SOCI 210 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Nomothetic, Participant Observation, Ethnography
20 May 2016
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Document Summary
Method: technique for gathering and analyzing data to gain insight into the research question. Methodological relativism: none are necessarily better than the other, although some are more appropriate for some types of research questions. Each method is connected to a type of data. The four main methodological traditions in the social sciences: statistical, ethnographic/qualitative, comparative-historical, and experimental. Observation: watching speci+ic types of social relations. Statistical methods: correlation: statistical methods are most concerned with establishing relationships between variables, assumption: if variables are related, there is a good possibility that one variable affects another, operationalization: numerical measurement of social phenomena is necessary for statistics. Eg: fertility rate (number of births per 1,000 people) and industrialization. Different countries have different approaches to gathering data. Differences in data collection and missing values may affect our outcome. It"s a matter also of choosing what data to show and the way you present it. There are clear methodological rules that anyone can follow.
