SOCI 2150Y Study Guide - Fall 2018, Comprehensive Midterm Notes - Peri Brown, Trent University, Systematic Sampling
SOCI 2150Y
MIDTERM EXAM
STUDY GUIDE
Fall 2018
SOCI 2151H – Researching Social Life
Peri Ballantyne
Sept 10th, 2018 – Lecture #1
What is Research? Why do Research? What is ‘collaborative’ Research?
What is Research?
o Activities undertaken to advance knowledge, truth(s), social development…using
systematic, agreed-upon rules and tools of knowledge development* (see p. 4 B&R)
o Based on acceptance that researchers can study social groups and imagine social change
without being able to view ‘reality’ directly... or without having experienced that
‘reality’…and…
o Assuming various possibilities of reality, understanding the broad range of possibilities
for structuring research...
o Examining patterns
Why do Research?
o To advance knowledge, truth, social development…?
o To anticipate or predict the future…?
o But… how do we know what we know? What is real?
o What is real for one person, may not be real to another
What is Social Science Research?
o The process of discovering or uncovering new knowledge;
o Is distinct from a declaration of what we think we know about the social world because it
involves a systematic inquiry into a phenomenon of interest.
o Aims to contribute to what is known about a phenomenon, and …to action and social
change
o Is based on underlying values, principles and theories about how the world works or
ought to work; and these need to be made explicit as part of the research process
o Aims to find and explain patterns and regularities in social life (and to understand
exceptions to these regularities…which show possibilities for social change)
o Focus on aggregates or collectivities, not individuals (see B & R, p. 12) …
o Aims to find and explain patterns, regularity in social life (and to understand these
patterns…) …using:
o Idiographic explanations: where we seek to exhaust the idiosyncratic causes of a
particular condition or event … (i.e. what range of factors influenced your choice to
attend Trent University?)
o Nomothetic explanations: where we seek to identify a few causal factors that generally
impact a class of conditions or events (i.e. what key factors influence the choice of
universities among high school students?) (see B&R p. 22)
o Inductive reasoning: an explanation where specific observations lead to a general
principle(s) (a theory or theories) about a social phenomenon
o Deductive reasoning: an explanation that moves from an argument that may be logically
or theoretically expected to observations that test whether the expected pattern actually
occurs.
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Idiographic/Nomothetic Explanations & Inductive/Deductive Reasoning
o Researchers may rely on both idiographic and nomothetic approaches and
inductive/deductive reasoning (theory) in planning and executing their research
Quantitative and Qualitative Data in Social Science Research
o Almost all our observations of the social world start out as qualitative;
o Qualitative research is confined to studying relatively small groups of people with a
goal of issuing “representations” of the social world, and of theorizing “why” social
phenomenon occurs in the ways (patterns) they are observed by the researcher... (See
B&R p. 24-25)
o Quantification involves converting qualitative observations into quantitative form…for
the purpose of testing a theory or theories about the cause of observed social patterns,
using large samples or even whole populations… i.e.: see Sriram & Tarasuk (2015) in
reading list;
o Babbie & Roberts’ discussion of “variables” and “attributes” are central in quantitative
research (pp. 13-20)
What is Collaborative Research?
o As an emerging scholar and researcher…you will be encouraged to ask this question
o …and to think about the “interests” particular individuals or groups of researchers have
in a topic…
o To work together, in joint intellectual effort…to produce knowledge…
o Driven by multiple and diverse values/interests*
o Stakeholders: academic, community-based researchers, community members,
marginalized persons/groups, service providers, policy-makers, government officials
o =…different conceptualizations of “what do we want to know”; and “what is possible to
change” in approaches to ‘knowing about’ a particular social phenomenon…
In Summary:
o We want to understand our world…
o We want to predict our futures…
o We want to construct and change the world in which we live…
o In doing research or “human inquiry” …we aim to understand both what is going on in
our world, and why phenomenon occur in one way and not another…; and we want to
effect change...
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Reality" and : assuming various possibilities of reality, understanding the broad range of possibilities for structuring research, examining patterns. What is real: what is real for one person, may not be real to another. Idiographic/nomothetic explanations & inductive/deductive reasoning: researchers may rely on both idiographic and nomothetic approaches and inductive/deductive reasoning (theory) in planning and executing their research. What is collaborative research: as an emerging scholar and researcher you will be encouraged to ask this question. Two different ways of knowing" about food insecurity : lindberg, r. , lawrence, m. caraher, m. (2017). The perspectives of emergency food users in victoria, australia. Hunger and environmental nutrition 12(1): 26-45: sriram, u. , tarasuk, v. (2015). Changes in household food security rates in canadian metropolitan areas from 2007 2012. Canadian journal of public health 106(5): e322- e327. Three broad categories: instrumental or positivist paradigm, interactive/constructivist paradigm, critical paradigm.
