THE PRACTICE OF SOCIAL
RESEARCH
Chapter 2 – Paradigms, Theory, and Social
Research
Earl Babbie, The Practice of Social Research
CHAPTER OUTLINE
Some Social Science Paradigms
 Elements of Social Theory
 Two Logical Systems Revisited
 Deductive Theory Construction
 Inductive Theory Construction
 The Links between Theory and Research
 Research Ethics and Theory
 Quick Quiz
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

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Paradigms – a model or frame of reference
through which to observe and understand.
“Patterns happen.”
Logical explanations are what theories seek to
provide.
1.
2.
3.
Theories prevent our being taken in by flukes.
Theories makes sense of observed patterns.
Theories shape and direct research efforts.
SOCIAL SCIENCE PARADIGMS

When we recognize that we are operating within
a paradigm, two benefits accrue.
1.
We can better understand seemingly bizarre views
and actions of others who are operating under
different paradigms.
2.
We can profit from stepping outside of our paradigm.
SOCIAL SCIENCE PARADIGMS

Paradigms play a fundamental role in science.

Paradigms are neither true nor false.
SOCIAL SCIENCE PARADIGMS

Macrotheory – a theory aimed at understanding
the “big picture” of institutions, whole societies,
and the interactions among societies.


Examples: class struggles, international relations,
and interrelations between social institutions
Microtheory – a theory aimed at understanding
social life at the intimate level of individuals and
their interactions.

Examples: dating behavior, jury deliberations,
student-faculty interactions
SOCIAL SCIENCE PARADIGMS

Mesotheory – referencing an intermediate level
between macro and micro.

Examples: studying organizations, communities,
and social categories
SOCIAL SCIENCE PARADIGMS

Early Positivism

Comte: Society is a phenomenon that can be studied
scientifically.

“Positive Philosophy”
Theological Stage
 Metaphysical Stage
 Positivist Stage

SOCIAL SCIENCE PARADIGMS

Social Darwinism
Darwin (1858): evolution through natural selection
 Translation of Darwin’s theory into societies: over
time, societies are improving.

SOCIAL SCIENCE PARADIGMS

Conflict Paradigm
Marx: social behavior is best explained as the process
of conflict – the attempt to dominate others and to
avoid being dominated.
 Simmel: focused on small-scale conflict.
 Chossudovsky (1997): international and global
competition.

SOCIAL SCIENCE PARADIGMS

Symbolic Interactionism
Simmel – interested in how individuals interacted
with one another, a micro approach.
 Mead: “taking the role of the other”
 Cooley: “looking-glass self,” primary groups

SOCIAL SCIENCE PARADIGMS

Ethnomethodology
Garfinkel: People are continually creating social
structure through their actions and interactions,
creating their realities.
 Ethnomethology – methodology of the people.

SOCIAL SCIENCE PARADIGMS

Structural Functionalism

A social entity can be viewed as an organism. A social
system is made up of parts, each of which contributes
to the functioning of the whole.
SOCIAL SCIENCE PARADIGMS

Feminist Paradigms
Feminists call attention to aspects of social life that
other paradigms do not reveal.
 Concerned with the treatment of women and the
experience of oppression.

SOCIAL SCIENCE PARADIGMS

Women’s Ways of Knowing
Silence
 Received Knowledge
 Subjective Knowledge
 Procedural Knowledge
 Constructed Knowledge

SOCIAL SCIENCE PARADIGMS

Feminist Standpoint Theory – women have
knowledge about their status and experience that is
not available to men.
SOCIAL SCIENCE PARADIGMS

Critical Race Theory

W.E.B. DuBois: roots in the civil rights movement


African Americans lived their lives through a “dual
consciousness:” as Americans and as Black people.
Bell (1980)

Interest Convergence – majority group members will only
support the interests of minorities when those actions also
support the interests of the majority group.
SOCIAL SCIENCE PARADIGMS

Rational Objectivity

Comte: society can be studied rationally and
objectively.
SOCIAL SCIENCE PARADIGMS

Asch Experiment
(1958)

A group of subjects is
present with a set of
lines on a screen and
asked to identify the
two lines that are
equal in length.

Others in the group
identify A or C as the
correct answer, while
you know that B is the
correct answer.
ELEMENTS OF SOCIAL THEORY
Observation – seeing, hearing, touching.
 Fact – a phenomenon that has been observed.
 Laws – universal generalization about classes of
facts.
 Theory – a systematic explanation for
observations that relate to a particular aspect of
life.
 Concepts – abstract elements representing
classes of phenomena within the field of study.
 Variable – a set of attributes.

ELEMENTS OF SOCIAL THEORY
Axioms or Postulates – fundamental assertions
on which a theory is grounded.
 Propositions – specific conclusions, derived from
the axiomatic groundwork, about the
relationships among concepts.
 Hypothesis – a specified, testable expectation
about the empirical reality that follows from a
more general proposition.

TWO LOGICAL SYSTEMS REVISITED

The Traditional Model of Science
Theory
 Operationalization – developing operational
definitions, or specifying the exact operations
involved in measuring a variable.
 Operational Definition – the concrete and specific
definition of something in terms of the operations by
which observations are to be categorized.
 Observation – specifying the exact operations
involved in measuring a variable.

TWO LOGICAL SYSTEMS REVISITED

The Traditional Image of
Science

The deductive model of scientific
inquiry begins with a sometimes
vague or general question, which
is subjected to a process of
specification, resulting in
hypotheses that can be tested
through empirical observations.
TWO LOGICAL SYSTEMS REVISITED

Deductive and Inductive Reasoning

Deductive = Traditional Model of Science

A Case Illustration (Glock, Ringer, and Babbie, 1967)

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Comfort Hypothesis
Null Hypothesis
DEDUCTIVE THEORY CONSTRUCTION
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Specify the topic.
Specify the range of phenomena your theory
addresses.
Identify and specify your major concepts and
variables.
Find out what is known about the relationships
among those variables.
Reason logically from those propositions to the
specific topic you are examining.
INDUCTIVE THEORY CONSTRUCTION
Observe aspects of social life and seek to
discover patterns that may point to relatively
universal principles.
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Grounded Theory
Field Research
THE LINKS BETWEEN THEORY AND
RESEARCH
Deductive Model – research is used to test
theories.
 Inductive Model – theories are developed from
analysis of data.

QUICK QUIZ
CHAPTER 2 QUIZ
1.
The three main elements of the traditional
model of science are:
A.
theory, operationalization, observation.
operationalization, hypothesis testing, theory.
observation, experimentation,
operationalization.
theory, observation, hypothesis testing.
experimentation, hypothesis testing, theory.
B.
C.
D.
E.
CHAPTER 2 QUIZ
Answer: A.
The three main elements of the traditional model of
science are theory, operationalization,
observation.
CHAPTER 2 QUIZ
2. Which of the following is the best example of a
hypothesis?
A. The greater the level of education, the greater
the tolerance for alternative lifestyles.
B. Socialization in childhood has a significant
impact on adolescent gender-role identify.
C. There are more female than male college
students.
D. Religiosity equals frequency of church
attendance and praying.
E. Actions are based on perceived costs and
rewards.
CHAPTER 2 QUIZ
Answer: A.
The following is the best example of a hypothesis:
The greater the level of education, the greater the
tolerance for alternative lifestyles.
CHAPTER 2 QUIZ
3. The paradigm that accounts for the impact of
economic conditions on family structures is:
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
symbolic interactionism.
structural functionalism.
positivism.
conflict.
exchange.
CHAPTER 2 QUIZ
ANSWER: B.
The paradigm that accounts for the impact of
economic conditions on family structures is
structural functionalism.
CHAPTER 2 QUIZ
4. Which of the following is not a step in deductive
theory construction?
Specify the topic
B. Identify the major concepts and variables
C. Identify propositions about the relationships
among those variables
D. Reason logically from those propositions to the
specific topic one is examining
A.
CHAPTER 2 QUIZ
ANSWER: B.
The following is not a step in deductive theory
construction: identify the major concepts and
variables.