The Practice of Social Research by Earl R. Babbie (z-lib.org)

The Practice of Social Research

Writing is my joy, sociology my passion. Earl Babbie I delight in putting words together in a way that makes people learn or laugh or both. I resigned from teaching in 1980 and wrote full- Sociology shows up as a set of words, also. It repre- time for seven years, until the call of the classroom sents our last, best hope for planet-training our race became too loud to ignore. For me, teaching is like and finding ways for us to live together. I feel a playing jazz. Even if you perform the same number special excitement at being present when sociology, over and over, it never comes out the same twice at last, comes into focus as an idea whose time has and you don’t know exactly what it’ll sound like come. until you hear it. Teaching is like writing with your voice. I grew up in small-town Vermont and New Hampshire. When I announced I wanted to be an In 2006, I retired from teaching once more, and auto-body mechanic, like my dad, my teacher told can now devote myself more fully to writing. I’ve me I should go to college instead. When Malcolm X been writing textbooks for over half my life, and announced he wanted to be a lawyer, his teacher it keeps becoming more exciting, rather than less. told him a colored boy should be something more I can’t wait to see what happens next. like a carpenter. The difference in our experiences says something powerful about the idea of a level playing field. The inequalities among ethnic groups run deep. I ventured into the outer world by way of Harvard, the USMC, U.C. Berkeley, and twelve years teaching at the University of Hawaii.

Thirteenth Edition The Practice of Social Research Earl Babbie Chapman University Australia • Brazil • Japan • Korea • Mexico • Singapore • Spain • United Kingdom • United States

The Practice of Social Research, © 2013, 2010 Wadsworth, Cengage Learning T­ hirteenth Edition, International Edition Earl Babbie ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this work covered by the copyright herein may be reproduced, transmitted, stored or used in any form or by Acquiring Sponsoring Editor: Erin Mitchell any means graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including but not limited to Associate Development Editor: Nicolas photocopying, recording, scanning, digitizing, taping, Web distribution, in-   Albert formation networks, or information storage and retrieval systems, except Assistant Editor: John Chell as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Editorial Assistant: Mallory Ortberg Act, or applicable copyright law of another jurisdiction, without the prior Media Editor: Melanie Cregger written permission of the publisher. Marketing Program Manager: Tami Strang Content Project Manager: Cheri Palmer For permission to use material from this text or product, Art Director: Caryl Gorska submit all requests online at www.cengage.com/permissions Manufacturing Planner: Judy Inouye Rights Acquisitions Specialist: Further permissions questions can be e-mailed to   Tom McDonough [email protected] Production Service: Greg Hubit Bookworks Photo Researcher: Lisa Smith International Edition: Text Researcher: Sue Howard ISBN-13: 978-1-133-05009-4 Copy Editor: Marne Evans ISBN-10: 1-133-05009-3 Proofreader: Debra Nichols Illustrator: Lotus Art Cengage Learning International Offices Text Designer: Diane Beasley Part-Opener and Chapter-Opener Images: Asia India   CAmmering CAmmering / photolibrary www.cengageasia.com www.cengage.co.in Compositor: MPS Limited, a Macmillan tel: (65) 6410 1200 tel: (91) 11 4364 1111   Company Australia/New Zealand Latin America www.cengage.com.au www.cengage.com.mx tel: (61) 3 9685 4111 tel: (52) 55 1500 6000 Brazil UK/Europe/Middle East/Africa www.cengage.com.br www.cengage.co.uk tel: (55) 11 3665 9900 tel:  (44) 0 1264 332 424 Represented in Canada by Nelson Education, Ltd. www.nelson.com tel: (416) 752 9100 / (800) 668 0671 Cengage Learning is a leading provider of customized learning solutions with office locations around the globe, including Singapore, the United Kingdom, Australia, Mexico, Brazil, and Japan. Locate your local office at: www.cengage.com/global For product information and free companion resources: www.cengage .com/international Visit your local office: www.cengage.com/global Visit our corporate website: www.cengage.com Printed in Canada 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 15 14 13 12 11

Dedication Suzanne Babbie

Contents in Brief part 1 An Introduction to Inquiry  1 part 2 part 4 The Structuring of Inquiry: Analysis of Data: Quantitative Quantitative and Qualitative  87 and Qualitative  387 part 3 Appendixes  523 Modes of Observation: Quantitative and Qualitative  227

Contents in Detail Preface  xv Chapter 2 Acknowledgments  xxii Social Inquiry: Ethics Part 1  An Introduction and Politics   30 to Inquiry  1 Introduction  31 Chapter 1 Ethical Issues in Social Research  32 Science and Social Research  2 Voluntary Participation  32 No Harm to the Participants  33 Introduction  3 Anonymity and Confidentiality  35 Looking for Reality  4 Deception  38 Analysis and Reporting  39 Knowledge from Agreement Reality  4 Institutional Review Boards  39 Errors in Inquiry, and Some Solutions  6 Professional Codes of Ethics  42 The Foundations of Social Science  8 Theory, Not Philosophy or Belief  8 Two Ethical Controversies  42 Social Regularities  9 Trouble in the Tearoom  42 Aggregates, Not Individuals  11 Observing Human Obedience  44 Concepts and Variables  12 The Purposes of Social Research  17 The Politics of Social Research  45 Some Dialectics of Social Research  18 Objectivity and Ideology  46 Idiographic and Nomothetic Explanation  19 Politics with a Little “p”  50 Inductive and Deductive Theory  21 Politics in Perspective  51 Determinism versus Agency  23 Qualitative and Quantitative Data  24 Chapter 3 The Research Proposal  26 Inquiry, Theory, and Paradigms   56 Introduction  57 Some Social Science Paradigms  57 Macrotheory and Microtheory  59 Early Positivism  59

Contents Social Darwinism  60 Nomothetic Explanation  93 Conflict Paradigm  61 Criteria for Nomothetic Causality  93 Symbolic Interactionism  61 Nomothetic Causal Analysis Ethnomethodology  62 and Hypothesis Testing  94 Structural Functionalism  63 False Criteria for Nomothetic Causality  95 Feminist Paradigms  64 Critical Race Theory  65 Necessary and Sufficient Causes  96 Rational Objectivity Reconsidered  66 Units of Analysis  97 Elements of Social Theory  69 Individuals  99 Two Logical Systems Revisited  70 Groups  99 Organizations  100 The Traditional Model of Science  70 Social Interactions  100 Deductive and Inductive Reasoning: A Case Social Artifacts  100 Units of Analysis in Review  102 Illustration  74 Faulty Reasoning about Units of Analysis: The A Graphic Contrast  76 Ecological Fallacy and Reductionism  103 Deductive Theory Construction  78 Getting Started  78 The Time Dimension  105 Constructing Your Theory  78 Cross-Sectional Studies  105 An Example of Deductive Theory: Distributive Longitudinal Studies  106 Justice  79 Approximating Longitudinal Studies  110 Examples of Research Strategies  111 Inductive Theory Construction  80 An Example of Inductive Theory: Why Do How to Design a Research Project  112 People Smoke Marijuana?  81 Getting Started  114 Conceptualization  114 The Links between Theory Choice of Research Method  114 and Research  82 Operationalization  115 Research Ethics and Theory  83 Population and Sampling  115 Observations  116 Part 2  The Structuring of Data Processing  116 Inquiry: Quantitative Analysis  116 and Qualitative  87 Application  116 Research Design in Review  116 Chapter 4 The Research Proposal  118 Purpose and Design of Research Elements of a Research Proposal  118 Projects  88 Chapter 5 Introduction  89 Three Purposes of Research  90 Sampling Logic  123 Exploration  90 Introduction  124 Description  91 A Brief History of Sampling  125 Explanation  92 President Alf Landon  125 President Thomas E. Dewey  126

Contents Nonprobability Sampling  128 Conceptualization  169 Reliance on Available Subjects  128 Indicators and Dimensions  169 Purposive or Judgmental Sampling  128 The Interchangeability of Indicators  171 Snowball Sampling  129 Real, Nominal, and Operational Quota Sampling  130 Definitions  172 Selecting Informants  131 Creating Conceptual Order  173 An Example of Conceptualization: The Theory and Logic of Probability The Concept of Anomie  174 Sampling  132 Definitions in Descriptive Conscious and Subconscious Sampling Bias  132 and Explanatory Studies  176 Representativeness and Probability Operationalization Choices  177 of Selection  133 Range of Variation  177 Random Selection  135 Variations between the Extremes  179 Probability Theory, Sampling Distributions, A Note on Dimensions  179 Defining Variables and Attributes  180 and Estimates of Sampling Error  135 Levels of Measurement  180 Single or Multiple Indicators  184 Populations and Sampling Frames  143 Some Illustrations of Operationalization Review of Populations and Sampling Frames  146 Choices  185 Operationalization Goes On and On  186 Types of Sampling Designs  146 Simple Random Sampling  147 Criteria of Measurement Quality  187 Systematic Sampling  147 Precision and Accuracy  188 Stratified Sampling  150 Reliability  188 Implicit Stratification in Systematic Validity  191 Sampling  151 Who Decides What’s Valid?  192 Illustration: Sampling University Students  152 Tension between Reliability and Validity  193 Multistage Cluster Sampling  153 The Ethics of Measurement  194 Multistage Designs and Sampling Error  155 Stratification in Multistage Cluster Chapter 7 Sampling  157 Probability Proportionate to Size (PPS) Typologies, Indexes, and Sampling  157 Scales  197 Disproportionate Sampling and Weighting  158 Introduction  198 Probability Sampling in Review  160 Indexes versus Scales  198 The Ethics of Sampling  160 Index Construction  201 Chapter 6 Item Selection  201 Examination of Empirical Relationships  202 From Concept to Index Scoring  207 Measurement  163 Handling Missing Data  208 Index Validation  209 Introduction  164 The Status of Women: An Illustration of Index Measuring Anything That Exists  164 Conceptions, Concepts, and Reality  165

Contents Scale Construction  215 Monitoring Returns  246 Bogardus Social Distance Scale  215 Follow-Up Mailings  247 Thurstone Scales  216 Response Rates  247 Likert Scaling  217 Compensation for Respondents  248 Semantic Differential  218 A Case Study  249 Guttman Scaling  219 Interview Surveys  250 Typologies  221 The Role of the Survey Interviewer  250 General Guidelines for Survey Interviewing  251 Part 3  Modes of Observation: Coordination and Control  253 Quantitative and Qualitative  227 Telephone Surveys  255 Computer-Assisted Telephone Interviewing Chapter 8 (CATI)  257 Response Rates in Interview Surveys  258 Surveys  228 Online Surveys  258 Introduction  229 Comparison of the Different Survey Topics Appropriate for Survey Methods  261 Research  229 Strengths and Weaknesses of Survey Guidelines for Asking Questions  230 Research  262 Secondary Analysis  264 Choose Appropriate Question Forms  231 Ethics and Survey Research  266 Make Items Clear  232 Avoid Double-Barreled Questions  232 Chapter 9 Respondents Must Be Competent Experiments and to Answer  232 Experimentation  270 Respondents Must Be Willing to Answer  234 Questions Should Be Relevant  234 Introduction  271 Short Items Are Best  234 Topics Appropriate for Experiments  271 Avoid Negative Items  235 The Classical Experiment  272 Avoid Biased Items and Terms  235 Independent and Dependent Variables  272 Questionnaire Construction  237 Pretesting and Posttesting  272 General Questionnaire Format  237 Experimental and Control Groups  273 Formats for Respondents  237 The Double-Blind Experiment  274 Contingency Questions  238 Matrix Questions  239 Selecting Subjects  275 Ordering Items in a Questionnaire  240 Probability Sampling  276 Questionnaire Instructions  241 Randomization  276 Pretesting the Questionnaire  242 Matching  277 A Composite Illustration  242 Matching or Randomization?  278 Self-Administered Questionnaires  242 Variations on Experimental Design  278 Mail Distribution and Return  245 Preexperimental Research Designs  278 Validity Issues in Experimental Research  279

Contents An Illustration of Experimentation  285 Special Considerations in Qualitative Alternative Experimental Settings  287 Field Research  327 Web-Based Experiments  288 The Various Roles of the Observer  328 “Natural” Experiments  289 Relations to Subjects  329 Strengths and Weaknesses of the Experimental Method  290 Some Qualitative Field Ethics and Experiments  291 Research Paradigms  333 Chapter 10 Naturalism  333 Ethnomethodology  334 Unobtrusive Measures  294 Grounded Theory  336 Case Studies and the Extended Case Introduction  295 Content Analysis  295 Method  338 Institutional Ethnography  340 Topics Appropriate for Content Analysis  296 Participatory Action Research  341 Sampling in Content Analysis  297 Coding in Content Analysis  300 Conducting Qualitative Illustrations of Content Analysis  305 Field Research  343 Strengths and Weaknesses of Content Preparing for the Field  343 Analysis  306 Qualitative Interviewing  345 Analyzing Existing Statistics  307 Focus Groups  349 Recording Observations  350 Durkheim’s Study of Suicide  307 The Consequences of Globalization  309 Strengths and Weaknesses of Qualitative Units of Analysis  310 Field Research  353 Problems of Validity  310 Problems of Reliability  311 Validity  353 Sources of Existing Statistics  311 Reliability  354 Comparative and Historical Research  314 Examples of Comparative and Historical Ethics and Qualitative Field Research  355 Research  314 Sources of Comparative and Historical Data  317 Chapter 12 Analytic Techniques  318 Ethics and Unobtrusive Measures  320 Evaluation Research: Types, Methods, and Issues  358 Chapter 11 Introduction  359 Paradigms, Methods, Topics Appropriate for Evaluation and Ethics of Qualitative Research  360 Field Research  323 Formulating the Problem: Issues of Measurement  362 Introduction  324 Topics Appropriate for Field Research  324 Specifying Outcomes  363 Measuring Experimental Contexts  364 Specifying Interventions  364 Specifying the Population  364 New versus Existing Measures  365 Operationalizing Success/Failure  365

Contents Types of Evaluation Research Chapter 14 Designs  366 Analyzing Quantitative Experimental Designs  366 Data  413 Quasi-Experimental Designs  367 Qualitative Evaluations  371 Introduction  414 Quantification of Data  414 The Social Context  373 Logistical Problems  373 Developing Code Categories  415 Use of Research Results  375 Codebook Construction  417 Data Entry  418 Social Indicators Research  380 The Death Penalty and Deterrence  380 Univariate Analysis  418 Computer Simulation  381 Distributions  418 Central Tendency  420 Ethics and Evaluation Research  382 Dispersion  423 Continuous and Discrete Variables  425 Part 4  Analysis of Data: Detail versus Manageability  426 Quantitative and Qualitative  387 Subgroup Comparisons  426 “Collapsing” Response Categories  427 Chapter 13 Handling “Don’t Knows”  428 Numerical Descriptions in Qualitative Analyzing Qualitative Data  389 Research  429 Introduction  390 Bivariate Analysis  430 Linking Theory and Analysis  390 Percentaging a Table  431 Constructing and Reading Bivariate Tables  433 Discovering Patterns  390 Grounded Theory Method  392 Introduction to Multivariate Analysis  434 Semiotics  393 Sociological Diagnostics  435 Conversation Analysis  395 Ethics and Quantitative Data Analysis  437 Qualitative Data Processing  396 Chapter 15 Coding  396 Memoing  400 Origins and Paradigm Concept Mapping  401 of the Elaboration Model  441 Computer Software for Qualitative Data Introduction  442 Analysis  403 The Origins of the Elaboration Model  442 QDA Programs  403 The Elaboration Paradigm  447 Using NVivo to Understand Women Film Replication  448 Directors, by Sandrine Zerbib   404 Explanation  448 Interpretation  451 The Qualitative Analysis of Quantitative Specification  452 Data  407 Refinements to the Paradigm  453 Evaluating the Quality of Qualitative Research  407 Ethics and Qualitative Data Analysis  410

Elaboration and Ex Post Facto Contents Hypothesizing  456 Using the Internet Wisely  505 Chapter 16 Some Useful Websites  505 Searching the Web  506 Methods of Statistical Evaluating the Quality of Internet Analysis  459 Materials  508 Citing Internet Materials  511 Introduction  460 Descriptive Statistics  460 Writing Social Research  512 Some Basic Considerations  512 Data Reduction  460 Organization of the Report  513 Measures of Association  461 Guidelines for Reporting Analyses  517 Regression Analysis  465 Going Public  518 Inferential Statistics  469 Univariate Inferences  469 The Ethics of Reading Tests of Statistical Significance  470 and Writing Social Research  519 The Logic of Statistical Significance  471 Chi Square  475 Appendixes  523 t-Test  477 Some Words of Caution  478 A Using the Library  524 Other Multivariate Techniques  480 B GSS Household Enumeration Path Analysis  480 Time-Series Analysis  481 Questionnaire  533 Factor Analysis  483 C Random Numbers  543 Analysis of Variance  486 D Distribution of Chi Square  545 Discriminant Analysis  488 E Normal Curve Areas  547 Log-Linear Models  490 F Estimated Sampling Error  548 Odds-Ratio Analysis  492 Geographic Information Systems (GIS)  493 Glossary  549 Chapter 17 Bibliography  563 Consuming and Creating Index  576 Social Research  497 Introduction  498 Reading Social Research   498 Organizing a Review of the Literature  498 Reading Journals versus Books  499 Evaluating Research Reports  500



Preface A “few” years ago (I hate to tell you how many), 3. Being prepared to make appropriate com- I began teaching my first course in social re- promises whenever field conditions do not search methods. The course focused specifically permit the routine application of established on survey research methods, and I had only six techniques. students in the class. As the semester progressed, I became more relaxed as a teacher. Before long, The next day, unexpectedly, Wadsworth called and my students and I began meeting in my office, asked me to write a methods text! where I could grab and lend books from my own library as their relevance occurred to me during Survey Research Methods was published in 1973. class meetings. My editors and I immediately received some good news, some bad news, and some additional good One nagging problem I faced then was the news. The first good news was that all survey lack of a good textbook on survey research. research instructors seemed to love the book, and The available books fell into one of two groups. it was being used in virtually every survey research Some books presented the theoretical logic of course in the country. The bad news was that there research methods in such abstract terms that I weren’t all that many survey research courses. didn’t think students would be able to apply any of the general principles to the practical world The final good news, however, was that many of “doing” research. The other books were just instructors who taught general social research the opposite. Often termed “cookbooks,” they courses—covering survey research alongside other presented detailed, step-by-step instructions on research methods—were inclined to use our book how to conduct a survey. Unfortunately, this and supplement it with other books dealing with approach only prepared students to conduct field research, experiments, and so on. While surveys very much like the one described by the adjusting to our specialized book, however, many authors. Neither the abstract nor the “cookbook” instructors suggested that Wadsworth have “that approach seemed truly useful to students or their same guy” write a more general social research text. instructors. The preface of the first edition of The Practice of One day I found myself jotting down the table Social Research (1975) acknowledged the assistance of contents for my ideal research methods text- of a dozen social research instructors from California book. It was organized around three themes: to Florida. The book was a collaboration in a very real sense, even though only my name was on the 1. Understanding the theoretical principles on cover and I was ultimately responsible for it. which scientific research is based. The Practice of Social Research was an immediate 2. Seeing how those principles are reflected in the success. Although it was initially written for established techniques for doing research. sociology courses, subsequent editions have been increasingly used in fields such as psychology,

Preface public administration, urban studies, education, have been assigned the book; many of the changes communications, social sciences, and political come from them. ­science—in some 30 different disciplines, I’m told. Moreover, it’s being used by teachers and research- This edition of the book contains some new ers in numerous countries around the world, and features, all of which were suggested by faculty in 2000 a Beijing publisher released a two-volume reviewers and users. Chinese edition. Research in Real Life  Sometimes, social I’ve laid out this lengthy history of the book for research requires us to delve deeply into the a couple of reasons. First, when I was a student, relationships among variables and/or take apart I suppose I thought of textbooks the same way intricate social structures. This leads some research- that I thought about government buildings: They ers and research consumers to worry that we may were just there. I never really thought about them lose sight of the human beings who lie at the core as being written by human beings. I certainly of our concerns. Some social research efforts, how- never thought about textbooks as evolving: being ever, are able to undertake sophisticated analyses updated, getting better, having errors corrected. all the while keeping an immediate focus on the As a student, I would have been horrified by the people involved. A new series of boxes in this edi- thought that any of my textbooks might contain tion highlights some of those studies. This edition of mistakes! the book features the following studies: Second, pointing out the evolution of the book Chapter 1: Kathryn Edin and Maria Kefalas, sets the stage for a preview of the changes that Promises I Can Keep: Why Poor Women Put Mother- have gone into this 13th edition. As with previous hood Before Marriage (Berkeley: University of revisions, several factors have prompted changes. California Press, 2005). For example, because social research technology and practices are continually changing, the book Chapter 6: Elijah Anderson, A Place on the Cor- must be updated to remain current and useful. In ner: A Study of Black Street Corner Men (Chicago: my own teaching, I frequently find improved ways University of Chicago Press, 2004). to present standard materials. Colleagues also often share their ideas for ways to teach specific topics. Chapter 11: Rachel Sherman, Class Acts: Service Some of these appear as boxed inserts in the book. and Inequality in Luxury Hotels (Berkeley: Uni- Both students and instructors often suggest that versity of California Press, 2005). various topics be reorganized, expanded, clarified, shrunk, or—gasp—deleted. Chapter 14: Kristen Schilt, “Just One of the Guys?: How Transmen Make Gender Visible New to the 13th Edition in the Workplace,” Gender & Society 20, no. 4 (2006): 465–90. In an earlier edition of this book, I said, “Revising a textbook such as this is a humbling experience. No Chapter 17: Sudhir Venkatesh, Gang Leader for matter how good it seems to be, there is no end of a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets (New ideas about how it could be improved.” That obser- York: Penguin, 2008). vation still holds true. When we asked instructors what could be improved, they once again thought Tips and Tools  Another new series of boxes of things, and I’ve considered all their suggestions, in the book provide practical, step-by-step guidance followed many of them, and chosen to “think some to assist students in dealing with what instructors more” about others. I’ve also received numerous have identified as especially elusive tasks. These comments and suggestions from students who are the boxes in the series, some of which were adapted from materials already existing in the book: • Chapter 2: The Basic Elements of Informed Consent • Chapter 3: Hints for Stating Hypotheses

Preface • Chapter 4: Identifying the Unit of Analysis • Introduced issue of medical researchers being • Chapter 5: Using a Table of Random Numbers • Chapter 8: Double-Barreled and Beyond paid by pharmaceutical companies • Chapter 8: Conducting an Online Survey • Chapter 11: Establishing Rapport • Discussed AAPOR’s “Transparency Initiative” • Chapter 17: Using Google Scholar • Pointed students to the NIH course on the • Chapter 17: Citing Bibliographic Sources e­ thics of human-subjects research In addition to these identifiable features, I have continued to pursue my intention to demon- Chapter 3, “Inquiry, Theory, and Paradigms” strate social research as an international, not just American, undertaking. Because researchers in • Changed the notations on X = f(Y) in Figure 3-2 different parts of the world sometimes face unique • Discussed role of anomalies in connection with problems, the ways in which they deal with those problems often reveal new dimensions to the logic paradigms of social inquiry. • Deleted discussion of Social Darwinism Here are some of the other changes in this edi- • Deleted discussion of Ethnomethodology tion, arranged by chapter: • Clarified the meaning of disconfirmability in Chapter 1, “Science and Social Research” c­ onnection with hypotheses • Added a new section on Determinism versus • Additional clarification of Figure 3-3 • Tightened the use of paradigm and theory Agency, including a discussion of social and personal responsibility Chapter 4, “Purpose and Design of Research Projects” • Deleted section on Pure versus Applied • Expanded the box discussion of determining Research units of analysis • Deleted section on What’s Really Real • Added Bogle study of “hooking up” • Included a new box examining Red Families/ • Introduced the notion of “recursiveness” in Blue Families to illustrate the ecological fallacy social research, giving an example of how knowledge of social research findings is likely • Added study on decreasing panel attrition to result in changes to what was studied—so • New section on Idiographic Explanation what was discovered is no longer true Chapter 5, “Sampling Logic” • Deleted the box “Idiographic and Nomothetic • Updated presidential election polling Reasoning in Everyday Life” • New example of snowball sampling • Changed unconscious sampling bias to subcon- • Expanded the box on the General Social scious bias Survey • Referenced Sir Francis Galton’s “Law of Chapter 2, “Social Inquiry: Ethics and Politics” F­ requency of Error” • Described the National Research Act and The • Related box on sampling in Iran to sampling in Belmont Report the USA (or anywhere) • Added new box, “The Basic Elements of In- Chapter 6, “From Concept to Measurement” formed Consent” • Dropped the discussion of exhaustive and mu- • Directions to ASA website “Teaching Ethics tually exclusive in defining nominal variables throughout the Curriculum” • Omitted the Leo Srole box • Introduced idea of “Public Sociology” • Deleted box on the Ugly American • New table illustrating levels of measurement and their implications • New example, measuring disability in Sweden

Preface Chapter 7, “Typologies, Indexes, and Scales” • Deleted box on “Is America Number 1?” • Deleted box on “Suffering around the World” • Added new box “How Healthy Is Your State?” • Added reference to conceptual and relational box analyses in content analysis • Moved “What Is the Best College?” box to • Introduced Population Action International Chapter 14 mapping website • Updated the abortion example of a Guttman Chapter 11, “Paradigms, Methods, and Ethics of Qualitative Field Research” scale to 2006 GSS • Added discussion of Milner’s Freaks, Geeks, Chapter 8, “Surveys” and Cool Kids • Updated and simplified online analysis of GSS • Added discussion of the impact of gender in data i­n-depth interviews • Added section on incentives for compensating • Expanded the discussion of ethics in field respondents research • Added example of survey type and sensitive • Added discussion of voice-centered relational information method • Added AAPOR definitions of response, coop- • Added discussion of field observer witnessing eration, refusal, and contact rates criminal behavior • Added discussion of use of ABS in conjunction • Added an example of using e-mail interviews with RDD sampling for surveys with cerebral palsy subjects • Updated section on web surveys, including the • Moved box on Pencils and Photos to Chapter 13 advantages they hold • Added discussion of using audit trail in relation • Added a comment on “mixed-mode” surveys to reliability of qualitative research • Note the value of online surveys for targeting Chapter 12, “Evaluation Research: Types, groups defined by web participation, such as Methods, and Issues” eBay buyers • Updated data on death penalty and murder • New discussion of robo-polls • Deleted the box on Voice Capture rates Chapter 9, “Experiments • Added example of evaluating drug rehabilita- and Experimentation” tion programs in Hong Kong • Experiment on impact of race, sex, and parent- • Introduced “Campbell’s law” and discussed hood on hiring decisions recursive potential of evaluation research • Use of chimpanzees or humans in studies of the • Added the example of a qualitative evaluation common cold of a Jamaican radio drama for youth • Added an experiment suggesting that placebos Chapter 13, “Analyzing Qualitative Data” work when the subjects know they are taking placebos • Moved box on Pencils and Photos here from • Substituted Muslims for African Americans in Chapter 11 running example of reducing prejudice • Dropped illustration using dated NUD*IST Chapter 10, “Unobtrusive Measures” program • New Figure on Manifest and Latent Coding • Added an example of using picture-drawing to • Data on sex discrimination in income • Comparative/historical study of “Fair Trade” study vaginal infections in Australia coffee • Clarified that qualitative research can be rigorous

Preface Chapter 14, “Analyzing Quantitative Data” Pedagogical Features • Illustrated use of bar graphs and pie charts Although students and instructors both have told • Updated data in tables, including sex differ- me that the past editions of this book were effective tools for learning research methods, I have used ences in income this revision as an opportunity to review the book from a pedagogical standpoint, fine-tuning some • Moved “What Is the Best College?” box here elements, adding others. Here’s the package we ended up with in the 13th edition. from Chapter 7 Chapter Overview  Each chapter is preceded Chapter 15, “Origins and Paradigm of the with a pithy focus paragraph that highlights the Elaboration Model” principal content of the chapter. • New introduction to create a broader perspec- Chapter Introduction  Each chapter opens with an introduction that lays out the main tive for the chapter ideas in that chapter and, importantly, relates them to the content of other chapters in the Chapter 16, “Methods of Statistical Analysis” book. • Further distinguished this chapter from a Clear and provocative examples  Students often tell me that the examples—real and ­full-blown course in statistics hypothetical—have helped them grasp difficult and/or abstract ideas, and this edition has • Added a discussion of Type I and Type II Errors, many new examples as well as some that have proven particularly valuable in earlier editions. in relation to hypothesis testing Graphics  From the first time I took a course • Added discussion of odds-ratio analysis in research methods, most of the key concepts • Replaced box on selecting appropriate have made sense to me in graphical form. Whereas my task here has been to translate ­statistics with a more comprehensive online those mental pictures into words, I’ve also in- source cluded some graphical illustrations in the book. Advances in computer graphics have helped • Added a research example of factor analysis me communicate to the Wadsworth artists what I see in my head and would like to share from a study in Shanghai with students. I’m delighted with the new graphics in this edition. Chapter 17, “Consuming and Creating Social Research” Boxed examples and discussions  Students tell me they like the boxed materials • Added a discussion about the purpose of peer that highlight particular ideas and studies, as well as varying the format of the book. Begin- review ning in the tenth edition, I’ve been using boxes that focus on the ways the mass media use and • Advised students to read/download documents misuse social research. in pdf format to see the original pagination Running glossary  Key terms are highlighted in the text, and definitions for each term are As always, I’ve updated materials throughout listed at the bottom of the page. This will help the book. As an instructor, I’m constantly search- students learn the definitions of these terms ing for new and more-effective ways of explaining social research to my own students; many of those new explanations take the form of diagrams. You’ll find several new graphical illustrations in this edition. Once again, I’ve sought to replace aging research examples (except for the classics) with more-recent ones. I’ve also dropped some sections that I don’t think do much for students anymore. As with each new edition, I would appreciate any comments you have about how the book can be improved. Its evolution over the past years has reflected countless comments from students and others.

Preface and locate them in each chapter to review “reader-friendly” text. Whether you’re new to them in context. this book or intimately familiar with previous editions, I invite you to open to any chapter Main Points  At the end of each chapter, a and evaluate the writing for yourself. concise list of main points provides both a brief chapter summary and a useful review. The Supplements main points let students know exactly what ideas they should focus on in each chapter. The Practice of Social Research, 13th edition, is accompanied by a wide array of supplements Key Terms  A list of key terms follows the prepared for both the instructor and student to main points. These lists reinforce the students’ create the best learning environment inside as acquisition of necessary vocabulary. The new well as outside the classroom. All the continu- vocabulary in these lists is defined in context ing supplements for The Practice of Social Research, in the chapters. The terms are boldfaced in the 13th edition, have been thoroughly revised and text, defined in the running glossary that ap- updated, and several are new to this edition. I pears at the bottom of the page throughout the invite you to examine and take full advantage of text, and included in the glossary at the back of the teaching and learning tools available to you. the book. For the Student Review Questions and Exercises  This review aid allows students to test their under- GSS Data Disc standing of the chapter concepts and apply ISBN-10 1133050123 what they’ve learned. Over the years, the publisher and I have sought to SPSS Exercises and Online Study Re- provide up-to-date personal computer support for sources  This edition continues previous students and instructors. Because there are now editions’ movement into cyberspace. Students many excellent programs for analyzing data, we’ve can use the annotated list of useful websites in provided data to be used with them. With this this section, as well as other resources men- edition, we’ve updated the data disk to include the tioned, to take their learning beyond the text 2010 GSS data. and classroom. Readings in Social Research, 3rd Edition Appendixes  As in previous editions, a set ISBN-10 0495093378 of appendixes provides students with some research tools, such as a guide to the library, a The concepts and methodologies of social research table of random numbers, and so forth. There is come to life in this interesting collection of articles an SPSS primer on your Sociology CourseMate specifically designed to accompany The Practice of at www.cengagebrain.com, along with primers Social Research. Diane Kholos Wysocki includes an for NVivo and Qualrus. interdisciplinary range of readings from the fields of psychology, sociology, social work, criminal justice, Clear and accessible writing  This is per- and political science. The articles focus on the im- haps the most important “pedagogical aid” of portant methods and concepts typically covered in all. I know that all authors strive to write texts the social research course and provide an illustra- that are clear and accessible, and I take some tive advantage. Organized by key concepts, each pride in the fact that this “feature” of the book of the reader’s 11 chapters begins with an intro- has been one of its most highly praised attri- duction highlighting and explaining the research butes through its 12 previous editions. It is the concept that each chapter’s readings elucidate. one thing students write most often about. For the 13th edition, the editors and I have taken special care to reexamine literally every line in the book, pruning, polishing, embellishing, and occasionally restructuring for a maximally

Preface For the Instructor customized tests of up to 250 items that can be delivered in print or online. Instructor’s Manual with Test Bank ISBN-13 9781133231455 Internet-Based Supplements This supplement offers the instructor brief chapter CourseMate for The Practice of Social outlines, detailed chapter outlines, behavioral Research, 13th Edition objectives, teaching suggestions and resources, In- foTrac® College Edition exercises, Internet exercises, CourseMate for The Practice of Social Research can and possible study guide answers. In addition, for be accessed at www.cengagebrain.com and each chapter of the text, the Test Bank has 45–50 includes chapter-specific resources for instruc- multiple-choice questions, 15–20 true-false ques- tors and students. For instructors, the site offers a tions, and 5 or more essay questions. All multiple password-protected instructor’s manual, Microsoft choice and true-false questions have answers and PowerPoint presentation slides, and more. For page references, and are labeled as new, modified, students, there is a multitude of text-specific study or pickup so instructors know if the question is aids, including the following: new to this edition of the Test Bank, picked up but modified from the previous edition of the Test • Tutorial practice quizzing that can be scored Bank, or picked up straight from the previous edition. and e-mailed to the instructor PowerPoint® Presentation Slides • Web links ISBN-10 113323142X • InfoTrac College Edition exercises • Flash cards Microsoft® PowerPoint® slides let you incorporate • GSS data sets images from the book right into your lectures. • Data analysis primers • MicroCase Online data exercises ExamView® • Crossword puzzles ISBN-10 1133231446 Aplia™  Aplia is an online interactive learning • ExamView testing software includes all the solution that helps you improve comprehension— and your grade—by integrating a variety of tools, test items from the printed Test Bank in such as video, tutorials, practice tests, and an interac- electronic format, enabling you to create tive eBook.

Acknowledgments It would be impossible to acknowledge adequately Kimberly Dugan, Eastern Connecticut State all the people who have influenced this book. My University earlier methods text, Survey Research Methods, was Herman Gibson, Henderson State University dedicated to Samuel Stouffer, Paul Lazarsfeld, and Ellen Goldring, Peabody College, Vanderbilt Charles Glock. I again acknowledge my debt to Susan Gore, University of Massachusetts at them. Boston Sarah Hurley, Arkansas State University I also repeat my thanks to those colleagues Jana L. Jasinski, University of Central Florida acknowledged for their comments during the writ- Michael Kleiman, University of South Florida ing of the earlier editions of this book. The present Augustine Kposowa, University of California, book still reflects their contributions. Many other Riverside colleagues helped me revise the book as well— Patrick F. McManimon, Jr., William Patterson including the amazing 110 instructors who took University the time to respond to our electronic survey. Their Jared Schultz, Texas Tech University Health feedback was invaluable. I also particularly want to Sciences Center thank the instructors who reviewed the manuscript Thomas C. Wilson, Florida Atlantic University of this edition and made helpful suggestions: Gary Wyatt, Emporia State University Melanie Arthur, Portland State University I would also like to thank survey participants who took the time to provide valuable information on Craig Forsyth, University of Louisiana at several features of the book: Lafayette James T. Ault, III, Creighton University Robert Kleidman, Cleveland State University Paul Calarco, SUNY at Albany Roy Childs, University of the Pacific Marci B. Littlefield, Indiana State University Liz Depoy, University of Maine Pat Fisher, University of Tennessee Jeanne Mekolichick, Radford University Robert Gardner, Bowdoin College Elizabeth Jones, California University of Bruce H. Wade, Spelman College Pennsylvania Barbara Keating, Minnesota State University, Also, I appreciate the insights and assistance of Mankato those who reviewed the previous edition: Victor Agadjanian, Arizona State University Pat Christian, Canisius College William T. Clute, University of Nebraska at Omaha Marian A. O. Cohen, Framingham State College

Acknowledgments J. David Martin, Midwestern State University their efforts on this book, and you should be, too. This edition of the book additionally benefited from Patrick A. Moore, University of Great Falls a thorough review by Tom Finn, whose keen eye and insights have made a better book. I also wish to thank Anne Baird, Morehouse College; Rae Banks, Syracuse University; Roland There are also others at Wadsworth whose Chilton, University of Massachusetts, Amherst; talents have had an impact on this book. I would M. Richard Cramer, University of North Carolina, like to acknowledge Tami Strang for her inspired Chapel Hill; Joseph Fletcher, University of Toronto; marketing efforts, making sure everyone on the Shaul Gabbay, University of Illinois, Chicago; Marcia planet is aware of the book; Melanie Cregger for Ghidina, University of North Carolina, Asheville; breaking new ground in publishing with her work Roland Hawkes, Southern Illinois University; on the website and other technology supplements; Jeffrey Jacques, Florida A&M University; Daniel John Chell for managing the development of all J. Klenow, North Dakota State University; Wanda of the useful print supplements to round out the Kosinski, Ramapo College, New Jersey; Manfred teaching package; and Cheri Palmer for shepherd- Kuechler, CUNY Hunter College; Cecilia Menjívar, ing the countless pieces and people required to Arizona State University; Joan Morris, University of turn a manuscript into a book. Central Florida; Alisa Potter, Concordia College; Zhenchoa Qian, Arizona State University; Robert I also wish to thank Greg Hubit for managing W. Reynolds, Weber State University; Laurie K. all the critical production processes with great skill, Scheuble, Doane College; Beth Anne Shelton, and Caryl Gorska for the creative new design for University of Texas, Arlington; Matthew Sloan, the book. University of Wisconsin, Madison; Bernard Sorofman,University of Iowa; Ron Stewart; Randy While I have always recognized and appreci- Stoecker, University of Toledo; Theodore Wagenaar, ated the many and varied editorial contributions Miami University, Ohio; Robert Wolf, Eastern made to the books that ultimately bear only my Connecticut State University; and Jerome Wolfe, name, the closing moments of a book’s birth (or re- University of Miami. birth in this case) come down to a close partnership between author and copy editor. This 13th edition Over the years, I’ve become more and more reflects the skills of Marne Evans, who is new to impressed by the important role played by editors this book, but a seasoned professional in her craft. I in books like this. Although an author’s name feel fortunate to have had her partnership and look appears on the book’s spine, much of its back- forward to future editions. bone derives from the strength of its editors. Since 1973 I’ve worked with many sociology editors Ted Wagenaar has contributed extensively to at Wadsworth, which has involved the kinds of this book. Ted is a cherished colleague, welcome adjustments you might need to make in succes- critic, good friend, and altogether decent human sive marriages. The quality of a book like this being. depends particularly on the wisdom, creativity, and perspiration of the acquisitions editor and the I have dedicated this book to my soul mate, development editor, in this case Erin Mitchell and best friend, and wife, Suzanne Babbie. I see in Suze Nicolas Albert, respectively. I am very grateful for those things I am most proud of in myself, except I see purer versions of those qualities in her. She ennobles what is possible in a human being, and I become a better person because of her example.

1 Science and Social Science is a familiar word; everyone uses it. Research Yet, images of science differ greatly. For some, science is mathematics; for others, it’s white 2 Social Inquiry: coats and laboratories. It’s often confused with Ethics and Politics technology or equated with tough high school or college courses. 3 Inquiry, Theory, and Paradigms Science is, of course, none of these things per se. It is difficult, however, to specify exactly what s­ cience is. Scientists themselves disagree on the proper d­ efinition. For the purposes of this book, we look at science as a method of inquiry—a way of learning and know­ ing things about the world around us. Contrasted with other ways of learning and knowing about the world, science has some special characteristics. It is a conscious, deliberate, and rigorous undertaking. S­ ometimes it uses statistical analyses, but often it does not. We’ll examine these and other traits in this opening set of chapters. Dr. Benjamin Spock, the renowned author and ­pediatrician, began his books on child care by assur­ ing new parents that they already know more about child care than they think they do. I want to begin this book on a similar note. Before you’ve read very far, you will realize that you already know a great deal about the practice of social research. In fact, you’ve been

part 1 An Introduction to Inquiry ­conducting research all your life. From that perspective, research. Researchers are governed by a set of ethical the purpose of this book is to help you sharpen skills constraints that reflect ideals and values aimed at help­ you already have and perhaps to show you some tricks ing, not harming, people. Social research is also shaped that may not have occurred to you. by the fact that it operates within the political codes and systems of the societies it seeks to study and under­ Part 1 of this book lays the groundwork for stand. These two topics appear throughout the book as the rest of the book by examining the fundamental critical components of social research. c­ haracteristics and issues that make science different from other ways of knowing things. In Chapter 1, we’ll Chapter 3 deals with social theories and the links begin with a look at native human inquiry, the sort of between theory and research. We’ll look at some of the thing you’ve been doing all your life. In the course of theoretical paradigms that shape the nature of inquiry that examination, we’ll see some of the ways people go and that largely determine what scientists look for and astray in trying to understand the world around them, how they interpret what they see. and I’ll summarize the primary characteristics of scien­ tific inquiry that guard against those errors. The overall purpose of Part 1 is to construct a back­ drop against which to view the specifics of research Whereas most of this book deals with the scientific design and execution. After completing Part 1, you’ll be concerns of social research, Chapter 2 introduces two ready to look at some of the more concrete aspects of other important concerns: the ethics and politics of social research.

Chapter 1 Science and Social Research chapter overview All of us try to understand and predict the social world. Scientific inquiries—and social research in particular—are designed to avoid the pitfalls of ordinary human inquiry. Introduction The Purposes of Social Research Looking for Reality Knowledge from Some Dialectics of Social Agreement Reality Research Errors in Inquiry, and Some Solutions Idiographic and Nomothetic Explanation The Foundations of Social Science Inductive and Deductive Theory Theory, Not Philosophy or Belief Determinism versus Agency Social Regularities Aggregates, Not Individuals Qualitative and Concepts and Variables Quantitative Data The Research Proposal Aplia for The Practice of Social Research After reading, go to “Online Study Resources” at the end of this chapter for

Introduction ■ 3 Introduction Because we can’t learn all we need to know by means of personal experience and discovery alone, This book is about knowing things—not so much things are set up so we can simply believe what what we know as how we know it. Let’s start by ex- others tell us. We know some things through tra- amining a few things you probably know already. dition and some things from “experts.” I’m not saying you should never question this received You know the world is round. You probably knowledge; I’m just drawing your attention to the also know it’s cold on the dark side of the moon way you and society normally get along regarding (the side facing away from the sun), and you know what’s so. people speak Chinese in China. You know that vi- tamin C can prevent colds and that unprotected sex There are other ways of knowing things, can result in AIDS. however. In contrast to knowing things through agreement, we can know them through direct How do you know? Unless you’ve been to the e­ xperience—through observation. If you dive into dark side of the moon lately or done experimental a glacial stream flowing through the Canadian research on the virtues of vitamin C, you know Rockies, you don’t need anyone to tell you it’s cold. these things because somebody told them to you, The first time you stepped on a thorn, you knew it and you believed what you were told. You may hurt before anyone told you. have read in National Geographic that people speak Chinese languages in China, and because that When our experience conflicts with what made sense to you, you didn’t question it. Perhaps e­ veryone else knows, though, there’s a good your physics or astronomy instructor told you it chance we’ll surrender our experience in favor of was cold on the dark side of the moon, or maybe the agreement. you heard it on the news. Let’s take an example. Imagine you’ve come to Some of the things you know seem absolutely a party at my house. It’s a high-class affair, and the obvious to you. If someone asked you how you drinks and food are excellent. In particular, you’re know the world is round, you’d probably say, taken by one of the appetizers I bring around on “Everybody knows that.” There are a lot of things a tray: a breaded, deep-fried appetizer that’s espe- everybody knows. Of course, everyone used to cially zesty. You have a couple—they’re so deli- “know” that the world was flat. cious! You have more. Soon you’re subtly moving around the room to be wherever I am when I ar- Most of what you and I know is a matter rive with a tray of these nibblies. of agreement and belief. Little of it is based on personal experience and discovery. A big part of Finally, you can’t contain yourself any more. growing up in any society, in fact, is the process “What are they?” you ask. “How can I get the rec- of learning to accept what everybody around ipe?” And I let you in on the secret: “You’ve been us “knows” is so. If you don’t know those same eating breaded, deep-fried worms!” Your response things, you can’t really be a part of the group. If is dramatic: Your stomach rebels, and you throw up you were to question seriously whether the world all over the living-room rug. Argh! What a t­errible is really round, you’d quickly find yourself set apart thing to serve guests! from other people. You might be sent to live in a hospital with other people who question things The point of the story is that both of your like that. feelings about the appetizer were quite real. Your initial liking for them, based on your own direct Although most of what we know is a matter experience, was certainly real. But so was your of believing what we’ve been told, there’s noth- feeling of disgust when you found out that you’d ing wrong with us in that respect. It’s simply the been eating worms. It should be evident, however, way human societies are structured, and it’s a quite that this feeling of disgust was strictly a product of u­ seful quality. The basis of knowledge is agreement. the agreements you have with those around you

4 ■ Chapter 1: Science and Social Research that worms aren’t fit to eat. That’s an agreement Knowledge from you entered into the first time your parents found Agreement Reality you sitting in a pile of dirt with half of a wriggling worm dangling from your lips. When they pried One answer that has arisen out of that grappling your mouth open and reached down your throat in is science, which offers an approach to both agree- search of the other half of the worm, you learned ment reality and experiential reality. Scientists have that worms are not acceptable food in our society. certain criteria that must be met before they will accept the reality of something they have not per- Aside from these agreements, what’s wrong sonally experienced. In general, a scientific asser- with worms? They are probably high in protein tion must have both logical and empirical support: and low in calories. Bite-sized and easily packaged, It must make sense, and it must not contradict they are a distributor’s dream. They are also a deli- ­actual observation. Why do earthbound scientists cacy for some people who live in societies that lack accept the assertion that the dark side of the moon our agreement that worms are disgusting. Some is cold? First, it makes sense, because the moon’s people might love the worms but be turned off by surface heat comes from the sun’s rays, and the the deep-fried breading. dark side of the moon is dark because it’s always turned away from the sun. Second, scientific mea- Here’s another question to consider: “Are surements made on the moon’s dark side confirm worms ‘really’ good or ‘really’ bad to eat?” And this logical expectation. So, scientists accept the here’s a more interesting question: “How could reality of things they don’t personally experience— you know which was really so?” This book is about they accept an agreement reality—but they have ­answering the second kind of question. special standards for doing so. The rest of this chapter looks at how we know More to the point of this book, however, what is real. We’ll begin by examining inquiry as s­cience offers a special approach to the discovery a natural human activity, something we all have of reality through personal experience. In other engaged in every day of our lives. We’ll look at the words, it offers a special approach to the business of source of everyday knowledge and at some kinds inquiry. Epistemology is the science of knowing; of errors we make in normal inquiry. We’ll then methodology (a subfield of epistemology) might examine what makes science—in particular, social be called the science of finding out. This book science—different. After considering some of the ­presents and examines social science methodol- underlying ideas of social research, we’ll conclude ogy, or how social scientists find out about human with an initial consideration of issues in social social life. research. Why do we need social science to discover the Looking for Reality reality of social life? To find out, let’s start by con- sidering what happens in ordinary, nonscientific Reality is a tricky business. You probably already inquiry. suspect that some of the things you “know” may not be true, but how can you really know what’s Ordinary Human Inquiry real? People have grappled with this question for thousands of years. Practically all people, and many other animals as well, exhibit a desire to predict their future circum- epistemology  The science of knowing; systems of stances. Humans seem predisposed to undertake knowledge. this task by using causal and probabilistic reason­ methodology  The science of finding out; proce- ing. First, we generally recognize that future circum­ dures for scientific investigation. stances are somehow caused or conditioned by present ones. We learn that getting an education will affect how much money we earn later in life

Looking for Reality ■ 5 and that swimming beyond the reef may bring an As I suggested earlier in this chapter, our unhappy encounter with a shark. Sharks, on the ­attempts to learn about the world are only partly other hand—whether or not they reason the mat- linked to direct personal inquiry or experience. ter through—may learn that hanging around the ­Another, much larger, part comes from the agreed- reef often brings a happy encounter with unhappy on knowledge that others give us, those things swimmers. ­“everyone knows.” This agreement reality both assists and hinders our attempts to find out for our- Second, we also learn that such patterns of selves. To see how, consider two important sources of cause and effect are probabilistic. That is, the ef- our secondhand knowledge—tradition and authority. fects occur more often when the causes occur than when the causes are absent—but not always. Thus, Tradition students learn that studying hard produces good grades in most instances, but not every time. We Each of us inherits a culture made up, in part, of recognize the danger of swimming beyond the firmly accepted knowledge about the workings of reef, without believing that every such swim will the world and the values that guide our participation be fatal. As we’ll see throughout the book, science in it. We may learn from others that planting corn makes these concepts of causality and probability in the spring will garner the greatest assistance from more explicit and provides techniques for dealing the gods, that eating too much candy will decay with them more rigorously than casual human our teeth, that the circumference of a circle is ap- inquiry does. It sharpens the skills we already have proximately twenty-two sevenths of its diameter, or by making us more conscious, rigorous, and ex- that masturbation will make you blind. Ideas about plicit in our inquiries. gender, race, religion, and different nations that you learned as you were growing up would fit in this In looking at ordinary human inquiry, we category. We may test a few of these “truths” on need to distinguish between prediction and un- our own, but we simply accept the great majority of derstanding. Often, we can make predictions them. These are the things that “everybody knows.” without u­ nderstanding—perhaps you can predict rain when your trick knee aches. And often, even Tradition, in this sense of the term, offers some if we don’t understand why, we’re willing to act clear advantages to human inquiry. By accepting on the basis of a demonstrated predictive ability. A what everybody knows, we avoid the overwhelm- racetrack buff who discovers that the third-ranked ing task of starting from scratch in our search for horse in the third race of the day always seems to regularities and understanding. Knowledge is win will probably keep betting without knowing, cumulative, and an inherited body of information or caring, why it works out that way. Of course, the and understanding is the jumping-off point for the drawback in predicting without understanding will development of more knowledge. We often speak become powerfully evident when one of the other of “standing on the shoulders of giants,” that is, on horses wins and our buff loses a week’s pay. those of previous generations. Whatever the primitive drives or instincts that At the same time, tradition may hinder human motivate human beings and other animals, satisfy- inquiry. If we seek a fresh understanding of some- ing these drives depends heavily on the ability to thing everybody already understands and has always predict future circumstances. For people, however, understood, we may be marked as fools for our the attempt to predict is often placed in a context ­efforts. More to the point, however, it rarely occurs of knowledge and understanding. If you can un- to most of us to seek a different understanding of derstand why things are related to each other, why something we all “know” to be true. certain regular patterns occur, you can predict bet- ter than if you simply observe and remember those agreement reality  Those things we “know” as patterns. Thus, human inquiry aims at answering part and parcel of the culture we share with those both “what” and “why” questions, and we pursue around us. these goals by observing and figuring out.

6 ■ Chapter 1: Science and Social Research Authority our casual inquiries and at the ways science guards against those errors. Despite the power of tradition, new knowledge ­appears every day. Quite aside from our own Inaccurate Observations ­personal inquiries, we benefit throughout our lives from new discoveries and understandings produced Quite frequently, we make mistakes in our obser- by others. Often, acceptance of these new acqui- vations. For example, what was your methodology sitions depends on the status of the discoverer. instructor wearing on the first day of class? If you You’re more likely to believe that the common cold have to guess, it’s because most of our daily obser- can be transmitted through kissing, for example, vations are casual and semiconscious. That’s why when you hear it from an epidemiologist than we often disagree about what really happened. when you hear it from your uncle Pete (unless, of course, he’s also an epidemiologist). In contrast to casual human inquiry, scientific observation is a conscious activity. Just making Like tradition, authority can both assist and observation more deliberate helps reduce error. If hinder human inquiry. We do well to trust the you had to guess what your instructor was wear- judgment of the person who has special training, ing on the first day of class, you’d probably make expertise, and credentials in a given matter, espe- a mistake. If you’d gone to the first class with a cially in the face of controversy. At the same time, conscious plan to observe and record what your inquiry can be greatly hindered by the legitimate instructor was wearing, however, you’d be far authorities who err within their own province. more likely to be accurate. (You might also need a Biologists, after all, make their mistakes in the field hobby.) of biology. Moreover, biological knowledge changes over time. In many cases, both simple and complex mea- surement devices help guard against inaccurate Inquiry is also hindered when we depend on observations. Moreover, they add a degree of pre- the authority of experts speaking outside their cision well beyond the capacity of the unassisted realm of expertise. For example, consider the politi- human senses. Suppose, for example, that you’d cal or religious leader with no medical or biochemi- taken color photographs of your instructor that cal expertise who declares that marijuana can fry day. (See earlier comment about needing a hobby.) your brain. The advertising industry plays heavily on this misuse of authority by, for example, hav- Overgeneralization ing popular athletes discuss the nutritional value of breakfast cereals or having movie actors evaluate When we look for patterns among the specific the performance of automobiles. things we observe around us, we often assume that a few similar events provide evidence of a general Both tradition and authority, then, act as pattern. That is, we overgeneralize on the basis double-edged swords in the search for knowledge of limited observations. (Think back to our now- about the world. Simply put, they provide us with broke racetrack buff.) a starting point for our own inquiry, but they can lead us to start at the wrong point and push us off Probably the tendency to overgeneralize peaks in the wrong direction. when the pressure to arrive at a general under- standing is high. Yet it also occurs without such Errors in Inquiry, pressure. Whenever overgeneralization does occur, and Some Solutions it can misdirect or impede inquiry. Besides the potential dangers of tradition and au- Imagine you are a reporter covering an animal- thority, other pitfalls often cause us to stumble and rights demonstration. You have orders to turn fall when we set out to learn for ourselves. Let’s in your story in just two hours, and you need to look at some of the common errors we make in know why people are demonstrating. Rushing to the scene, you start interviewing them, asking for their reasons. The first three demonstrators you

Looking for Reality ■ 7 interview give you essentially the same reason, so the way things are in daily life. Surely one of the you simply assume that the other 3,000 are also most remarkable creations of the human mind there for that reason. Unfortunately, when your is “the exception that proves the rule.” That idea story appears, your editor gets scores of letters from doesn’t make any sense at all. An exception can protesters who were there for an entirely different draw attention to a rule or to a supposed rule (in its reason. original meaning, “prove” meant “test”), but in no system of logic can it validate the rule it contradicts. Realize, of course, that we must generalize to Even so, we often use this pithy saying to brush some extent to survive. It’s probably not a good away contradictions with a simple stroke of illogic. idea to keep asking whether this rattlesnake is poi- This is particularly common in relation to group sonous. Assume they all are. At the same time, we stereotypes. When a person of color, a woman, or a have a tendency to overgeneralize. gay male violates the stereotype someone holds for that group, it somehow “proves” that, aside from Scientists often guard against overgeneraliza- this one exception, the stereotype remains “valid” tion by committing themselves in advance to a for all the rest. For example, a woman business sufficiently large and representative sample of executive who is kind and feminine is taken as observations. Another safeguard is provided by the “proof” that all other female executives are mean replication of inquiry. Basically, replication means and masculine. repeating a study and checking to see whether the same results are produced each time. Then, as a What statisticians have called the gambler’s further test, the study may be repeated again under ­fallacy is another illustration of illogic in day-to-day slightly varied conditions. reasoning. Often we assume that a consistent run of either good or bad luck foreshadows its oppo- Selective Observation site. An evening of bad luck at poker may kindle the ­belief that a winning hand is just around the One danger of overgeneralization is that it can lead corner. Many a poker player has stayed in a game to selective observation. Once we have concluded much too long because of that mistaken belief. (A that a particular pattern exists and have developed more reasonable conclusion is that they are not a general understanding of why it exists, we tend very good at poker.) to focus on future events and situations that fit the pattern, and we tend to ignore those that do not. Although all of us sometimes fall into embar- Racial and ethnic prejudices depend heavily on rassingly illogical reasoning, scientists try to avoid ­selective observation for their persistence. this pitfall by using systems of logic consciously and explicitly. We’ll examine the logic of science more Sometimes a research design will specify in deeply in Chapter 3. For now, simply note that advance the number and kind of observations to logical reasoning is a conscious activity for scientists be made as a basis for reaching a conclusion. If we and that other scientists are always around to keep wanted to learn whether women were more likely them honest. than men to support freedom to choose an abor- tion, we might select a thousand carefully chosen Science, then, attempts to protect us from the people to be interviewed on the issue. Alternately, common pitfalls of ordinary inquiry. Accurately when making direct observations of an event, such observing and understanding reality is not an obvi- as attending the animal-rights demonstration, ous or trivial matter, as we’ll see throughout this we might make a special effort to find “deviant chapter and this book. cases”—precisely those who do not fit into the general pattern. replication  Repeating a research study to test and either confirm or question the findings of an earlier Illogical Reasoning study. There are other ways in which we often deal with observations that contradict our understanding of

8 ■ Chapter 1: Science and Social Research The Foundations time, as scientists they focus on how things actually of Social Science are and why. Science is sometimes characterized as logico- This means that scientific theory—and, more empirical. This ungainly term carries an important broadly, science itself—cannot settle debates about message: As we noted earlier, the two pillars of values. Science cannot determine whether capital- ­science are logic and observation. That is, a scientific ism is better or worse than socialism. What it can understanding of the world must both make sense do is determine how these systems perform, but and correspond to what we observe. Both elements only in terms of some set of agreed-on criteria. are essential to science and relate to the three major For example, we could determine scientifically aspects of the enterprise of social science: theory, whether capitalism or socialism most supports data collection, and data analysis. human dignity and freedom only if we first agreed on some measurable definitions of dignity and free- To oversimplify just a bit, scientific theory dom. Our conclusions would then be limited to the deals with the logical aspect of science—providing meanings specified in our definitions. They would systematic explanations—whereas data collection have no general meaning beyond that. deals with the observational aspect. Data analysis looks for patterns in observations and, where ap- By the same token, if we could agree that propriate, compares what is logically expected with suicide rates, say, or giving to charity were good what is actually observed. Although this book is measures of the quality of a religion, then we could primarily about data collection and data analysis— determine scientifically whether Buddhism or that is, how to conduct social research—the rest of Christianity is the better religion. Again, our con- Part 1 is devoted to the theoretical context of re- clusion would be inextricably tied to our chosen search. Parts 2 and 3 then focus on data collection, criteria. As a practical matter, people seldom agree and Part 4 offers an introduction to the analysis of on precise criteria for determining issues of value, data. so science is seldom useful in settling such debates. In fact, questions like these are so much a matter Underlying the concepts presented in the of opinion and belief that scientific inquiry is often rest of the book are some fundamental ideas that viewed as a threat to what is “already known.” d­ istinguish social science—theory, data collection, and analysis—from other ways of looking at social We’ll consider this issue in more detail in ­phenomena. Let’s consider these ideas. C­ hapter 12, when we look at evaluation r­esearch. As you’ll see, researchers have become increas- Theory, Not Philosophy or Belief ingly involved in studying social programs that reflect ideological points of view, such as Today, social theory has to do with what is, not affirmative a­ ction or welfare reform. One of the with what should be. For many centuries, how- biggest problems they face is getting people to ever, social theory did not distinguish between agree on criteria of success and failure. Yet such these two orientations. Social philosophers liberally criteria are essential if social research is to tell mixed their observations of what happened around us anything useful about matters of value. By them, their speculations about why, and their ideas ­analogy, a stopwatch cannot tell us if one sprinter about how things ought to be. Although modern is better than another unless we first agree that social researchers may do the same from time to speed is the critical criterion. theory  A systematic explanation for the Social science, then, can help us know only o­ bservations that relate to a particular aspect of life: what is and why. We can use it to determine what juvenile delinquency, for example, or perhaps social ought to be, but only when people agree on the stratification or political revolution. criteria for deciding what outcomes are better than others—an agreement that seldom occurs. As I indicated earlier, even knowing “what is and why” is no simple task. Let’s turn now to

The Foundations of Social Science ■ 9 some of the fundamental ideas that underlie social it may be argued that, unlike the heavy objects that science’s efforts to describe and understand social cannot decide not to fall when dropped, the people reality. involved in the regularity could upset the whole thing if they wanted to. Social Regularities Let’s deal with each of these objections in turn. In large part, social research aims to find pat- terns of regularity in social life. Certainly at first The Charge of Triviality glance the subject matter of the physical sciences seems to be more governed by regularities than During World War II, Samuel Stouffer, one of the does that of the social sciences. A heavy object falls greatest social science researchers, organized a re- to earth every time we drop it, but a person may search branch in the U.S. Army to conduct studies in vote for a particular candidate in one election and support of the war effort (Stouffer et al. 1949–1950). against that same candidate in the next. Similarly, Many of the studies focused on the morale among ice always melts when heated enough, but habitu- soldiers. Stouffer and his colleagues found there was ally honest people sometimes steal. Despite such a great deal of “common wisdom” regarding the examples, however, social affairs do exhibit a high bases of military morale. Much of their research was degree of regularity that research can reveal and devoted to testing these “obvious” truths. theory can explain. For example, people had long recognized that To begin with, the tremendous number of promotions affect morale in the military. When formal norms in society create a considerable de- military personnel get promotions and the promo- gree of regularity. For example, traffic laws in the tion system seems fair, morale rises. Moreover, it United States induce the vast majority of people makes sense that people who are getting promoted to drive on the right side of the street rather than will tend to think the system is fair, whereas those the left. Registration requirements for voters lead passed over will likely think the system is unfair. to some predictable patterns in which classes of By extension, it seems sensible that soldiers in units people vote in national elections. Labor laws create with slow promotion rates will tend to think the a high degree of uniformity in the minimum age of system is unfair, and those in units with rapid pro- paid workers as well as the minimum amount they motions will think the system is fair. But was this are paid. Such formal prescriptions regulate, or the way they really felt? regularize, social behavior. Stouffer and his colleagues focused their studies Aside from formal prescriptions, we can on two units: the Military Police (MPs), which had o­ bserve other social norms that create more regu- the slowest promotions in the Army, and the Army larities. Among registered voters, Republicans are Air Corps (forerunner of the U.S. Air Force), which more likely than Democrats to vote for Republican had the fastest promotions. It stood to reason that candidates. University professors tend to earn more MPs would say the promotion system was unfair, money than unskilled laborers do. Men tend to and the air corpsmen would say it was fair. The earn more than women. (We’ll take an in-depth studies, however, showed just the opposite. look at this pattern later in the book.) The list of regularities could go on and on. Notice the dilemma faced by a researcher in a situation such as this. On the one hand, the obser- Three objections are sometimes raised in r­egard vations don’t seem to make sense. On the other to such social regularities. First, some of the regu- hand, an explanation that makes obvious good larities may seem trivial. For example, Republicans sense isn’t supported by the facts. vote for Republicans; everyone knows that. ­Second, contradictory cases may be cited, indicating that A lesser scientist would have set the problem the “regularity” isn’t totally regular. Some laborers aside “for further study.” Stouffer, however, looked make more money than some professors do. Third, for an explanation for his observations, and even- tually he found it. Robert Merton (1950) and other sociologists at Columbia University had begun thinking and writing about something they called

10 ■ Chapter 1: Science and Social Research reference group theory. This theory says that people a science of probabilities. In genetics, the mating judge their lot in life less by objective conditions of a blue-eyed person with a brown-eyed person than by comparing themselves with others around will probably result in a brown-eyed offspring. The them—their reference group. For example, if you birth of a blue-eyed child does not destroy the ob- lived among poor people, a salary of $50,000 a year served regularity, because the geneticist states only would make you feel like a millionaire. But if you that the brown-eyed offspring is more likely and, lived among people who earned $500,000 a year, further, that brown-eyed offspring will be born in that same $50,000 salary would make you feel a certain percentage of the cases. The social scien- impoverished. tist makes a similar, probabilistic prediction—that women overall are likely to earn less than men. Stouffer applied this line of reasoning to the Once a pattern like this is observed, the social soldiers he had studied. Even if a particular MP s­cientist has grounds for asking why it exists. had not been promoted for a long time, it was unlikely that he knew some less-deserving person People Could Interfere who had gotten promoted more quickly. Nobody got promoted in the MPs. Had he been in the Air Finally, the objection that the conscious will of the Corps—even if he had gotten several promotions actors could upset observed social regularities does in rapid succession—he would probably have been not pose a serious challenge to social science. This is able to point to someone less deserving who had true even though a parallel situation does not a­ ppear gotten even faster promotions. An MP’s reference to exist in the physical sciences. (Presumably, physical group, then, was his fellow MPs, and the air corps- objects cannot violate the laws of physics, although man compared himself with fellow corpsmen. Ulti- the probabilistic nature of subatomic physics once led mately, then, Stouffer reached an understanding of some observers to postulate that electrons had free soldiers’ attitudes toward the promotion system that will.) There is no denying that a religious, right-wing (1) made sense and (2) corresponded to the facts. bigot could go to the polls and vote for an agnostic, left-wing African American if he wanted to upset This story shows that documenting the obvi- political scientists studying the election. All voters ous is a valuable function of any science, physical in an election could suddenly switch to the under- or social. Charles Darwin coined the phrase fool’s dog just to frustrate the pollsters. Similarly, workers experiment to describe much of his own research— could go to work early or stay home from work and research in which he tested things that everyone thereby prevent the expected rush-hour traffic. But else “already knew.” As Darwin understood, the these things do not happen often enough to seriously obvious all too often turns out to be wrong; thus, threaten the observation of social regularities. apparent triviality is not a legitimate objection to any scientific endeavor. Social regularities, then, do exist, and social scientists can detect them and observe their effects. What about Exceptions? When these regularities change over time, social scientists can observe and explain those changes. The objection that there are always exceptions to any social regularity does not mean that the regu- There is a slightly different form of human larity itself is unreal or unimportant. A particular ­interference that makes social research particu- woman may well earn more money than most larly challenging. Social research has a recursive men, but that provides small consolation to the ­quality, in that what we learn about society can majority of women, who earn less. The pattern still end up changing things so that what we learned is exists. Social regularities, in other words, are proba- no longer true. For example, every now and then bilistic patterns, and they are no less real simply you may come across a study reporting “The Ten because some cases don’t fit the general pattern. Best Places to Live,” or something like that. The touted communities aren’t too crowded, yet they This point applies in physical science as well as have all the stores you’d ever want; the schools social science. Subatomic physics, for example, is

The Foundations of Social Science ■ 11 and other public facilities are great, crime is low, many individuals. Although social scientists often the ratio of doctors per capita is high, the list study motivations that affect individuals, the in- goes on. What happens when this information is dividual as such is seldom the subject of social sci- p­ ublicized? P­ eople move there, the towns become ence. Instead, social scientists create theories about ­overcrowded, and, eventually they are not such the nature of group, rather than individual, life. nice places to live. More simply, imagine what The term, aggregate, includes, groups, organizations, ­results from a study that culminates in a published collectives, and so forth. Whereas psychologists list of the least-crowded beaches or fishing spots. focus on what happens inside individuals, social scientists study what goes on between them: exam- In 2001, the Enron Corporation was fast ining everything from couples to small groups and a­ pproaching bankruptcy and some of its top organizations, and on up to whole societies and ­executives were quietly selling their shares in the even interactions between societies. company. During this period, those very execu- tives were reassuring employees of the corpora- Sometimes the collective regularities are amaz- tion’s financial solvency and recommending that ing. Consider the birthrate, for example. People workers keep their own retirement funds invested have babies for a wide variety of personal reasons. in the company. As a consequence of this decep- Some do it because their own parents want grand- tion, those employees lost most of their retire- children. Some feel it’s a way of completing their ment funds at the same time they were becoming womanhood or manhood. Others want to hold unemployed. their marriages together, enjoy the experience of raising children, perpetuate the family name, or The events at Enron led two Stanford busi- achieve a kind of immortality. Still others have ness school faculty, David Larcker and Anastasia b­ abies by accident. Zakolyukina (2010), to see if it would be possible to detect when business executives are lying. Their If you have fathered or given birth to a baby, study analyzed tens of thousands of conference- you could probably tell a much more detailed, idio- call transcripts, identified instances of executives syncratic story. Why did you have the baby when fibbing, and looked for speech patterns associated you did, rather than a year earlier or later? Maybe with those departures from the truth. For example, you lost your job and had to delay a year before Larcker and Zakolyukina found that when the you could afford to have the baby. Maybe you only executives lied, they tended to use exaggerated felt the urge to become a parent after someone emotions, for instance, calling business prospects close to you had a baby. Everyone who had a baby “fantastic” instead of “good.” The research found last year had his or her own reasons for doing so. other tip-offs that executives were lying, such as Yet, despite this vast diversity, and despite the id- fewer references to shareholders and fewer refer- iosyncrasy of each individual’s reasons, the overall ences to themselves. Given the type of information birthrate in a society—the number of live births per derived from this study—uncovering identifiable 1,000 population—is remarkably consistent from characteristics of lying—who do you suppose will year to year. See Table 1-1 for recent birthrates for profit most from it? Probably the findings will the United States. benefit business executives and those people who coach them on how to communicate. There is If the U.S. birthrate were 15.9, 35.6, 7.8, 28.9, every reason to believe that a follow-up study of and 16.2 in five successive years, demographers top executives in, say, ten years will find very dif- would begin dropping like flies. As you can see, ferent speech patterns from those used today. however, social life is far more orderly than that. Moreover, this regularity occurs without society- Aggregates, Not Individuals wide regulation. No one plans how many babies will be born or determines who will have them. The regularities of social life that social scientists You do not need a permit to have a baby; in fact, study generally reflect the collective behavior of many babies are conceived unexpectedly, and some are borne unwillingly.

12 ■ Chapter 1: Science and Social Research Table 1-1 old uncle Harry who is also strongly opposed to Birthrates, United States: 1980–2007* daylight saving time, zip codes, and personal com- puters, you’re likely to think his latest pronounce- 1980 15.9 1994 15.0 ment simply fits into his rather dated point of view 1981 15.8 1995 14.6 about things in general. If, on the other hand, the 1982 15.9 1996 14.4 statement is muttered by an incumbent politician 1983 15.6 1997 14.2 trailing a female challenger in an electoral race, 1984 15.6 1998 14.3 you’ll probably explain his comment in a com- 1985 15.8 1999 14.2 pletely different way. 1986 15.6 2000 14.4 1987 15.7 2001 14.1 In both examples, you’re trying to understand 1988 16.0 2002 13.9 the behavior of a particular individual. Social 1989 16.4 2003 14.1 r­esearch seeks insights into classes or types of 1990 16.7 2004 14.0 i­ndividuals. Social researchers would want to find 1991 16.2 2005 14.0 out about the kind of people who share that view 1992 15.8 2006 14.2 of women’s “proper” role. Do those people have 1993 15.4 2007 14.3 other characteristics in common that may help e­ xplain their views? *Live births per 1,000 population Even when researchers focus their attention Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, Statistical Abstract of the United States on a single case study—such as a community or (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 2010), Table 78. a juvenile gang—their aim is to gain insights that would help people understand other communities Social science theories, then, typically deal with and other juvenile gangs. Similarly, the attempt to aggregated, not individual, behavior. Their purpose fully understand one individual carries the broader is to explain why aggregate patterns of behavior purpose of understanding people or types of people are so regular even when the individuals partici- in general. pating in them may change over time. We could even say that social scientists don’t seek to explain When this venture into understanding and people at all. They try to understand the systems explanation ends, social researchers will be able to in which people operate, the systems that explain make sense out of more than one person. In un- why people do what they do. The elements in such derstanding what makes a group of people hostile a system are not people but variables. to women who are active outside the home, they gain insight into all the individuals who share that Concepts and Variables hostility. This is possible because, in an important sense, they have not been studying antifeminists Our most natural attempts at understanding as much as they have been studying antifemi- ­usually take place at the level of the concrete and nism. It might then turn out that Uncle Harry and idiosyncratic. That’s just the way we think. the politician have more in common than first appeared. Imagine that someone says to you, “Women ought to get back into the kitchen where they be- Antifeminism is spoken of as a variable be- long.” You’re likely to hear that comment in terms cause it varies. Some people display the attitude of what you know about the speaker. If it’s your more than others do. Social researchers are inter- ested in understanding the system of variables that variables  Logical sets of attributes. The variable sex causes a particular attitude to be strong in one in- is made of up of the attributes male and female. stance and weak in another. The idea of a system composed of variables may seem rather strange, so let’s look at an a­ nalogy. The subject of a physician’s attention is the p­ atient. If the patient is ill, the physician’s purpose is to

The Foundations of Social Science ■ 13 help the patient get well. By contrast, a medical Some Common Social Concepts researcher’s subject matter is different—the vari- ables that cause a disease, for example. The medical Young Social UcplapsesPr oclliatsicsalRvaiecwe/sethnSiceixty researcher may study the physician’s patient, but for the researcher, that patient is relevant only as a OccAufrpicaatnioLAinbmeeraricl anAge Plumber Female carrier of the disease. Variable Attributes That is not to say that medical researchers don’t Age care about real people. They certainly do. Their Sex Young, middle-aged, old ultimate purpose in studying diseases is to protect Occupation people from them. But in their research, they are Female, male less interested in individual patients than they are Race/ethnicity in the patterns governing the appearance of the Plumber, lawyer, disease. In fact, when they can study a disease Social class data-entry clerk . . . meaningfully without involving actual patients, Political views they do so. African American, Asian, Caucasian, Latino . . . Social research, then, involves the study of variables and their relationships. Social theories are Upper, middle, lower . . . written in a language of variables, and people get involved only as the “carriers” of those variables. Liberal, conservative Variables, in turn, have what social researchers FIGURE 1-1 call attributes (or categories or values). ­Attributes are characteristics or qualities that describe an Variables and Attributes. In social research and theory, both variables object—in this case, a person. Examples include and attributes represent social concepts. Variables are sets of related f­emale, Asian, alienated, conservative, dishonest, attributes (categories, values). i­ntelligent, and farmer. Anything you might say to describe yourself or someone else involves employment status of a labor force in terms of the at- Ce an attribute. tributes employed and unemployed. Even the report Bab of family income for a city is a summary of attributes Variables, on the other hand, are logical sets composing that variable: $3,124; $10,980; $35,000; So of attributes. Thus, for example, male and female and so forth. are attributes, and sex or gender is the variable 1-13 composed of those two attributes. The variable Sometimes the meanings of the concepts that ­occupation is composed of attributes such as farmer, lie behind social science concepts are immediately professor, and truck driver. Social class is a variable clear. Other times they aren’t. This point is dis- composed of a set of attributes such as upper class, cussed in “The Hardest Hit Was . . .” middle class, and lower class. Sometimes it helps to think of attributes as the categories that make up The relationship between attributes and vari- a variable. (See Figure 1-1 for a schematic review ables is more complicated in the case of explana- of what social scientists mean by variables and tion and gets to the heart of the variable language attributes.) of scientific theory. Here’s a simple example, in- volving two variables, education and prejudice. For The relationship between attributes and vari- the sake of simplicity, let’s assume that the variable ables forms the heart of both description and education has only two attributes: educated and un- explanation in science. For example, we might educated. Similarly, let’s give the variable prejudice describe a college class in terms of the variable sex two attributes: prejudiced and unprejudiced. by reporting the observed frequencies of the attri- butes male and female: “The class is 60 percent men attributes  Characteristics of people or things. and 40 percent women.” An unemployment rate can be thought of as a description of the variable

14 ■ Chapter 1: Science and Social Research Research in Real Life The Hardest Hit Was . . . Business destroyed Marin Santa Cruz People killed $1.50 million $56.5 million In early 1982, a deadly storm ravaged the San Francisco Bay Area, People injured ­leaving an aftermath of death, injury, and property damage. As the People displaced     5   22 mass media sought to highlight the most tragic results of the storm, Homes destroyed   379   50 they sometimes focused on several people who were buried alive in Homes damaged   370 400 a mud slide in Santa Cruz. Other times, they covered the plight of the Businesses destroyed    28 135 2,900 made homeless in Marin County. Businesses damaged 2,900 300 Private damages    25   10 Implicitly, everyone wanted to know where the worst damage was Public damages   800   35 done, but the answer was not clear. Here are some data describing the $65.1 million $50.0 million results of the storm in two counties: Marin and Santa Cruz. Look over the $15.0 million $56.5 million comparisons and see if you can determine which county was“hardest hit.” The question can be answered only if we can specify what we Certainly, in terms of the loss of life, Santa Cruz was the“hardest mean by“hardest hit.”If we measure it by death toll, then Santa Cruz was hit”of the two counties. Yet more than seven times as many people were the hardest hit. If we choose to define the variable in terms of people injured in Marin as in Santa Cruz; certainly, Marin County was“hardest injured and or displaced, then Marin suffered the bigger disaster. The hit”in that regard. Or consider the number of homes destroyed (worse in simple fact is that we cannot answer the question without specifying Santa Cruz) or damaged (worse in Marin): It matters which you focus on. ­exactly what we mean by the term hardest hit. This is a fundamental The same dilemma holds true for the value of the damage done: Should requirement that will arise again and again as we attempt to measure we pay more attention to private damage or public damage? social science variables. So which county was“hardest hit”? Ultimately, the question as Data source: San Francisco Chronicle, January 13, 1982, p. 16. posed has no answer. Although you and I both have images in our minds about communities that are“devastated”or communities that are only “lightly touched,”these images are not precise enough to permit rigorous measurements. Now let’s suppose that 90 percent of the unedu- person is prejudiced or unprejudiced. I’ll pick the cated are prejudiced, and the other 10 percent are people one at a time (not telling you which ones unprejudiced. And let’s suppose that 30 percent of I’ve picked), and you have to guess whether each the educated people are prejudiced, and the other person is prejudiced. We’ll do it for all 20 people in 70 percent are unprejudiced. This is i­llustrated in Figure 1-2a. Your best strategy in this case would Figure 1-2a. be to guess prejudiced each time, because 12 out of the 20 are categorized that way. Thus, you’ll get Figure 1-2a illustrates a relationship or asso- 12 right and 8 wrong, for a net success of 4. ciation between the variables education and preju- dice. This relationship can be seen in terms of the Now let’s suppose that when I pick a person pairings of attributes on the two variables. There from the figure, I tell you whether the person are two predominant pairings: (1) those who are is educated or uneducated. Your best strategy educated and unprejudiced and (2) those who are now would be to guess prejudiced for each ­uneducated and prejudiced. Here are two other u­ neducated person and unprejudiced for each useful ways of viewing that relationship. educated ­person. If you followed that strategy, you’d get 16 right and 4 wrong. Your improve- First, let’s suppose that we play a game in ment in ­guessing prejudice by knowing education which we bet on your ability to guess whether a

The Foundations of Social Science ■ 15 Figure 1-2 Relationship between Two Variables (Two Possibilities). Variables such as education and prejudice and their attributes (educated/ uneducated, prejudiced/unprejudiced ) are the foundation for the examination of causal relationships in social research. is an i­llustration of what it means to say that the We’ll be looking at the nature of relationships ­variables are related. between variables in some depth in Part 4. In particular, we’ll explore some of the ways relation- Second, by contrast, let’s consider how the 20 ships can be discovered and interpreted in research people would be distributed if education and preju- analysis. For now, you need a general understand- dice were unrelated to each other (Figure 1-2b). ing of relationships in order to appreciate the logic Notice that half the people are educated, and half of social science theories. are uneducated. Also notice that 12 of the 20 (60 percent) are prejudiced. If 6 of the 10 people in Theories describe the relationships we might each group were prejudiced, we would conclude logically expect between variables. Often, the that the two variables were unrelated to each ­expectation involves the idea of causation. That is, other. Knowing a person’s education would not a person’s attributes on one variable are expected be of any value to you in guessing whether that to cause, predispose, or encourage a particular ­person was prejudiced. ­attribute on another variable. In the example just

16 ■ Chapter 1: Science and Social Research illustrated, we might theorize that a person’s being Table 1-2 educated or uneducated causes a lesser or greater Education and Anti-Gay Prejudice likelihood of that person seeming prejudiced. Level of Education Percent Saying Homosexuality As I’ll discuss in more detail later in the book, Is Always Wrong education and prejudice in this example would be Less than high school graduate regarded as an independent variable and a High school graduate 72% dependent variable, respectively. These two Junior college 61% concepts are implicit in causal, or deterministic, Bachelor’s degree 52% models. In this example, we assume that the Graduate degree 43% likelihood of being prejudiced is determined or 32% caused by something. In other words, prejudice depends on something else, and so it is called people to a wide range of cultural variation and the “dependent” variable. What the dependent to diverse points of view—in short, it broadens v­ ariable depends on is an independent variable, in their perspectives. Prejudice, on the other hand, this case, education. For the purposes of this study, represents a narrower perspective. Logically, education is an “independent” variable because it then, we might expect education and preju- is independent of prejudice (that is, people’s level dice to be somewhat incompatible. We might of education is not caused by whether or not they therefore arrive at an expectation that increas- are prejudiced). ing education would reduce the occurrence of prejudice, an expectation that our observations Of course, variations in levels of education can, would support. in turn, be found to depend on something else. People whose parents have a lot of education, for Because Figure 1-2 has illustrated two poss­ example, are more likely to get a lot of education ibilities—that education reduces the likelihood of than are people whose parents have little educa- prejudice or that it has no effect—you might be tion. In this relationship, the subject’s education is interested in knowing what is actually the case. the dependent variable, and the parents’ education There are, of course, many types of prejudice. is the independent variable. We can say the inde- For purposes of this illustration, let’s consider pendent variable is the cause, the dependent vari- prejudice against gays and lesbians. Over the able the effect. years, the General Social Survey (GSS) has asked respondents whether homosexual relations be- In our discussion of Figure 1-2, we looked tween two adults is “always wrong, almost always at the distribution of the 20 people in terms of wrong, sometimes wrong, or not wrong at all.” In the two variables. In constructing a social sci- 2006, 56 percent of those interviewed said that ence theory, we would derive an expectation ­homosexuality was always wrong. However, this regarding the relationship between the two response is strongly conditioned by respondents’ variables based on what we know about each. education, as Table 1-2 indicates. (See “Analyzing We know, for example, that education exposes Data Online with the General Social Survey” for more about the GSS.) independent variable  A variable with values that are not problematic in an analysis but are taken as Notice that the theory has to do with the simply given. An independent variable is presumed two variables education and prejudice, not with to cause or determine a dependent variable. people as such. People are the carriers of those two variables, so the relationship between dependent variable  A variable assumed to the variables can only be seen when we ob- ­depend on or be caused by another (called the serve people. Ultimately, however, the theory i­ndependent variable). If you find that income is uses a language of variables. It describes the partly a function of amount of formal education, income is being treated as a dependent variable.

The Purposes of Social Research ■ 17 Research in Real Life Independent and Dependent the kind of person you dated, your activities on the date, something Variables and Dating about your behavior, the amount of money spent, or the like. Can you give it a name that enables you to identify that factor as a variable (e.g., Let’s talk about dating. Some dates are great and some are awful, while physical attractiveness, punctuality)? Can you identify a set of attributes others are somewhere in between. So the quality of dates is a variable comprising that variable? and“great,” “okay,”and“awful”might be the attributes making up that variable. Consider the quality or the characteristics of the dates:Which is the in- dependent variable and which is the dependent variable? (When we get to Now, have you noticed something that seems to affect the quality Chapter 12, “Evaluation Research :Types, Methods, and Issues,”you’ll learn of different dates? (If you are now dating, perhaps you can recall prior ways of determining whether the variable you identified really matters.) dating or simply imagine it.) Perhaps it will have something to do with associations that we might logically expect to than men for doing the same job? Although exist between particular attributes of different answers to such questions abound in ordinary, variables. everyday discourse, some of those answers are simply wrong. Explanatory social research The Purposes of Social Research p­ rovides more trustworthy explanations. Chapter 4 will examine the various purposes of While some studies will focus on one of social research in some detail, but a brief preview these three purposes, it is often the case that a here will be useful. To begin, sometimes social re- given study will have elements of all three. For search is a vehicle for mapping out a topic that may example, when Kathleen A. Bogle undertook warrant further study later: looking into a new i­n-depth interviews of college students to study political or religious group, learning something the ­phenomenon of “hooking up,” she uncovered about use of a new street drug, and so forth. The some aspects that might not have been expected. methods vary greatly and the conclusions are usu- When two people hook up, does that mean they ally suggestive rather than definitive. Even so, such have sex? Bogle found substantial ambiguities exploratory social research, if carefully done, can in that regard; some students felt sex was part of dispel some misconceptions and help focus future the definition of that dating form, while others research. did not. Some social research is done for the purpose Her study also provided excellent ethnographic of describing the state of social affairs: What is the descriptions of the students’ various experiences unemployment rate? What is the racial composi- of hooking up. While in-depth interviews with 76 tion of a particular city? What percentage of the ­students at two universities in one region of the population plans to vote for a particular political country do not allow for statistical projections to all candidate? Careful empirical description takes the college students in America, they provide an excel- place of speculation and impressions. lent qualitative description of the phenomenon, not just norms but wild variations as well. Not Often, social research has an explanatory e­ veryone will have interviewee Stephen’s experi- p­ urpose—providing reasons for phenomena in ence of his partner throwing up on him during the form of causal relationships. Why do some sex, or calling him Anthony instead of Stephen at cities have higher unemployment rates than a critical moment. ­others? Why are some people more prejudiced than others? Why are women likely to earn less Bogel’s interviews also point to some of the causes for different kinds of hooking up. Your peers’ behavior—or, more important, your beliefs

18 ■ Chapter 1: Science and Social Research Tips and Tools Analyzing Data Online with for the purpose of making such data available for analysis by the social the General Social Survey (GSS) research community. You can test the relationship between prejudice and education for Beginning in 1972, large national samples were surveyed annu- yourself if you have a connection to the Internet. We’ll come back ally in face-to-face interviews; that frequency was reduced to every to this later, in Chapter 14, but here’s a quick peek in case you are other year starting in 1994. Though conducted less often, the GSS interested. interviews are lengthy and each takes over an hour to complete, making it possible to obtain a wide range of information about the demography If you go to http://sda.berkeley.edu/cgi-bin32/hsda?harcsda+gss06, and the opinions of the American population. The number of topics you will find yourself at a web page like the one shown in the figure. covered in a given survey is further increased by presenting different As you can see, the page is divided into two sections: a column listing questions to different subsets of the overall sample. In the successive variables on the left, and a form containing a variety of filters, options, surveys, some questions are always asked while others are repeated and fields on the right. I’ve indicated how you would work your way from time to time. Thus, it is possible to track changes in such things as into the hierarchical list of variables to locate questionnaire items deal- political orientations, attendance at religious services, or attitudes toward ing with a­ ttitudes about homosexuality. For this example I’ve selected abortion. HOMOSEX. The General Social Survey is a powerful resource for social scien- In the form on the right, I’ve indicated that we want to analyze tists, since everyone from undergraduates through faculty members differences in attitudes for different educational levels, measured in this have access to a vast data set that would otherwise be limited to only case by the variable called“DEGREE.”By typing ”YEAR(2006)”into the a few. In the early years of the GSS, data were made available to the Selection Filter field, I’ve specified that we want to do this analysis using research community by mailing physical datasets (cards or tapes) to the GSS survey conducted in 2006. researchers. This comprehensive project is called the General Social Survey. Many data examples in this book come from this source. You If you are interested in trying this yourself, fill out the form as I have can learn more about the GSS at the official website maintained by the done. Then, click the button marked“Run the Table”at the bottom of the University of Michigan; go to the link at your Sociology CourseMate at form, and you’ll get a colorful table with the results. Once you’ve done www.cengagebrain.com. that, try substituting other variables you might be interested in. Or see if the relationship between HOMOSEX and DEGREE was pretty much the same in, say, 1996. The National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the University of Chicago conducts a periodic national survey of American public opinion about your peers’ behavior—will have a strong groups of people (see “Poverty, Marriage, and influence on how you behave. Thus, it would be Motherhood”). difficult to categorize this study as exploratory, descriptive, or explanatory, as it has elements of Some Dialectics of Social all three. Research It’s worth noting here that the purpose of some There is no one way to do social research. (If there research is pretty much limited to understanding, were, this would be a much shorter book.) In fact, whereas other research efforts are deliberately much of the power and potential of social research intended to bring about social change, creating lies in the many valid approaches it comprises. a more workable and/or just society. Any kind of social science study, however, can change our Four broad and interrelated distinctions, how- view of society, in some cases they may chal- ever, underlie the variety of research approaches. lenge commonly accepted “truths” about certain

Some Dialectics of Social Research ■ 19 Source: http://sda.berkeley.edu/cgi-bin32/hsda?harcsda+gss06. Although one can see these distinctions as compet- on an exam, why your favorite team is winning or ing choices, a good social researcher learns each losing, why you may be having trouble getting good of the orientations they represent. This is what I dates or a decent job. In our everyday explanations, mean by the “dialectics” of social research: There is we engage in two distinct forms of causal reasoning, a fruitful tension between the complementary con- though we do not ordinarily distinguish them. cepts I’m about to describe. Sometimes we attempt to explain a single situ- Idiographic and Nomothetic ation in idiosyncratic detail. Thus, for example, you Explanation may have done poorly on an exam because (1) you forgot there was an exam that day, (2) it was All of us go through life explaining things. We do it in your worst subject, (3) a traffic jam made you every day. You explain why you did poorly or well late for class, (4) your roommate kept you up the night before the exam by playing loud music, (5) the p­ olice kept you until dawn demanding to know

20 ■ Chapter 1: Science and Social Research Research in Real Life Poverty, Marriage, and Motherhood Kathryn Edin and Maria Kefalas, Promises I Can Keep: Why struggle and suffer. The children are less likely to do well in school and As we have seen, a wide variety of research approaches can enhance our Poor Women Put Motherhood before Marriage (Berkeley: in later life, and the mothers will probably have to struggle in low- grasp of social dynamics. Much social research involves the analysis of University of California Press, 2005). paying jobs or live on welfare. The trend toward births out of wedlock masses of statistical data. As valuable as the examination of overall pat- has increased dramatically in recent decades, especially among the terns can be, it can come at the risk of losing sight of the individual men poor. As a reaction to these problems, the Bush administration launched and women those data represent. As such, some social research focuses a Healthy Marriage Initiative in 2005 aimed at encouraging childbearing specifically on the detailed particulars of real lives at the ground level couples to marry. Voices for and against the program have been raised of society. Throughout this book, I’ll highlight some recent studies that with vigor. reflect this latter approach to understanding social life, in an attempt to “keep humanity in focus”during our broader discussion of social science In their book Promises I Can Keep, Kathryn Edin and Maria Kefalas practice. raise a question that might have been asked prior to the creation of a solution to the perceived problem:“Why do poor women bear children Statistics suggest that, in the United States, unwed mothers outside of wedlock?”The two social scientists spent five years speaking and their children, particularly those who are poor, will face a host of one-on-one with young women who had had children out of wedlock. problems in the years to come. Both the child and the mother will likely Some of the things they learned dramatically contradicted various wide- spread images of unwed mothers. For instance, whereas many people have bemoaned the abandonment of marriage among the poor, the women interviewed tended to speak highly of the institution, indicating they hoped to be married one day. Further, many were only willing to settle down with someone trustworthy and stable—better to remain unmarried than to enter a marriage that will end in disaster. At the same time, these young women felt strongly that their ultimate worth as women centered on their bearing children. Most felt it was preferable to be an unmarried mother than to be a childless woman, the real tragedy in their eyes. This view of marriage may differ greatly from your own. As we have seen, assumptions about“what’s real”are often contradicted by actual observations. what you had done with your roommate’s stereo— means unique, separate, peculiar, or distinct, as and what you had done with your roommate, for in the word idiosyncrasy. When we have completed that matter—and (6) a wild band of coyotes ate an idiographic explanation, we feel that we fully your textbook. Given all these circumstances, it’s ­understand the causes of what happened in this no wonder you did poorly. particular instance. At the same time, the scope of our explanation is limited to the single case at This type of causal reasoning is called an hand. ­Although parts of the idiographic explana- i­diographic explanation. Idio- in this context tion might apply to other situations, our intention is to explain one case fully. idiographic  An approach to explanation in which we seek to exhaust the idiosyncratic causes of a par- Now consider a different kind of explanation. ticular condition or event. Imagine trying to list all (1) Students who study in groups generally seem the reasons why you chose to attend your particular to do better on exams than those who study alone. college. Given all those reasons, it’s difficult to imag- (2) Those who start studying early tend to do bet- ine your making any other choice. ter on exams than those who only cram the night

Some Dialectics of Social Research ■ 21 before. (3) Students who are interested in the sometimes as a particle and other times as a wave, subject matter usually do better than those who so social scientists can search for broad relation- hate it. Notice that this type of explanation is more ships today and probe the narrowly particular general, covering a wider range of experience or tomorrow. Both are good science, both are reward- observation. It speaks implicitly of the relation- ing, and both can be fun. ship between variables: for example, (1) whether or not you study in a group and (2) how well you Inductive and Deductive Theory do on the exam. This type of explanation—labeled n­ omothetic—seeks to explain a class of situations Like idiographic and nomothetic forms of explana- or events rather than a single one. Moreover, it tion, inductive and deductive thinking both play a seeks to explain “economically,” using only one or role in our daily lives. They, too, represent an im- just a few explanatory factors. Finally, it settles for a portant variation within social research. partial rather than a full explanation. For example, there are two routes to the con- In each of these examples, you might qualify clusion that you do better on exams if you study your causal statements with such words or phrases with others. On the one hand, you might find as on the whole, usually, or all else being equal. Thus, yourself puzzling, halfway through your college you usually do better on exams when you’ve stud- ­career, why you do so well on exams sometimes ied in a group, but not always. Similarly, your team but poorly at other times. You might list all the has won some games on the road and lost some at exams you’ve taken, noting how well you did on home. And the attractive head of the biology club each. Then you might try to recall any circum- may get lots of good dates, while the homely mem- stances shared by all the good exams and by all the bers of sororities and fraternities spend a lot of Sat- poor ones. Did you do better on multiple-choice urday nights alone working crossword puzzles. The exams or essay exams? Morning exams or after- existence of such exceptions is the price we pay for noon exams? Exams in the natural sciences, the a broader range of overall explanation. As I noted humanities, or the social sciences? Times when you earlier, patterns are real and important even when studied alone or . . . SHAZAM! It occurs to you that they are not perfect. you have almost always done best on exams when you studied with others. This mode of inquiry is Both the idiographic and the nomothetic ap- known as induction. proaches to understanding can be useful in daily life. The nomothetic patterns you discover might Induction, or inductive reasoning, moves offer a good guide for planning your study habits, from the particular to the general, from a set of for example, while the idiographic explanation specific observations to the discovery of a pattern might be more convincing to your parole officer. that represents some degree of order among all the By the same token, both idiographic and no- nomothetic  An approach to explanation in which mothetic reasoning are powerful tools for social we seek to identify a few causal factors that gener- research. For example, A. Libin and J. Cohen- ally impact a class of conditions or events. Imagine Mansfield (2000) contrast the way that the idio- the two or three key factors that determine which graphic and nomothetic approaches are used in colleges students choose—proximity, reputation, studying the elderly (gerontology). Some studies and so forth. focus on the full experiences of individuals as they live their lives, whereas other studies look for sta- induction  The logical model in which general tistical patterns describing the elderly in general. p­ rinciples are developed from specific observations. The authors conclude by suggesting ways to com- Having noted that Jews and Catholics are more bine idiographic and nomothetic approaches in likely to vote Democratic than Protestants are, you gerontology. might conclude that religious minorities in the United States are more affiliated with the Demo- Social scientists, then, can access two distinct cratic party and then your task is to explain why. kinds of explanation. Just as physicists treat light This would be an example of induction.

22 ■ Chapter 1: Science and Social Research given events. Notice, incidentally, that your dis- Figure 1-3 Ceng covery doesn’t necessarily tell you why the pattern Babbie ­exists—just that it does. The Wheel of Science. The theory and research cycle can be com­ pared to a relay race; although all participants do not necessarily start Social There is a second and very different way that or stop at the same point, they share a common goal—to describe and you might arrive at the same conclusion about explain all human sociocultural phenomena. 1-133-04 studying for exams. Imagine approaching your first set of exams in college. You wonder about the Source: Adapted from Walter Wallace, The Logic of Science in Sociology (New York: Aldine best ways to study—how much you should review deGruyter, 1971). Copyright © 1971 by Walter L. Wallace. Used by permission. the readings, how much you should focus on your class notes. You learn that some students prepare This second mode of inquiry, known as by rewriting their notes in an orderly fashion. Then d­ eduction or deductive reasoning, moves from you consider whether you should study at a mea- the general to the specific. It moves from (1) a sured pace or else pull an all-nighter just before the pattern that might be logically or theoretically exam. Among these kinds of musings, you might expected to (2) observations that test whether ask whether you should get together with other the expected pattern actually occurs. Notice students in the class or just study on your own. You that deduction begins with “why” and moves to could evaluate the pros and cons of both options. “whether,” whereas induction moves in the oppo- site direction. Studying with others might not be as efficient, because a lot of time might be spent on things As you’ll see later in this book, these two very you already understand. On the other hand, you different approaches both serve as valid avenues can understand something better when you’ve for science. Each approach can stimulate the re- explained it to someone else. And other students search process, prompting the researcher to take might understand parts of the course that you on specific questions and framing the manner haven’t gotten yet. Several minds can reveal per- in which they are addressed. Moreover, you’ll spectives that might have escaped you. Also, your see how induction and deduction work together commitment to study with others makes it more to provide evermore powerful and complete likely that you’ll study rather than watch the u­ nderstandings. Figure 1-3 shows how these ­special Survivor retrospective. two approaches interact in the practice of social research. In this fashion, you might add up the pros and the cons and conclude, logically, that you’d benefit Notice, by the way, that the distinction between from studying with others. It seems reasonable deductive and inductive reasoning is not necessar- to you, in the same way it seems reasonable that ily linked to the distinction between nomothetic you’ll do better if you study rather than not. Some- and idiographic modes of explanation. These four times, we say things like this are true “in theory.” characterizations represent four possibilities, in To complete the process, we test whether they are e­ veryday life as much as in social research. true in practice. For a complete test, you might study alone for half your exams and study with For example, idiographically and deductively, others for the other exams. This procedure would you might prepare for a particular date by tak- test your logical reasoning. ing into account everything you know about the deduction  The logical model in which specific ex- pectations of hypotheses are developed on the basis of general principles. Starting from the general prin- ciple that all deans are meanies, you might antici- pate that this one won’t let you change courses. This anticipation would be the result of deduction.

Some Dialectics of Social Research ■ 23 person you’re dating, trying to anticipate logically Typically, none of these “causes” will be defini- how you can prepare—what type of clothing, be- tive, but each adds to the likelihood of a subject havior, hairstyle, oral hygiene, and so forth will being prejudiced. Imagine, for example, a woman likely produce a successful date. Or, idiographically who was raised in a generally prejudiced region by and inductively, you might try to figure out what prejudiced parents. She now holds political and re- it was exactly that caused your last date to call 911 ligious views that support such prejudice, and feels and subsequently seek a restraining order. at risk of losing her job. When you put all those causes together, the likelihood of such a person A nomothetic, deductive approach arises when being prejudiced is very high. you coach others on your “rules of dating,” when you wisely explain why their dates will be im- Missing in this analysis is what is variously pressed to hear them expound on the dangers of called “choice,” “free will,” or, as social research- satanic messages concealed in rock and roll lyrics. ers tend to prefer, “agency.” What happened to the When you later review your life and wonder why individual? How do you feel about the prospect of you didn’t date more musicians, you might engage being a subject in such an analysis? Let’s say you in nomothetic induction. consider yourself an unprejudiced person: Are you willing to say you were destined to turn out that We’ll return to induction and deduction in way because of forces and factors beyond your con- Chapter 3. Let’s turn now to a third broad dis- trol? Probably not, and yet that’s the implicit logic tinction that generates rich variations in social behind the causal analyses that social researchers research. so often engage in. Determinism versus Agency The philosophical question here is whether humans are determined by their particular envi- The two preceding sections are based implicitly on ronment or whether they feel and act out of their a more fundamental issue. As you pursue your personal choice or agency. I cannot pretend to offer studies of social research methods, particularly an ultimate answer to this question, which has when you examine causation and explanation challenged philosophers and others throughout the in data analysis, you will come face to face with history of human consciousness. But I can share one of the most nagging dilemmas in the territory the working conclusion I have reached as a result bridging social research and social philosophy: de- of observing and analyzing human behavior over a terminism versus agency. As you explore examples few decades.  of causal social research, this issue comes to a head. I’ve tentatively concluded that (1) each of us Imagine that you have a research grant to possesses considerable free choice or agency, but study the causes of racial prejudice. Having cre- (2) we readily allow ourselves to be controlled by ated a reasonable measure of prejudice so you can environmental forces and factors, such as those distinguish those with higher or lower degrees of ­described earlier in the example of prejudice. As you prejudice, you will be able to explore its causes. explore the many examples of causal analysis in this You may find, for example, that people living in book and elsewhere in the social research literature, certain regions of the country are, overall, more this giving away of agency will become obvious. prejudiced than those living in other regions. ­Certain political orientations seem to promote More shocking, if you pay attention to the con- prejudice, as do certain religious orientations. versations of daily life—yours as well as those of Economic insecurities may increase prejudice and others—you will find that we constantly deny hav- result in the search for scapegoats. Or, if you are ing choice or agency. Consider these few examples: able to determine something about your subjects’ upbringing—the degree of prejudice expressed “I couldn’t date someone who smokes.” by their parents, for example—you may discover more causes of prejudice. “I couldn’t tell my mother that.” “I couldn’t work in an industry that manufactures nuclear weapons.”

24 ■ Chapter 1: Science and Social Research The list could go on for pages, but I hope this situations of individual members of society. Thus, makes the point. In terms of human agency, you your poverty might be a consequence of being born could do any of these things, although you might into a very poor family and having little opportu- choose not to. However, you rarely explain your nity for advancement. Or the closing of a business, behavior or feeling on the basis of choice. If your exporting jobs overseas, or a global recession might classmates suggest you join them at a party or the lie at the root of your poverty. movies and you reply, “I can’t. I have an exam tomorrow,” in fact, you could blow off the exam Notice that this approach works against the no- and join them; but you choose not to. (Right?) tion of agency that we have discussed. Moreover, However, you rarely take responsibility for such a while social scientists tend to feel social problems decision. You blame it on external forces: Why did should be solved at the societal level—through leg- the professor have to give an exam the day after islation, for example—this is a disempowering view the big party? for an individual. If you take the point of view that your poverty, bad grade, or rejected job applica- This situation is very clear in the case of love. tion are the result of forces beyond your control, Which of us ever chooses to love someone, or to be then you are conceding that you have no power. in love? Instead, we speak of “falling in love,” sort There is more power in assuming you have it than of like catching a cold or falling in a ditch. The iconic in assuming you are the helpless victim of cir- anthem for this point of view is the set of 1913 cumstances. You can do this without denying the l­yrics, courtesy of songwriter, Joseph McCarthy. power of social forces around you. In fact, you may exercise your individual responsibility by setting You made me love you. out to change the social forces that have an impact on your life. This complex view calls for a healthy I didn’t want to do it. tolerance for ambiguity, which is an important ability in the world of social research. As I said at the outset of this discussion, the dilemma of determinism versus agency continues Qualitative and Quantitative Data to bedevil philosophers, and you will find its head poking up from time to time throughout this book. The distinction between quantitative and qualita- I can’t give you an ultimate answer to it, but I tive data in social research is essentially the distinc- wanted to alert you to its presence. tion between numerical and nonnumerical data. When we say someone is intelligent, we’ve made The question of responsibility is an important a qualitative assertion. A corresponding assertion ­aspect of this issue. Although it lies outside the about someone less fortunately endowed would be realm of this book, I would like to bring it up that he or she is “unintelligent.” When psycholo- briefly. Social research occurs in the context of a gists and others measure intelligence by IQ scores, sociopolitical debate concerning who is responsible they are attempting to quantify such qualitative for a person’s situation and their experiences in a­ ssessments. For example, the psychologist might life. If you are poor, for example, are you respon- say that a person has an IQ of 120. sible for your low socioeconomic status or does the ­responsibility lie with other people, organizations, Every observation is qualitative at the outset, or institutions? whether it is our experience of someone’s intel- ligence, the location of a pointer on a measuring Social research typically looks for ways that scale, or a check mark entered in a questionnaire. s­ocial structures (from interaction patterns to None of these things is inherently numerical or whole societies), affect the experiences and quantitative, but converting them to a numeri- cal form is sometimes useful. (Chapter 14 of this tolerance for ambiguity  The ability to hold con- book will deal specifically with the quantification flicting ideas in your mind simultaneously, without of data.) denying or dismissing any of them.

Some Dialectics of Social Research ■ 25 Quantification often makes our observations same thing, and (2) you don’t know exactly what I more explicit. It also can make it easier to aggre- mean, and vice versa. gate, compare, and summarize data. Further, it opens up the possibility of statistical analyses, rang- I have a friend, Ray Zhang, who was respon- ing from simple averages to complex formulas and sible for communications at the 1989 freedom mathematical models. demonstrations in Tiananmen Square, Beijing. Following the army clampdown, Ray fled south, Quantitative data, then, offer the advantages was arrested, and was then released with orders that numbers have over words as measures of to return to Beijing. Instead, he escaped from some quality. On the other hand, they also carry China and made his way to Paris. Eventually he the disadvantages that numbers have, including a came to the United States, where he resumed the potential loss in richness of meaning. For example, graduate studies he had been forced to abandon in a social researcher might want to know whether fleeing his homeland. I have seen him deal with college students aged 18–22 tend to date people the difficulties of getting enrolled in school without older or younger than themselves. A quantitative any transcripts from China, of studying in a foreign answer to this question seems easily attained. The language, of meeting his financial needs—all on his researcher asks a given number of college students own, thousands of miles from his family. Ray still how old each of their dates has been, calculates speaks of one day returning to China to build a sys- an average, and compares it with the age of the tem of democracy. s­ubject. Case closed. Ray strikes me as someone “older than his Or is it? Although “age” here represents the years.” The additional detail in my qualitative de- number of years people have been alive, some- scription, while it fleshes out the meaning of the times people use the term differently; perhaps phrase, still does not equip us to say how much for some “age” really means “maturity.” You may older or even to compare two people in these terms date people who are younger than you but who without the risk of disagreeing as to which one is act more maturely than others of their age and more “worldly.” thus represent the same “age” as you. Or some- one might see “age” as how young or old your It might be possible to quantify this concept, dates look or maybe the degree of variation in however. For example, we might establish a list of their life experiences and worldliness. These lat- life experiences that would contribute to what we ter meanings would be lost in the quantitative mean by worldliness, for example: calculation of average age. Qualitative data, in short, can be richer in meaning than quantified Getting married data. This is implicit in the cliché, “He is older than his years.” The poetic meaning of this ex- Getting divorced pression would be lost in attempts to specify how much older. Having a parent die On the other hand, qualitative data bring the Seeing a murder committed disadvantages of purely verbal descriptions. For example, the richness of meaning I’ve mentioned Being arrested is partly a function of ambiguity. If the expression “older than his years” meant something to you Being exiled when you read it, that meaning came from your own experiences, from people you have known Being fired from a job who might fit the description of being “older than their years” or perhaps the times you have heard Running away with the circus others use that expression. Two things are certain: (1) You and I probably don’t mean exactly the We might quantify people’s worldliness as the number of such experiences they’ve had: The more such experiences, the more worldly we’d say they were. If we thought of some experiences as more powerful than others, we could give those experi- ences more points. Once we had made our list and point system, scoring people and comparing their