SOC200H1 Chapter Notes - Chapter 4: Cultural Artifact, Causal Model, Nomothetic
Document Summary
Before you can observe and analyze, you need a plan. First, you must specify clearly what you want to find out. Second, you must determine the best way to go about doing it. Most social science research is conducted to explore a topic or to familiarize with a topic. This approach occurs when a researcher examines a new interest or when the subject of study is relatively new. Sometimes pursued through the use of focus groups. (i. e. in market research) Typically done for 3 reasons: to satisfy curiosity and desire for better understanding, to test the feasibility of undertaking a more extensive study, to develop methods to be used in subsequent studies. Shortcoming is that they seldom provide satisfactory answers to research questions. However, they can hint at answers and give insights into methods to be used. The people in exploratory research are seldom representative of the larger pop. Observation and description of situations and events.
