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

76 ■ Chapter 3: Inquiry, Theory, and Paradigms observations. Inductive research begins with obser- two variables. Finally, part (c) is the need to decide vations and proceeds with a search for patterns in whether the observations are close enough to what what we have observed. In a quantitative study, we was expected to justify accepting the hypothesis. can search for correlations or relationships between variables (discussed further in Chapter 16). Thus, Our next step would be to make observations once a relationship has been discovered between relevant to testing our hypothesis. The shaded gender and religiosity, our attention turns to figur- area in part 1(b) of the figure represents perhaps ing out logical reasons why that is so. hundreds of observations of different students, specifically, how many hours they studied and Most qualitative research is oriented toward the what grades they received. Finally, in part 1(c), we inductive rather than the deductive approach. How- compare the hypothesis and the observations. Be- ever, qualitative research does not, by definition, cause observations in the real world seldom, if ever, allow us to use statistical tools to find correlations match our expectations perfectly, we must decide that point toward patterns in need of explanation whether the match is close enough to consider the (see Chapter 14). Although there are computer pro- hypothesis confirmed. Stated differently, can we grams designed for recording and analyzing qualita- conclude that the hypothesis describes the general tive data, the qualitative inductive analyst needs a pattern that exists, granting some variations in real strong reserve of insight and reflection to tease im- life? Sometimes, answering this question neces- portant patterns out of a body of observations. sitates methods of statistical analysis, which will be discussed in Part 4 of this book. A Graphic Contrast Now suppose we used the inductive method to As the preceding case illustration shows, the- address the same research question. In this case, we ory and research can usefully be done both induc- would begin with a set of observations, as in part tively and deductively. Figure 3-3 shows a graphic 2(a) of Figure 3-3. Curious about the relationship comparison of the two approaches as applied to between hours spent studying and grades earned, an inquiry into study habits and performance we might simply arrange to collect relevant data. on exams. In both cases, we are interested in the Then we’d look for a pattern that best represented relationship between the number of hours spent or summarized our observations. In part 2(b) of the studying for an exam and the grade earned on figure, the pattern is shown as a curved line run- that exam. Using the deductive method, we would ning through the center of our observations. begin by examining the matter logically. Doing well on an exam reflects a student’s ability to recall The pattern found among the points in this and manipulate information. Both of these abilities case suggests that with 1 to 15 hours of studying, should be increased by exposure to the information each additional hour generally produces a higher before the exam. In this fashion, we would arrive grade on the exam. With 15 to about 25 hours, at a hypothesis suggesting a positive relationship however, more study seems to lower the grade between the number of hours spent studying and slightly. Studying more than 25 hours, on the other the grade earned on the exam. We say “positive” hand, results in a return to the initial pattern: More because we expect grades to increase as the hours hours produce higher grades. Using the inductive of studying increase. If increased hours produced method, then, we end up with a tentative conclu- decreased grades, that would be called a “negative,” sion about the pattern of the relationship between or “inverse,” relationship. The hypothesis is repre- the two variables. The conclusion is tentative be- sented by the graph line in part 1(a), representing cause the observations we have made cannot be the deductive model in Figure 3-3. In part (a) we taken as a test of the pattern—those observations see the expectation of a simple, positive, linear are the source of the pattern we’ve created. relationship between the two variables. Part (b) represents what we observe when we study the As I discussed in Chapter 1, in actual prac- tice, theory and research interact through a never-­ending alternation of deduction and in- duction. A good example is the classic work of

Two Logical Systems Revisited ■ 77 FIGURE 3-3 Deductive and Inductive Methods. Both deduction and induction are legitimate and valuable approaches to understanding. Deduction begins with an expected pattern that is tested against observations, whereas induction begins with observations and seeks to find a pattern within them. Emile Durkheim on suicide ([1897] 1951). When religion, social integration, anomie, and suicide. His Durkheim pored over table after table of official theoretical explanations in turn led deductively to statistics on suicide rates in different areas, he was further hypotheses and further observations. struck by the fact that Protestant countries consis- tently had higher suicide rates than Catholic ones In summary, the scientific norm of logical did. Why should that be the case? His initial obser- reasoning provides a two-way bridge between vations led him to create inductively a theory of theory and research. Scientific inquiry in practice typically involves alternating between deduction

78 ■ Chapter 3: Inquiry, Theory, and Paradigms and induction. Both methods involve an interplay means writing down your own observations and of logic and observation. And both are routes to the ideas. Beyond that, it means learning what other construction of social theories. scholars have said about it. You can talk to other people, and you’ll want to read the scholarly Although both inductive and deductive meth- ­literature on the topic. Appendix A), provides ods are valid in scientific inquiry, individuals may guidelines for using the library—you’ll likely feel more comfortable with one approach than spend a lot of time there. the other. Consider this exchange in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s story “A Scandal in Bohemia,” as Your preliminary research will probably un- Sherlock Holmes answers Dr. Watson’s inquiry cover consistent patterns discovered by prior (Doyle [1891] 1892: 13): ­scholars. For example, religious and political vari- ables will stand out as important determinants of “What do you imagine that it means?” attitudes about abortion. Findings such as these will “I have no data yet. It is a capital mistake be very useful to you in creating your own theory. We’ll return to techniques of the literature review in to theorise before one has data. Insensibly one more detail as the book continues. begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts.” In this process, don’t overlook the value of introspection. Whenever we can look at our own Some social scientists would more or less agree personal processes—including reactions, fears, and with this inductive position (see especially the prejudices—we may gain important insights into discussion of grounded theory in Chapter 11), human behavior in general. I don’t mean to say whereas others would take a more deductive that everyone thinks like you or me, but introspec- stance. Most, however, concede the legitimacy of tion can provide a useful source of insights that can both approaches. inform our inquiries. With this understanding of the deductive and Constructing Your Theory inductive links between theory and research in hand, let’s now delve more deeply into how theo- Now that you’ve reviewed previous work on the ries are constructed using either of these two differ- topic, you’re ready to begin constructing your the- ent approaches. ory. Although theory construction is not a lockstep affair, the process generally involves something like Deductive Theory Construction the following steps. To see what’s involved in deductive theory con- 1. Specify the topic. struction and hypothesis testing, imagine that you’re going to construct a deductive theory. How 2. Specify the range of phenomena your theory would you go about it? addresses. Will your theory apply to all of human social life, will it apply only to U.S. Getting Started ­citizens, only to young people, or what? The first step in deductive theory construction is to 3. Identify and specify your major concepts and pick a topic that interests you. The topic can be very variables. broad, such as “What is the structure of ­society?” or it can be narrower, as in “Why do people support or 4. Find out what is known (propositions) about oppose the idea of a woman’s right to an abortion?” the relationships among those variables. Whatever the topic, it should be something you’re interested in understanding and explaining. 5. Reason logically from those propositions to the specific topic you’re examining. Once you’ve picked your topic, the next step is to undertake an inventory of what’s al- We’ve already discussed items (1) through (3), ready known or thought about it. In part, this so let’s focus now on (4) and (5). As you identify the relevant concepts and discover what’s already been learned about them, you can begin to create

Deductive Theory Construction ■ 79 a propositional structure that explains the topic comparing yourself with others. If this seems obvi- under study. ous to you, that’s not a shortcoming of the axiom. Remember, axioms are the taken-for-granted be- Let’s look now at an example of how these ginnings of theory. building blocks fit together in deductive theory construction and empirical research. Jasso continues to do the groundwork for her theory. First, she indicates that our sense An Example of Deductive Theory: of distributive justice is a function of “Actual Distributive Justice Holdings (A)” and “Comparison Holdings (C)” of some good. Let’s consider money, for example. A topic of interest to scholars is the concept of dis- My sense of justice in this regard is a function of tributive justice, people’s perceptions of whether how much I actually have, compared with how they are being treated fairly by life, whether they much others have. By specifying the two compo- are getting “their share.” Guillermina Jasso de- nents of the comparison, Jasso can use them as scribes the theory of distributive justice more variables in her theory. formally, as follows: Next, Jasso offers a “measurement rule” that The theory provides a mathematical description further specifies how the two variables, A and C, of the process whereby individuals, reflecting will be conceptualized. This step is needed because on their holdings of the goods they value (such some of the goods to be examined are concrete and as beauty, intelligence, or wealth), compare commonly measured (such as money), whereas themselves to others, experiencing a funda- others are less tangible (such as respect). The for- mental instantaneous magnitude of the justice mer kind, she says, will be measured convention- evaluation (J), which captures their sense of ally, whereas the latter will be measured “by the being fairly or unfairly treated in the distribu- individual’s relative rank . . . within a specially se- tions of natural and social goods. lected comparison group.” The theory will provide a formula for making that measurement (Jasso (Jasso 1988: 11) 1988: 13). Notice that Jasso has assigned a symbolic rep- Jasso continues in this fashion to introduce ad- resentation for her key variable: J will stand for ditional elements, weaving them into mathematical distributive justice. She does this to support her formulas to be used in deriving predictions about intention of stating her theory in mathematical the workings of distributive justice in a variety of formulas. Though theories are often expressed social settings. Here is just a sampling of where her mathematically, we’ll not delve too deeply into theorizing takes her (1988: 14–15). that practice here. • Other things [being] the same, a person will Jasso indicates that there are three kinds of postulates in her theory. “The first makes explicit prefer to steal from a fellow group member the fundamental axiom which represents the sub- rather than from an outsider. stantive point of departure for the theory.” She elaborates as follows: “The theory begins with the • The preference to steal from a fellow group received Axiom of Comparison, which formalizes the long-held view that a wide class of phenomena, member is more pronounced in poor groups including happiness, self-esteem, and the sense of than in rich groups. distributive justice, may be understood as the prod- uct of a comparison process” (Jasso 1988: 11). • In the case of theft, informants arise only in Thus, your sense of whether you’re receiving cross-group theft, in which case they are mem- a fair share of the good things of life comes from bers of the thief’s group. • Persons who arrive a week late at summer camp or for freshman year of college are more likely to become friends of persons who play games of chance than of persons who play games of skill.

80 ■ Chapter 3: Inquiry, Theory, and Paradigms • A society becomes more vulnerable to deficit steal from someone else within our comparison group, my relative standing in the group does not spending as its wealth increases. change. Although your wealth has increased, the average wealth in the group remains the same • Societies in which population growth is wel- (­because someone else’s wealth has decreased by the same amount). So my relative standing remains comed must be societies in which the set of val- the same. I have no incentive to inform on you. ued goods includes at least one quantity-good, such as wealth. If you steal from someone outside our com- parison group, however, your nefarious income Jasso’s theory leads to many other propositions, increases the total wealth in our group. Now my but this sampling should provide a good sense of own wealth relative to that total is diminished. where deductive theorizing can take you. To get Because my relative wealth has suffered, I’m more a feeling for how she reasons her way to these likely to inform on you in order to bring an end propositions, let’s look briefly at the logic involved to your stealing. Hence, informants arise only in in two of the propositions that relate to theft within cross-group theft. and outside one’s group. This last deduction also begins to explain why • Other things [being] the same, a person will these informants come from the thief’s own com- parison group. We’ve just seen how your theft de- prefer to steal from a fellow group member creased my relative standing. How about members rather than from an outsider. of the other group (other than the individual you stole from)? Each of them actually profits from Beginning with the assumption that thieves the theft, because you have reduced the total with want to maximize their relative wealth, ask yourself which they compare themselves. Hence, they have if that goal would be best served by stealing from no reason to inform on you. Thus, the theory of those you compare yourself with or from outsiders. distributive justice predicts that informants arise In each case, stealing will increase your Actual Hold- from the thief’s own comparison group. ings, but what about your Comparison Holdings? This brief peek into Jasso’s derivations should A moment’s thought should suggest that steal- give you some sense of the enterprise of deduc- ing from people in your comparison group will tive theory. Of course, the theory guarantees none lower their holdings, further increasing your rela- of the given predictions. The role of research is tive wealth. To simplify, imagine there are only to test each of them to determine whether what two people in your comparison group: you and I. makes sense (logic) actually occurs in practice Suppose we each have $100. If you steal $50 from (observation). someone outside our group, you will have increased your relative wealth by 50 percent compared with See “Tips and Tools: Generating a Hypothesis me: $150 versus $100. But if you steal $50 from me, from a Theory” for a look at creating hypotheses you will have increased your relative wealth 200 for deductive purposes. percent: $150 to my $50. Your goal is best served by stealing from within the comparison group. Inductive Theory Construction • In the case of theft, informants arise only in As we have seen, quite often social scientists begin constructing a theory through the inductive cross-group theft, in which case they are mem- method by first observing aspects of social life and bers of the thief’s group. then seeking to discover patterns that may point to relatively universal principles. Barney Glaser and Can you see why it would make sense for in- Anselm Strauss (1967) coined the term grounded formants (1) to arise only in the case of cross-group theory in reference to this method. theft and (2) to come from the thief’s comparison group? This proposition again depends on the fundamental assumption that everyone wants to increase his or her relative standing. Suppose you and I are in the same comparison group, but this time the group contains additional people. If you

Inductive Theory Construction ■ 81 Tips and Tools you came across them in your study. This process of specification will be discussed at length in Chapter 6. For now, let’s assume you will ask Generating a Hypothesis from a Theory student-subjects whether they consider themselves liberals or conserva- tives, letting each student report on what the terms mean to them. (As As we have seen, the deductive method of research typically focuses on we’ll see later, this simple dichotomy is unlikely to work in practice, as the testing of a hypothesis. Let’s take a minute to look at how to create a some students would want to identify themselves as independents or hypothesis for testing. something else.) Hypotheses state an expected causal relationship between two Identifying students’majors isn’t as straightforward as you might (or more) variables. Let’s suppose you’re interested in student political think. For example, what disciplines compose the social sciences in your orientations, and your review of the literature and your own reasoning study? Also, must students be declared majors or simply be planning to suggest to you that college major will play some part in determining major in one of the relevant fields? students’political views. Already, we have two variables: college major and political orientation. Moreover, political orientation is the dependent Once these issues have been settled, you are ready to state your variable—you believe it depends on something else, on the indepen- hypothesis. For example, it might be the following: dent variable, which in this case is college major. “Students majoring in the social sciences will be more likely to Now we need to specify the attributes comprising each of these identify themselves as liberals than are those majoring in business.” variables. For simplicity’s sake, let’s assume political orientation includes only liberal or conservative. And to simplify the matter of major, let’s In addition to this basic expectation, you may wish to specify“more suppose your research interests focus on the presumed differences be- likely”in terms of how much more likely. Chapter 16 will provide some tween business students and those in the social sciences. options in this regard. Even with these simplifications, you would need to specify more concretely how you would recognize a liberal or a conservative when Field research—the direct observation of events mental institution (1961) and managing the “spoiled in progress—is frequently used to develop theories identity” of being disfigured (1963). In each case, through observation. In a long and rich tradition, Goffman observed the phenomenon in depth and anthropologists have used this method to good teased out the rules governing behavior. Goffman’s advantage. research provides an excellent example of qualita- tive field research as a source of grounded theory. Among modern social scientists, no one has been more adept at seeing the patterns of human Our earlier discussion of the Comfort Hypoth- behavior through observation than Erving Goffman: esis and church involvement shows that qualitative field research is not the only method of observation A game such as chess generates a habitable appropriate to the development of inductive the- universe for those who can follow it, a plane of ory. Here’s another detailed example to illustrate being, a cast of characters with a seemingly un- further the construction of inductive theory using limited number of different situations and acts quantitative methods. through which to realize their natures and des- tinies. Yet much of this is reducible to a small An Example of Inductive set of interdependent rules and practices. If the Theory: Why Do People meaningfulness of everyday activity is similarly Smoke Marijuana? dependent on a closed, finite set of rules, then explication of them would give one a powerful During the 1960s and 1970s, marijuana use on means of analyzing social life. U.S. college campuses was a subject of consider- able discussion in the popular press. Some people (1974: 5) were troubled by marijuana’s popularity; others In a variety of research efforts, Goffman uncov- ered the rules of such diverse behaviors as living in a

82 ■ Chapter 3: Inquiry, Theory, and Paradigms welcomed it. What interests us here is why some some didn’t. Assuming that all students had some students smoked marijuana and others didn’t. A motivation for trying drugs, the researchers sug- survey of students at the University of Hawaii by gested that students differed in the degree of “­ social David Takeuchi (1974) provided the data to answer constraints” preventing them from following that question. through on that motivation. At the time of the study, a huge number of U.S. society is, on the whole, more permissive explanations were being offered for drug use. with men than with women when it comes to de- People who opposed drug use, for example, viant behavior. Consider, for example, a group of often suggested that marijuana smokers were men getting drunk and boisterous. We tend to dis- academic failures trying to avoid the rigors of miss such behavior with references to “camarade- college life. Those in favor of marijuana, on the rie” and “having a good time,” whereas a group of other hand, often spoke of the search for new women behaving similarly would probably be re- values: Marijuana smokers, they said, were garded with disapproval. We have an idiom, “Boys people who had seen through the hypocrisy of will be boys,” but no comparable idiom for girls. middle-class values. The researchers reasoned, therefore, that women would have more to lose by smoking marijuana Takeuchi’s analysis of the data gathered from than men would. In other words, being female University of Hawaii students, however, did not provided a constraint against smoking marijuana. support any of the explanations being offered. Those who reported smoking marijuana had es- Students living at home had obvious con- sentially the same academic records as those who straints against smoking marijuana, compared with didn’t smoke it, and both groups were equally in- students living on their own. Quite aside from dif- volved in traditional “school spirit” activities. Both ferences in opportunity, those living at home were groups seemed to feel equally well integrated into seen as being more dependent on their parents— campus life. hence more vulnerable to additional punishment for breaking the law. There were other differences between the groups, however: Finally, the Asian subculture in Hawaii has tra- ditionally placed a higher premium on obedience 1. Women were less likely than men to smoke to the law than other subcultures have, so Asian marijuana. students would have more to lose if they were caught violating the law by smoking marijuana. 2. Asian students (a large proportion of the stu- dent body) were less likely to smoke marijuana Overall, then, a “social constraints” theory was than non-Asians were. offered as the explanation for observed differences in the likelihood of smoking marijuana. The more 3. Students living at home were less likely to constraints a student had, the less likely he or she smoke marijuana than those living in their would be to smoke marijuana. It bears repeating own apartments were. that the researchers had no thoughts about such a theory when their research began. The theory As in the case of religiosity, the three variables came from an examination of the data. independently affected the likelihood of a student’s smoking marijuana. About 10 percent of the Asian The Links between Theory women living at home had smoked marijuana, and Research in contrast to about 80 percent of the non-Asian men living in apartments. And, as in the religiosity Throughout this chapter, we have seen various study, the researchers discovered a powerful pat- aspects of the links between theory and research tern of drug use before they had an explanation for in social science inquiry. In the deductive model, that pattern. research is used to test theories. In the inductive In this instance, the explanation took a pecu- liar turn. Instead of explaining why some students smoked marijuana, the researchers explained why

Main Points ■ 83 model, theories are developed from the analysis of homeless people by the police in your community. research data. This final section looks more closely You might organize your research in terms of in- into the ways theory and research are related in teractionist or conflict paradigms and theories that actual social science inquiry. would reveal any instances of mistreatment that may occur. Whereas we have discussed two idealized logi- cal models for linking theory and research, social Two factors counter the potential problem of science inquiries have developed a great many bias from theoretical orientation. First, as we’ll see variations on these themes. Sometimes theoreti- in the remainder of the book, social science re- cal issues are introduced merely as a background search techniques—the various methods of obser- for empirical analyses. Other studies cite selected vation and analysis—place a damper on our simply empirical data to bolster theoretical arguments. In seeing what we expect. Even if you expect to find neither case do theory and research really interact the police mistreating the homeless and use theo- for the purpose of developing new explanations. ries and methods that will reveal such mistreat- Some studies make no use of theory at all, aim- ment, you will not observe what isn’t there if you ing specifically, for example, at an ethnographic apply those theories and methods appropriately. description of a particular social situation, such as an anthropological account of food and dress in a Second, the collective nature of social research particular society. offers further protection. As we’ll discuss more in Chapter 17, peer review in which researchers evalu- As you read social research reports, however, ate each other’s efforts will point to instances of you’ll often find that the authors are conscious of shoddy and/or biased research. Moreover, with the implications of their research for social theories several researchers studying the same phenom- and vice versa. enon, perhaps using different paradigms, theories, and methods, the risk of biased research findings is Research Ethics and Theory further reduced. In Chapter 1, I introduced the subject of research Main Points ethics and said we would return to that topic throughout the book. At this point, what ethical is- Introduction sues do you suppose theory engenders? • Theories function in three ways in research: In this chapter, we have seen how the para- digms and theories that guide research inevitably (1) helping to avoid flukes, (2) making sense of impact what is observed and how it is interpreted. observed patterns, and (3) shaping and directing Choosing a particular paradigm or theory does not research efforts. guarantee a particular research conclusion, but it will affect what you look for and what you ignore. Some Social Science Paradigms Whether you choose a functionalist or a conflict paradigm to organize your research on police– • Social scientists use a variety of paradigms to orga- community relations will make a big difference. nize how they understand and inquire into social This is a difficult issue to resolve in practice. life. Choosing a theoretical orientation for the purpose of encouraging a particular conclusion would be re- • A distinction between types of theories that cuts garded as unethical as a general matter, but when research is linked to an intention to bring about so- across various paradigms is macrotheory (theories cial change, the researcher will likely choose a the- about large-scale features of society) versus micro­ oretical orientation appropriate to that intention. theory (theories about smaller units or features Let’s say you’re concerned about the treatment of of society). • The positivistic paradigm assumes that we can scientifically discover the rules governing social life. • The Social Darwinist paradigm sees a progressive evolution in social life.

84 ■ Chapter 3: Inquiry, Theory, and Paradigms • The conflict paradigm focuses on the attempt of variety of theoretical expectations that can be tested by observation. individuals and groups to dominate others and to avoid being dominated. Inductive Theory Construction • The symbolic interactionist paradigm examines • David Takeuchi’s study of factors influencing mar- how shared meanings and social patterns develop ijuana smoking among University of Hawaii stu- in the course of social interactions. dents illustrates how collecting observations can lead to generalizations and an explanatory theory. • Ethnomethodology focuses on the ways people The Links between Theory and Research make sense out of social life in the process of liv- ing it, as though each were a researcher engaged • In practice, there are many possible links between in an inquiry. theory and research and many ways of going • The structural functionalist (or social systems) par- about social inquiry. adigm seeks to discover what functions the many Research Ethics and Theory elements of society perform for the whole system. • Researchers should not use paradigm and theory • Feminist paradigms, in addition to drawing atten- selection as a means of achieving desired research tion to the oppression of women in most societies, results. highlight how previous images of social reality have often come from and reinforced the experi- • The collective nature of social research offers pro- ences of men. tection against biased research findings. • Like feminist paradigms, critical race theory both K e y Term s examines the disadvantaged position of a social group (African Americans) and offers a different The following terms are defined in context in the vantage point from which to view and understand chapter and at the bottom of the page where the term society. is introduced, as well as in the comprehensive glossary at the back of the book. • Some contemporary theorists and researchers conflict paradigm null hypothesis have challenged the long-standing belief in an critical race theory operational definition objective reality that abides by rational rules. critical realism operationalization They point out that it is possible to agree on an feminist paradigms paradigm “intersubjective” reality, a view that characterizes hypothesis positivism postmodernism. interest convergence postmodernism macrotheory structural functionalism Elements of Social Theory microtheory symbolic interactionism • The elements of social theory include observations, Proposing Social Research: Theory facts, and laws (which relate to the reality being As this chapter has indicated, social research can be observed), as well as concepts, variables, axioms or pursued within numerous theoretical paradigms— postulates, propositions, and hypotheses (which are each suggesting a somewhat different way to ap- logical building blocks of the theory itself). proach the research question. In this portion of your proposal, you should identify the paradigm(s) that will Two Logical Systems Revisited shape the design of your research. • In the traditional image of science, scientists pro- We have also seen that paradigms provide frame- works within which causal theories may be devel- ceed from theory to operationalization to obser- oped. Perhaps your research project will explore or vation. But this image does not accurately depict test an existing theory. Or more ambitiously, you may how scientific research is actually done. propose a theory or hypothesis for testing. This is the • Social scientific theory and research are linked through the two logical methods of deduction (the derivation of expectations and hypotheses from theories) and induction (the development of generalizations from specific observations). • In practice, science is a process involving an alter- nation of deduction and induction. Deductive Theory Construction • Guillermina Jasso’s theory of distributive justice illustrates how formal reasoning can lead to a

Online Study Resources ■ 85 section of the proposal in which to describe this aspect S P SS Exercises of your project. See the booklet that accompanies your text for ex- Not all research projects are formally organized ercises using SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social around the creation and/or testing of theories and Sciences). There are exercises offered for each chapter, hypotheses. However, your research will involve and you’ll also find a detailed primer on using SPSS. theoretical concepts, which should be described in this ­section of the proposal. As we’ll see more fully in Online Study Resources Chapter 17, this portion of your proposal will reflect the literature on previous theory and research that has Access the resources your instructor has assigned. For shaped your own thinking and research plans. this book, you can access: R e v ie w Q ue s t i o n s a n d E x er c i s e s C ourseMate for The Practice of Social Research 1. Consider the possible relationship between e­ ducation and prejudice that was mentioned in Login to CengageBrain.com to access chapter-specific Chapter 1. Describe how you might examine that learning tools including Learning Objectives, Practice relationship through (a) deductive and (b) induc- Quizzes, Videos, Internet Exercises, Flash Cards, Glossaries, tive methods. Web Links, and more from your Sociology CourseMate. 2. Review the relationships between theory and re- If your professor has assigned Aplia homework: search discussed in this chapter. Select a research 1. Sign into your account. article from an academic journal and classify the 2. After you complete each page of questions, click relationship between theory and research you find there. “Grade It Now” to see detailed explanations of every answer. 3. Using one of the many search engines (such as 3. Click “Try Another Version” for an opportunity to Google, Bing, Dogpile, Excite, HotBot, LookSmart, improve your score. Lycos, Netscape, WebCrawler, Yahoo, Altavista, or Visit www.cengagebrain.com to access your account another of your choosing), find information on and purchase materials. the web concerning at least three of the following paradigms: functionalism, symbolic interaction- ism, conflict theory, ethnomethodology, feminist paradigms, critical race paradigms, rational choice paradigm. Give the web locations and report on the theorists discussed in connection with the in- formation you found. 4. See if you can locate Judith A. Howard (2000), “Social Psychology of Identities,” Annual Review of Sociology 26:367–93. What paradigm does Howard find most useful for the study of social identities? Explain why she feels that it is the appropriate paradigm. Do you agree? Why or why not?

4 Purpose and Design P osing problems properly is often more difficult of Research Projects  than answering them. Indeed, a properly  phrased question often seems to answer itself. 5 Sampling Logic  You may have discovered the answer to a question just in the process of making the question 6 From Concept clear to someone else. to Measurement Part 2 deals with what should be observed; 7 Typologies, Indexes, that is, Part 2 considers the posing of proper scientific and Scales questions, the structuring of inquiry. Part 3 will describe some of the specific methods of social science observation. Chapter 4 addresses the beginnings of research. It examines some of the purposes of inquiry, units of analysis, and the reasons scientists get involved in research projects. Next, we’ll look at how social researchers select people or things for observation. Chapter 5, on sam- pling, addresses the fundamental scientific issue of g­ eneralizability. As you’ll see, we can select a few people or things for observation and then apply what we observe to a much larger group. For example, by surveying 2,000 U.S. citizens about whom they favor for president of the United States, we can accurately

part 2 The Structuring of Inquiry: Quantitative and Qualitative predict how tens of millions will vote. In this chapter, To complete the introduction to measurement, we’ll examine techniques that increase the generalizabil- Chapter 7 breaks with the chronological discussion of ity of what we observe. how research is conducted. In this chapter, we’ll exam- ine techniques for measuring variables in quantitative Chapter 6 deals with the specification of what it is research through the combination of several indicators: you want to measure—the processes of conceptualiza- t­ypologies, indexes, and scales. As an example, we tion and operationalization. It looks at some of the might ask survey respondents five different ­questions terms that you and I use quite casually in everyday about their attitudes toward gender equality and life—prejudice, liberalism, happiness, and so forth—and then combine the answers to all five questions into a shows how essential it is to clarify what we really mean composite measure of gender-based egalitarianism. by such terms when we do research. This process of Although such composite measures are constructed dur- clarification is called conceptualization. ing the analysis of data (see Part 4), the raw materials for them must be provided for in the design and execu- Once we clarify what we mean by certain terms, we tion of data collection. can then measure the referents of those terms. The process of devising steps or operations for measuring What you learn in Part 2 will bring you to the verge what we want to study is called operationalization. of making controlled social science observations. Part 3 Chapter 6 deals with the topic of operationalization in will then show you how to take that next step. general, paying special attention to the framing of questions for interviews and questionnaires.

CHAPTER 4 Purpose and Design of Research Projects chapter overview Here you’ll see the wide variety of research designs available to social researchers as well as how to design a study—that is, specifying exactly who or what is to be studied when, how, and for what purpose. Introduction Faulty Reasoning about Units of Analysis: The Ecological Fallacy Three Purposes of Research and Reductionism Exploration Description The Time Dimension Explanation Cross-Sectional Studies Idiographic Explanation Longitudinal Studies Approximating Longitudinal Nomothetic Explanation Criteria for Nomothetic Causality Studies Nomothetic Causal Analysis and Examples of Research Strategies Hypothesis Testing False Criteria for Nomothetic How to Design a Research Project Causality Getting Started Necessary and Sufficient Causes Conceptualization Choice of Research Method Units of Analysis Operationalization Individuals Population and Sampling Groups Observations Organizations Data Processing Social Interactions Analysis Social Artifacts Application Units of Analysis in Review Research Design in Review The Research Proposal Elements of a Research Proposal Aplia for The Practice of Social Research After reading, go to “Online Study Resources” at the end of this chapter for

Introduction ■ 89 Introduction “biographies of terrorists, case studies of terrorist organizations, case studies on types of terror- Science is an enterprise dedicated to “finding out.” ism, case studies on particular terrorist incidents, No matter what you want to find out, though, there and case studies of terrorism in selected regions will likely be a great many ways of doing it. That’s and countries” (2004: 27). Quantitative research- true in life generally. Suppose, for example, that you ers, on the other hand, have addressed terrorism want to find out whether a particular automobile— in a variety of ways, including analyses of media say, the new Turbo Tiger—would be a good car for coverage, statistical modeling of terrorist events, you. You could, of course, buy one and find out that and the use of various databases relevant to the way. Or you could talk to a lot of Turbo Tiger owners topic. As you’ll see in this chapter, any research or to people who considered buying one but didn’t. topic can be approached from many different di- You might check the classified ads to see if there are rections. Each of the topics we’ll examine is rele- a lot of Turbo Tigers being sold cheap. You could vant to both qualitative and quantitative studies, read a consumer magazine evaluation of Turbo though some topics may be more relevant to one Tigers. A similar situation occurs in scientific inquiry. than to the other approach. Ultimately, scientific inquiry comes down to This chapter provides a general introduction making observations and interpreting what you’ve to research design, whereas the other chapters in observed, the subjects of Parts 3 and 4 of this book. Part 2 elaborate on specific aspects of it. In prac- Before you can observe and analyze, however, you tice, all aspects of research design are interrelated. need a plan. You need to determine what you’re As you read through Part 2, the interrelationships going to observe and analyze: why and how. That’s among parts will become clearer. what research design is all about. We’ll start by briefly examining the main pur- Although the details vary according to what poses of social research. Then, we’ll consider units you wish to study, you face two major tasks in any of analysis—the what or whom you want to study. research design. First, you must specify as clearly Next we’ll consider ways of handling time in social as possible what you want to find out. Second, you research, or how to study a moving target that must determine the best way to do it. Interestingly, changes over time. if you can handle the first consideration fully, you’ll probably handle the second in the same process. With these ideas in hand, we’ll turn to how As mathematicians say, a properly framed question to design a research project. This overview of the contains the answer. research process serves two purposes: Besides de- scribing how you might go about designing a study, Let’s say you’re interested in conducting social it provides a map of the remainder of this book. research on terrorism. When Jeffrey Ross (2004) addressed this issue, he found the existing studies Next, we’ll look at the elements of research used a variety of qualitative and quantitative ap- proposals. Often, you’ll need to detail your inten- proaches. Qualitative researchers, for example, tions before you actually conduct your research; generated original data through this might be required in order to obtain funding for a major project or perhaps to get your instruc- Autobiographies tor’s approval for a class project. You’ll see that the research proposal provides an excellent opportu- Incident Reports and Accounts nity for you to consider all aspects of your research in advance. Also, this section should help you Hostages’ Experiences with Terrorists with the end-of-chapter exercise concerning the research proposal, if you are doing that. Finally, the Firsthand Accounts of Implementing Policies last section of this chapter focuses on the ethical dimension of research design. Ross goes on to discuss some of the secondary materials used by qualitative researchers:

90 ■ Chapter 4: Purpose and Design of Research Projects Three Purposes of Research used in market research; we’ll examine it further in Chapter 11. Social research can serve many purposes. Three of the most common and useful purposes are ex- Exploratory studies are most typically done ploration, description, and explanation. Although for three purposes: (1) to satisfy the researcher’s a given study can have more than one of these curiosity and desire for better understanding, (2) to ­purposes—and most do—examining them sepa- test the feasibility of undertaking a more extensive rately is useful because each has different implica- study, and (3) to develop the methods to be em- tions for other aspects of research design. ployed in any subsequent study. Exploration A while back, for example, I became aware of the growing popularity of something called “chan- Much of social research is conducted to explore neling,” in which a person known as a channel or a topic, that is, to start to familiarize a researcher medium enters a trance state and begins speaking with that topic. This approach typically occurs when with a voice that claims it originates outside the a researcher examines a new interest or when the channel. Some of the voices say they come from subject of study itself is relatively new. a spirit world of the dead, some say they are from other planets, and still others say they exist in di- As an example, let’s suppose that widespread mensions of reality difficult to explain in ordinary taxpayer dissatisfaction with the government human terms. erupts into a taxpayers’ revolt. People begin refus- ing to pay their taxes, and they organize them- The channeled voices, often referred to as selves around that issue. You might like to learn “entities,” sometimes use the metaphor of radio more about the movement: How widespread is or television for the phenomenon they represent. it? What levels and degrees of support are there “When you watch the news,” one told me in the within the community? How is the movement course of an interview, “you don’t believe the net- organized? What kinds of people are active in work news anchor is really inside the television set. it? An exploratory study could help you find at The same is true of me. I use this medium’s body least approximate answers to some of these ques- the way the reporter uses your television set.” tions. You might check figures with tax-collecting officials, collect and study the literature of the The idea of channeling interested me from movement, attend meetings, and interview several perspectives, not the least of which was leaders. the methodological question of how to study scientifically something that violates so much Exploratory studies are also appropriate for of what we take for granted, including scientific more persistent phenomena. Suppose you’re un- staples such as space, time, causation, and in- happy with your college’s graduation requirements dividuality. and want to help change them. You might study the history of such requirements at the college and Lacking any rigorous theory or precise ex- meet with college officials to learn the reasons for pectations, I merely set out to learn more. Using the current standards. You could talk to several stu- some of the techniques of qualitative field research dents to get a rough idea of their sentiments on the we will discuss in Chapter 11, I began amassing subject. Though this last activity would not neces- information and forming categories for making sarily yield an accurate picture of student opinion, sense of what I observed. I read books and articles it could suggest what the results of a more exten- about the phenomenon and talked to people who sive study might be. had attended channeling sessions. I then attended channeling sessions myself, observing those who Sometimes exploratory research is pursued attended as well as the channel and entity. Next, through the use of focus groups, or guided small- I conducted personal interviews with numerous group discussions. This technique is frequently channels and entities. In most interviews, I began by asking the human channels questions about how they first

Three Purposes of Research ■ 91 began channeling, what it was like, and why they Exploratory studies are also a source of grounded continued, as well as standard biographical ques- theory, as discussed in Chapter 3. tions. The channel would then go into a trance, whereby the interview continued with the entity The chief shortcoming of exploratory studies speaking. “Who are you?” I might ask. “Where do is that they seldom provide satisfactory answers you come from?” “Why are you doing this?” “How to research questions, though they can hint at can I tell if you are real or a fake?” Although I went the answers and can suggest which research into these interview sessions with several questions methods could provide definitive ones. The rea- prepared in advance, each of the interviews fol- son exploratory studies are seldom definitive in lowed whatever course seemed appropriate in light themselves has to do with representativeness; of the answers given. that is, the people you study in your e­ xploratory research may not be typical of the larger popu- This example of exploration illustrates where lation that interests you. Once you understand social research often begins. Whereas research- representativeness, you’ll be able to know whether ers working from deductive theories have the key a given exploratory study actually answered its variables laid out in advance, one of my first tasks research problem or only pointed the way to- was to identify some of the possibly relevant vari- ward an answer. (Representativeness is discussed ables. For example, I noted a channel’s gender, age, at length in Chapter 5.) education, religious background, regional origins, and previous participation in things metaphysical. Description I chose most of these variables because they com- monly affect behavior. A major purpose of many social science studies is to describe situations and events. The researcher I also noted differences in the circumstances observes and then describes what was observed. of channeling sessions. Some channels said they Because scientific observation is careful and delib- must go into deep trances, some use light trances, erate, however, scientific descriptions are typically and others remain conscious. Most sit down while more accurate and precise than casual ones are. channeling, but others stand and walk about. Some channels operate under pretty ordinary conditions; The U.S. Census is an excellent example of others seem to require props such as dim lights, descriptive social research. The goal of the census incense, and chanting. Many of these differences is to describe accurately and precisely a wide va- became apparent to me only in the course of my riety of characteristics of the U.S. population, as initial observations. well as the populations of smaller areas such as states and counties. Other examples of descrip- Regarding the entities, I have been interested tive studies are the computation of age-gender in classifying where they say they come from. profiles of populations done by demographers, Over the course of my interviews, I’ve developed the computation of crime rates for different cities, a set of questions about specific aspects of “real- and a product-­marketing survey that describes the ity,” ­attempting to classify the answers they give. people who use, or would use, a particular product. ­Similarly, I ask each to speak about future events. A researcher who carefully chronicles the events that take place on a labor union picket line has, or Over the course of this research, my exami- at least serves, a descriptive purpose. A researcher nation of specific topics has become increasingly who computes and reports the number of times focused as I’ve identified variables that seem worth individual legislators voted for or against organized pursuing: gender, education, and religion, for ex- labor also fulfills a descriptive purpose. ample. Note, however, that I began with a reason- ably blank slate. Many qualitative studies aim primarily at description. An anthropological ethnography, for Exploratory studies are quite valuable in social example, may try to detail the particular culture science research. They’re essential whenever a re- of some preliterate society. At the same time, such searcher is breaking new ground, and they almost always yield new insights into a topic for research.

92 ■ Chapter 4: Purpose and Design of Research Projects studies are seldom limited to a merely descriptive research (and in everyday life). Let’s return to purpose. Researchers usually go on to examine those now. why the observed patterns exist and what they imply. Idiographic Explanation Explanation As you will recall from Chapter 1, idiographic explanation seeks an exhaustive understanding The third general purpose of social science research of the causes producing events and situations in is to explain things. Descriptive studies answer a single or limited number of cases. If you wished questions of what, where, when, and how; explan- to understand why a student protest broke out atory questions, of why. So when William Sanders on a particular college campus, you would seek to (1994) set about describing the varieties of gang root out everything that contributed to that result. violence, he also wanted to reconstruct the process You would consider the history of the college, its that brought about violent episodes among the organizational structure, the nature of the student gangs of different ethnic groups. body, the actions of influential individuals (ad- ministrators, faculty, students, others), the context Reporting the voting intentions of an electorate of student activities nationally, triggering events is descriptive, but reporting why some people plan (e.g., shutting down a student organization, ar- to vote for Candidate A and others for Candidate resting a student), and so forth. You’ll know your B is explanatory. Identifying variables that explain analysis is complete when the explanatory factors why some cities have higher crime rates than oth- you have assembled made the protest inevitable ers involves explanation. A researcher who sets out and when the absence of any of those factors might to know why an antiabortion demonstration ended have kept it from happening. in a violent confrontation with police, as opposed to simply describing what happened, has an ex- There is no statistical test that can tell you planatory purpose. when you have achieved this analytical success, however. This conclusion rests on the “art” of social Let’s look at a specific case. What factors do research, which is achieved primarily through ex- you suppose might shape people’s attitudes toward perience: by reading the analyses of others and by the legalization of marijuana? To answer this, you conducting your own. Here are a few techniques to might first consider whether men and women dif- consider. fer in their opinions. An explanatory analysis of the 2006 General Social Survey (GSS) data indicates • Pay attention to the explanations offered by the that 41 percent of men and 30 percent of women said marijuana should be legalized. people living the social processes you are studying. It is important that you not believe everything What about political orientation? The GSS data you are told, of course, but don’t make the op- show that 50 percent of liberals said marijuana posite mistake of thinking you understand the should be legalized, compared with 36 percent of situation better than those living there. (Social moderates and 24 percent of conservatives. researchers have sometimes been accused of a Further, 44 percent of Democrats, compared with certain degree of arrogance in this respect.) If 35 percent of Independents and 23 percent of there is wide agreement as to the importance of Republicans, supported legalization. a certain factor, that should increase your con- fidence that it was a cause of the event under Given these statistics, you might begin to study. This would be more so if participants develop an explanation for attitudes toward with very different points of view agree on that marijuana legalization. Further study of gender point. In the case of the student protest, admin- and political orientation might then lead to a istrators and students are likely to have very deeper explanation of these attitudes. different opinions about what happened, but if In Chapter 1, we noted there were two different approaches to explanation in social

Nomothetic Explanation ■ 93 they all agree that the arrest of a student activ- Criteria for Nomothetic Causality ist was a triggering event, then it probably was an important cause. There are three main criteria for nomothetic causal relationships in social research: (1) the variables • Comparisons with similar situations, either in differ- must be correlated, (2) the cause takes place before the effect, and (3) the variables are nonspurious. ent places or at different times in the same place, can be insightful. Perhaps the campus in question has Correlation had previous protests or perhaps there was a time when a protest almost occurred but didn’t. Unless some actual relationship—a statistical Knowledge of such instances can provide use- ­correlation—is found between two variables, we ful comparisons and contrasts to the case under can’t say that a causal relationship exists. Our anal- study. Similarly, protests or non-protests at ysis of GSS data suggested that political orientation other campuses can offer useful comparisons. was a cause of attitudes about legalizing marijuana. Had the same percentage of liberals and conser- Nomothetic Explanation vatives supported legalization, we could hardly say that political orientations caused the attitude. Earlier in this chapter, the examination of what Though this criterion is obvious, it emphasizes the factors might cause attitudes about legalizing mari- need to base social research assertions on actual juana illustrates nomothetic explanation. Recall observations rather than assumptions. that in this model, we try to find a few factors (in- dependent variables) that can account for many of Time Order the variations in a given phenomenon. Thus, we saw, men were more likely than women to sup- Next, we can’t say a causal relationship exists un- port legalization; liberals more likely than conser- less the cause precedes the effect in time. Notice vatives, and so on. This explanatory model stands that it makes more sense to say that most children’s in contrast to the idiographic model, in which religious affiliations are caused by those of their we seek a complete, in-depth understanding of a parents than to say that parents’ affiliations are single case. caused by those of their children—even though it would be possible for you to change your religion In our example, an idiographic approach would and for your parents to follow suit. Remember, suggest all the reasons that one person was op- ­nomothetic explanation deals with “most cases” posed to legalization—involving what her parents, but not all. teachers, and clergy told her about it; any bad experiences experimenting with it; and so forth. In our marijuana example, it would make When we understand something idiographically, sense to say that gender causes, to some extent, at- we feel we really understand it. When we know all titudes toward legalization, whereas it would make the reasons why someone opposed legalizing mari- no sense to say that opinions about marijuana juana, we couldn’t imagine that person having any determine a person’s gender. Notice, however, that other attitude. the time order connecting political orientations and In contrast, a nomothetic approach might sug- correlation  An empirical relationship between two gest that overall political orientations account for variables such that (1) changes in one are associated much of the difference of opinion about legalizing with changes in the other or (2) particular attributes marijuana. Because this model is inherently proba- of one variable are associated with particular attri- bilistic, it is more open to misunderstanding and butes of the other. Correlation in and of itself does misinterpretation than the idiographic model is. not constitute a causal relationship between the two Let’s examine what social researchers mean when variables, but it is one criterion of causality. they say one variable (nomothetically) causes an- other. Then, we’ll look at what they don’t mean.

94 ■ Chapter 4: Purpose and Design of Research Projects attitudes about legalization is less clear, though we low birthrates. Do storks really deliver babies? sometimes reason that general orientations cause B­ irthrates are higher in the country than in the specific opinions. And sometimes our analyses in- city; more storks live in the country than the city. volve two or more independent variables that were The third variable here is urban/rural areas. established at the same time: looking at the effects of gender and race on voting behavior, for ex- Finally, the more fire trucks that put out a fire, ample. As we’ll see in Chapter 6, the issue of time the more damage to the structure. Can you guess order can be a complex matter. what the third variable is? In this case, it’s the size of the fire. Nonspuriousness Thus, when social researchers say there is a The third requirement for a causal relationship causal relationship between, say, education and is that the effect cannot be explained in terms of racial tolerance, they mean (1) there is a statistical some third variable. For example, there is a cor- correlation between the two variables, (2) a per- relation between ice-cream sales and deaths due son’s educational level occurred before their cur- to drowning: the more ice cream sold, the more rent level of tolerance or prejudice, and (3) there drownings, and vice versa. There is, however, no is no third variable that can explain away the direct link between ice cream and drowning. The observed correlation as spurious. third variable at work here is season or temperature. Most drowning deaths occur during summer—the Nomothetic Causal Analysis peak period for ice-cream sales. and Hypothesis Testing Here are a couple of other examples of The nomothetic model of causal analysis lends itself spurious relationships, or ones that aren’t to hypothesis testing (see Chapter 1), though hy- genuine. There is a negative relationship between potheses are not required in nomothetical research. the number of mules and the number of Ph.D.’s in To test a hypothesis, you would carefully specify towns and cities: the more mules, the fewer Ph.D.’s the variables you think are causally related, as well and vice versa. Perhaps you can think of another as specifying the manner in which you will mea- variable that would explain this apparent relation- sure them. (These steps will be discussed in detail ship. The answer is rural versus urban settings: in the following chapter under the terms conceptual- There are more mules (and fewer Ph.D.’s) in rural ization and operationalization.) areas, whereas the opposite is true in cities. In addition to hypothesizing that two vari- Or, consider the positive correlation between ables will be correlated with each other, you may shoe size and math ability among schoolchildren. specify the strength of the relationship you expect Here, the third variable that explains the puzzling within the study design you are using. Often this relationship is age. Older children have bigger feet specification will take the form of a level of statisti- and more highly developed math skills, on average, cal significance: the chance you are willing to take than younger children do. See Figure 4-1 for an that a given relationship might have been caused ­illustration of this spurious relationship. Notice that by chance in the selection of subjects for study. observed associations go in both directions. That (This will be discussed further in Chapter 5, on is, as one variable occurs or changes, so does the sampling.) other. Finally, you may specify the tests for spurious- The list goes on. Areas with many storks ness that any observed relationship must survive. have high birthrates. Those with few storks have Not only will you hypothesize, for example, that increased education will reduce levels of prejudice, spurious relationship  A coincidental statistical but you will specify further that the hypothesized correlation between two variables, shown to be relationship will not be the product of, say, political caused by some third variable. orientations.

Nomothetic Explanation ■ 95 FIGURE 4-1 An Example of a Spurious Causal Relationship. Finding an empirical correlation between two variables does not necessarily establish a causal r­elationship. Sometimes the observed correlation is the incidental result of other causal relationships, involving other variables. False Criteria for Nomothetic Exceptional Cases Causality In nomothetic explanations, exceptions do not dis- Because notions of cause and effect are well prove a causal relationship. For example, it is con- entrenched in everyday language and logic, it’s sistently found that women are more religious than important to specify some of the things social re- men in the United States. Thus, gender may be a searchers do not mean when they speak of causal cause of religiosity, even if your uncle is a religious relationships. When they say that one variable zealot or you know a woman who is an avowed causes another, they do not necessarily mean to atheist. Those exceptional cases do not disprove the suggest complete causation, to account for excep- overall, causal pattern. tional cases, or to claim that the causation exists in a majority of cases. Majority of Cases Complete Causation Causal relationships can be true even if they don’t Whereas an idiographic explanation of causation apply in a majority of cases. For example, we say is relatively complete, a nomothetic explanation is probabilistic and usually incomplete. As we’ve that children who are not supervised after school seen, social researchers may say that political orien- tations cause attitudes toward legalizing marijuana are more likely to become delinquent than those even though not all liberals approve nor all con- servatives disapprove. Thus, we say that political who are supervised are; hence, lack of supervision orientation is one of the causes of the attitude, but not the only one. is a cause of delinquency. This causal relationship holds true even if only a small percentage of those not msuopreerlivkiesleydthbaencotmhoesdeewlinhqouaernets.uApselrovnisgCedaestnothgbeeya g e Learning are delinquent, we say there is a causal relatioBnashbibp.ie: The Practice of The social science view of causation maSyovcairayl Research, 13/e from what you are accustomed to, because people

96 ■ Chapter 4: Purpose and Design of Research Projects FIGURE 4-2 Necessary Cause. Being female is a necessary cause of pregnancy; that is, you can’t get pregnant unless you are female. commonly use the term cause to mean something course would be a sufficient cause for failing it, that completely causes another thing. The some- what different standard used by social researchers though students could fail it other ways as well. can be seen more clearly in terms of necessary and sufficient causes. Thus, a cause can be sufficient, but not necessary. Necessary and Sufficient Causes ­Figure 4-3 illustrates the relationship between A necessary cause represents a condition that must taking or not taking the exam and either passing or be present for the effect to follow. For example, it is necessary for you to take college courses in failing it. order to get a degree. Take away the courses, and the degree never follows. However, simply taking The discovery of a cause that is both neces- the courses is not a sufficient cause of getting a degree. You need to take the right ones and pass sary and sufficient is, of course, the most satisfying them. Similarly, being female is a necessary condi- tion of becoming pregnant, but it is not a sufficient outcome in research. If juvenile delinquency were cause. Otherwise, all women would get pregnant. Figure 4-2 illustrates this relationship between the the effect under examination, it would be nice to variables of sex and pregnancy as a matrix show- ing the possible outcomes of combining these discover a single condition that (1) must be present variables. for delinquency to develop and (2) always results A sufficient cause, on the other hand, represents a condition that, if it is present, guarantees the ef- in delinquency. In such a case, you would surely fect in question. This is not to say that a sufficient cause is the only possible cause of a particular feel that you knew precisely what caused juvenile effect. For example, skipping an exam in this delinquency. Unfortunately, we never discover single causes that are absolutely necessary and absolutely sufficient when analyzing the nomothetic rela- tionships among variables. It is not uncommon, however, to find causal factors that are either 100 percent necessary (you must be female toCbeeconmgea g e L e a r n i n g pregnant) or 100 percent sufficient (skippBinagbabnie: The Practice of exam will inevitably cause you to fail it). Social Research, 13/e In the idiographic analysis of single cwa1hs-ei1cs3,h3y-iot0u4is979-6 may reach a depth of explanation from Fig. 4-2 reasonable to assume that things could not have turned out differently, suggesting you have deter- mined the sufficient causes for a particular result.

Units of Analysis ■ 97 even though the researcher uses the information about individuals to generalize about aggregates of individuals, as in saying that more Democrats than Republicans favor legalizing marijuana. Think of it this way: Having an attitude about marijuana is something that can only be an attribute of an indi- vidual, not a group; that is, there is no one group “mind” that can have an attitude. So even when we generalize about Democrats, we’re generalizing about an attribute they possess as individuals. In contrast, we may sometimes want to study groups, considered as individual “actors” or enti- ties that have attributes as groups. For instance, we might want to compare the characteristics of dif- FIGURE 4-3 ferent types of street gangs. In that case our unit of Sufficient Cause. Not taking the exam is a sufficient cause of failing analysis would be gangs (not members of gangs), it, even though there are other ways of failing (such as answering randomly). and we might proceed to make generalizations (Anyone with all the same details of your genetic about different types of gangs. For example, we inheritance, upbringing, and subsequent experi- ences would have ended up going to college.) At might conclude that male gangs are more violent the same time, there could always be other causal paths to the same result. Thus, the idiographic than female gangs. Each gang (unit of analysis) causes are sufficient but not necessary. would be described in terms of two variables: Units of Analysis (1) What sex are the members? and (2) How vio- In social research, there is virtually no limit to what or whom can be studied, or the units of analysis. lent are its activities? So we might study 52 gangs, This topic is relevant to all forms of social research, although its implications are clearest in the case of reporting that 40 were male and 12 were female, nomothetic, quantitative studies. and so forth. The “gang” would be the unit of The idea for units of analysis may seem slip- pery at first, because research—especially nomo- analysis, even though some of the characteristics thetic research—often studies large collections of people or things, or aggregates. It’s important to were drawn from the components (members) of distinguish between the unit of analysis and the aggregates that we generalize about. For instance, the gangs. a researcher may study a class of people, such as Democrats, college undergraduates, African Amer- Social researchers tend to choose individual ican women under 30, or some other collection. But if the researcher is interested in exploring, people as their units of analysis. You may note the describing, or explaining how different groups of individuals behave as individuals, the unit of analy- characteristics of individual people—sex, age, re- sis is the individual, not the group. This is true gion of birth, attitudes, and so forth. You can then combine these descriptions to provide a composite picture of the group the individuals represent, whether a street-corner gang or a whole society. For example, you may note the age and sex of each student enrolled in Political Science 110 and then characterize the group of students as being 53 perceCnet mnegnaagned 4L7epearrcennitnwgomen and as having a mBeaanbbagiee:oTf h1e8.6Pryaecartisc. eAlothf ough the final descriptioSnowcoiaulldRbeeseoaf trhceh,c1la3ss/eas a whole, 1-133-04979-6 Fig. 4-3 units of analysis  The what or whom being stud- ied. In social science research, the most typical units of analysis are individual people.

98 ■ Chapter 4: Purpose and Design of Research Projects the description is based on characteristics that to learn what kinds of colleges (organizations) pro- members of the class have as individuals. duce the most-successful graduates. The same distinction between units of analy- Here’s an example that illustrates the complex- sis and aggregates occurs in explanatory studies. ity of units of analysis. Murder is a fairly personal Suppose you wished to discover whether students matter: One individual kills another individual. with good study habits received better grades However, when Charis Kubrin and Ronald Weitzer in Political Science 110 than students with poor (2003: 157) ask, “Why do these neighborhoods study habits did. You would operationalize the generate high homicide rates?” the unit of analysis variable study habits and measure this variable, in that phrase is neighborhood. You can probably perhaps in terms of hours of study per week. imagine some kinds of neighborhoods (e.g., poor, You might then aggregate students with good urban) that would have high homicide rates and study habits and those with poor study habits some (e.g., wealthy, suburban) that would have and see which group received the best grades in low rates. In this particular conversation, the unit the course. The purpose of the study would be to of analysis (neighborhood) would be categorized in explain why some groups of students do better in terms of variables such as economic level, locale, and the course than others do, but the unit of analysis homicide rate. is still individual students. In their analysis, however, Kubrin and Weitzer Units of analysis in a study are usually also the were also interested in different types of homicide: units of observation. Thus, to study success in a po- in particular, those that occurred in retaliation for litical science course, we would observe individual some earlier event, such as an assault or insult. Can students. Sometimes, however, we “observe” our you identify the unit of analysis common to all of units of analysis indirectly. For example, suppose the following excerpts? we want to find out whether disagreements about the death penalty tend to cause divorce. In this 1. The sample of killings . . . case, we might “observe” individual husbands and wives by asking them about their attitudes about 2. The coding instrument includes over capital punishment, in order to distinguish couples 80 items related to the homicide. who agree and disagree on this issue. In this case, our units of observation are individual wives and 3. Of the 2,161 homicides that occurred from husbands, but our units of analysis (the things we 1985 [to] 1995 . . . want to study) are couples. 4. Of those with an identified motive, Units of analysis, then, are those things we 19.5 ­percent (n = 337) are retaliatory. examine in order to create summary descriptions of all such units and to explain differences among (Kubrin and Weitzer 2003: 163) them. In most research projects, the unit of analy- sis will probably be clear to you. When the unit of In each of these excerpts, the unit of analysis analysis is not clear, however, it’s essential to deter- is homicide (also called killing or murder). Some- mine what it is; otherwise, you cannot determine times you can identify the unit of analysis in the what observations are to be made about whom or description of the sampling methods, as in the what. first excerpt. A discussion of classification methods might also identify the unit of analysis, as in the Some studies try to describe or explain more second excerpt (80 ways to code the homicides). than one unit of analysis. In these cases, the re- Often, numerical summaries point the way: 2,161 searcher must anticipate what conclusions she or homicides; 19.5 percent (of the homicides). With a he wishes to draw with regard to which units of little practice you’ll be able to identify the units of analysis. For example, we may want to discover analysis in most social research reports, even when what kinds of college students (individuals) are more than one is used in a given analysis. most successful in their careers; we may also want To explore this topic in more depth, let’s con- sider several common units of analysis in social research.

Units of Analysis ■ 99 Individuals Groups As mentioned, individual human beings are per- Social groups can also be units of analysis in social haps the most typical units of analysis for social research. That is, we may be interested in charac- research. Social researchers tend to describe and teristics that belong to one group, considered as a explain social groups and interactions by ag- single entity. If you were to study the members of gregating and manipulating the descriptions of a criminal gang to learn about criminals, the indi- individuals. vidual (criminal) would be the unit of analysis; but if you studied all the gangs in a city to learn the Any type of individual may be the unit of differences, say, between big gangs and small ones, analysis for social research. This point is more between “uptown” and “downtown” gangs, and so important than it may seem at first. The norm of forth, you would be interested in gangs rather than generalized understanding in social research should their individual members. In this case, the unit of suggest that scientific findings are most valuable analysis would be the gang, a social group. when they apply to all kinds of people. In practice, however, social researchers seldom study all kinds Here’s another example. Suppose you were of people. At the very least, their studies are typi- interested in the question of access to computers in cally limited to the people living in a single country, different segments of society. You might describe though some comparative studies stretch across families in terms of total annual income and ac- national boundaries. Often, though, studies are cording to whether or not they had computers. quite circumscribed. You could then aggregate families and describe the mean income of families and the percentage with Examples of classes of individuals that might computers. You would then be in a position to be chosen for study include students, gays and determine whether families with higher incomes lesbians, auto workers, voters, single parents, and were more likely to have computers than were faculty members. Note that each of these terms those with lower incomes. In this case, the unit of implies some population of individuals. Descriptive analysis would be families. studies with individuals as their units of analysis typically aim to describe the population that com- As with other units of analysis, we can derive prises those individuals, whereas explanatory stud- the characteristics of social groups from those of ies aim to discover the social dynamics operating their individual members. Thus, we might describe within that population. a family in terms of the age, race, or education of its head. In a descriptive study, we might find As the units of analysis, individuals may be the percentage of all families that have a college-­ characterized in terms of their membership in educated head of family. In an explanatory study, social groupings. Thus, an individual may be we might determine whether such families have, described as belonging to a rich family or to a on average, more or fewer children than do fami- poor one, or a person may be described as hav- lies headed by people who have not graduated ing a college-educated mother or not. We might from college. In each of these examples, the family examine in a research project whether people is the unit of analysis. In contrast, had we asked with college-educated mothers are more likely to whether college-educated individuals have more attend college than are those with non-college- or fewer children than do their less-educated coun- educated mothers or whether high school gradu- terparts, then the individual would have been the ates in rich families are more likely than those in unit of analysis. poor families to attend college. In each case, the unit of analysis—the “thing” whose characteris- Other units of analysis at the group level could tics we are seeking to describe or explain—is the be friendship cliques, married couples, census individual. We then aggregate these individuals blocks, cities, or geographic regions. As with indi- and make generalizations about the population viduals, each of these terms implies some popu- they belong to. lation. Street gangs implies some population that

100 ■ Chapter 4: Purpose and Design of Research Projects includes all street gangs, perhaps in a given city. of units of analysis that social interactions provide You might then describe this population by gener- is nearly infinite. alizing from your findings about individual gangs. For instance, you might describe the geographic Even though individuals are usually the actors distribution of gangs throughout a city. In an ex- in social interactions, there is a difference between planatory study of street gangs, you might discover (1) comparing the kinds of people who subscribe whether large gangs are more likely than small to different Internet service providers (individuals ones to engage in intergang warfare. Thus, you being the units of analysis) and (2) comparing the would arrive at conclusions about the population length of chat-room interactions on those same of gangs by using individual groups as your unit of providers (interactions being the units of analysis). analysis. Social Artifacts Organizations Another unit of analysis is the social artifact, or Formal social organizations may also be the units any product of social beings or their behavior. One of analysis in social research. For example, a re- class of artifacts includes concrete objects such as searcher might study corporations, by which he books, poems, paintings, automobiles, buildings, or she implies a population of all corporations. songs, pottery, jokes, student excuses for missing Individual corporations might be characterized in exams, and scientific discoveries. terms of their number of employees, net annual profits, gross assets, number of defense contracts, For example, Lenore Weitzman and her associ- percentage of employees from racial or ethnic mi- ates (1972) were interested in learning how gen- nority groups, and so forth. We might determine der roles are taught. They chose children’s picture whether large corporations hire a larger or smaller books as their unit of analysis. Specifically, they percentage of minority group employees than small examined books that had received the Caldecott corporations do. Other examples of formal social Medal. Their results were as follows: organizations suitable as units of analysis include church congregations, colleges, army divisions, We found that females were underrepresented academic departments, and supermarkets. in the titles, central roles, pictures, and stories of every sample of books we examined. Most Figure 4-4 provides a graphic illustration of children’s books are about boys, men, male some different units of analysis and the statements animals, and deal exclusively with male ad- that might be made about them. ventures. Most pictures show men singly or in groups. Even when women can be found in Social Interactions the books, they often play insignificant roles, remaining both inconspicuous and nameless. Sometimes social interactions are the relevant units of analysis. Instead of individual humans, (Weitzman et al. 1972: 1128) you can study what goes on between them: tele- phone calls, kisses, dancing, arguments, fistfights, In a more recent study, Roger Clark, Rachel e-mail exchanges, chat-room discussions, and so ­Lennon, and Leana Morris (1993) concluded that forth. As you saw in Chapter 3, social interac- male and female characters were portrayed less ste- tion is the basis for one of the primary theoretical reotypically than before, observing a clear progress paradigms in the social sciences, and the number toward portraying men and women in nontradi- tional roles. However, they did not find total equal- social artifact  Any product of social beings or their ity between the sexes. behavior. Can be a unit of analysis. As this example suggests, just as people or social groups imply populations, each social ob- ject implies a set of all objects of the same class: all books, all novels, all biographies, all introduc- tory sociology textbooks, all cookbooks, all press

Units of Analysis ■ 101 FIGURE 4-4

102 ■ Chapter 4: Purpose and Design of Research Projects Tips and Tools Identifying the Unit of Analysis Consider another statement:“Italian movies show more nudity than do American movies.” The variable here is the extent to which nudity is shown, The unit of analysis is an important element in research design and later but who or what shows nudity? Movies. Movies are the units of analysis. in data analysis. However, students sometimes find identifying it elusive. The easiest way to identify the unit of analysis is to examine a statement One way of identifying the unit of analysis is to imagine the process regarding the variables under study. that would result in the conclusion reached. Consider the following: “The average household income Consider this research conclusion:“Twenty-four percent of the was $40,000.” Income is the variable of interest, but who or what families have more than one adult earning at least $30,000 a year.”To be has income? Households, in this instance. We would arrive at the sure, adults are earning the income, but the statement is about whether given statement by examining the incomes of several households. families have such adults. To make this statement, we would study To c­ alculate the mean ­(average) income, we would add up all several families. For each, we would ask whether they had more than the household incomes and divide by the number of households. two adults earning in excess of $30,000; each family would be scored as Household is the unit of analysis. It is the unit being analyzed in “yes”or“no”in that respect. Finally, we would calculate the percentage of terms of the variable, income. families scored as“yes.” The family, therefore, is the unit of analysis. conferences. In a study using books as the units through the examination of other units of analysis. of analysis, an individual book might be charac- Indeed, social researchers can study just about any- terized by its size, weight, length, price, content, thing that bears on social life. number of pictures, number sold, or description of the author. Then the population of all books or of Moreover, the types of units of analysis named a particular kind of book could be analyzed for the in this section do not begin to exhaust the possi- purpose of description or explanation: what kinds bilities. Morris Rosenberg (1968: 234–48), for ex- of books sell best and why, for example. ample, speaks of individual, group, organizational, institutional, spatial, cultural, and societal units of Similarly, a social researcher could analyze analysis. John Lofland and his associates (2006: whether paintings by Russian, Chinese, or U.S. 122–32) speak of practices, episodes, encounters, artists showed the greatest degree of working-class roles and social types, social and personal relation- consciousness, taking paintings as the units of anal- ships, groups and cliques, organizations, settle- ysis and describing each, in part, by the nationality ments and habitats, subcultures, and lifestyles as of its creator. Or you might examine a newspaper’s suitable units of study. The important thing here is editorials regarding a local university, for the pur- to grasp the logic of units of analysis. Once you do, pose of describing, or perhaps explaining, changes the possibilities for fruitful research are limited only in the newspaper’s editorial position on the univer- by your imagination. sity over time. In this example, individual editorials would be the units of analysis. See “Tips and Tools: Categorizing possible units of analysis Identifying the Unit of Analysis” for more. might make the concept seem more complicated than it needs to be. What you call a given unit Units of Analysis in Review of analysis—a group, a formal organization, or a social artifact—is irrelevant. The key is to be clear The examples in this section should suggest the about what your unit of analysis is. When you nearly infinite variety of possible units of analysis embark on a research project, you must decide in social research. Although individual human whether you’re studying marriages or marriage beings are typical objects of study, many research partners, crimes or criminals, corporations or questions can be answered more appropriately corporate executives. Otherwise, you run the risk of drawing invalid conclusions because your

Units of Analysis ■ 103 Research in Real Life Red Families and Blue Families Assuming that young people are going to have sex, Cahn and Carbone argue that the“traditional family values”that oppose sex educa- During recent American political campaigns, concern for“family values” tion, contraception, and abortion will result in unplanned births that has often been featured as a hot-button issue. Typically, conservatives will typically be dealt with by forcing the young parents to marry. This, and Republicans have warned of the decline of such traditional values, in turn, may interrupt their educations, limit their employment oppor- citing divorce rates, teen pregnancies, same-sex marriage, and such. This tunities, lead to poverty, and result in unstable marriages that may not is, however, a more complex matter than would fit on a bumper sticker. survive. This interpretation of the data may be completely valid, but can you recognize a methodological issue that might be raised? Think about In their analysis of conservative“red families”and liberal“blue the ecological fallacy. families,”Naomi Cahn and June Carbone report: The units of analysis used in these analyses are the 50 states of Red family champions correctly point out that growing numbers the union. The variables correlated are (1) overall voting patterns of the of single-parent families threaten the well-being of the next states and (2) family-problem rates in the states. States voting Repub- generation, and they accurately observe that greater male fidelity lican overall have more problems than those voting Democratic overall. and female“virtue”strengthen relationships. Yet red regions of the However, the data do not guarantee that Republican families or teenag- country have higher teen pregnancy rates, more shotgun ers in Republican families have more problems than their Democratic marriages, and lower average ages at marriage and first birth. counterparts. The ecological data suggest that’s the case, but it is pos- sible that Democrats in Republican states have the most family problems (2010: 2) and Republicans in Democratic states have the least. It is unlikely but it is possible. Reviewing the Cahn–Carbone study, Jonathan Rauch headlines the ­question,“Do‘Family Values’ Weaken Families?”and summarizes the To be more confident about the conclusions drawn above, we data thusly: would need to do a study in which the family or the individual was the unit of analysis. Six of the seven states with the lowest divorce rates in 2007, and all seven with the lowest teen birthrates in 2006, voted blue in both Source: Jonathan Rauch,“Do‘Family Values’ Weaken Families?”National Journal, May elections. Six of the seven states with the highest divorce rates in 6, 2010 (http://www.nationaljournal.com/njmagazine/st_20100501_5904.php). 2007, and five of the seven with the highest teen birthrates, voted red. It’s as if family strictures undermine family structures. (Rauch 2010) assertions about one unit of analysis are actually The Ecological Fallacy based on the examination of another. We’ll see an example of this issue in the next section as we In this context, “ecological” refers to groups or look at the ecological fallacy. sets or systems: something larger than individu- als. The ecological fallacy is the assumption that Faulty Reasoning about Units something learned about an ecological unit says of Analysis: The Ecological something about the individuals making up that Fallacy and Reductionism unit. Let’s consider a hypothetical illustration of this fallacy. At this point, it’s appropriate to introduce two types of faulty reasoning that you should be aware of: Suppose we’re interested in learning something the ecological fallacy and reductionism. Each repre- about the nature of electoral support received by a sents a potential pitfall regarding units of analysis, and either can occur in doing research and drawing ecological fallacy  Erroneously drawing conclu- conclusions from the results. sions about individuals solely from the observation of groups.

104 ■ Chapter 4: Purpose and Design of Research Projects female political candidate in a recent citywide elec- individualistic fallacy. Some people who approach tion. Let’s assume we have the vote tally for each social research for the first time have trouble rec- precinct so we can tell which precincts gave her the onciling general patterns of attitudes and actions greatest support and which the least. Assume also with individual exceptions. But generalizations and that we have census data describing some charac- probabilistic statements are not invalidated by indi- teristics of these precincts. Our analysis of such data vidual exceptions. Your knowing a rich Democrat, might show that precincts with relatively young for example, doesn’t deny the fact that most rich voters gave the female candidate a greater propor- people vote Republican—as a general pattern. Sim- tion of their votes than precincts with older voters ilarly, if you know someone who has gotten rich did. We might be tempted to conclude from these without any formal education, that doesn’t deny findings that younger voters are more likely to the general pattern of higher education relating to vote for female candidates than older voters are— higher income. in other words, that age affects support for the woman. In reaching such a conclusion, we run the The ecological fallacy deals with something else risk of committing the ecological fallacy because it altogether—confusing units of analysis in such a may have been the older voters in those “young” way that we draw conclusions about individuals precincts who voted for the woman. Our problem solely from the observation of groups. Although is that we have examined precincts as our units of the patterns observed between variables at the analysis but wish to draw conclusions about voters. level of groups may be genuine, the danger lies in reasoning from the observed attributes of groups The same problem would arise if we discov- to the attributes of the individuals who made up ered that crime rates were higher in cities having those groups, even though we have not actually large African American populations than in those observed individuals. The box on the previous with few African Americans. We would not know page, “Red Families and Blue Families,” illustrates if the crimes were actually committed by African some of the complexities presented by different Americans. Or, if we found suicide rates higher in units of analysis. Protestant countries than in Catholic ones, we still could not know for sure that more Protestants than Reductionism Catholics committed suicide. A second type of faulty reasoning related to In spite of these hazards, social researchers units of analysis is reductionism. Reductionism often have little choice but to address a particular involves attempts to explain a particular phe- research question through an ecological analysis. nomenon in terms of limited and/or lower-order Perhaps the most appropriate data are simply not concepts. The reductionist explanation is not alto- available. For example, the precinct vote tallies and gether wrong; it is simply too limited. Thus, you the precinct characteristics mentioned in our initial might attempt to predict this year’s winners and example may be easy to obtain, but we may not losers in the National Basketball Association by have the resources to conduct a postelection survey focusing on the abilities of the individual players of individual voters. In such cases, we may reach on each team. This is certainly not stupid or irrel- a tentative conclusion, recognizing and noting the evant, but the success or failure of teams involves risk of an ecological fallacy. more than just the individuals in them; it involves coaching, teamwork, strategies, finances, facilities, Although you should be careful not to com- fan loyalty, and so forth. To understand why some mit the ecological fallacy, don’t let these warnings teams do better than others, you would make team lead you into committing what we might call the the unit of analysis, and the quality of players would be one variable you would probably want to use in reductionism  A fault of some researchers: a strict describing and classifying the teams. limitation (reduction) of the kinds of concepts to be considered relevant to the phenomenon under Further, different academic disciplines ap- study. proach the same phenomenon quite differently.

The Time Dimension ■ 105 Sociologists tend to consider sociological variables Like the ecological fallacy, reductionism can (such as values, norms, and roles), economists pon- occur when we use inappropriate units of analy- der economic variables (such as supply and demand sis. The appropriate unit of analysis for a given and marginal value), and psychologists examine research question, however, is not always clear. psychological variables (such as personality types and Social researchers, especially across disciplinary traumas). Explaining all or most human behavior boundaries, often debate this issue. in terms of economic factors is called economic re- ductionism, explaining it in terms of psychological The Time Dimension factors is called psychological reductionism, and so forth. Notice how this issue relates to the discussion So far in this chapter, we’ve regarded research of theoretical paradigms in Chapter 3. design as a process for deciding what aspects we’ll observe, of whom, and for what purpose. Now we For many social scientists, the field of must consider a set of time-related options that cuts ­sociobiology is a prime example of reduction- across each of these earlier considerations. We can ism, suggesting that all social phenomena can choose to make observations more or less at one be explained in terms of biological factors. Thus, time or over a long period. for example, Edward O. Wilson (1975) sought to explain altruistic behavior in human beings in Time plays many roles in the design and execu- terms of genetic makeup. In his neo-Darwinian tion of research, quite aside from the time it takes view, Wilson suggests that humans have evolved to do research. Earlier we noted that the time se- in such a way that individuals sometimes need to quence of events and situations is critical to deter- sacrifice themselves for the benefit of the whole mining causation (a point we’ll return to in Part 4). species. Some people might explain such sacrifice Time also affects the generalizability of research in terms of ideals or warm feelings between hu- findings. Do the descriptions and explanations re- mans. However, genes are the essential unit in sulting from a particular study accurately represent Wilson’s paradigm, producing his famous dictum the situation of ten years ago, ten years from now, that human beings are “only DNA’s way of mak- or only the present? Researchers have two princi- ing more DNA.” pal options available to deal with the issue of time in the design of their research: cross-sectional stud- Reductionism of any type tends to suggest that ies and longitudinal studies. particular units of analysis or variables are more relevant than others. Suppose we ask what caused Cross-Sectional Studies the American Revolution. Was it a shared commit- ment to the value of individual liberty? The eco- A cross-sectional study involves observations nomic plight of the colonies in relation to Britain? of a sample, or cross section, of a population or The megalomania of the founders? As soon as we phenomenon that are made at one point in time. inquire about the single cause, we run the risk of Exploratory and descriptive studies are often cross- reductionism. If we were to regard shared values as sectional. A single U.S. Census, for instance, is a the cause of the American Revolution, our unit of study aimed at describing the U.S. population at a analysis would be the individual colonist. An econo- given time. mist, though, might choose the 13 colonies as units of analysis and examine the economic organiza- sociobiology  A paradigm based in the view that tions and conditions of each. A psychologist might social behavior can be explained solely in terms of choose individual leaders as the units of analysis for genetic characteristics and behavior. purposes of examining their personalities. Of course, cross-sectional study  A study based on observa- there’s nothing wrong in choosing these units of tions representing a single point in time. analysis as part of an explanation of the American Revolution, but I think you can see how each alone would not produce a complete answer.

106 ■ Chapter 4: Purpose and Design of Research Projects Many explanatory studies are also cross-­ Longitudinal Studies sectional. A researcher conducting a large-scale ­national survey to examine the sources of racial In contrast to cross-sectional studies, a and religious prejudice would, in all likelihood, be ­longitudinal study is designed to permit dealing with a single time frame—taking a snap- ­observations of the same phenomenon over an shot, so to speak, of the sources of prejudice at a ­extended period. For example, a researcher can particular point in history. participate in and observe the activities of a UFO cult from its inception to its demise. Other lon- Explanatory cross-sectional studies have an gitudinal studies use records or artifacts to study inherent problem. Although their conclusions are changes over time. In analyses of newspaper edi- based on observations made at only one time, typi- torials or Supreme Court decisions over time, for cally they aim at understanding causal processes example, the studies are longitudinal whether the that occur over time. This problem is somewhat researcher’s actual observations and analyses were akin to that of determining the speed of a moving made at one time or over the course of the actual object on the basis of a high-speed, still photograph events under study. that freezes the movement of the object. Many field research projects, involving direct Yanjie Bian, for example, conducted a survey of observation and perhaps in-depth interviews, are workers in Tianjin, China, for the purpose of study- naturally longitudinal. Thus, for example, when ing stratification in contemporary, urban Chinese Ramona Asher and Gary Fine (1991) studied the society. In undertaking the survey in 1988, how- life experiences of the wives of alcoholic men, they ever, he was conscious of the important changes were in a position to examine the evolution of brought about by a series of national campaigns, troubled marital relationships over time, sometimes such as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolu- even including the reactions of the subjects to the tion, dating from the Chinese Revolution in 1949 research itself. (which brought the Chinese Communists into power) and continuing into the present. In the classic study When Prophecy Fails (1956), Leon Festinger, Henry Reicker, and Stanley These campaigns altered political atmospheres Schachter were specifically interested in learning and affected people’s work and nonwork activi- what happened to a flying saucer cult when their ties. Because of these campaigns, it is difficult to predictions of an alien encounter failed to come draw conclusions from a cross-sectional social true. Would the cult members close down the survey, such as the one presented in this book, group, or would they become all the more com- about general patterns of Chinese workplaces mitted to their beliefs? A longitudinal study was and their effects on workers. Such conclusions required to provide an answer. (The cult redoubled may be limited to one period of time and are their efforts to get new members.) subject to further tests based on data collected at other times. Longitudinal studies can be more difficult for quantitative studies such as large-scale surveys. (1994: 19) Nonetheless, they are often the best way to study changes over time. There are three special types The problem of generalizations about social life of longitudinal studies that you should know from a “snapshot” is one this book repeatedly ad- about: trend studies, cohort studies, and panel dresses. One solution is suggested by Bian’s final studies. comment—about data collected “at other times”: Social research often involves revisiting phenom- Trend Studies ena and building on the results of earlier research. A trend study is a type of longitudinal study that longitudinal study  A study design involving the examines changes within a population over time. collection of data at different points in time. A simple example is a comparison of U.S. Censuses over a period of decades, showing shifts in the

The Time Dimension ■ 107 makeup of the national population. A similar use would represent the cohort born between 1940 of archival data was made by Michael Carpini and and 1945. Scott Keeter (1991), who wanted to know whether contemporary U.S. citizens were better or more Figure 4-5 offers a graphic illustration of a co- poorly informed about politics than citizens of an hort design. In the example, three studies are being earlier generation were. To find out, they com- compared: one was conducted in 1980, another pared the results of several Gallup Polls conducted in 1990, and the third in 2000. Those who were during the 1940s and 1950s with a 1989 survey 20 years old in the 1980 study are compared with that asked several of the same questions tapping those who were 30 in the 1990 study and those political knowledge. who were 40 in the 2000 study. Although the sub- jects being described in each of the three groups are Overall, the analysis suggested that contem- different, each set of subjects represents the same porary citizens were slightly better informed than cohort: those who were born in 1960. earlier generations were. In 1989, 74 percent of the sample could name the vice president of the James Davis (1992) turned to a cohort analy- United States, compared with 67 percent in 1952. sis in an attempt to understand shifting political Substantially higher percentages of people in 1989 orientations during the 1970s and 1980s in the than in 1947 could explain presidential vetoes and United States. Overall, he found a liberal trend on congressional overrides of vetoes. On the other issues such as race, sex, religion, politics, crime, and hand, more of the 1947 sample could identify their free speech. But did this trend represent people in U.S. representative (38 percent) than the 1989 general getting a bit more liberal, or did it merely sample (29 percent) could. reflect liberal younger generations replacing the conservative older ones? An in-depth analysis, however, indicates that the slight increase in political knowledge resulted To answer this question, Davis examined na- from the fact that the people in the 1989 sample tional surveys (from the General Social Survey, of were more highly educated than those from earlier which he is a founder) conducted in four time pe- samples were. When educational levels were taken riods, five years apart. In each survey, he grouped into account, the researchers concluded that politi- the respondents into age groups, also five years cal knowledge has actually declined within specific apart. This strategy allowed him to compare differ- educational groups. ent age groups at any given point in time as well as to follow the political development of each age Cohort Studies group over time. In a cohort study, a researcher examines specific One of the questions he examined was whether subpopulations, or cohorts, as they change over a person who admitted to being a Communist should time. Typically, a cohort is an age group, such as people born during the 1950s, but it can also be trend study  A type of longitudinal study in which some other time grouping, such as people born a given characteristic of some population is moni- during the Vietnam War, people who got mar- tored over time. An example would be a series of ried in 1994, and so forth. An example of a co- Gallup Polls showing the electorate’s preferences for hort study would be a series of national surveys, political candidates over the course of a campaign, conducted perhaps every 20 years, to study the even though different samples were interviewed at attitudes of the cohort born during World War II each point. toward U.S. involvement in global affairs. A sam- ple of people 15–20 years old might be surveyed cohort study  A study in which some specific sub- in 1960, another sample of those 35–40 years old population, or cohort, is studied over time, although in 1980, and another sample of those 55–60 years data may be collected from different members in old in 2000. Although the specific set of people each set of observations. For example, a study of the studied in each survey would differ, each sample occupational history of the class of 1970 in which questionnaires were sent every five years would be a cohort study.

108 ■ Chapter 4: Purpose and Design of Research Projects 40 Age 30 20 0 1990 2000 1980 FIGURE 4-5 Year A Cohort Study Design. Each of the three groups shown here is a sample representing people who were born in 1960. be allowed to speak in the respondents’ communi- The researchers add to this the concept of “gen- ties. Consistently, the younger respondents in each erational replacement,” meaning that the older re- time period were more willing to let the Com- spondents in a survey grew up during a time when munist speak than the older ones were. Among there was less support for education in general, those aged 20–40 in the first set of the survey, for whereas the younger respondents grew up during example, 72 percent took this liberal position, con- a time of greater overall support. trasted with 27 percent among respondents 80 and older. What Davis found when he examined the A cohort analysis allowed the researchers y­ oungest cohort over time is shown in Table 4-1. to determine what happened to the attitudes of This pattern of a slight, conservative shift in the specific cohorts over time. Here, for example, are 1970s, followed by a liberal rebound in the 1980s, the percentages of Americans born during the typifies the several ­cohorts Davis analyzed 1940s who felt educational spending was too low, (J. Davis 1992: 269). when members of that cohort were interviewed over time (Plutzer and Berkman 2005: 76): In another study, Eric Plutzer and Michael Berkman (2005) used a cohort design to completely Year Interviewed Percent Who Say Educational reverse a prior conclusion regarding aging and sup- Funding Is Too Low port for education. Logically, as people grow well 1970s beyond the child-rearing years, we might expect 1980s 58 them to reduce their commitment to educational 1990s 66 funding. Moreover, cross-sectional data support that 2000s 74 expectation. The researchers present several data 79 sets showing those over 65 voicing less support for educational funding than those under 65 did. As these data indicate, those who wereCbeonrng a g e L e a r n i n g Such simplistic analyses, however, leave out an during the 1940s have steadily increased tBhaeibrbsuiep:- The Practice of important variable: increasing support for educa- port for educational funding as they have pSaossceidal Research, 13/e tional funding in U.S. society over time in general. through and beyond the child-rearing years. 1-133-04979-6 Fig. 4-5 panel study  A type of longitudinal study, in which data are collected from the same set of people (the Panel Studies sample or panel) at several points in time. Though similar to trend and cohort studies, a panel study examines the same set of people each time. For example, we could interview the same

The Time Dimension ■ 109 Table 4-1 Age and Political Liberalism Survey dates 1972 to 1974 1977 to 1980 1982 to 1984 1987 to 1989 Age of cohort 20–24 25–29 30–34 35–39 Percent who would let the 72% 68% 73% 73% Communist speak sample of voters every month during an election a somewhat better marital adjustment. The re- campaign, asking for whom they intended to vote. searchers felt that the interviews could have forced Though such a study would allow us to analyze couples to discuss matters they might have other- overall trends in voter preferences for different can- wise buried. didates, it would also show the precise patterns of persistence and change in intentions. For example, Comparing the Three Types a trend study that showed that Candidates A and B of Longitudinal Studies each had exactly half of the voters on September 1 and on October 1 as well could indicate that none To reinforce the distinctions among trend, cohort, of the electorate had changed voting plans, that and panel studies, let’s contrast the three study all of the voters had changed their intentions, or designs in terms of the same variable: religious something in-between. A panel study would elimi- affiliation. A trend study might look at shifts in U.S. nate this confusion by showing what kinds of vot- religious affiliations over time, as the Gallup Poll ers switched from A to B and what kinds switched does on a regular basis. A cohort study might fol- from B to A, as well as other facts. low shifts in religious affiliations among “the De- pression generation,” specifically, say, people who Joseph Veroff, Shirley Hatchett, and Elizabeth were 20 to 30 years old in 1932. We could study a Douvan (1992) wanted to learn about marital ad- sample of people 30–40 years old in 1942, a new justment among newlyweds, specifically regarding sample of people aged 40–50 in 1952, and so forth differences between white and African American throughout their life span. A panel study could couples. To get subjects for study, they selected start with a sample of the whole population or of a sample of couples who applied for marriage li- some special subset and study those specific indi- censes in Wayne County, Michigan, April through viduals over time. Notice that only the panel study June 1986. would give a full picture of the shifts among the various categories of affiliations, including “none.” Concerned about the possible impact their Cohort and trend studies would uncover only net research might have on the couples’ marital ad- changes. justment, the researchers divided their sample in half at random: an experimental group and a Longitudinal studies have an obvious advan- control group (concepts we’ll explore further in tage over cross-sectional ones in providing infor- Chapter 9). Couples in the former group were mation describing processes over time. But this intensively interviewed over a four-year period, advantage often comes at a heavy cost in both time whereas the latter group was contacted only and money, especially in a large-scale survey. Ob- briefly each year. servations may have to be made at the time events are occurring, and the method of observation may By studying the same couples over time, the require many research workers. researchers could follow the specific problems that arose and the way the couples dealt with them. Panel studies, which offer the most compre- As a by-product of their research, they found that hensive data on changes over time, face a special those studied the most intensely seemed to achieve problem: panel attrition. Some of the respondents

110 ■ Chapter 4: Purpose and Design of Research Projects studied in the first wave of the survey might not a study could not tell whether students were more participate in later waves. (This is comparable to likely to try marijuana or LSD first. the problem of experimental mortality discussed in Chapter 9.) The danger is that those who drop out A closer examination of the data showed, of the study may be atypical, thereby distorting the however, that although some students reported results of the study. Thus, when Carol Aneshensel having tried marijuana but not LSD, there were and her colleagues conducted a panel study of ado- no students in the study who had tried only LSD. lescent girls (comparing Latinas and non-Latinas), From this finding it was inferred—as common they looked for and found differences in character- sense suggested—that marijuana use preceded istics of survey dropouts among Latinas born in the LSD use. If the process of drug experimentation United States and those born in Mexico. These dif- occurred in the opposite time order, then a study ferences needed to be taken into account to avoid at a given time should have found some students misleading conclusions about differences between who had tried LSD but not marijuana, and it Latinas and non-Latinas (Aneshensel et al. 1989). should have found no students who had tried only marijuana. Roger Tourangeau and Cong Ye (2009) were curious about ways of decreasing panel attrition. Researchers can also make logical inferences Specifically, they considered positive and negative whenever the time order of variables is clear. If inducements for subjects to continue. To find out, we discovered in a cross-sectional study of col- they randomly divided their panel survey sample lege students that those educated in private high in half and gave the two groups different pleas to schools received better college grades than those continue. In one subsample, they stressed the ben- educated in public high schools did, we would efits to be gained if everyone continued with the conclude that the type of high school attended study. In the other subsample, they stressed how affected college grades, not the other way around. the study would be hurt by people dropping out. Thus, even though we made our observations at The latter, negative, message increased continued only one time, we would feel justified in drawing participation by ten percentage points. conclusions about processes taking place across time. Approximating Longitudinal Studies Very often, age differences discovered in a cross-sectional study form the basis for inferring Longitudinal studies do not always provide a fea- processes across time. Suppose you’re interested in sible or practical means of studying processes that the pattern of worsening health over the course of take place over time. Fortunately, researchers often the typical life cycle. You might study the results can draw approximate conclusions about such of annual checkups in a large hospital. You could processes even when only cross-sectional data are group health records according to the ages of those available. Here are some ways to do that. examined and rate each age group in terms of sev- eral health conditions—sight, hearing, blood pres- Sometimes cross-sectional data imply processes sure, and so forth. By reading across the age-group over time on the basis of simple logic. For example, ratings for each health condition, you would have in the study of student drug use conducted at the something approximating the health history of University of Hawaii (Chapter 3), students were individuals. Thus, you might conclude that the av- asked to report whether they had ever tried each erage person develops vision problems before hear- of several illegal drugs. The study found that some ing problems. You would need to be cautious in students had tried both marijuana and LSD, some this assumption, however, because the differences had tried only one, and others had tried neither. might reflect societywide trends. Perhaps improved Because these data were collected at one time, and hearing examinations instituted in the schools had because some students presumably would experi- affected only the young people in your study. ment with drugs later on, it would appear that such Asking people to recall their pasts is another common way of approximating observations over

The Time Dimension ■ 111 time. Researchers use that method when they Examples of Research Strategies ask people where they were born or when they graduated from high school or whom they voted As the preceding discussions have implied, so- for in 1988. Qualitative researchers often conduct cial research follows many paths. The following in-depth “life history” interviews. For example, short excerpts further illustrate this point. As you C. Lynn Carr (1998) used this technique in a study read each excerpt, note both the content of each of “tomboyism.” Her respondents, aged 25–40, study and the method used to study the cho- were asked to reconstruct aspects of their lives from sen topic. Does the study seem to be exploring, childhood on, including experiences of identifying describing, or explaining (or some combination themselves as tomboys. of these)? What are the sources of data in each study? Can you identify the unit of analysis? Is The danger in this technique is evident. Some- the dimension of time relevant? If so, how will it times people have faulty memories; sometimes be handled? they lie. When people are asked in postelection polls whom they voted for, the results inevitably • This case study of unobtrusive mobilizing by show more people voting for the winner than ac- tually did so on election day. As part of a series of Southern California Rape Crisis Center uses in-depth interviews, such a report can be validated archival, observational, and interview data to in the context of other reported details; however, explore how a feminist organization worked to results based on a single question in a survey must change police, schools, prosecutors, and some be regarded with caution. state and national organizations from 1974 to 1994. (Schmitt and Martin 1999: 364) Cohorts can also be used to infer processes over time from cross-sectional data. For example, when • By drawing on interviews with activists in the Prem Saxena and his colleagues (2004) wanted to examine whether wartime conditions would affect former Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic, we the age at which people married, he used cross- specify the conditions by which accommoda- sectional data from a survey of Lebanese women. tive and oppositional subcultures exist and During the Lebanese Civil War from 1975 to 1990, are successfully transformed into social move- many young men migrated to other countries. By ments. (Johnston and Snow 1998: 473) noting the year in which the survey respondents first married, he could determine that the average • Using interviews obtained during fieldwork age-at-first-marriage increased with the onset of the war. in Palestine in 1992, 1993, and 1994, and employing historical and archival records, I This discussion of the ways that time figures argue that Palestinian feminist discourses were into social research suggests several questions you shaped and influenced by the sociopolitical should confront in your own research projects. In context in which Palestinian women acted and designing any study, be sure to look at both the with which they interacted. (Abdulhadi 1998: explicit and implicit assumptions you’re making 649) about time. Are you interested in describing some process that occurs over time, or are you simply • I collected data [on White Separatist rhetoric] going to describe what exists now? If you want to describe a process occurring over time, will you be from several media of public discourse, includ- able to make observations at different points in the ing periodicals, books, pamphlets, transcripts process, or will you have to approximate such ob- from radio and television talk shows, and servations by drawing logical inferences from what newspaper and magazine accounts. (Berbrier you can observe now? If you opt for a longitudinal 1998: 435) design, which method best serves your research purposes? • In the analysis that follows, racial and gender inequality in employment and retirement will be analyzed, using a national sample of per- sons who began receiving Social Security Old Age benefits in 1980–81. (Hogan and Perrucci 1998: 528)

112 ■ Chapter 4: Purpose and Design of Research Projects How to Design begin with a clear theory about the causal relation- a Research Project ships at play. You’ve now seen some of the options available The double arrows between “interest,” “idea,” to social researchers in designing projects. I know and “theory” suggest that a movement back and there are a lot of components, and the relationships forth across these several possible beginnings often among them may not be totally clear, so here’s a takes place. An initial interest may lead to the for- way of pulling them together. Let’s assume you mulation of an idea, which may be fit into a larger were to undertake research. Where would you theory, and the theory may produce new ideas and start? Then, where would you go? create new interests. Although research design occurs at the begin- Any or all of these three may suggest the need ning of a research project, it involves all the steps for empirical research. The purpose of such re- of the subsequent project. This discussion, then, search can be to explore an interest, test a specific provides both guidance on how to start a research idea, or validate a complex theory. Whatever the project and an overview of the topics that follow in purpose, the researcher needs to make a variety later chapters of this book. of decisions, as indicated in the remainder of the diagram. Figure 4-6 presents a schematic view of the traditional image of research design. I present this To make this discussion more concrete, let’s view reluctantly, because it may suggest more of a take a specific research example. Suppose you’re step-by-step order to research than actual practice concerned with the issue of abortion and have bears out. Nonetheless, this idealized overview a special interest in learning why some college of the process provides a context for the specific students support abortion rights and others op- details of particular components of social research. pose them. Going a step further, let’s say you’ve E­ ssentially, it is another and more detailed picture formed the impression that students in the hu- of the scientific process presented in Chapter 3. manities and social sciences seem generally more inclined to support the idea of abortion rights At the top of the diagram are interests, ideas, than those in the natural sciences do. (That kind and theories, the possible beginning points for a of thinking often leads people to design and con- line of research. The letters (A, B, X, Y, and so forth) duct social research.) represent variables or concepts such as prejudice or alienation. Thus, you might have a general inter- So, where do you start? You have an idea you est in finding out what causes some people to be want to pursue, one that involves abortion atti- more prejudiced than others, or you might want to tudes and choice of college major. In terms of the know some of the consequences of alienation. Al- options we’ve discussed in this chapter, you proba- ternatively, your inquiry might begin with a specific bly have both descriptive and explanatory interests, idea about the way things are. For example, you but you might decide you only want to explore the might have the idea that working on an assembly issue. You might wonder what sorts of attitudes line causes alienation. The question marks in the students with different majors have about abortion diagram indicate that you aren’t sure things are the (exploratory), what percentage of the student body way you suspect they are—that’s why you’re doing supports a woman’s right to an abortion (descrip- the research. Notice that a theory is represented as a tive), or what causes some to support it and others set of complex relationships among several variables. to oppose it (explanation). The units of analysis in this case would be individuals: college students. But Or consider this question: How is leadership we’re jumping the gun. As you can see, even be- established in a juvenile gang? You may wonder fore we’ve “started,” we’ve started. The reciprocal how much age, strength, family and friendship processes described in Figure 4-6 begin even before ties, intelligence, or other variables figure into the you’ve made a commitment to a project. Let’s look determination of who runs things. We don’t always more formally at the various steps, then, keeping this reciprocal motion in mind.

How to Design a Research Project ■ 113 FIGURE 4-6 Traditional Image of Research Design

114 ■ Chapter 4: Purpose and Design of Research Projects Getting Started Conceptualization At the outset of your project, your aim would Once you have a well-defined purpose and a clear probably be exploratory. At this point, you might description of the kinds of outcomes you want to choose among several possible activities in pur- achieve, you can proceed to the next step in the suing your interest in student attitudes about design of your study—conceptualization. We often abortion rights. To begin with, you might want talk pretty casually about social science concepts to read something about the issue. If you have such as prejudice, alienation, religiosity, and liber- a hunch that attitudes are somehow related to alism, but it’s necessary to clarify what we mean college major, you might find out what other by these concepts, in order to draw meaningful researchers may have written about that. Ap- conclusions about them. Chapter 6 examines this pendix A of this book will help you make use process of conceptualization in depth. For now, let’s of your college library. In addition, you would see what it might involve in the case of our hypo- probably talk to some people who support abor- thetical example. tion rights and some who don’t. You might attend meetings of abortion-related groups. If you’re going to study how college students All these activities could help prepare you to feel about abortion and why, the first thing you’ll handle the various decisions of research design have to specify is what you mean by “the right to we’re about to examine. an abortion.” Because support for abortion prob- ably varies according to the circumstances, you’ll Before designing your study, you must define want to pay attention to the different conditions the purpose of your project. What kind of study under which people might approve or disapprove will you undertake—exploratory, descriptive, ex- of abortion: for example, when the woman’s life is planatory? Do you plan to write a research paper in danger, in the case of rape or incest, or simply as to satisfy a course or thesis requirement? Is your a matter of personal choice. purpose to gain information that will support you in arguing for or against abortion rights? Do you Similarly, you’ll need to specify exact mean- want to write an article for the campus newspaper ings for all the other concepts you plan to study. or an academic journal? In reviewing the previous If you want to study the relationship of opinion research literature regarding abortion rights, you about abortion to college major, you’ll have to de- should note the design decisions other researchers cide whether you want to consider only officially have made, always asking whether the same deci- declared majors or to include students’ intentions sions would satisfy your purpose. as well. What will you do with those who have no major? Usually, your purpose for undertaking research can be expressed as a report. A good first step in de- In surveys and experiments, you need to spec- signing your project is to outline such a report (see ify such concepts in advance. In less tightly struc- Chapter 17 for help on this). Although your final re- tured research, such as open-ended interviews, an port may not look much like your initial image of it, important part of the research may involve the dis- this exercise will help you figure out which research covery of different dimensions, aspects, or nuances designs are most appropriate. During this step, of concepts. In such cases, the research itself may clearly describe the kinds of statements you want to uncover and report aspects of social life that were make when the research is complete. Here are some not evident at the outset of the project. examples of such statements: “Students frequently mentioned abortion rights in the context of discuss- Choice of Research Method ing social issues that concerned them personally.” “X percent of State U. students favor a woman’s right As we’ll discuss in Part 3, each research method to choose an abortion.” “Engineers are (more/less) has its strengths and weaknesses, and certain likely than sociologists to favor abortion rights.” concepts are more appropriately studied through some methods than through others. In our study of

How to Design a Research Project ■ 115 attitudes toward abortion rights, a survey might be well as what choices to provide those who have the most appropriate method: either interviewing not declared a major. students or asking them to fill out a questionnaire. Surveys are particularly well suited to the study of Population and Sampling public opinion. This is not to say that you couldn’t make good use of the other methods presented in In addition to refining concepts and measure- Part 3. For example, you might use the method of ments, you must decide whom or what to study. content analysis to examine letters to the editor The population for a study is that group (usually and analyze the different images of abortion that of people) about whom we want to draw con- letter writers have. Field research would provide an clusions. We’re almost never able to study all avenue to understanding how people interact with the members of the population that interests us, one another regarding the issue of abortion, how however, and we can never make every possible they discuss it, and how they change their minds. observation of them. In every case, then, we select Other research methods introduced in Part 3 could a sample from among the data that might be col- also be used in studying this topic. Usually, the best lected and studied. The sampling of information, study design uses more than one research method, of course, occurs in everyday life and often pro- taking advantage of their different strengths. If you duces biased observations. (Recall the discussion look back at the brief examples of actual studies at of “selective observation” in Chapter 1.) Social the end of the preceding section, you’ll see several researchers are more deliberate in their sampling instances where the researchers used many meth- of what will be observed. ods in a single study. Chapter 5 describes methods for selecting Operationalization samples that adequately reflect the whole popu- lation that interests us. Notice in Figure 4-6 that Once you’ve specified the concepts to be studied decisions about population and sampling are re- and chosen a research method, the next step is lated to decisions about the research method to operationalization, or deciding on your measure- be used. Whereas probability sampling techniques ment techniques (discussed further in Chapters would be relevant to a large-scale survey or a 6 and 7). The meaning of variables in a study is content analysis, a field researcher might need to determined in part by how they are measured. select only those informants who will yield a bal- Part of the task here is deciding how the desired anced picture of the situation under study, and an data will be collected: direct observation, review experimenter might assign subjects to experimen- of official documents, a questionnaire, or some tal and control groups in a manner that creates other technique. comparability. If you decided to use a survey to study attitudes In your hypothetical study of abortion atti- toward abortion rights, part of o­ perationalization tudes, the relevant population would be the stu- is determining the wording of questionnaire items. dent population of your college. As you’ll discover For example, you might operationalize your main in Chapter 5, however, selecting a sample will variable by asking respondents whether they would require you to get more specific than that. Will approve of a woman’s right to have an abortion you include part-time as well as full-time students? under each of the conditions you’ve conceptual- Only degree candidates or everyone? International ized: in the case of rape or incest, if her life were students as well as U.S. citizens? Undergraduates, threatened by the pregnancy, and so forth. You’d graduate students, or both? There are many such design the questionnaire so that it asked respon- questions—each of which must be answered in dents to express approval or disapproval for each terms of your research purpose. If your purpose is situation. Similarly, you would specify exactly how to predict how students would vote in a local refer- respondents would indicate their college major, as endum on abortion, you might want to limit your population to those eligible and likely to vote.

116 ■ Chapter 4: Purpose and Design of Research Projects Observations feedback represents the beginning of another cycle of inquiry. Having decided what to study among whom by what method, you’re now ready to make In the survey of student attitudes about abor- o­ bservations—to collect empirical data. The chap- tion rights, the analysis phase would pursue both ters of Part 3, which describe the various research descriptive and explanatory aims. You might begin methods, give the different observation techniques by calculating the percentages of students who appropriate to each. favored or opposed each of the several different versions of abortion rights. Taken together, these To conduct a survey on abortion, you might several percentages would provide a good picture want to print questionnaires and mail them to a of student opinion on the issue. sample selected from the student body. Alterna- tively, you could arrange to have a team of inter- Moving beyond simple description, you might viewers conduct the survey over the telephone. describe the opinions of subsets of the student The relative advantages and disadvantages of these body, such as different college majors. Provided and other possibilities are discussed in Chapter 8. that your design called for trapping other informa- tion about respondents, you could also look at men Data Processing versus women; freshmen, sophomores, juniors, seniors, and graduate students; or other categories Depending on the research method chosen, you’ll that you’ve included. The description of subgroups have amassed a volume of observations in a form could then lead you into an explanatory analysis. that probably isn’t immediately interpretable. If you’ve spent a month observing a street-corner Application gang firsthand, you’ll now have enough field notes to fill a book. In a historical study of ethnic The final stage of the research process involves the diversity at your school, you may have amassed uses made of the research you’ve conducted and the volumes of official documents, interviews with ad- conclusions you’ve reached. To start, you’ll probably ministrators and others, and so forth. Chapters 13 want to communicate your findings so that others and 14 describe some of the ways social science will know what you’ve learned. It may be appropri- data are processed or transformed for qualitative or ate to prepare—and even publish—a written report. quantitative analysis. Perhaps you’ll make oral presentations, such as papers delivered to professional and scientific meet- In the case of a survey, the “raw” observations ings. Other students would also be interested in are typically in the form of questionnaires with hearing what you’ve learned about them. boxes checked, answers written in spaces, and the like. The data-processing phase of a survey typically You may want to go beyond simply reporting involves the classification (coding) of written-in what you’ve learned to discussing the implica- answers and the transfer of all information to a tions of your findings. Do they say anything about computer. actions that might be taken in support of policy goals? Both the proponents and the opponents of Analysis abortion rights would be interested. Once the collected data are in a suitable form, Finally, be sure to consider what your research you’re ready to interpret them for the purpose of suggests in regard to further research on your sub- drawing conclusions that reflect the interests, ideas, ject. What mistakes should be corrected in future and theories that initiated the inquiry. Chapters 13 studies? What avenues—opened up slightly in your and 14 describe a few of the many options avail- study—should be pursued further? able to you in analyzing data. In Figure 4-6, notice that the results of your analyses feed back into Research Design in Review your initial interests, ideas, and theories. Often this As this overview shows, research design involves a set of decisions regarding what topic is to be studied

How to Design a Research Project ■ 117 among what population with what research meth- would you have to collect them yourself? If you ods for what purpose. Although you’ll want to think you would have to collect them, how would consider many ways of studying a subject—and use you go about doing it? Would you need to survey a your imagination as well as your knowledge of a large number of people, or interview a few people variety of methods—research design is the process in depth? Could you learn what you need to know of focusing your perspective for the purposes of a by attending meetings of certain groups? Could particular study. you glean the data you need from books in the library? If you’re doing a research project for one of your courses, many aspects of research design As you answer these questions, you’ll find may be specified for you in advance, including the yourself well into the process of research design. method (such as an experiment) or the topic (as in Keep in mind your own research abilities and the a course on a particular subject, such as prejudice). resources available to you. There’s little point in The following summary assumes that you’re free to designing a perfect study that you can’t actually choose both your topic and your research strategy. carry out. You may want to try a research method you haven’t used before so you can learn from In designing a research project, you’ll find it it, but be careful not to put yourself at too great useful to begin by assessing three things: your in- a disadvantage. terests, your abilities, and the available resources. Each of these considerations will suggest a large Once you have a general idea of what you number of possible studies. want to study and how, carefully review previous research in journals and books to see how other Simulate the beginning of a somewhat conven- researchers have addressed the topic and what they tional research project: Ask yourself what you’re have learned about it. Your review of the litera- interested in understanding. Surely you have sev- ture may lead you to revise your research design: eral questions about social behavior and attitudes. ­Perhaps you’ll decide to use a previous researcher’s Why are some people politically liberal and others method or even replicate an earlier study. A stan- politically conservative? Why are some people dard procedure in the physical sciences, the inde- more religious than others? Why do people join pendent replication of research projects is just as militia groups? Do colleges and universities still dis- important in the social sciences, although social criminate against minority faculty members? Why researchers tend to overlook that. Or, you might would a woman stay in an abusive relationship? want to go beyond replication and study some as- Spend some time thinking about the kinds of ques- pect of the topic that you feel previous researchers tions that interest and concern you. have overlooked. Once you have a few questions you’d be in- Here’s another approach you might take. Sup- terested in answering for yourself, think about the pose a topic has been studied previously using field kind of information needed to answer them. What research methods. Can you design an experiment research units of analysis would provide the most that would test the findings those earlier research- relevant information: college students, corpora- ers produced? Or, can you think of existing statis- tions, voters, cities, or corporations? This question tics that could be used to test their conclusions? will probably be inseparable in your thoughts from Did a mass survey yield results that you’d like to the question of research topics. Then ask which explore in greater detail through on-the-spot aspects of the units of analysis would provide the observations and in-depth interviews? The use information you need in order to answer your re- of several different research methods to test the search question. same finding is sometimes called triangulation, and you should always keep it in mind as a valuable Once you have some ideas about the kind of research strategy. Because each research method information relevant to your purpose, ask yourself has particular strengths and weaknesses, there is how you might go about getting that information. always a danger that research findings will reflect, Are the relevant data likely to be already available somewhere (say, in a government publication), or

118 ■ Chapter 4: Purpose and Design of Research Projects at least in part, the method of inquiry. In the best body of existing research that you think you can of all worlds, your own research design should remedy? bring more than one research method to bear on the topic. Chapter 17 has a lengthier discussion of this topic. You’ll find that reading social science re- The Research Proposal search reports requires special skills. If you need to undertake a review of the literature at this Quite often, in the design of a research project, point in your course, you may want to skip ahead you’ll have to lay out the details of your plan for to C­ hapter 17. It will familiarize you with the dif- someone else’s review and/or approval. In the case ferent types of research literature, how to find of a course project, for example, your instructor what you want, and how to read it. There is a might very well want to see a “proposal” before special discussion of how to use online resources you set off to work. Later in your career, if you and how to avoid being misled by information on wanted to undertake a major project, you might the Internet. need to obtain funding from a foundation or government agency, who would most definitely In part, your review of the literature will be want a detailed proposal that describes how you shaped by the data-collection method(s) you in- would spend their money. You might respond to a tend to use in your study. Reviewing the designs R­ equest for Proposals (RFP), which both public and of previous studies using that same technique can private agencies often circulate in search of some- give you a head start in planning your own study. one to do research for them. At the same time, you should focus your search on your research topic, regardless of the methods This chapter continues with a brief discussion other researchers have used. So, if you’re planning of how you might prepare a research proposal. field research on, say, interracial marriages, you This will give you one more overview of the might gain some useful insights from the findings whole research process that the rest of this book of surveys on the topic; further, past field research details. on interracial marriages could be invaluable in your designing a survey on the topic. Elements of a Research Proposal Because the literature review will appear early Although some funding agencies (or your instruc- in your research proposal, you should write it tor, for that matter) may have specific requirements with an eye to introducing the reader to the topic for the elements or structure of a research proposal, you will address, laying out in a logical manner here are some basic elements you should include. what has already been learned on the topic by past researchers, then leading up to the holes or Problem or Objective loose ends in our knowledge of the topic, which you propose to remedy. Or, a little differently, your What exactly do you want to study? Why is it review of the literature may point to inconsisten- worth studying? Does the proposed study have cies or disagreements to be found among the exist- practical significance? Does it contribute to the con- ing research findings. In that case, your proposed struction of social theories? research will aim to resolve the ambiguities that plague us. I don’t know about you, but I’m already Literature Review excited about the research you’re proposing to undertake. What have others said about this topic? What theo- ries address it and what do they say? What previ- Subjects for Study ous research exists? Are there consistent findings, or do past studies disagree? Are there flaws in the Whom or what will you study in order to collect data? Identify the subjects in general, theoreti- cal terms; then, in specific, more concrete terms,

Main Points ■ 119 identify who is available for study and how you’ll Schedule reach them. Will it be appropriate to select a sample? If so, how will you do that? If there is any possibility It’s often appropriate to provide a schedule for the that your research will affect those you study, how various stages of research. Even if you don’t do this will you ensure that the research does not harm for the proposal, do it for yourself. Unless you have them? a timeline for accomplishing the several stages of research and keeping track of how you’re doing, Beyond these general questions, the specific you may end up in trouble. research method you’ll use will further specify the matter. If you’re planning to undertake an experi- Budget ment, a survey, or field research, for example, the techniques for subject selection will vary quite a When you ask someone to cover the costs of bit. Happily, Chapter 5 of this book discusses sam- your research, you need to provide a budget that pling techniques for both qualitative and quantita- specifies where the money will go. Large, expen- tive studies. sive projects include budgetary categories such as personnel, equipment, supplies, telephones, and Measurement postage. Even for a project you’ll pay for yourself, it’s a good idea to spend some time anticipating What are the key variables in your study? How will ­expenses: office supplies, photocopying, digital- you define and measure them? Do your definitions storage devices, telephone calls, transportation, and measurement methods duplicate or differ from and so on. those of previous research on this topic? If you have already developed your measurement device As you can see, if you’re interested in con- (a questionnaire, for example) or will be using ducting a social research project, it’s a good idea something previously developed by others, it might to prepare a research proposal for your own pur- be appropriate to include a copy in an appendix to poses, even if you aren’t required to do so by your your proposal. instructor or a funding agency. If you’re going to invest your time and energy in such a project, you Data-Collection Methods should do what you can to ensure a return on that investment. How will you actually collect the data for your study? Will you conduct an experiment or a sur- Now that you’ve had a broad overview vey? Will you undertake field research or will you of ­social research, you can move on to the focus on the reanalysis of statistics already c­ reated ­remaining chapters in this book and learn ex- by others? Perhaps you’ll use more than one actly how to design and execute each specific method. step. If you’ve found a research topic that really interests you, you’ll want to keep it in mind as you Analysis see how you might go about studying it. As always, however, you should keep the ethical dimension Indicate the kind of analysis you plan to conduct. of research design in mind as you explore your Spell out the purpose and logic of your analysis. options. Are you interested in precise description? Do you intend to explain why things are the way they Main Points are? Do you plan to account for variations in some quality: for example, why some students Introduction are more liberal than others? What possible ex- planatory variables will your analysis consider, and • Any research design requires researchers to spec- how will you know if you’ve explained variations adequately? ify as clearly as possible what they want to find out and then determine the best way to do it.

120 ■ Chapter 4: Purpose and Design of Research Projects Three Purposes of Research social interaction, a social artifact, or some other phenomenon such as a lifestyle. • The principal purposes of social research include • The ecological fallacy involves taking conclusions exploration, description, and explanation. Research studies often combine more than one purpose. drawn solely from the analysis of groups (e.g., corporations) and applying them to individuals • Exploration is the attempt to develop an initial, (e.g., the employees of corporations). rough understanding of some phenomenon. • Reductionism is the attempt to understand a • Description is the precise measurement and re- complex phenomenon in terms of a narrow set of concepts, such as attempting to explain the porting of the characteristics of some population American Revolution solely in terms of economics or phenomenon under study. (or political idealism or psychology). • Explanation is the discovery and reporting of The Time Dimension relationships among different aspects of the • Research into processes that occur over time pres- p­ henomenon under study. Whereas descriptive studies answer the question “What’s so?” explana- ents social challenges that can be addressed through tory ones tend to answer the question “Why?” cross-sectional studies or longitudinal studies. Idiographic Explanation • Cross-sectional studies are based on observations • Idiographic explanation seeks an exhaustive un- made at one time. Although this characteristic limits such studies, researchers can sometimes derstanding of the causes producing events and use them to make inferences about processes that situations in a single or limited number of cases. occur over time. Pay attention to the explanations offered by the people living the social processes you are studying • In longitudinal studies, observations are made at • Comparisons with similar situations, either in many times. Such observations may be made of samples drawn from general populations (trend different places or at different times in the same studies), samples drawn from more specific sub- place, can be insightful. populations (cohort studies), or the same sample of people each time (panel studies). Nomothetic Explanation How to Design a Research Project • Both idiographic and nomothetic models of • Research design starts with an initial interest, idea, explanation rest on the idea of causation. The idiographic model aims at a complete under- or theoretical expectation and proceeds through standing of a particular phenomenon, using all a series of interrelated steps to narrow the focus relevant causal factors. The nomothetic model of the study so that concepts, methods, and pro- aims at a general understanding—not necessarily cedures are well defined. A good research plan c­ omplete—of a class of phenomena, using a small accounts for all these steps in advance. number of relevant causal factors. • At the outset, a researcher specifies the meaning • There are three basic criteria for establishing cau- of the concepts or variables to be studied (con- sation in nomothetic analyses: (1) The variables ceptualization), chooses a research method or must be empirically associated, or correlated, methods (e.g., experiments versus surveys), and (2) the causal variable must occur earlier in time specifies the population to be studied and, if appli- than the variable it is said to affect, and (3) the cable, how it will be sampled. o­ bserved effect cannot be explained as the effect of a different variable. • To operationalize the concepts to be studied, the Necessary and Sufficient Causes researcher states precisely how variables in the study will be measured. Research then proceeds • Mere association, or correlation, does not in itself through observation, data processing, analysis, and application, such as reporting the results and establish causation. A spurious causal relationship assessing their implications. is an association that in reality is caused by one or more other variables. The Research Proposal Units of Analysis • A research proposal provides a preview of why a • Units of analysis are the people or things whose study will be undertaken and how it will be con- ducted. A research project is often required to get characteristics social researchers observe, describe, permission or necessary resources. Even when not and explain. Typically, the unit of analysis in so- required, a proposal is a useful device for planning. cial research is the individual person, but it may also be a social group, a formal organization, a

Review Questions and Exercises ■ 121 K e y T erm s c. T he early TM [transcendental meditation] or- ganizations were small and informal. The Los The following terms are defined in context in the Angeles group, begun in June 1959, met at a chapter and at the bottom of the page where the term member’s house where, incidentally, Maharishi is introduced, as well as in the comprehensive glossary was living. (Johnston 1980: 337) at the back of the book. d. H owever, it appears that the nursing staffs cohort study reductionism exercise strong influence over . . . a decision correlation social artifact to change the nursing care system. . . . Con- cross-sectional study sociobiology versely, among those decisions dominated by ecological fallacy spurious relationship the ­administration and the medical staffs . . . longitudinal study trend study ­(Comstock 1980: 77) panel study units of analysis e. Though 667,000 out of 2 million farmers in the P r o p o s i n g S o c i a l R e s e a r c h: D e s ig n United States are women, women historically have not been viewed as farmers, but rather, as This chapter has laid out many different ways social the farmer’s wife. (Votaw 1979: 8) research can be structured. In designing your research project, you will need to specify which among these f. The analysis of community opposition to group you will use. Is your purpose that of exploring a topic, homes for the mentally handicapped . . . in- providing a detailed description, or explaining the social dicates that deteriorating neighborhoods are differences and processes you may observe? If you are most likely to organize in opposition, but that planning a causal analysis, you should say something upper-middle class neighborhoods are most about how you will organize and pursue that goal. likely to enjoy private access to local officials. (Graham and Hogan 1990: 513) Further, will your project collect data at one point in time or compare data across time? What data collection g. S ome analysts during the 1960s predicted that technique(s) will you employ? You will revisit these and the rise of economic ambition and political similar questions as you delve into your project. militancy among blacks would foster discon- tent with the “otherworldly” black mainline R e v ie w Q ue s ti o n s a n d E x er c i s e s churches. (Ellison and Sherkat 1990: 551) 1. One example in this chapter suggested that political h. T his analysis explores whether propositions orientations cause attitudes toward legalizing mari- and empirical findings of contemporary theo- juana. Can you make an argument that the time ries of organizations directly apply to both order is just the opposite of what was assumed? private product producing organizations (PPOs) and public human service organizations 2. Here are some examples of real research topics. (PSOs). (Schiflett and Zey 1990: 569) For each one, can you name the unit of analysis? (The answers are at the end of this chapter.) i. This paper examines variations in job title s­tructures across work roles. Analyzing 3,173 a. W omen watch TV more than men because job titles in the California civil service system they are likely to work fewer hours outside in 1985, we investigate how and why lines of the home than men. . . . Black people watch work vary in the proliferation of job categories an average of approximately three-quarters of that differentiate ranks, functions, or particular an hour more television per day than white organizational locations. (Strang and Baron people. (Hughes 1980: 290) 1990: 479) b. O f the 130 incorporated U.S. cities with more 3. Review the logic of spuriousness. Can you think than 100,000 inhabitants in 1960, 126 had at up an example where an observed relationship least two short-term nonproprietary general between two variables could actually be explained hospitals accredited by the American Hospital away by a third variable? Association. (Turk 1980: 317) 4. Using InfoTrac College Edition on your Sociology CourseMate at www.cengagebrain.com or printed journals in the library, locate a research project involving a panel study. Describe the nature of the study design and its primary findings.

122 ■ Chapter 4: Purpose and Design of Research Projects S P SS E x er c i s e s 2. After you complete each page of questions, click “Grade It Now” to see detailed explanations of See the booklet that accompanies your text for ex- every answer. ercises using SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences). There are exercises offered for each chapter, 3. Click “Try Another Version” for an opportunity to and you’ll also find a detailed primer on using SPSS. improve your score. Visit www.cengagebrain.com to access your account and purchase materials. Online Study Resources Answers to Units of Analysis QUIZ (Exercise 2 on previous page) Access the resources your instructor has assigned. For this book, you can access: a. Men and women, black and white people (individuals) CourseMate for The Practice of Social Research b. Incorporated U.S. cities (groups) c. Transcendental meditation organizations (groups) Login to CengageBrain.com to access chapter-specific d. Nursing staffs (groups) learning tools including Learning Objectives, Practice e. Farmers (individuals) Quizzes, Videos, Internet Exercises, Flash Cards, Glossaries, f. Neighborhoods (groups) Web Links, and more from your Sociology CourseMate. g. Blacks (individuals) h. Service and production organizations (formal organizations) i. Job titles (artifacts) If your professor has assigned Aplia homework: 1. Sign into your account.

CHAPTER 5 Sampling Logic chapter overview Now you’ll see how social scien­ tists can select a few people for study—and discover things that apply to hundreds of millions of people not studied. Introduction Populations and Sampling Frames Review of Populations A Brief History of Sampling and Sampling Frames President Alf Landon President Thomas E. Dewey Types of Sampling Designs Two Types of Sampling Methods Simple Random Sampling Nonprobability Sampling Systematic Sampling Reliance on Available Subjects Purposive or Judgmental Sampling Stratified Sampling Snowball Sampling Quota Sampling Implicit Stratification Selecting Informants in Systematic Sampling The Theory and Logic Illustration: Sampling University of Probability Sampling Students Conscious and Subconscious Multistage Cluster Sampling Sampling Bias Multistage Designs and Sampling Error Representativeness and Probability of Selection Stratification in Multistage Cluster Sampling Random Selection Probability Theory, Sampling Probability Proportionate to Size (PPS) Sampling Distributions, and Estimates of Sampling Error Disproportionate Sampling and Weighting Probability Sampling in Review The Ethics of Sampling Aplia for The Practice of Social Research After reading, go to “Online Study Resources” at the end of this chapter for

124 ■ Chapter 5: Sampling Logic Introduction Table 5-1 One of the most visible uses of survey sampling lies Election-Eve Polls Reporting Presidential Voting in the political polling that is subsequently tested Plans, 2008 by election results. Whereas some people doubt the accuracy of sample surveys, others complain Poll Date Ended Obama McCain that political polls take all the suspense out of cam- paigns by foretelling the result. FOX Nov 2 54 46 NBC/WSJ Nov 2 54 46 Going into the 2008 presidential elections, Marist College Nov 2 55 45 pollsters were in agreement as to who would win, Harris Interactive Nov 3 54 46 in contrast to their experiences in 2000 and 2004, Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby Nov 3 56 44 which were closely contested races. Table 5-1 ARG Nov 3 54 46 reports polls conducted during the few days pre- Rasmussen Nov 3 53 47 ceding the election. Despite some variations, the IBD/TIPP Nov 3 54 46 overall picture they present is amazingly consistent DailyKos.com/Research 2000 Nov 3 53 47 and pretty well matches the election results. GWU Nov 3 53 47 Marist College Nov 3 55 45 Now, how many interviews do you suppose it Actual vote Nov 4 54 46 took each of these pollsters to come within a cou- ple of percentage points in estimating the behavior Source: Poll data are adapted from data presented at Pollster.com (http://www of more than 131 million voters? Often fewer than .pollster.com/polls/us/08-us-pres-ge-mvo.php) on January 29, 2009. The official 2,000! In this chapter, we’re going to find out how election results are from the Federal Election Commission (http://www.fec social researchers can pull off such wizardry. .gov/pubrec/fe2008/2008presgeresults.pdf) on the same date. For simplicity, since there were no undecideds in the official results and each of the third-party For another powerful illustration of the ­potency candidates received less than one percentage of the vote, I’ve apportioned the of sampling, look at this graphic portrayal of undecided and other votes according to the percentages saying they were voting then-President George W. Bush’s approval ratings for Obama or McCain. prior to and following the September 11, 2001, ­terrorist attack on the United States (see Figure 5-1). more rigorous and precise than some of the other The data reported by several different polling agen- topics in this book. Whereas social research as cies describe the same pattern. a whole is both art and science, sampling leans toward science. Although this subject is some- Political polling, like other forms of social re- what technical, the basic logic of sampling is not search, rests on observations. But neither pollsters difficult to understand. In fact, the logical neatness nor other social researchers can observe everything of this topic can make it easier to comprehend that might be relevant to their interests. A critical than, say, conceptualization. part of social research, then, is deciding what to ­observe and what not. If you want to study voters, Although probability sampling is central to for example, which voters should you study? social research today, we’ll take some time to ex- amine a variety of nonprobability methods as well. The process of selecting observations is called These methods have their own logic and can pro- sampling. Although sampling can mean any pro- vide useful samples for social inquiry. cedure for selecting units of observation—for ex- ample, interviewing every tenth passerby on a busy Before we discuss the two major types of sam- street—the key to generalizing from a sample to pling, I’ll introduce you to some basic ideas by way a larger population is probability sampling, which of a brief history of sampling. As you’ll see, the poll- i­nvolves the important idea of random selection. sters who correctly predicted the election in 2008 Much of this chapter is devoted to the logic and skills of probability sampling. This topic is

A Brief History of Sampling ■ 125 FIGURE 5-1 Bush Approval: Raw Poll Data. This graph demonstrates how independent polls produce the same picture of reality. This also shows the impact of a national crisis on the president’s popularity: in this case, the September 11 terrorist attack and then-President George W. Bush’s popularity. Source: Copyright © 2001, 2002 by drlimerick.com. (http://www.pollkatz.homestead.com/files/MyHTML2.gif). All rights reserved. did so in part because researchers had learned to president if a famous poll conducted by the Literary avoid some pitfalls that earlier pollsters had fallen Digest had proved to be accurate. The Literary Digest into. was a popular newsmagazine published between 1890 and 1938. In 1916, Digest editors mailed post- A Brief History of Sampling cards to people in six states, asking them whom they were planning to vote for in the presidential Sampling in social research has developed hand campaign between Woodrow Wilson and Charles in hand with political polling. This is the case, no Evans Hughes. Names were selected for the poll doubt, because political polling is one of the few from telephone directories and automobile regis- opportunities social researchers have to discover tration lists. Based on the postcards sent back, the the accuracy of their estimates. On election day, Digest correctly predicted that Wilson would be they find out how well or how poorly they did. elected. In the elections that followed, the Literary Digest expanded the size of its poll and made correct President Alf Landon predictions in 1920, 1924, 1928, and 1932. President Alf Landon? Who’s he? Did you sleep In 1936, the Digest conducted its mosCt aemnbgi- a g e L e a r n i n g through an entire presidency in your U.S. his- tious poll: Ten million ballots were sent tBoapbeobpiele: The Practice of tory class? No—but Alf Landon would have been listed in telephone directories and on listsSoof cauiatloR- esearch, 13/e mobile owners. Over 2 million people responded,