PA 311 Lecture 02 Foundations

Basic Concept of Social Research
Lecture
A/Professor Sadik 02
Hasan, PhD
Social Research:
Course Teacher Foundations
Introduction
• Like any topic, we have to begin with something. And the best thing to
begin with is the Introduction. Introduction is the part where we take care
of all the stuff you think you already know, and probably should already
know, but most likely don't know as well as you think you do.
• So, as part of Introduction, we are going to talk about the Language of
Research. Why? If we don’t, we're going to have a hard time discussing
research.
Language of Research
• Learning about research is a lot like learning about anything else. To start, you
need to learn the jargon people use, the big controversies they fight over, and
the different factions that define the major players.
• We'll start by considering five really big multi-syllable words that
researchers sometimes use to describe what they do. We can then take on
some of the major issues in research like the types of questions we can ask in
a project, the role of time in research, and the different types of relationships
we can estimate. Then we have to consider defining some basic terms like
variable, hypothesis, data, unit of analysis and two of the major fallacies of
research.
Five Big Words
 Research involves an eclectic blending of an enormous range of skills and activities. To be a
good social researcher, you have to be able to work well with a wide variety of people,
understand the specific methods used to conduct research, understand the subject that you are
studying, be able to convince someone to give you the funds to study it, stay on track and on
schedule, speak and write persuasively, and on and on.
 I present the first two terms—theoretical and empirical—together because they are often
contrasted with each other.
 Social research is theoretical, meaning that much of it is concerned with developing, exploring
or testing the theories or ideas that social researchers have about how the world operates. But it
is also empirical, meaning that it is based on observations and measurements of reality -- on
what we perceive of the world around us.
 You can even think of most research as a blending of these two terms -- a comparison of our
theories about how the world operates with our observations of its operation.
…continue
 Thenext term is nomothetic. It is derived from the writings of the psychologist
Gordon Allport.
 Nomothetic refers to laws or rules that pertain to the general case (nomos in Greek).
In any event, the point here is that most social research is concerned with the
nomothetic -- the general case -- rather than the individual. We often study
individuals, but usually we are interested in generalizing to more than just the
individual.
 The fourth big word that describes much contemporary social research is
probabilistic, or based on probabilities. The inferences that we make in social
research have probabilities associated with them -- they are seldom meant to be
considered covering laws that pertain to all cases. Part of the reason we have seen
statistics become so dominant in social research is that it allows us to estimate
probabilities for the situations we study.
…continue
 The last term is causal. The term causal means that most social research is interested (at
some point) in looking at cause-effect relationships. This doesn't mean that most studies
actually study cause-effect relationships. There are some studies that simply observe—for
instance, surveys that seek to describe the percent of people holding a particular opinion.
And, there are many studies that explore relationships—for example, studies that attempt
to see whether there is a relationship between gender and salary.
 So why am I talking about causal studies? Because for most social sciences, it is important
that we go beyond just looking at the world or looking at relationships. We would like to
be able to change the world, to improve it and eliminate some of its major problems. If we
want to change the world (especially if we want to do this in an organized, scientific way),
we are automatically interested in causal relationships—ones that tell us how our causes
(e.g., programs, treatments) affect the outcomes of interest.
Types of Questions/Studies
 There are three basic types of questions that research projects can address:
 Descriptive. When a study is designed primarily to describe what is going on or
what exists. Public opinion polls that seek only to describe the proportion of
people who hold various opinions are primarily descriptive in nature. For
instance, if we want to know what percent of the population would vote for AL or
BNP in the next presidential election, we are simply interested in describing
something.
 Relational. When a study is designed to look at the relationships between two or
more variables. A public opinion poll that compares what proportion of males and
females say they would vote for AL or BNP candidate in the next election is
essentially studying the relationship between gender and voting preference.
…continue
 Causal. When a study is designed to determine whether one or more variables (e.g., a
program or treatment variable) causes or affects one or more outcome variables. If we
did a public opinion poll to try to determine whether a recent political advertising
campaign changed voter preferences, we would essentially be studying whether the
campaign (cause) changed the proportion of voters who would vote AL or BNP (effect).
 The three question types can be viewed as cumulative. That is, a relational study
assumes that you can first describe (by measuring or observing) each of the
variables you are trying to relate. And, a causal study assumes that you can describe
both the cause and effect variables and that you can show that they are related to
each other. Causal studies are probably the most demanding of the three.

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Basic Concept of Social Research

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