Chapter 2
Dress, Society, and the Novice
Researcher
From the headlines
National casual businesswear survey
sparks debate: What is appropriate attire
for the office?
 Dockers and Slates, manufacturers of
branded jeans and casual sports wear,
commissioned a study to identify workers’
attitudes and behaviors about business
attire.
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Questions to answer
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How can my academic and professional
careers benefit from research skills?
What is research?
What are the steps in conducting
research related to dress and society?
How is periodical literature categorized?
How do quantitative, qualitative, and
mixed methods research differ?
What tools are used to collect data?
What research skills are useful to
undergraduates?
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An inquiring mind
Appreciation for detective work
Knowledge of research tools
Understanding how research topics are chosen
Determination
Motivation
Persistence
Patience
What is research?
A
systematic approach to
collecting data in efforts to
answer questions or solve
problems
Research topic
Workplace dress codes
Research question
What
you want to learn from
an investigation
What is the relationship
between casual dress and
employee productivity?
Research Problem
An
area of concern
Writing
a clear and
nondiscriminatory employee
dress code
Data
 Numbers
 Pictures
 Words
Basic research
Adds
to existing knowledge
by building theories
Phenomena
Observable
facts,
experiences, events, trends
Occupational stereotypes
 Overgeneralized
ideas about
attributes and behaviors of
individuals in occupational groups
Multidisciplinary
Multiple
specialized
disciplines (i.e., areas of
study)
Different theories derive from
different disciplines
Applied Research

Conducted primarily to improve practice by
solving practical problems
The research process
Read related literature and ask questions
 Identify a research question or problem
 Select a research method or tool
 Collect data
 Analyze data
 Interpret data
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Identifying a research question or
problem
 Theoretical
backgrounds
 Observation of the population
 Personal interest
 Work of other investigators
 Differing results in the literature
Observation may help identify a research
question or problem
The cowboy
is a popular
research topic
Identifying information sources
Scholarly journals
 Substantive news or general interest
periodicals
 Special interest periodicals -- Trade
publications
 Popular periodicals
 Sensational periodicals
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Scholarly Journals
Purpose—to report original research
 Authors are scholars who have done
research in the discipline
 Peer reviewed
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Process by which articles are chosen
Experts reviewed
Decided research was authoritative
Clothing and Textiles Research Journal
Scholarly Journal
Substantive News or
General Interest Periodicals
Purpose—to provide general information
to a broad audience of readers
 Time, Newsweek, New York Times
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General
Interest
Magazine
Special Interest Periodicals
Purpose—to provide specialized
information to an audience in a particular
occupation or trade
 Trade publications
 Women’s Wear Daily, Daily News Record
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Popular Periodicals
Purpose—to entertain readers, sell
products, and promote a viewpoint
 Printed on slick paper, use many visual
graphics
 Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, GQ
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Sensational Periodicals
Purpose—to arouse curiosity and cater to
popular superstitions
 Newspaper format
 Startling headlines
 Star, National Inquirer, Globe
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Sensational Periodical
Identifying Research Methods and Tools
Quantitative
Qualitative
Mixed
methods research
Research Tools
 Questionnaires
 Interview
questions
 Attitude surveys
 Document and artifact
worksheets
 Published instruments
Quantitative Research
 Provides
data measured in numbers
 Data are subjected to statistical
analyses
 Used to
 describe situations
 identify relationships
 compare groups
Quantitative Research Tools
 Surveys
 Questionnaires
 Attitude
measures
 Observation checklists
 Published tests
Three general types of statistics
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Frequency
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Central tendency
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Number of times something occurs or %
Mean – average number
Median – middle number
Mode – most frequent number
Variability
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Range – lowest to highest
Standard deviation – average difference
Survey Research
 Gathers
data at one point in time
 From individuals who represent
groups with specific characteristics
 Used to describe a situation by
answering a set of questions
 Helps make decisions, i.e., what
merchandise to select and stock
Adult Preferences for Halloween
Costumes
Observational Research
Earliest & most common research method
 Used when information needed to answer
questions is best obtained through direct
observation
 Data are gathered and organized into
categories
 Observation generates numbers by use of
a tool called a data collection worksheet
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Observational Research
Can be used by designers to solve a
problem
 Produces descriptive results
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Describe a situation
As it exists
E.g., a fashion count
Research Hypothesis
One way of stating a research question or
research problem
 Includes predicting a relationship between
two variables
 Variables—factors having two or more
values or distinguishable properties or
characteristics
 For ex., acceptable v. unacceptable dress
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Acceptable
dress for a
club?
Correlational Research
Measure
the extent of
relationship between and
among variables
Demographic Variables
Individual characteristics
 Gender
 Ethnicity
 Education
 Occupation
 Age
 Religion
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Nominal Variable
Two or more values are assigned to
categories
 Each person can be a member of only one
category
 All other members of the category have
the same characteristics
 Gender
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Ordinal Variable
Two or more values assigned to categories
are ranked from lowest to highest
 Education
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Continuous Variable
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Any value along a continuum is possible
Interval
variable
Based on equal units of measurement
 Age
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Relationships Measured
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Do NOT include cause and effect
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One variable is the direct result of a second
variable
Post hoc fallacy
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Research mistake
Attributing cause and effect to a correlational
relationship
Correlational relationships
Expressed in
 Direction
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Positive
Negative
Strength
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High
Moderate
Low
Aerobic wear
Group Comparison Research
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Identify differences between responses of group
members
Groups were exposed to different conditions or
treatments—different values of the variables
Manipulation of variables
One group is exposed to one value of a variable
Second group is exposed to another value of the
variable
Numeric data are analyzed and
interpreted
 Data are collected using tools such as
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Tests
Attitude measures
Questionnaires
True Experimental Research
Groups are formed by random assignment
 Random assignment—have equal chance
of being assigned to either group
 Experimental group is exposed to a
treatment
 Control group is not exposed to treatment
 Confounding variables—characteristics
that could influence the results
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Alcohol T-shirt
vs. plain T-shirt
Quasi-experimental Research
Intact groups are randomly assigned to
treatments
 Intact groups – naturally occurring groups
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Students in a classroom
Workers in an office
Members of a club
Model in Wheelchair
Ex Post Facto Research
Causal-Comparative Research
Analyzes events that have already
happened
 Purpose—to understand differences
between two or more groups
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Qualitative research
An event in its natural setting
 Researcher’s perspective
 Descriptive
 Data are words
 Small groups of people studied
 In-depth understanding of their behaviors
and perceptions
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Qualitative research methods
Ethnography
 Content analysis
 Narrative inquiry
 Artifact analysis
 Historical research
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Ethnography
Fieldwork
 Individuals are interviewed or
 Their daily overt (directly observable)
behavior is observed
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Researchers avoid ethnocentrism
 Tendency to interpret unfamiliar customs
based on biases derived from one’s own
culture
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Observation of
daily
behavior
Content analysis
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Narrative is summarized into categories
Inferences are made
Narrative inquiry
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Oral stories
Personal experience expressed through stories
Artifact analysis
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Study of things created by humans for a practical
purpose and for a particular period
Type of artifact
Material
Special qualities
Use
Technology at time it was made
Lives of people who made and used it
Related items of today
Jeans are
artifacts that can
be analyzed
Historical research methods
Provide information about past events and
conditions
 Primary sources—first hand accounts of
events
 Secondary sources—accounts of events
that are one or more levels removed from
the primary source
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Historical research using artifacts
Mixed methods research
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Use multiple methods—both qualitative
and quantitative
Muslim head scarf--hijab