CMN 102 Chapter Notes - Chapter 4: Nomothetic, Grounded Theory, Reductionism
16 Oct 2016
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Exploration: sometimes through focus groups/small group discussions: always bring new insights for topic under research, source of grounded theory. 3 criteria for nomothetic causal relationships in social research: variables need to be correlated, cause before effect, variables are nonspurious. Nonspuriousnes = effect cannot be explained by some 3rd variable. Ecological fallacy: the sum (the group, sets etc) speaks about the individuals making the sum. Reductionism: trying to explain a phenomenon with limited concepts. Cross-sectional study: observations of a sample of population/phenomenon made @ 1 point in time. Trying to understand causal processes occurring over time. Longitudinal studies- observation of population/phenomenon over long period of time. 3 types: trend studies: observes changes within population over time, cohort studies: observes changes in subpopulations over time, panel studies: examines same set each time. Panel attrition: when people who participated the 1st time may opt out in further times. ** only cohort and trend would allow researchers to see net changes.
