SOCIOL 5 Chapter Notes - Chapter 4: Reductionism, Sociobiology, Ecological Fallacy
Document Summary
To explore a topic and familiarize a researcher with that topic. Satisfy researcher"s curiosity and desire for better understanding. To test the feasibility of undertaking a more extensive study. To develop methods to be employed in any subsequent study. Seldom provide satisfactory answers to research questions. People you study may not be of the larger population that interests you. Descriptive studies answer questions of what, where, when, and how. Third general purpose of social science research is to explain. Why (reporting voting intentions vs. why they vote for a person) Exhaustive understanding of causes producing events and situations in single or limited cases (seek to root out everything that contributed to a result) Comparisons with similar situations, either in different places or at different times in the same place, can be insightful. Ex. a campus has had previous protests or perhaps there was a time when a protest almost occurred but did not.
