01:920:101 Chap.3 Asking and Answering Sociological Questions
Asking and Answering Sociological Questions
This chapter covers how sociologists turn a question into evidence. The methods lecture sets out a research process of seven steps, from defining the problem and reviewing the literature to designing data collection, carrying out the research, interpreting results and reporting findings. Exam 1 asks you to know that sequence and the vocabulary attached to each step. The central vocabulary is about variables.
A hypothesis states a testable relationship. The independent variable is the suspected cause and must come first in time; the dependent variable is the outcome. Each must be operationalised, defined so that it can be measured, and the study needs an appropriate sample.
The lecture's warning that correlation is not causation, and its definition of a spurious relationship caused by a third variable, generate many of the trickiest multiple-choice items. Methods divide into qualitative and quantitative.
Qualitative work such as ethnography, participant observation and interviews uses non-numerical data to understand meaning; quantitative work such as surveys and experiments turns the social world into numbers. The review sheet asks for the strengths and weaknesses of surveys, ethnography and interviews and for the logic of mixed methods, which the chapter lays out in one table. The last part is ethics.
Weber's ideal of value-free sociology, informed consent, confidentiality and the role of an institutional review board are all on the review sheet, and so is Laud Humphreys's Tearoom Trade study, the course's example of research that produced surprising findings by deceiving the people it studied. The recitation for this topic asks groups to write research questions about a scenario and choose two methods.
Exam items on methods often hide the answer in a detail of design: which variable came first, whether a sample could represent the population, or whether a correlation might be spurious. The review sheet also lists informed consent, confidentiality and the purpose of an institutional review board, so expect at least one ethics scenario.
When you read a scenario, identify the design before evaluating it; many wrong options describe a flaw that the stated design does not actually have.
What this chapter covers
- 01
The seven-step research process
- 02
Hypotheses, independent and dependent variables
- 03
Operationalisation and sampling
- 04
Correlation, causation and spurious relationships
- 05
Qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods
- 06
Value-free sociology and research ethics
Worked example · free
Choosing two methods for a workplace question
- 2A research question with a clear independent and dependent variable.
- 2Method one, what its data and results would look like.
- 3Method two, with a pro and con set against the first.
Key terms
- Operationalisation
- Defining a concept so that it can be measured, for example turning social class into household income bands.
- Spurious relationship
- An apparent link between two variables that is actually produced by a third, intervening variable.
- Ethnography
- Studying people in their own settings to understand the meanings they give their activities, usually by participating, observing and writing field notes.
- Institutional review board
- A committee of scholars that reviews and approves research proposals and recommends how to protect human subjects.
- Hypothesis
- A testable statement about how two or more variables are related, written before data are collected.
- Informed consent
- Agreement to take part in research given freely by participants who understand what the study involves and its risks.
Asking and Answering Sociological Questions FAQ
Why is the Tearoom Trade study taught as an ethics case?
Humphreys observed private encounters, recorded licence plates and later contacted the men without telling them about the original observation. Participants never consented and their confidentiality was at risk, which is exactly what review boards now exist to prevent.
When should a study use qualitative rather than quantitative methods?
Choose qualitative designs when the question is about meaning, process or a particular setting, and quantitative designs when it is about how common something is or how variables relate across many cases. Mixed methods combine both when a question needs breadth and depth.
What is the difference between correlation and causation?
Correlation means two variables change together. Causation means one produces a change in the other, which also requires the cause to come first and no third variable to explain both. A spurious relationship looks causal but is produced by an intervening variable.
Exam move
Draw the seven-step sequence from memory, then write one example study and label its hypothesis, independent variable, dependent variable and sample. Finish by naming one ethical risk in your own design. Add a sentence on how you would protect participants' confidentiality.
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