SOCIOLOGY/ANTHROPOLOGY 300: INTRODUCTION TO RESEARCH METHODS

INSTRUCTOR: DR. VANDANA KOHLI

STUDENT ASSISTANTS: BARNEY SIMONS AND PATRICIA LEWIS

CLASS AND INSTRUCTOR INFORMATION

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

CALENDAR OF READINGS AND TEST SCHEDULE

HOMEWORK

LAB EXERCISES (With revised due dates)

TEST 1 ANSWERS

Survey and Experimental Chapters Homework

NOTE: PLEASE REVIEW NEW TIME FOR FINAL EXAM AND NEW GRADE DISTRIBTUION

CLASS AND INSTRUCTOR INFORMATION

Instructor's Office Hours: MONDAY AND WEDNESDAY 1:00 - 2:00 p.m. and by appointment.

Instructor's Office: DDH CC201. Phone # 665-6614. You may leave a message at this number any time.

Required Texts: The Practice of Social Research by Earl Babbie, Wadsworth 2004.

Goals and Objectives: The overall goal of this class is to introduce students to the field of research methodology. This is achieved through the realization of all of the following goals:

acquire substantive knowledge about the techniques for conducting social research;

acquire skills in analytical techniques for describing, understanding, and explaining these techniques;

enhance skills in using informational systems such as graphs, statistics, and statistical software;

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Course Requirements

Your course grade will be determined by your performance on in-class exams, laboratory exercises, and homework assignments.  Absolutely no one will be given a make-up for exams or delayed assignments except in the case of a medical EMERGENCY corroborated by a written note from a doctor. Please understand that I do not consider a visit to the doctor for an ongoing medical condition during a scheduled test a medical emergency. The only absence I will excuse is one that results from an unexpected turn of events and which affects your medical condition directly.  Attendance in this class is mandatory, contributing four percent to your total grade (see below). You cannot make up for missed attendance points so please attend class regularly. 

GRADING

Exams 36 percent

Proposal 20 percent

Labs 22 percent

Homework 18 percent

Attendance 4 percent

Remember, if there is anything I can do to facilitate your learning beyond class lectures please feel free to come and see me.

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SCHEDULE AND CALENDAR OF READINGS

MONDAY	WEDNESDAY	FRIDAY
MARCH 28 CLASS INTRODUCTION	MARCH 30 C1: HUMAN INQUIRY AND SCIENCE	APRIL 1 C1: HUMAN INQUIRY AND SCIENCE
HOMEWORK 1: DUE APRIL 4
APRIL 4 C2: PARADIGMS, THEORY, AND SOCIAL RESEARCH	APRIL 6 C2: PARADIGMS, THEORY, AND SOCIAL RESEARCH	APRIL 8 MOVIE
HOMEWORK 2: DUE APRIL 11
APRIL 11 C3: THE ETHICS AND POLITICS OF SOCIAL RESEARCH	APRIL 13 C4: RESEARCH DESIGN (COMPLETE READING ENTIRE CHAPTER)	APRIL 15 C4: UNDERSTANDING RESEARCH DESIGN; CAUSALITY, SPURIOUS RELATIONSHIPS, AND UNITS OF ANALYSIS
HOMEWORK 3: DUE APRIL 18
APRIL 18 TEST 1 REVIEW	APRIL 20 TEST 1	APRIL 22 C5: CONCEPTUALIZATION, OPERATIONALIZATION, AND MEASUREMENT (TILL END OF PAGE 133)
HOMEWORK 4: DUE APRIL 25
APRIL 25 C5: CONCEPTUALIZATION, OPERATIONALIZATION, AND MEASUREMENT (TILL END OF CHAPTER)	APRIL 27 C6: INDEXES, SCALES, AND TYPOLOGIES – LECTURE WILL CONTINUE THROUGH LAB TIME	APRIL 29 C7: THE LOGIC OF SAMPLING
HOMEWORK 5: DUE MAY 2
MAY 2 C7: THE LOGIC OF SAMPLING	MAY 4 TEST 2	MAY 6 C8: EXPERIMENTS
HOMEWORK 6: DUE MAY 9
MAY 9 C9: SURVEY RESEARCH	MAY 11 C9: SURVEY RESEARCH	MAY 13 C10: QUALITATIVE FIELD RESEARCH
HOMEWORK 7: DUE MAY 16
MAY 16 TEST 3: TAKE HOME DUE DATE May 23	MAY 18 C12: EVALUATION RESEARCH	MAY 20 DEVELOPING THE RESEARCH PROPOSAL
MAY 23 C13: QUALITATIVE DATA ANALYSIS	MAY 25 GUEST LECTURE Dr. Karen Stocker	MAY 27 DEVELOPING THE RESEARCH PROPOSAL
MAY 30: HOLIDAY – NO CLASS	JUNE 1 RESEARCH PROPOSAL DUE C14: QUANTITATIVE DATA ANALYSIS	JUNE 3 C14: QUANTITATIVE DATA ANALYSIS
JUNE 6 TEST 4 REVIEW CLASS CONCLUSION
JUNE 9: TEST 4 (NOTE: THIS TEST WILL BE ON THURSDAY FROM 8:00 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.)

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HOMEWORK

Homework 1: Due April 4 during lecture.

1. Identify a topic that you are interested in researching during the next ten weeks for your class on research methodology.

2. Identify at least five social variables that might be important for your study.

3. List these five variables and identify the attributes they comprise.

4. Identify pairs of dependent and independent variables. NOTE: If you have only one dependent variable, then that variable should be one of the two variables in your five pairs.

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Lab Exercises:

All lab assignments are due on the Monday following the week during which they were assigned.

Entering data, naming, saving and retrieving files

Defining data and data cleaning

Frequencies

Examining means (creating and comparing)

Crosstabs

Recoding variables

Crosstabs again

Creating bar graphs (Due May 16)

Exploring variable language (Due May 18)

Nomothetic causality (Due May 18)

The time dimension (Due May 23)

Operationalizing concepts (Due May 25)

SOC/ANTH 300: Research Methods

Take Home Test (Test 2)

May 6, 2005

Answer all of the following questions. Use complete sentences and paragraphs where necessary. Type your responses.

Conceptualization, Operationalization, and Measurement

1. Select one of the following concepts: religiosity, feminism, patient anxiety, or mairtal happiness. Go through the measurement process by completing the steps below:

Describe the conceptualization process you would employ to measure this concept. Be specific. Be sure your response reflects the conceptualization process by using the text as your guide.

Provide a nominal definition of the concept.

Describe indicators you would use in developing your operational definition.

2. Sue is twenty (20) years old and Mary is forty (40) years old. Write a simple statement regarding Sue and Mary’s ages that illustrates each of the levels of measurement: nominal; ordinal; interval; and ratio.

Indexes, Scales and Typologies

3. Explain the three reasons for the frequent use of indexes and scales in social science research. What do indexes and scales have in common? How are they different?
4. Compare and contrast the Likert and Thurstone scaling procedures. For each note the advantages, disadvantages, purpose and procedures.
5. Identify a concept in which you are interested (note: you may not use the same concept that you used to answer question 1 BUT you may use one of the remaining ones on that list). Develop a semantic differential scale to measure that concept. The steps below will help:

Identify your concept.

List at least five dimensions that adequately reflect your concept.

Set up the items to resemble Figure 6-5 in the text, and include both the polar opposite terms and the ratings in between.

Describe how you would score the results.

The Logic of Sampling

6. Suppose you were asked by the principal of a local high school to do a survey of the student body. The principal believes it is sufficient to stop students on their way to the library and hand out questionnaires. You argue for a probability sample instead. State your argument, and give at least two reasons why probability sampling might be preferred. Be sure to incorporate the discussion on probability sampling presented in our text.

The following is a partial list of sociologists taken from the Guide to Members published by the ASA. Use this list for question number 7 and 8.

1. Lauren Aaronson
2. Andrew Abbott
3. James Abbott
4. Kimberly Abbott
5. Joan Abbott-Chapman
6. Felix Abdala
7. Saleha Abedin
8. Thomas Abel
9. Anthoney Abels
10. Ronald Abeles
11. Chistopher Abels
12. Marjori Abend-Wein
13. Joel Aberbach
14. David Aberle
15. Pnina Aber-Am
16. Joyce Abma
17. Mitchel Abolafia
18. Jill Abood
19. Mitchell Aboulafia
20. Demorah Abowitz
21. Gary Abraham
22. Brant Abrhamson
23. Mark Abrahamson
24. Glen Abrams
25. Paul Abramson
26. Jeana Abromeit
27. Lorein Abroms
28. James Absher
29. Vicki Abt
30. Janet Abu-Lughod
31. Rikki Abzug
32. Joan Acker
33. Alan Acock
34. Kazumi Adachi
35. Stephen Adair
36. Barry Adam
37. Donal Admachak
38. Anne Adams
39. Ben Adams
40. Bert Adams
41. Darrell Adams
42. Douglas James Adams
43. Janet Adams
44. Joanne Adams
45. Julia Adams
46. Laura Adams
47. Michelle Adams
48. Randolph Adams
49. Rebecca Adams
50. Reed Adams
51. Richard Adams
52. Stacy Adams
53. Christopher Adamson
54. Michalle Adato
55. Lu Ann Aday
56. David Aday
57. Michele Adcock
58. Donald Addison
59. Miriam Adelman
60. Richard Adelman
61. Pamela Adelmann
62. Larry Adelmon
63. Evan Adelson
64. Frnacis Adeola
65. Maurice Adib
66. Edward Adlaf
67. Chaima Adler
68. Emily Adler
69. Gerald Adler
70. Glen Adler
71. Leta Adler
72. Marina Adler

7. Review the box in the text on using a table of random numbers (202-203). Using the list of sociologists noted on the preceding list and a table of random numbers (Appendix C) select a simple random sample of ten names. As you select your sample, you will move through the list of random numbers in the random number table. Record all the numbers that you used from the table before you had the numbers necessary for your sample. List your final sample below and explain the procedures you employed to derive it.
8. Using the list of sociologists, select a stratified systematic sample of approximately ten names beginning with a random start. The stratification variable in this case is gender. Reorganize the list of names by gender first. This can most easily be done by reorganizing the numbers of the names. If a person’s gender is not immediately obvious place the first non-obvious name in the female category the second in the male category etc. Then select your systematic sample across reorganized list.

Provide your reorganized list.

What was your sampling interval; random start; and the final sample list?

SOC/ANTH 300: Research Methods

Take Home Test (Test 3)

Due Date: May 23, 2005

Note: All students are required to answer the first question and either the second OR third question.

1. Develop a questionnaire to be given to students on your campus. Write questions on the follwoig concepts:

Class level

College/division/school

Gender

Attitudes toward gun control (two questions)

Attitudes toward various services provided on your campus (eg recreational, health etc.) (three questions)

Number of movies seen

Rating of movie enjoyment

Problems respondents feel are most serious in America today

Attitudes towards one or two political issues that you believe may be relevant to students on your campus (two questions)

Two questions of your choice

2. Design a small group laboratory experiment that would test the following hypothesis using the classical design:

Men who work with women who appear clearly more effective than themselves in finding a solution to a problem-solving task will have a higher regard for women than men who work in a group without women on the same task.

NOTE: This experiment involves only men as subjects. The women are simply confederates and are not part of the basic design. Also, be sure to devise a laboratory experiment.

Describe the experimental ad control groups appropriate to the experiment. Describe how you would select the men for the study. Describe how you would assign them to the experimental and control groups.

Describe a problem-solving task that might be appropriate for this experiment. That is, develop a problem-solving task that would offer the male subjects the experience of seeing women do better than themselves (the experimental group) or the experience of working on the problem solving task without the more competent women or without any women (control group). Again, remember that the women are confederates and are not part of the experimental or control groups.

Describe the means by which you would test the attitudes of men regarding women’s analytical abilities (in general, not as applied to the women in the experiment) prior to the experiment (pretest of attitudes). Provide three sample items.

Describe how you would make sure that the confederate women in the experimental group would be clearly more effective in solving the problem than the men.

Describe the means by which you would test the attitudes of men regarding women’s analytical abilities after the problem-solving exercises (post test of attitudes). Provide three sample items.

Describe two potential sources of internal invalidity that your design reduces or avoids. Explain why or how your design does this.

Describe one potential source of external invalidity that your design reduces or avoids. Explain why or how your design does this. Remember external reflects generalizability.

Make up some results that you might get in such an experiment. Be sure to indicate whether the results tend to confirm or disconfirm the hypothesis.

3. Plan a possible field research project to investigate differences in friendship patterns in coed and single sex residence halls. The question below deal with some of the concepts you may wish to consider n such a study. For each, describe some of the possible indicators that might be relevant to the concept. You can observe and you can do interviews using field notebooks, but you cannot hand out a questionnaire or do formal interviews such as structured interview schedules. You want to be able to determine if the friendships are with people in the same dorm.

How would you determine the number of friendships each resident in the coed and single sex residence hall has.

How would you determine the quality of friendships? Think of quality as the strength or intensity of friendship. How would you determine if the friendships are close, distant, or in between?

Which other aspect of friendship patterns would you expect to differ in the two situations? List at least three along with their possible indicators. Think about such activities as dating, recreation, visiting, topics of conversation, and the like, but be sure to be specific and describe how you would expect them to differ in the two types of dorms and what would be some indicators that you could observe to determine if they do differ.

List two other variables that you might consider in a study such as this. These should be variables besides residence hall type that might be related to the number and quality of friendships that develop. Think about what might be some variables that would determine whom residents become friends with or determine how strong a friendship would develop.

Describe how you might measure the first variable you noted in the previous section. What would you be looking for or what types of questions might you ask?

Describe how you might measure the second variable you noted in the previous section. What would you be looking for or what types of questions might you ask?

How would you determine the accuracy of your findings?

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