Research Ethics and
Structuring Inquiry
Ethics and Politics of Research
 Ethics deals with methods used in research.
 Politics deals with representation of research.
 James Colemen and School Desegregation
 Eminent sociologist who found little difference in the
academic performance of African-Americans in
integrated vs. segregated schools
 Instead family and neighborhood mattered most
 Controversy and misrepresentation
Ethics in Social Research
 Voluntary participation.
 No harm to participants.
 Voluntary participation is based on a full understanding of
possible risks.
 Anonymity and confidentiality.
Ethics in Social Research
 Deception
 Needs to be justified by compelling scientific or
administrative concerns.
 Debriefing session or procedure
 Analysis and Reporting
 Researchers must be honest about their findings and
research.
Ethics in Social Research
 Institutional Review Boards
 Review research proposals involving humans so they can
guarantee the rights and interests are protected.
 Professional Codes of Ethics
 Most professional associations have formal codes of conduct
that describe acceptable and unacceptable professional
behavior.
Ethical Controversy: Tearooms
 Study of homosexual behavior in public restrooms
 Lied to participants by telling them he was a
“watchqueen”
 Traced participants to their home and interviewed
them under false pretenses
 Invasion of privacy?
 Deception of respondents?
Ethical Controversy: Milgram
 Study of human obedience.
 Subjects had role of "teacher" and administered a
shock to "pupils".
 Pupils were actually part of the experiment.
 Act out the effects of progressively higher “shocks”
 Two-third continue to the highest level
 “teachers” express great discomfort
Group Exercise
 Would you use research insights gained from
research conducted in violation of ethical
guidelines?
 Ex., Tuskegee Airman Studies
 Ex., Nazi War Experiments
 Would you conduct a study that did not get IRB
approval if you thought the topic was important?
 Ex. Public responses to major news event
 Ex. Studying the health effects of an oil spill
Nature of Inquiry
 What question are you trying to answer?
 Pick the appropriate approach
 Do you want to explain one case fully or understand a class
of cases?
 Different approaches with different goals
Idiographic vs. Nomothetic
 Two ends of a continuum of inquiry
 The Idiographic Orientation
 Unique characteristics of phenomena:
 Rich description of “idiosyncratic” features
 Intention is to explain one case fully
 The Nomothetic Orientation
 Generating generalizable principles
 Establishing “trans-situational” laws
 Intention is to explain a class
Inductive Reasoning
 Moves from the particular to the general
 Observations lead to generalizations
 Exploratory investigation
 E.g., Identifying news frames through
ethnographic study of newsroom culture and
news production practices
 Identifying frames as you encounter them
Deductive Reasoning
 Moves from the general to the particular
 General principles lead to expectations for
empirical testing
 Theory testing investigation
 E.g., Using theories of news production to:
 Predict certain frames will occur more frequently
 Episodic over thematic framing (Iyengar’s research)
Wallace’s Wheel of Science
ABSTRACT
Theories
INDUCTION
DEDUCTION
Empirical
Generalizations
Hypotheses
Observations
CONCRETE
Creating Explanations
 Research often seeks explanations by:
 examining relationships between variables
 E.g. Is gender related to party preference?
 E.g. Is education related to prejudice?
 E.g. Is political discussion related to civic participation?
Conditions of Causality:
 Covariation
 Correspondence between cause and effect
 Positive or negative covariation
 Time-order
 Cause must precede effect
 Absence of third variables
 Spurious relationships
Spurious Relationships
 Situations where X and Y appear to be related:
 But are really the function of third variable Z
 1. Antecedent variable
 Z causes both X and Y
 2. Intervening variable
 X causes Z, Z causes X
 Causation is rarely as simple as X causing Y
 Multitude of factors cause Y
 Contribute in varying amounts
Necessary & Sufficient Causes
 Necessary Cause:
 For Y to occur, X must occur first
 Just because X occurs, doesn’t mean Y will occur
 Other factors may have to occur too
 To pass the test, you must take the test
 Sufficient Cause:
 If X occurs, Y will occur
 X determines Y, no contingencies
 Other factors may also have the effect
 If you skip an exam, you fail the exam