment; collect data; report findings
d) select a topic; ask factual, comparative, and theoretical
questions; anticipate problems; interpret results
Review Questions
3. In a causal relationship, the ________ variable
is the variable that produces an effect on
another variable.
a) dependent
b) independent
c) control
d) functional
Review Questions
4. Which of the following scenarios do you think
poses the greatest ethical dilemma for a
researcher?
a) Conducting face-to-face interviews with subjects (who know
they are participating in a study) without telling them you are
the director of the research project.
b) Asking subjects to complete a survey on a computer about
eating habits when the real focus of the study is how people
react when faced with computer hardware or software
problems.
c)
Joining an organization or informal social group in order to
do ethnographic research without telling the members of the
organization or group the real purpose of your participation.
d) Examining data from another researcher’s project and
coming up with different conclusions.
Review Questions
5. What is a limitation of surveys that use
standardized questions?
a) Such surveys can only be used with a small sample of
people
b) It is difficult to draw conclusions about a broader
population based on survey responses.
c) The responses will not be in-depth or reveal much
subtlety of opinion.
d) Responses can be difficult to compare statistically.
Review Questions
6. ________ is the study and systematic
description of human cultures through
participant observation or interviewing.
a) Ethnology
b) Anthropology
c) Comparative research
d) Ethnography
Review Questions
7. Which of the following statements best
describes the relationship between sociological
research and human behavior?
a) There is a constant feedback loop between sociological
research and human behavior; one informs the other.
b) People participating in research studies may not always be
completely honest or natural in their responses or behavior
because they may be trying to give a “correct” answer or
behave as they think the researcher wants them to.
c)
Everyday human behavior is not much influenced by the
findings of academic research studies.
d) Cutting-edge sociological research depends upon the
emergence of increasingly extreme forms of human
behavior.