Major Types of social research

1. Major Types of social research BUSN 364 – Week 5 Özge Can

2. Steps in the Research Process: • Define research objectives • Research topic and research questions • Plan the research design • Selecting the sample design • Identify measurements • Selecting the data collection techniques • Collect the data • Analyze the data • Formulate the conclusions and inform the others • Interpretation of the data • Preparing the research report

3. Steps in the Research Process:

4. A Research Example:Lowery and Colleagues (2007) • Select a topic • Priming and academic performance • Focus the question • Do students who are primed improve academic performance? • Design the study • Experimental design • Collect the data • Collected data from students of social psychology courses • Analyze the data • Statistical analysis employed • Interpret the data • Students who were primed scored higher on exams • Inform others • Published in a scientific journal:Applied Social Psychology

5. Dimensions in Research: a) How will weuseresearch findings b) Why do we conduct this research: What is the primary purpose of the study c) The number of cases and how we examine them d) How will we incorporatetime e) Which data collection techniquesand study design will we use 8

6. Major Types of Research 1. Use and audience of research: • Basic • Applied 2.Purpose of the research: • Explore • Describe • Explain 3. Single or multiple points in time: • Cross-sectional • Longitudinal 4. Within or across cases: • Case study • Across-case

7. Major Types of Research 5. Data collection techniques: • Quantitative data • Experiement, survey, nonreactive • Qualitative data • Field research • Historical-comparitive

8. 2. Use and Audience of Research • Basic research:extendsbasic understanding and fundamental knowledge • Build or testtheoretical explanations • Scientific community is the primary audience • Applied research: addresses a specific practical question/problem and give usable concrete answers in the short term • Findings used in decision-making • Active practitioners are the audience 9

10. Example: Basic Research • 1984 => Alec Jeffrey, a genetists in the UK • Studying the evolution of genes • As an indirect accidental side effect, a new technique developed => help to produce human DNA “fingerprints” • By mid-1990s, applied use of this technique developed • DNA analysis=> widely used in criminal investigations and in medical field

11. Example: Applied Research • Wysong et al. (1994) evaluate the effectivenes for a drug abuse resistance education (D.A.R.E.) program in 10,000 schools in 43 countries • Having police officers deliver talks in schools • Program objective = Enhancing knowledge of drugs and coping skills, raising self-esteem • Researchers examined two groups of students: • One group participated in DARE, the other not

12. Types and Tools of Applied Research • Most widely used applied research type: • Evaluation research: how well a program or policy is working or reaching its goals or objectives • Two tools in applied research: • Need assesment =>gathering descriptive information about a need, issue or concern; its magnitude, scope and severity • Cost-benefit anaysis => assigning a monetary value to the inputs and outcomes of a process and then examining the balance between them

13. 2. Purpose of Research • Exploration =>research into a new topic to develop a general understanding and refining ideas for future research • Description => research that presents a picture of the specific details of a situation,social setting, group or relationship • Explanation => research that attempts to explain why events occur and to build, extend, or test theory 10

14. Purpose of Research • Exploratory Research: • Help to become familiar with the basic facts, setting and concern • Create a general picture of conditions • Formulate more precise questions for future research • Generate new ideas or hypotheses • Mostly use qualitative data => discovering new issues • Key question: “what” 10

15. Example: Exploratory Research • Gavlee (2005) => an exploratory ethnographic study of racial classification in Puerto Rico. • Motivated by previous studies: The way people deal with race in Latin American countries and how is it different from the U.S.? • Study questions: • What categories do people use in Puerto Rico? • What are the organizing principles of the categories? • Method: Open-ended interviews with people

16. Purpose of Research • Descriptive Research: • Starts with a well-defined issue or question and try to describe it accurately • Outcome is a detailed, highly accurate picture of a phenomenon • Create a set of categories or classify types • Clarify a sequence of steps or stages • Questions: “who”, “when”, “where”, “how” 10

17. Example: Descriptive Research • Unnevar and Cullen (2007) => Support for death penalty • The details of Americans’ support for death penalty • A secondary data analysis with a national sample of 1,500 people • Descriptive statistical analysis: • The percentages of supoorters within different categories of people • White, African-emarican, conservative ideology, religious beliefs. Highest support among Whites

18. Purpose of Research • Explanatory Research: • Identifies the reason why something occurs • Test a theory’s predictions or principle • Enrich a theory’s already existing explanation or extend a theory to new issues and topics • Support or refute an explanation/ prediction • Determine which of several explanations is best • Key question: “why” 10

19. Example: Explanatory Research • Lee et al. (2004) => Homeless people • Why are people have favorable or unfavorable opinions about homeless people? • “Contact hypothesis”: personal interaction • Survey data from a random sample of 1,388 adults • Finding: • People who had more contact and more intimate type of contact with homeless people held most favorable view and more likely to support programs for them

20. 3. Within or Across Cases • Case => “unit” or “observation” in the research • We study a case because it is a part of some group, type or kind • Studies differ according to: • The number of cases we examine • The depth and intensity of investigation into features of the cases Often, there is a trade-off between them 13

21. Case Study Research In-depth examination of a few cases: • The cases can be individuals, groups, organizations, movements, events or geographical units • Most of them are qualitative • Extensive amount of information on each case’s features as well as the surrounding situation • Example: Venkatesh (2008)’s study on one gang at the South Chicago during 8 years 13

22. Across-Case Research • Examines information on many cases and focus on a few features of them • Specifies a few features and focuses on the relationships among them • Mostly quantitative research • Example: How a family decides whether to move to a different town? Two alternative research strategies: • Select five families and conduct indepth interviews with them • The relationship between husband’s job and family income and the decision to move => survey of 1000 families 13

23. 4. Single or Multiple Points in Time • Cross-Sectional Research => examines information on cases at one point in time • Creates a kind of “snapshot” of social life • Most consistent with descriptive approach • Longitudinal research => gathers data on cases at multiple time points • Provides a “moving picture” of events, people or social relationships across time • More difficult to conduct, requires more resources 13

24. Types of Longitudinal Research • Time-series research => data are collected on different people or other units across multiple time points • Turkey’s birth rates since 1923 • Panel study => observe or gather data on exactly the same poeple or cases across time • Neild et al (2008): reasons for dropping out from high-school: following a group of students for 3 years • Cohort study => studies a category of people who share a similar life experience in a specified period • People born in the same year; people hired at the same time; peole who graduate in a given year 13

25. Cross-sectional research:

26. Time-series research:

27. Time-series research

28. Panel research:

29. Cohort study:

30. 5. Data Collection Techniques • Quantitative Data: data in the form of numbers • Experimental research • Survey research • Non-reactive research: • Content analysis • Existing statistics; secondary data • Qualitative Data: data in the form of words • Field Research • Ethnography, natural observation, interview • Historical–Comparative Research 13

31. Quantitative Data Collection • Experimental research: researcher manipulates conditions for some research participants but not others; compare group responses for a difference • Highly effective for explanatory research • Survey research: researcher systematically asks a larger number of people the same questions and then records their asnwer • Existing statistics/ secondary data analysis: examining and statistically analyzing of quantitative data that were previously collected and stored 13

32. Qualitative Data Collection • Qualitative data comes in many forms: • Photos, maps, open-enden interviews, observations, documents, and so forth. • Field Research: conducting ethnographic study on a small group of people for a length of time • Careful observation and interaction at the field setting • Data in the form of detailed notes taken • Researcher leave the field site, review notes and prepare written reports

33. Example: Field Research • Duneier (1999) => Street vendors in New York City, selling books and magazines on the sidewalk • Periodically working as a magazine vendor himself for 4-years • Observing and tape-recording of life of the vendors • Informal interviews • Related documents • Photos of the field site and its people

34. Qualitative Data Collection • Historical-Comperative Research: examines data on events and conditions in the historical past in one or few societies • A mix of evidence: existing documents (e.g. books, newspapers, diaries, photographs, maps), observations and interviews • Usually descriptive

35. Example: Historical-Comparative Research • Mahoney (2003) => The difference of development levels of 15 countries in Latin America • Comparison of the countries • Trying the understand the difference in terms of Spanish Colonial histories of the individual countries • Richer, central colonies versus poor, marginal colonies • Captures significant long-term dynamic processes • Impact of distant historical events

36. In-Class Exercise: • Student behaviors that you would be interested in studying (e.g., chatting on Facebook, partying, couples holding hands, carrying a bag etc). • Choose a single behavior that could be researched: • Try to define this target behavior • How would you study this behavior? What would be the main data collection method(s)? • Relate each method with a research objective (exploring, describing, explaining)

37. Homework -1: Why Is Science Important? • Watch the video: http://whyscience.co.uk/the-film/ 1. What are the different approaches articulated in the video regarding what science is and why it is important? 2. To which of these approached did you find yourself more closer? Why? 3. What is the general perception in Turkey about the importance of science? What can you suggest for promoting science and improving scientific literacy in this society?

38. Homework -2: • Find a media report of a scientific research • From magazines, newspapers or online sites like Google news • Jonathan Mueller’s webpage: http://jonathan.mueller.faculty.noctrl.edu/100/correlation_or_causation.htm • What type of a research is this: • Whether it is basic or applied research • What is the purpose of the study? • Who or what are the cases? How many cases were examined? • What is the time interval of the study? • What data collection methods are used?