SOCI 217 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Cultural Artifact, Nomothetic, Ceremonial Ship Launching
Document Summary
Chapter 4: research design and the logic of causation. Three purposes of research: exploration (new interest, further research) To explore a topic, to familiarize researcher with that topic typically when it is either. Methodology: focus groups, guided small group discussions. 3 purposes: 1) to satisfy the researcher"s curiosity and desire for better understanding, 2) to test the feasibility of undertaking a more extensive study, 3) to develop methods to be employed in any subsequent study. Problem: representatitveness: the people studied may not represent the general population: description (wide variety of characteristics, computation) Example of descriptive social research: canadian census. Goal: to describe accurately and precisely a wide variety of characteristics of the. Canadian population, as well as the population of smaller are. The data will mostly involve computation without actually seeking to explain: explanation (why) Descriptive : reporting the voting intentions of an electorate. Explanation : reporting why some people plan to vote candidate a and others for candidate b.
