methods 1

Logic and observation (empiricism)

age, race, occupation

young or old, black or white, doctor or lawyer.

• Inaccurate Observations
• Overgeneralization
• Selective Observation
• Illogical Reasoning

Facts to theory.

Theory to fact

• Theory
• Data Collection
• Data Analysis

Causes another variable to occur.

Determined by another variable.

involved specific details

simple and to the point.

numerical data, makes observations more explicit and easier to aggregate, compare, and summarize data.

non-numerical data, richer in meaning. only has verbal meaning, no measurement ability.

focuses on theories of societies at large, such as institutions, whole societies, and interations among societies.

deals with social issues of life at the level of the individual or small groups. (dating behavior, arrest rates of certain individuals, domestic violence)

Auguste Comte, early positivism

Theological, Metaphysical, Social Science

Herbert Spencer, societies who are able to cope and adapt to changes of the present will be the ones that survive.

Karl Marx said that social behavior could best be seen as a process of conflict: The attempt to dominate others and avoid being dominated.

George Simmel, interested in how individuals interacted with each other. Microtheory. Dyads and Triads.

Harold Garfinkle, means methodology of the people.People form their own reality through their actions and interactions.

society viewed as an organism. each component in society has a function.

• Observations
• Concept
• Theory (axioms / postulates & propositions)
• Hypothesis
• Variables (independent & dependent)
• Fact
• Laws

abstract tags put on reality and are the beginning point in all scientific endeavors.

attempts to develope plausible explanations of reality.

fundamental assertions on which a theory is grounded.

Specific conclusions about the relationship among concepts.

specified testable expectation about empirical reality that follows from a more general proposition.

some phenomenon that has been observed.

scientists aspire to organize many facts under rules or laws. They must be truly universal, not merely accidental patterns.

Mental process where fuzzy and imprecise notions are made more specific and precise. A refinement and specification of abstract concepts.

developement of specific research procedures that will result in empirical observations.

Does the measuring insturment really measure what it claims to measure?

Concerns the stability and consistency of measurement. If the study were repeated would the instrument yield stable and uniform measures?

• Nominal
• Ordinal
• Interval
• Ratio

How to best measure a specific variable in their experiment.

Exhaustive and mutually exclusive. (gender, college major, hair color)

can be ranked in order (sue is older than mary)

equal distance between ranks. (IQ)

has all qualities of nominal, ordinal, and interval and is based on true zero point.

• 1. conceptualization
• 2. nominal definition
• 3. operationalization definition
• 4. measurements of the real world

• 1. relationship
• 2. time sequence
• 3. rival causal factors