Sociology 2206A/B Midterm: Research Methods Midterm Notes.docx

• School: Western University
• Department: Sociology
• Course: Sociology 2206A/B
• Professor: Erin Demaiter

Document Summary

Components of a theory: definitions, description of the phenomena of interest, relational statements these can be deterministic or probabilistic. Types of theories: theories of the middle range limited in scope and can be tested directly, durkheim"s theory of suicide, grand theories general and abstract, cannot be tested directly, structural functionalism, symbolic interaction. Deduction: one way to conduct social scientific inquiry is through deduction, using deduction, one begins with a theory or explanation for something, then goes out into the world and tests it, deduction one of the main tools of scientific inquiry. You take a theory and devise a project and then collect data about that theory: theory (cid:0) hypothesis (cid:0) data collection (cid:0) findings (cid:0) hypothesis confirmed or rejected (cid:0) revision of theory. Induction often happens when you are interested in creating a new theory about the world: observations/findings (cid:0) (lead to) (cid:0) theory.