SOC100H5 Lecture 2: RESEARCH METHODS (1-9-18)

• School: UTM
• Department: Sociology
• Course: SOC100H5
• Professor: Nathan Innocente

Document Summary

Common sense vs. social science: deference to tradition/authority vs. rules governing process. Limited in scope vs. design and sampling: unsystematic vs. tactics for observation. Ideology vs. social science: absolute, fixed, closed, vs. negotiated certainty, open, avoids tests, blind to evidence, vs. welcomes tests, changes with evidence. Ideologists don"t want to be wrong, can never be convinced otherwise: social scientists think in negotiated certainties know some things, don"t know others, no one claims the truth . Locked into specific moral position vs. detached, transcendent: contradictions, inconsistencies, vs. logical consistency, highly partial vs. neutral, ***examples of ideologies: nationalism, political, extremism, etc. Process (academic: formulate question -> review literature -> select method -> collect data -> analyse data -> report results, why do people commit crime -> look at evidence, stats, sources, etc. > pin down certain elements of crime (e. g adolescents) -> look at certain sets of data, crime rates, do your own surveys/interviews -> analyse data, look for trends, e tc.