-Earl_R._Babbie-_The_Practice_of_Social_Research_((BookFi)

24 ■ Chapter 1: Human Inquiry and Science Every observation is qualitative at the outset, example, the richness of meaning I’ve mentioned whether it is our experience of someone’s intel- is partly a function of ambiguity. If the expression ligence, the location of a pointer on a measuring “older than his years” meant something to you scale, or a check mark entered in a questionnaire. when you read it, that meaning came from your None of these things is inherently numerical or own experiences, from people you have known quantitative, but converting them to a numeri- who might fit the description of being “older than cal form is sometimes useful. (Chapter 14 of this their years” or perhaps the times you have heard book will deal specifically with the quantification others use that expression. Two things are certain: of data.) (1) You and I probably don’t mean exactly the same thing, and (2) you don’t know exactly what Quantification often makes our observations I mean, and vice versa. more explicit. It also can make it easier to aggre- gate, compare, and summarize data. Further, it I have a friend, Ray Zhang, who was respon- opens up the possibility of statistical analyses, rang- sible for communications at the 1989 freedom ing from simple averages to complex formulas and demonstrations in Tiananmen Square, Beijing. mathematical models. Following the Army clampdown, Ray fled south, was arrested, and was then released with orders Quantitative data, then, offer the advantages to return to Beijing. Instead, he escaped from that numbers have over words as measures of China and made his way to Paris. Eventually he some quality. On the other hand, they also carry came to the United States, where he resumed the the disadvantages that numbers have, including a graduate studies he had been forced to abandon in potential loss in richness of meaning. For example, fleeing his homeland. I have seen him deal with a social researcher might want to know whether the difficulties of getting enrolled in school without college students aged 18–22 tend to date people any transcripts from China, of studying in a foreign older or younger than themselves. A quantitative language, of meeting his financial needs—all on answer to this question seems easily attained. The his own, thousands of miles from his family. Ray researcher asks a given number of college students still speaks of one day returning to China to build a how old each of their dates has been, calculates system of democracy. an average, and compares it with the age of the subject. Case closed. Ray strikes me as someone “older than his years.” You probably agree. The additional detail in Or is it? Although “age” here represents the my qualitative description, while it fleshes out the number of years people have been alive, some- meaning of the phrase, still does not equip us to say times people use the term differently; perhaps how much older or even to compare two people for some “age” really means “maturity.” You may in these terms without the risk of disagreeing as to date people who are younger than you but who which one is more “worldly.” act more maturely than others of their age and thus represent the same “age” as you. Or someone It might be possible to quantify this concept, might see “age” as how young or old your dates however. For example, we might establish a list of look or maybe the degree of variation in their life life experiences that would contribute to what we experiences and worldliness. These latter mean- mean by worldliness, for example: ings would be lost in the quantitative calculation of average age. Qualitative data, in short, can be Getting married richer in meaning than quantified data. This is implicit in the cliché, “He is older than his years.” Getting divorced The poetic meaning of this expression would be lost in attempts to specify how much older. Having a parent die On the other hand, qualitative data bring the Seeing a murder committed disadvantages of purely verbal descriptions. For Being arrested Being exiled

Some Dialectics of Social Research ■ 25 Being fired from a job tion between qualitative and quantitative research doesn’t mean that you must identify your research Running away with the circus activities with one to the exclusion of the other. A complete understanding of a topic often requires We might quantify people’s worldliness as the both techniques. number of such experiences they’ve had: the more such experiences, the more worldly we’d say they The contributions of these two approaches were. If we thought of some experiences as more are widely recognized today. For example, when powerful than others, we could give those experi- Stuart J. H. Biddle and his colleagues (2001) at the ences more points. Once we had made our list and University of Wales set out to review the status of point system, scoring people and comparing their research in the field of sport and exercise psychol- worldliness on a numerical scale would be straight- ogy, they were careful to examine the uses of both forward. We would have no difficulty agreeing on quantitative and qualitative techniques, drawing who had more points than who. attention to those they felt were underused. To quantify a nonnumerical concept like world- The apparent conflict btween these two funda- liness, then, we need to be explicit about what the mental approaches has been neatly summarized by concept means. By focusing specifically on what Paul Thompson (2004: 238–39): we’ll include in our measurement of the concept, however, we also exclude any other meanings. In- Only a few sociologists would openly deny evitably, then, we face a trade-off: Any explicated, the logic of combining the strengths of both quantitative measure will be less rich in meaning quantitative and qualitative methods in social than the corresponding qualitative description. research. . . . In practice, however, despite such wider methodological aspirations in principle, What a dilemma! Which approach should we social researchers have regrettably become choose? Which is better? Which is more appropri- increasingly divided into two camps, many of ate to social research? whose members know little of each other even if they are not explicitly hostile. The good news is that we don’t need to choose. In fact, we shouldn’t. Both qualitative and quan- In reviewing the frequent disputes over the titative methods are useful and legitimate in social superiority of qualitative or quantitative methods, research. Some research situations and topics are Anthony Onwuegbuzie and Nancy Leech (2005) amenable to qualitative examination, others to suggest that the two approaches have more simi- quantification. larities than differences, and they urge that social research is strengthened by the use of both. My Although researchers may use both, these two intention in this book is to focus on the comple- approaches call for different skills and procedures. mentarity of these two approaches rather than on As a result, you may find that you feel more com- any apparent competition between them. fortable with—and become more adept in— one or the other. You will be a stronger researcher, Pure and Applied Research however, to the extent that you can use both approaches effectively. Certainly, all researchers, From the beginning, social scientists have shown whatever their personal inclinations, should recog- two distinct motivations: understanding and ap- nize the legitimacy of both. plication. On the one hand, they are fascinated by the nature of human social life and are driven to You may have noticed that the qualitative explain it, to make sense out of apparent chaos. approach seems more aligned with idiographic Pure research in all scientific fields is sometimes explanations, while nomothetic explanations justified in terms of gaining “knowledge for knowl- are more easily achieved through quantification. edge’s sake.” Although this is true, these relationships are not absolute. Moreover, both approaches present considerable “gray area.” Recognizing the distinc-

26 ■ Chapter 1: Human Inquiry and Science At the same time, perhaps inspired by their its “spreading false rumors and tarnishing Egypt’s subject matter, social scientists are committed image abroad.” A more serious charge was that he to having what they learn make a difference, to had accepted financial contributions from abroad seeing their knowledge of society put into action. without government permission, a violation of Sometimes they focus on making things better. Military Order No. 4 of 1992. As Ibrahim was to When I study prejudice, for example, I’d like what learn, his research institute’s acceptance of research I discover to result in a more tolerant society. This grants—usually a valued achievement—was is no different from the AIDS researcher trying to regarded as a federal crime in his case. As Ibrahim defeat that disease. In Chapter 12, we’ll focus on a observes, special kind of applied research called evaluation research. Being an activist sociologist in a Third World country is tremendously challenging. While For some social scientists, professional activities some elements of the work are gratifying, it is are intimately interwoven with the intention of more often permeated with agony. One hon- creating a more humane society. Today, there is estly never knows when one is breaking a law, no better role model than the Egyptian sociolo- violating a military order or simply stepping gist Saad Eddin Ibrahim. Having addressed a great over an invisible red line. many social issues, Ibrahim has focused most recently on the problems of modern Arab societies (2003: 70) in general and Egypt in particular. After years of researching and writing on the edge of Eventually, because of his own efforts and political tolerance, Ibrahim crossed the line in the international uproar produced by his arrest 2000. and imprisonment, Ibrahim was given a new trial and was finally released from prison on his 64th Following the publication of one of my articles birthday: December 3, 2002. (You can learn more on Arab presidents grooming their sons to about Ibrahim’s experience at the link listed on succeed them in the North Korean tradition this book’s website: http://www.cengage.com/ of the late Kim Il Sung, the old guard seemed sociology/babbie.) Social researchers put their to have gotten a green light to come after me. research into practice in many mundane ways The day after the article appeared on Cairo as well. Experiments and surveys, for example, newsstands—June 30, 2000—I was arrested. can be used in marketing products. In-depth interviewing techniques can be especially useful (2003: 71) in social work encounters. Chapter 12 of this book deals with evaluation research, by which social Ibrahim provides a good example of how social scientists determine the effectiveness of social scientists deal with something like imprisonment, interventions. which is, after all, an all-too-common part of mod- ern social life. Sometimes, seemingly mundane research ef- forts can powerfully affect people’s lives. Imagine In those initial 45 days, my human contacts working alongside Crystal Eastman, an applied in prison were limited to prison wardens and sociologist and settlement worker active in the guards. I had little opportunity to do as much Pittsburgh area in the early twentieth century: sociological research on the prison community as I would have liked. That would have to wait We got permission to use these [coroner’s for the second and third rounds of my impris- records] and made a record of every industrial onment which followed in 2001 and 2002. fatality reported to the coroner during the twelve months from July 1906 to July 1907, (2003: 69) taking down on a separate card for each case, the name and address of the man killed, his One of the charges brought against Ibrahim was Article 80D of the penal code, which prohib-

The Research Proposal ■ 27 age, occupation and conjugal condition, the answer them. Often, such proposals are created name of his employer, the circumstances of the for the purpose of getting the resources needed to accident, the names of important witnesses, conduct the research envisioned. and the verdict. The plan was to learn from the evidence in the coroner’s record, how each One way to learn the topics of this course is to accident happened, and to learn from visit- write a research proposal based on what you have ing family what happened after the accident, learned. Even if you will not actually conduct a [for example,] how great a financial loss was major research project, you can lay out a plan for suffered by the family of the workman killed, doing so. Your instructor may use this as a course how much of this was made up by compensa- requirement, but even if that’s not the case, you tion received from the employer, and how the can use the “Proposing Social Research” exercise at family was affected in its economic life by the the end of each chapter to test your mastery of the accident. When we had done this with the chapter. fatalities, we followed the same course with the records of three months’ industrial injuries There is a computer program, SAGrader, that which we secured from the hospitals. is designed to assist you in writing exercises such as this one. It will accept a draft submission and (Eastman 1910: 789; quoted in Lengermann critique it, pointing to elements that are missing, and Niebrugge-Brantley 2002: 13) for example. You can learn more about SAGrader at the website listed at http://www.cengage.com/ As a result of this and similar studies, U.S. workers sociology/babbie. now enjoy the protections of worker’s compensa- tion insurance. There are many organizational structures for research proposals, and I’ve created a fairly typical As with each of the other dialectics just dis- one for you to use with this book. I’ve presented cussed, some social scientists are more inclined the proposal outline as follows, indicating which toward pure research, others toward application. chapters in the book deal most directly with each Ultimately, both orientations are valid and vital topic. elements in social research as a whole. In dealing with the basics of social research, whether pure Introduction (Chapter 1) or applied, one of the intentions of this book is to draw attention to the ways in which such research Review of the Literature (Chapters 2, 17; is used to make a difference. Appendix A) These, then, are some of the foundations of Specifying the Problem/Question/Topic social research. I hope this discussion has helped to (Chapters 5, 6, 12) show how social science is anything but routine or boring. At its best, it is a vibrant, exciting, and im- Research Design (Chapter 4) portant activity. All we need is an open mind and a sense of adventure. Data-Collection Method (Chapters 4, 8, 9, 10, 11) The Research Proposal Selection of Subjects (Chapter 7) I conclude this chapter by introducing a feature that will run throughout the book: the preparation Ethical Issues (Chapter 3) of a research proposal. Most organized research begins with a description of what is planned in the Data Analysis (Chapters 13, 14, 15, 16) project: what questions it will raise and how it will Bibliography (Chapter 17; Appendix A) I’ll have more to say about each of these topics as we move through the book, beginning with this chapter’s “Proposing Social Research” exercise. Chapter 4 will have an extended section on the research proposal, and Chapter 17 will give you an opportunity to pull together all the parts of the proposal into a coherent whole.

28 ■ Chapter 1: Human Inquiry and Science MAIN POINTS • A variable is a logical set of attributes. An attribute Introduction is a characteristic. Gender, for example, is a variable made up of the attributes male and female. • The subject of this book is how we find out about • In causal explanation, the presumed cause is the social reality. independent variable, and the affected variable is Looking for Reality the dependent variable. • Inquiry is a natural human activity. Much of ordi- The Purposes of Social Research nary human inquiry seeks to explain events and • Three major purposes of social research are explo- predict future events. ration, description, and explanation. • When we understand through direct experience, • Studies may aim to serve more than one of these we make observations and seek patterns of regu- larities in what we observe. purposes. • Much of what we know, we know by agreement The Ethics of Human Inquiry rather than by experience. In particular, two • It is important to recognize from start that ethical important sources of agreed-on knowledge are tradition and authority. However, these useful issues, particularly with reference to protecting sources of knowledge can also lead us astray. subjects, may rule out certain research procedures and/or require certain elements in the research • Science seeks to protect against the mistakes we design. make in day-to-day inquiry. Some Dialectics of Social Science • Whereas we often observe inaccurately, research- • Whereas idiographic explanations present specific ers seek to avoid such errors by making observa- cases fully, nomothetic explanations present a tion a careful and deliberate activity. generalized understanding of many cases. • We sometimes jump to general conclusions on • Inductive theories reason from specific observa- the basis of only a few observations, so scientists tions to general patterns. Deductive theories seek to avoid overgeneralization. They do this by start from general statements and predict specific committing themselves to a sufficient number of observations. observations and by replicating studies. • Quantitative data are numerical; qualitative data • In everyday life we sometimes reason illogically. are not. Both types of data are useful for different Researchers seek to avoid illogical reasoning by research purposes. being as careful and deliberate in their reasoning as in their observations. Moreover, the public na- • Both pure and applied research are valid and vital ture of science means that others are always there to challenge faulty reasoning. parts of the social science enterprise. • Three views of “reality” are the premodern, mod- The Research Proposal ern, and postmodern views. In the postmodern • Research projects often begin with the preparation view, there is no “objective” reality independent of our subjective experiences. Different philo- of a research proposal, describing the purpose and sophical views suggest a range of possibilities for methods of the proposed study. scientific research. • In this book, each chapter will conclude with an The Foundations of Social Science exercise through which you can prepare part of a • Social theory attempts to discuss and explain research proposal, thereby testing your mastery of the topics covered. what is, not what should be. Theory should not be confused with philosophy or belief. KEY TERMS • Social science looks for regularities in social life. The following terms are defined in context in the • Social scientists are interested in explaining hu- chapter and at the bottom of the page where the term is introduced, as well as in the comprehensive glossary man aggregates, not individuals. at the back of the book. • Theories are written in the language of variables.

Online Study Resources ■ 29 agreement reality induction and in the mass media. Most of those discussions are attributes methodology probably mostly based in opinions. Your opportunity deduction nomothetic in this course is to see how you might pursue such dependent variable replication questions as a researcher, dealing with logic and facts epistemology theory in place of opinions. idiographic variables independent variable REVIEW QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES PROPOSING SOCIAL RESEARCH: INTRODUCTION 1. Review the common errors of human inquiry discussed in this chapter. Find a magazine or This first chapter has given you an overview of some newspaper article, or perhaps a letter to the editor, of the basic variations in social research, many of that illustrates one of these errors. Discuss how a which can be useful in writing the introduction of scientist would avoid it. your research proposal. For this assignment, you should first identify a topic or question you might like 2. List five social variables and the attributes they to explore in a research project. Perhaps you would comprise. like to explore some topic relating to race, gender, or social class. Perhaps there is some aspect of college life 3. Go to one of the following websites, listed at that you think needs study. www.cengage.com/sociology/babbie, and find examples of both qualitative and Once you have a research topic in mind, this quantitative data. chapter will offer some ideas on how the research a. UN High Commissioner for Refugees might be organized. This is only a overview of the b. U.S. Centers for Disease Control and project and should take two to four paragraphs. It will Prevention work best if you can select a topic which you’ll use in c. National Library of Australia each of the chapters of the book, as you address differ- ent aspects of the research process. 4. At InfoTrac College Edition, search for “post- modernism.” Write a short report discussing the Here are some examples of research questions to various fields or disciplines to which it has been illustrate the kind of focus your project might take. applied. Give examples. • Do women earn less money than men and, if SPSS EXERCISES so, why? See the booklet that accompanies your text for exercises using SPSS (Statistical Package for the • What distinguishes juvenile gangs of different Social Sciences). There are exercises offered for each chapter, and you’ll also find a detailed primer on ethnic groups? using SPSS. • Which academic departments at your college offer Online Study Resources the broadest degree of liberal arts training? If your book came with an access code card, visit www.cengage.com/login to register. To purchase • Is it true, as some suggest, that the United States access, please visit www.ichapters.com. 1. Before you do your final review of the chapter, was established as a “Christian nation”? take the CengageNOW pretest to help identify the • Are American military actions in the Middle East areas on which you should concentrate. You’ll find information on this online tool, as well as reducing the threat of terrorist attacks or increas- instructions on how to access all of its great re- ing those threats? sources, in the front of the book. • What are the major functions of the American family and how have those been changing over time? • Are official attempts to control illegal drug use succeeding or failing? • Do undocumented immigrants overall represent a net economic cost or benefit to the United States? Notice that you probably hear questions like these discussed frequently, both in your own interactions

30 ■ Chapter 1: Human Inquiry and Science 2. As you review, take advantage of the CengageNOW feedback, Internet Exercises, Flash Cards, Glossaries, personalized study plan, based on your quiz and Essay Quizzes, as well as InfoTrac College Edition results. Use this study plan with its interactive search terms, suggestions for additional reading, Web exercises and other resources to master the Links, and primers for using data-analysis software material. such as SPSS. 3. When you’re finished with your review, take the posttest to confirm that you’re ready to move on to the next chapter. WEBSITE FOR THE PRACTICE OF SOCIAL RESEARCH 12TH EDITION Go to your book’s website at www.cengage.com/ sociology/babbie for tools to aid you in studying for your exams. You’ll find Tutorial Quizzes with

CHAPTER TWO Paradigms, Theory, and Social Research CHAPTER OVERVIEW Social science inquiry is an interplay of theory and research, logic and observation,induction and deduction—and of the fundamental frames of reference known as paradigms. Introduction Deductive and Inductive Reasoning: A Case Illustration Some Social Science Paradigms A Graphic Contrast Macrotheory and Microtheory Early Positivism Deductive Theory Construction Social Darwinism Getting Started Conflict Paradigm Constructing Your Theory Symbolic Interactionism An Example of Deductive Ethnomethodology Theory: Distributive Justice Structural Functionalism Feminist Paradigms Inductive Theory Construction Critical Race Theory An Example of Inductive Rational Objectivity Theory: Why Do People Reconsidered Smoke Marijuana? Elements of Social Theory The Links between Theory and Research Two Logical Systems Revisited The Traditional Model of Research Ethics and Theory Science CengageNOW for Sociology Use this online tool to help you make the grade on your next exam. After reading this chapter, go to “Online Study Resources” at the end of the chapter for instructions on how to benefit from CengageNOW.

32 ■ Chapter 2: Paradigms, Theory, and Social Research Introduction lost keys on a dark street, you could whip your flashlight around randomly, hoping to chance upon Certain restaurants in the United States are fond the errant keys— or you could use your memory of of conducting political polls among their diners where you had been and limit your search to more whenever an election is in the offing. Some take likely areas. Theories, by analogy, direct research- these polls very seriously because of their uncanny ers’ flashlights where they will most likely observe history of predicting winners. Some movie theaters interesting patterns of social life. have achieved similar success by offering popcorn in bags picturing either donkeys or elephants. This is not to say that all social science research Years ago, granaries in the Midwest offered farm- is tightly intertwined with social theory. Sometimes ers a chance to indicate their political preferences social scientists undertake investigations simply to through the bags of grain they selected. discover the state of affairs, such as an evaluation of whether an innovative social program is working Such idiosyncratic ways of determining trends, or a poll to determine which candidate is winning though interesting, all follow the same pattern over a political race. Similarly, descriptive ethnographies, time: They work for a while, and then they fail. such as anthropological accounts of preliterate Moreover, we can’t predict when or why they societies, produce valuable information and insights will fail. in and of themselves. However, even studies such as these often go beyond pure description to ask These unusual polling techniques point to a “why.” Theory relates directly to “why” questions. significant shortcoming of “research findings” that are based only on the observation of patterns. Un- This chapter explores some specific ways less we can offer logical explanations for such pat- theory and research work hand in hand during the terns, the regularities we’ve observed may be mere adventure of inquiry into social life. We’ll begin by flukes, chance occurrences. If you flip coins long looking at some fundamental frames of reference, enough, you’ll get ten heads in a row. Scientists called paradigms, that underlie social theories and might adapt a street expression to describe this situ- inquiry. Whereas theories seek to explain, para- ation: “Patterns happen.” digms provide ways of looking. In and of them- selves, paradigms don’t explain anything; however, Logical explanations are what theories seek they provide logical frameworks within which to provide. Theories function in three ways in theories are created. As you’ll see in this chapter, research. First, they prevent our being taken in by theories and paradigms intertwine in the search for flukes. If we can’t explain why Ma’s Diner has so meaning in social life. successfully predicted elections, we run the risk of supporting a fluke. If we know why it has hap- Some Social Science pened, we can anticipate whether or not it will Paradigms work in the future. There is usually more than one way to make Second, theories make sense of observed pat- sense of things. In daily life, for example, liber- terns in a way that can suggest other possibilities. als and conservatives often explain the same If we understand the reasons why broken homes phenomenon—teenagers using guns at school, produce more juvenile delinquency than intact for example—quite differently. So might the homes do—lack of supervision, for example—we parents and teenagers themselves. But underly- can take effective action, such as after-school youth ing these different explanations, or theories, are programs. Finally, theories shape and direct research ef- forts, pointing toward likely discoveries through empirical observation. If you were looking for your

Some Social Science Paradigms ■ 33 paradigms—the fundamental models or frames of from your experience of it. As we saw in Chapter reference we use to organize our observations and 1, however, the postmodern paradigm suggests that reasoning. only the experience is real: The book in your hands right now is not real; only your experience of it is. Paradigms are often difficult to recognize as Whether you think the book really exists or not such, because they are so implicit, assumed, taken reflects the paradigm you operate within. for granted. They seem more like “the way things are” than like one possible point of view among When we recognize that we are operating many. Here’s an illustration of what I mean. within a paradigm, two benefits accrue. First, we can better understand the seemingly bizarre views Where do you stand on the issue of human and actions of others who are operating from a rights? Do you feel that individual human beings different paradigm. Second, at times we can profit are sacred? Are they “endowed by their creator from stepping outside our paradigm. Suddenly we with certain inalienable rights,” as asserted by the can see new ways of seeing and explaining things. U.S. Declaration of Independence? Are there some We can’t do that as long as we mistake our para- things that no government should do to its citizens? digm for reality. Let’s get more concrete. In wartime, civilians Paradigms play a fundamental role in science, are sometimes used as human shields to protect just as they do in daily life. Thomas Kuhn (1970) military targets. Sometimes they are impressed draws attention to the role of paradigms in the his- into slave labor or even used as mobile blood tory of the natural sciences. Major scientific para- banks for military hospitals. How about organized digms have included such fundamental viewpoints programs of rape and murder in support of “ethnic as Copernicus’s conception of the earth moving cleansing”? around the sun (instead of the reverse), Darwin’s theory of evolution, Newtonian mechanics, and Those of us who are horrified and incensed by Einstein’s relativity. Which scientific theories “make such practices probably find it difficult to see our sense” depends on which paradigm scientists are individualistic paradigm as only one possible point maintaining. of view among many. However, many cultures in today’s world regard the Western (and particularly Although we sometimes think of science as U.S.) commitment to the sanctity of the individual developing gradually over time, marked by impor- as bizarre. Historically, it has decidedly been a mi- tant discoveries and inventions, Kuhn says that nority viewpoint. scientific paradigms typically become entrenched, resisting substantial change. Thus, theories and Although many Asian countries, for example, research alike tend to follow a given fundamental now subscribe to some “rights” that belong to direction. Eventually, however, as the shortcomings individuals, those are balanced against the “rights” of a particular paradigm became obvious, a new of families, organizations, and the society at large. one emerges and supplants the old. The seem- Criticized for violating human rights, Asian leaders ingly natural view that the rest of the universe often point to high crime rates and social disorgani- revolves around the earth, for example, compelled zation in Western societies as the cost of what they astronomers to devise ever more elaborate ways see as our radical “cult of the individual.” to account for the motions of heavenly bodies that they actually observed. Eventually this paradigm I won’t try to change your point of view on was supplanted by the view that the earth and individual human dignity, nor have I given up other planets revolve around the sun. This was my own. It’s useful, however, to recognize that our views and feelings in this matter result from paradigm A model or frame of reference through the paradigm we have been socialized into. The which to observe and understand. sanctity of the individual is not an objective fact of nature; it is a point of view, a paradigm. All of us operate within many such paradigms. A traditional Western view holds that the world you experience has an objective reality separate

34 ■ Chapter 2: Paradigms, Theory, and Social Research nothing less than a revolutionary change in per- macrotheories include the struggle between eco- spective, which fundamentally altered the direction nomic classes in a society, international relations, of theory and research. Kuhn’s classic book on this or the interrelations among major institutions in subject is entitled, appropriately enough, The Struc- society, such as government, religion, and family. ture of Scientific Revolutions. Macrotheory deals with large, aggregate entities of society or even whole societies. (Note that some Social scientists have developed several para- researchers prefer to limit the macrolevel to whole digms for understanding social behavior. The fate of societies, using the term mesotheory for an inter- supplanted paradigms in the social sciences, how- mediate level between macro and micro: studying ever, has differed from what Kuhn observed in the organizations, communities, and perhaps social natural sciences. Natural scientists generally believe categories such as gender.) that the succession from one paradigm to another represents progress from a false view to a true one. Some scholars have taken a more intimate For example, no modern astronomer believes that view of social life. Microtheory deals with issues the sun revolves around the earth. of social life at the level of individuals and small groups. Dating behavior, jury deliberations, and In the social sciences, on the other hand, theo- student–faculty interactions are apt subjects for a retical paradigms may gain or lose popularity, but microtheoretical perspective. Such studies often they are seldom discarded altogether. The para- come close to the realm of psychology, but whereas digms of the social sciences offer a variety of views, psychologists typically focus on what goes on each of which offers insights the others lack and inside humans, social scientists study what goes on ignores aspects of social life that the others reveal. between them. Ultimately, paradigms are neither true nor false; The basic distinction between macro- and as ways of looking, they are only more or less use- microtheory cuts across the other paradigms we’ll ful. Each of the paradigms we are about to examine examine. Some of them, such as symbolic interac- offers a different way of looking at human social tionism and ethnomethodology, are often limited life. Each makes its own assumptions about the to the microlevel. Others, such as the conflict nature of social reality. As we’ll see, each can open paradigm, can be pursued at either the micro- or up new understandings, suggest different kinds of the macrolevel. theories, and inspire different kinds of research. Macrotheory and Microtheory Early Positivism Let’s begin with a difference concerning focus, When the French philosopher Auguste Comte a difference that stretches across many of the (1798–1857) coined the term sociologie in 1822, he paradigms we’ll discuss. Some social theorists launched an intellectual adventure that continues focus their attention on society at large, or at least to unfold today. Most importantly, Comte identified on large portions of it. Topics of study for such society as a phenomenon that can be studied scientifically. (Initially, he wanted to label his enter- macrotheory A theory aimed at understanding prise social physics, but that term was taken over by the “big picture” of institutions, whole societies, another scholar.) and the interactions among societies. Karl Marx’s examination of the class struggle is an example of Prior to Comte’s time, society simply was. To macrotheory. the extent that people recognized different kinds of societies or changes in society over time, religious microtheory A theory aimed at understanding so- paradigms generally predominated in explanations cial life at the intimate level of individuals and their of such differences. People often saw the state of interactions. Examining how the play behavior of social affairs as a reflection of God’s will. Alterna- girls differs from that of boys would be an example tively, people were challenged to create a “City of of microtheory. God” on earth to replace sin and godlessness.

Some Social Science Paradigms ■ 35 Comte separated his inquiry from religion. species evolved into different forms through the He felt that religious belief could be replaced “survival of the fittest.” with scientific study and objectivity. His “positive philosophy” postulated three stages of history. A As scholars began to study society analytically, theological stage predominated throughout the it was perhaps inevitable that they would apply world until about 1300 C.E. During the next five Darwin’s ideas to changes in the structure of hu- hundred years, a metaphysical stage replaced God man affairs. The journey from simple hunting-and- with philosophical ideas such as “nature” and gathering tribes to large, industrial civilizations was “natural law.” easily seen as the evolution of progressively “fitter” forms of society. Comte felt he was launching the third stage of history, in which science would replace religion Among others, Herbert Spencer (1820–1903) and metaphysics by basing knowledge on observa- concluded that society was getting better and bet- tions through the five senses rather than on belief ter. Indeed, his native England had profited greatly or logic alone. Comte felt that society could be ob- from the development of industrial capitalism, served and then explained logically and rationally and Spencer favored a system of free competition, and that sociology could be as scientific as biology which he felt would insure continued progress and or physics. improvement. Spencer may even have coined the phrase “the survival of the fittest.” He certainly In a sense, all social research descends from believed that this principle was a primary force Comte. His view that society could be studied shaping the nature of society. Social Darwinism or scientifically formed the foundation for subsequent social evolution was a popular view in Spencer’s development of the social sciences. In his optimism time, although it was not universally accepted. for the future, he coined the term positivism to describe this scientific approach, in contrast to what This excerpt from a social science methods text- he regarded as negative elements in the Enlighten- book published in 1950 illustrates the long-term ment. As we’ll see later in this discussion, positiv- popularity of the notion that things are getting ism has been seriously challenged only in recent better and better. decades. The use of atomic energy as an explosive offers Social Darwinism most interesting prospects in the civil as in the military field. Atomic explosives may be used Comte’s major work on his positivist philosophy for transforming the landscape. They may be was published between 1830 and 1842. One year used for blasting great holes and trenches in the after the publication of the first volume in that earth, which can be transformed into lakes and series, a young British naturalist set sail on HMS canals. In this way, it may become possible to Beagle, beginning a cruise that would profoundly produce lakes in the midst of deserts, and thus affect the way we think of ourselves and our place convert some of the worst places in the world in the world. into oases and fertile countries. It may also be possible to make the Arctic regions comfortable In 1858, when Charles Darwin published On by providing immense and constant sources of the Origin of Species, he set forth the idea of evolu- heat. The North Pole might be converted into a tion through natural selection. Simply put, the holiday resort. theory states that as a species coped with its envi- ronment, those individuals most suited to success (Gee 1950: 339 – 40) would be the most likely to survive long enough to reproduce. Those less well suited would perish. positivism Introduced by August Comte, this phil- Over time the traits of the survivor would come to osophical system is grounded on the rational proof/ dominate the species. As later Darwinians put it, disproof of scientific assertions; assumes a knowable, objective reality.

36 ■ Chapter 2: Paradigms, Theory, and Social Research Quite aside from the widespread disenchant- those among people who did not share feelings of ment with nuclear power, contemporary concerns belonging and intimacy. over global warming and the threat of rising sea levels illustrate a growing consciousness that “prog- In a more recent application of the conflict ress” is often a two-edged sword. Clearly, most of paradigm, when Michel Chossudovsky’s (1997) us operate today from a different paradigm. analysis of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank suggested that these two interna- Conflict Paradigm tional organizations were increasing global poverty rather than eradicating it, he directed his attention One of Spencer’s contemporaries took a sharply to the competing interests involved in the process. different view of the evolution of capitalism. Karl In theory, the chief interest being served should be Marx (1818–1883) suggested that social behav- the poor people of the world or perhaps the im- ior could best be seen as a process of conflict: the poverished, Third World nations. The researcher’s attempt to dominate others and to avoid being inquiry, however, identified many other interested dominated. Marx focused primarily on the struggle parties who benefited: the commercial lending in- among economic classes. Specifically, he examined stitutions who made loans in conjunction with the the way capitalism produced the oppression of IMF and World Bank, as well as multinational cor- workers by the owners of industry. Marx’s inter- porations seeking cheap labor and markets for their est in this topic did not end with analytical study; goods, for example. Chossudovsky concluded that he was also ideologically committed to restructur- the interests of the banks and corporations tended ing economic relations to end the oppression he to take precedence over those of the poor people. observed. Moreover, he found that many policies were weak- ening national economies in the Third World, as The contrast between the views set forth by well as undermining democratic governments. Spencer and Marx indicates the influence of para- digms on research. These fundamental viewpoints Although the conflict paradigm often focuses shape the kinds of observations we are likely to on class, gender, and ethnic struggles, we could make, the sorts of facts we seek to discover, and the appropriately apply it whenever different groups conclusions we draw from those facts. Paradigms have competing interests. For example, we could also help determine which concepts we see as fruitfully apply it to understanding relations among relevant and important. Whereas economic classes different departments in an organization, fraternity were essential to Marx’s analysis, for example, and sorority rush weeks, or student–faculty– Spencer was more interested in the relationship administrative relations, to name just a few. between individuals and society—particularly the amount of freedom individuals had to surrender Symbolic Interactionism for society to function. In his overall focus, Georg Simmel differed from The conflict paradigm proved to be fruit- both Spencer and Marx. Whereas they were chiefly ful outside the realm of purely economic analy- concerned with macrotheoretical issues—large ses. Georg Simmel (1858–1918) was especially institutions and whole societies in their evolution interested in small-scale conflict, in contrast to the through the course of history—Simmel was more class struggle that interested Marx. Simmel noted, interested in how individuals interacted with one for example, that conflicts among members of a another. In other words, his thinking and research tightly knit group tended to be more intense than took a “micro” turn, thus calling attention to aspects of social reality that are invisible in Marx’s conflict paradigm A paradigm that views human or Spencer’s theory. For example, he began by behavior as attempts to dominate others or avoid be- examining dyads (groups of two people) and triads ing dominated by others. (groups of three). Similarly, he wrote about “the web of group affiliations.”

Some Social Science Paradigms ■ 37 Simmel was one of the first European sociolo- he or she talks, and the circumstances under which gists to influence the development of U.S. sociology. you’ve met. (“What’s someone like you doing in His focus on the nature of interactions particularly a place like this?”) Then watch how your knowl- influenced George Herbert Mead (1863–1931), edge of each other unfolds through the process of Charles Horton Cooley (1864–1929), and oth- interaction. Notice also any attempts you make to ers who took up the cause and developed it into a manage the image you are creating in the other powerful paradigm for research. person’s mind. Cooley, for example, introduced the idea of Ethnomethodology the “primary group,” those intimate associates with whom we share a sense of belonging, such Whereas some social science paradigms emphasize as our family and friends. Cooley also wrote of the the impact of social structure on human behavior— “looking-glass self” we form by looking into the that is, the effect of norms, values, control agents, reactions of people around us. If everyone treats us and so forth— other paradigms do not. Harold as beautiful, for example, we conclude that we are. Garfinkel, a contemporary sociologist, claims that Notice how fundamentally the concepts and theo- people are continually creating social structure retical focus inspired by this paradigm differ from through their actions and interactions—that they the society-level concerns of Spencer and Marx. are, in fact, creating their realities. Thus, when you and your instructor meet to discuss your term Mead emphasized the importance of our hu- paper, even though there are myriad expectations man ability to “take the role of the other,” imagin- about how you both should act, your conversa- ing how others feel and how they might behave in tion will differ somewhat from any of those that certain circumstances. As we gain an idea of how have occurred before, and how you each act will people in general see things, we develop a sense of somewhat modify your expectations in the future. what Mead called the “generalized other.” That is, discussing your term paper will impact the interactions each of you have with other professors Mead also showed a special interest in the role and students in the future. of communications in human affairs. Most interac- tions, he felt, revolved around the process of indi- Given the tentativeness of reality in this view, viduals reaching common understanding through Garfinkel suggests that people are continuously the use of language and other such systems, hence trying to make sense of the life they experience. In the term symbolic interactionism. a sense, he suggests that everyone is acting like a social scientist, hence the term ethnomethodology, or This paradigm can lend insights into the nature “methodology of the people.” of interactions in ordinary social life, but it can also help us understand unusual forms of interaction, How would you go about learning about peo- as in the following case. Robert Emerson, Kerry ple’s expectations and how they make sense out of Ferris, and Carol Gardner (1998) set out to under- their world? One technique ethnomethodologists stand the nature of “stalking.” Through interviews use is to break the rules, to violate people’s expecta- with numerous stalking victims, they came to iden- tions. Thus, if you try to talk to me about your term tify different motivations among stalkers, stages in paper but I keep talking about football, this might the development of a stalking scenario, how people reveal the expectations you had for my behavior. can recognize if they are being stalked, and what We might also see how you make sense out of my they can do about it. symbolic interactionism A paradigm that views Here’s one way you might apply the symbolic human behavior as the creation of meaning through interactionism paradigm to an examination of your social interactions, with those meanings condition- own life. The next time you meet someone new, ing subsequent interactions. pay attention to how you get to know each other. To begin, what assumptions do you make about the other person based merely on appearances, how

38 ■ Chapter 2: Paradigms, Theory, and Social Research behavior. (“Maybe he’s using football as an analogy and so forth. Each of the parts serves a function for for understanding social systems theory.”) the whole; taken together, that system can get us across town. None of the individual parts would be In another example of ethnomethodology, very useful to us by itself, however. Johen Heritage and David Greatbatch (1992) examined the role of applause in British political The view of society as a social system, then, speeches: How did the speakers evoke applause, looks for the “functions” served by its various and what function did it serve (for example, components. Social scientists using the structural to complete a topic)? Research within the eth- functional paradigm might note that the func- nomethodological paradigm has often focused on tion of the police, for example, is to exercise social communications. control—encouraging people to abide by the norms of society and bringing to justice those who There is no end to the opportunities you have do not. Notice, though, that the researchers could for trying out the ethnomethodological paradigm. just as reasonably ask what functions criminals For instance, the next time you get on an elevator, serve in society. Within the functionalist paradigm, don’t face front, watching the floor numbers whip we might say that criminals serve as job security by (that’s the norm, or expected behavior). Just for the police. In a related observation, Emile stand quietly facing the rear. See how others react Durkheim (1858–1917) suggested that crimes to this behavior. Just as important, notice how you and their punishment provide an opportunity to feel about it. If you do this experiment a few times, reaffirm society’s values. By catching and punish- you should begin to develop a feel for the eth- ing thieves, we reaffirm our collective respect for nomethodological paradigm.* private property. We’ll return to ethnomethodology in Chapter To get a sense of the structural functional para- 10, when we discuss field research. For now, let’s digm, suppose you were interested in explaining turn to a very different paradigm. how your college or university works. You might thumb through the institution’s catalog and begin Structural Functionalism assembling a list of the administrators and support staff (such as the president, deans, registrar, cam- Structural functionalism, sometimes also known pus security staff, maintenance personnel). Then as social systems theory, has grown out of a notion you might figure out what each of them does and introduced by Comte and Spencer: A social entity, relate their roles and activities to the chief func- such as an organization or a whole society, can be tions of your college or university, such as teaching viewed as an organism. Like other organisms, a or research. This way of looking at an institution social system is made up of parts, each of which of higher learning would clearly suggest a different contributes to the functioning of the whole. line of inquiry than, say, a conflict paradigm, which might emphasize the clash of interests between By analogy, consider the human body. Each people who have power in the institution and component—such as the heart, lungs, kidneys, those who don’t. skin, and brain—has a particular job to do. The body as a whole cannot survive unless each of People often discuss “functions” in everyday these parts does its job, and none of the parts can conversation. Typically, however, the alleged func- survive except as a part of the whole body. Or tions are seldom tested empirically. Some people consider an automobile. It is composed of the tires, argue, for example, that welfare, intended to help the steering wheel, the gas tank, the spark plugs, structural functionalism A paradigm that divides *I am grateful to my colleague, Bernard McGrane, for social phenomena into parts, each of which serves a this experiment. Barney also has his students eat dinner function for the operation of the whole. with their hands, watch TV without turning it on, and engage in other strangely enlightening behavior (McGrane 1994).

Some Social Science Paradigms ■ 39 the poor, actually harms them in a variety of ways. In a similar way, researchers looking at the so- It is sometimes alleged that welfare creates a devi- cial world from a feminist paradigm have called ant, violent subculture in society, at odds with the attention to aspects of social life that other para- mainstream. From this viewpoint, welfare pro- digms do not reveal. In part, feminist theory and grams actually result in increased crime rates. research have focused on gender differences and how they relate to the rest of social organization. Lance Hannon and James Defronzo (1998) These lines of inquiry have drawn attention to the decided to test this last assertion. Working with oppression of women in many societies, which in data drawn from 406 urban counties in the United turn has shed light on oppression generally. States, they examined the relationship between welfare payments and crime rates. Contrary to the Feminist paradigms not only reveal the treat- beliefs of some, their data indicated that higher ment of women or the experience of oppression welfare payments were associated with lower but often point to limitations in how other aspects crime rates. In other words, welfare programs have of social life are examined and understood. Thus, the function of decreasing rather than increasing feminist perspectives are often related to a concern lawlessness. for the environment, for example. As Greta Gard suggests, In applying the functionalist paradigm to ev- eryday life, people sometimes make the mistake of The way in which women and nature have thinking that “functionality,” stability, and integra- been conceptualized historically in Western tion are necessarily good, or that the functionalist intellectual tradition has resulted in devaluing paradigm makes that assumption. However, when whatever is associated with women, emotion, social researchers look for the functions served by animals, nature, and the body, while simulta- poverty, racial discrimination, or the oppression neously elevating in value those things associ- of women, they are not justifying them. Just the ated with men, reason, humans, culture, and opposite: They seek to understand the functions the mind. One task of ecofeminism has been to such things play in the larger society, as a way of expose these dualisms and the ways in which understanding why they persist and how they feminizing nature and naturalizing or animal- could be eliminated. izing women has served as justification for the domination of women, animals and the earth. Feminist Paradigms (1993: 5; quoted in Rynbrandt and Deegan 2002: 60) When Ralph Linton concluded his anthropologi- cal classic, The Study of Man (1937: 490), speaking Feminist paradigms have also challenged the of “a store of knowledge that promises to give prevailing notions concerning consensus in society. man a better life than any he has known,” no one Most descriptions of the predominant beliefs, val- complained that he had left out women. Linton ues, and norms of a society are written by people was using the linguistic conventions of his time; he representing only portions of society. In the implicitly included women in all his references to United States, for example, such analyses have men. Or did he? typically been written by middle-class white men—not surprisingly, they have written about When feminists first began questioning the the beliefs, values, and norms they themselves use of masculine pronouns and nouns whenever share. Though George Herbert Mead spoke of the gender was ambiguous, their concerns were often viewed as petty, even silly. At most, many felt the feminist paradigms Paradigms that (1) view issue was one of women having their feelings hurt, and understand society through the experiences of their egos bruised. But be honest: When you read women and/or (2) examine the generally deprived Linton’s words, what did you picture? An amor- status of women in society. phous, genderless human being, a hermaphrodite at once male and female, or a male persona?

40 ■ Chapter 2: Paradigms, Theory, and Social Research “generalized other” that each of us becomes aware both subjective and objective strategies for of and can “take the role of,” feminist paradigms knowing” (Belenky et al. 1986: 15). question whether such a generalized other even exists. “Constructed knowledge” is particularly inter- esting in the context of paradigms. The positivistic Further, whereas Mead used the example of paradigm of Comte would have a place neither learning to play baseball to illustrate how we learn for “subjective knowledge” nor for the idea that about the generalized other, Janet Lever’s research truth might vary according to its context. The suggests that understanding the experience of boys ethnomethodological paradigm, on the other hand, may tell us little about girls. would accommodate these ideas. Girls’ play and games are very different. They Feminist standpoint theory is a term often used are mostly spontaneous, imaginative, and free in reference to the fact that women have knowl- of structure or rules. Turn-taking activities like edge about their status and experience that is not jumprope may be played without setting ex- available to men. Introduced by Nancy Hartsock plicit goals. Girls have far less experience with (1983), this viewpoint has evolved over time. For interpersonal competition. The style of their example, scholars have come to recognize that competition is indirect, rather than face to face, there is no single female experience, that different individual rather than team affiliated. Leader- kinds of women (varying by wealth, ethnicity, or ship roles are either missing or randomly filled. age, for example) have very different experiences of life in society, all the while sharing some things (Lever 1986: 86) in common because of their gender. This sensitiv- ity to variations in the female experience is also a Social researchers’ growing recognition of the main element in what is referred to as third-wave general intellectual differences between men and feminism, which began in the 1990s. women led the psychologist Mary Field Belenky and her colleagues to speak of Women’s Ways of To try out feminist paradigms, you might want Knowing (1986). In-depth interviews with 45 to explore whether discrimination against women women led the researchers to distinguish five exists at your college or university. Are the top perspectives on knowing that should challenge the administrative positions held equally by men and view of inquiry as obvious and straightforward: women? How about secretarial and clerical posi- tions? Are men’s and women’s sports supported Silence: Some women, especially early in life, equally? Read through the official history of your feel themselves isolated from the world of school; is it a history that includes men and women knowledge, their lives largely determined by equally? (If you attend an all-male or all-female external authorities. school, of course, some of these questions won’t apply.) Received knowledge: From this perspective, women feel themselves capable of taking in As we just saw, feminist paradigms reflect both and holding knowledge originating with exter- a concern for the unequal treatment of women but nal authorities. also an epistemological recognition that men and women overall perceive and understand society Subjective knowledge: This perspective opens up differently. Social theories created solely by men, the possibility of personal, subjective knowl- which has been the norm, run the risk of an unrec- edge, including intuition. ognized bias. A similar case can be made for theo- ries created almost exclusively by white people. Procedural knowledge: Some women feel they have fully learned the ways of gaining knowl- Critical Race Theory edge through objective procedures. The roots of critical race theory are generally as- Constructed knowledge: The authors describe this sociated with the civil rights movement of the mid- perspective as “a position in which women 1950s and race-related legislation of the 1960s. By view all knowledge as contextual, experience themselves as creators of knowledge, and value

Some Social Science Paradigms ■ 41 the mid-1970s, with fears that the strides toward Rational Objectivity Reconsidered equality were beginning to bog down, civil rights activists and social scientists began the codification We began this discussion of paradigms with Comte’s of a paradigm based on race awareness and a com- assertion that society can be studied rationally and mitment to racial justice. objectively. Since his time, the growth of science and technology, together with the relative decline This was not the first time sociologists paid of superstition, have put rationality more and more attention to the status of nonwhites in U.S. at the center of social life. As fundamental as ratio- society. Perhaps the best known African American nality is to most of us, however, some contempo- sociologist in the history of the discipline was rary scholars have raised questions about it. W. E. B. DuBois, who published The Souls of Black Folk in 1903. Among other things, DuBois pointed For example, positivistic social scientists have out that African Americans lived their lives through sometimes erred in assuming that humans always a “dual consciousness”: as Americans and as black act rationally. I’m sure your own experience offers people. By contrast, white Americans seldom ample evidence to the contrary. Yet many mod- reflect on being white. If you are American, white ern economic models fundamentally assume that is simply assumed. If you are not white, you are people will make rational choices in the economic seen and feel like the exception. So imagine the sector: They will choose the highest-paying job, difference between an African American sociologist pay the lowest price, and so forth. This assumption and a white sociologist creating a theory of social ignores the power of tradition, loyalty, image, and identity. Their theories of identity would likely other factors that compete with reason and calcula- differ in some fundamental ways, even if they tion in determining human behavior. were not limiting their analyses to their own race. A more sophisticated positivism would assert that we can rationally understand and predict even Much of the contemporary scholarship in nonrational behavior. An example is the famous critical race theory has to do with the role of race Asch experiment (Asch 1958). In this experiment, in politics and government, often undertaken by a group of subjects is presented with a set of lines legal scholars as well as social scientists. Thus, for on a screen and asked to identify the two lines that example, Derrick Bell (1980) critiqued the Su- are equal in length. preme Court’s landmark Brown vs. Board of Educa- tion decision, which struck down the “separate but Imagine yourself a subject in such an experi- equal” system of school segregation. He suggested ment. You are sitting in the front row of a class- that the Court was motivated by the economic room in a group of six subjects. A set of lines is pro- and political interests of the white majority, not by jected on the wall in front of you (see Figure 2-1). educational equality for African American stu- The experimenter asks each of you, one at a time, dents. In his analysis, he introduced the concept of to identify the line to the right (A, B, or C) that interest convergence, suggesting that laws will matches the length of line X. The correct answer only be changed to benefit African Americans if (B) is pretty obvious to you. To your surprise, how- and when those changes are seen to further the in- ever, you find that all the other subjects agree on a terests of whites. Richard Delgado (2002) provides different answer! an excellent overview of how Bell’s reasoning has been pursued by subsequent critical race theory The experimenter announces that all but one of scholars. the group has gotten the correct answer. Because As a general rule, whenever you find the word critical race theory A paradigm grounded in race critical in the name of a paradigm or theory, it will awareness and an intention to achieve racial justice. likely refer to a nontraditional view, one that may be at odds with the prevailing paradigms of an interest convergence The thesis that majority academic discipline and also at odds with the main- group members will only support the interests of stream structure of society. minorities when those actions also support the in- terests of the majority group.

42 ■ Chapter 2: Paradigms, Theory, and Social Research FIGURE 2-1 The contemporary challenge to positivism, however, goes beyond the question of whether The Asch Experiment. Subjects in the Asch experiment have people behave rationally. In part, the criticism of a seemingly easy task: to determine whether A, B, or C is the positivism challenges the idea that scientists can be same length as .XBut there’s more here than meets the eye. as objective as the positivistic ideal assumes. Most scientists would agree that personal feelings can you are the only one who chose B, this amounts and do influence the problems scientists choose to to saying that you’ve gotten it wrong. Then a new study, what they choose to observe, and the con- set of lines is presented, and you have the same clusions they draw from their observations. experience. What seems to be the obviously correct answer is said by everyone else to be wrong. There is an even more radical critique of the ideal of objectivity. As we glimpsed in the discus- As it turns out, of course, you are the only sions of feminism and ethnomethodology, some real subject in this experiment—all the others are contemporary researchers suggest that subjectivity working with the experimenter. The purpose of the might actually be preferable in some situations. experiment is to see whether you will be swayed Let’s take a moment to return to the dialectic of by public pressure to go along with the incorrect subjectivity and objectivity. answer. In his initial experiments, all of which involved young men, Asch found that a little over To begin, all our experiences are inescapably one-third of his subjects did just that. subjective. There is no way out. We can see only through our own eyes, and anything peculiar to Choosing an obviously wrong answer in a our eyes will shape what we see. We can hear simple experiment is an example of nonrational be- things only the way our particular ears and brain havior. But as Asch went on to show, experiment- transmit and interpret sound waves. You and I, ers can examine the circumstances that lead more to some extent, hear and see different realities. or fewer subjects to go along with the incorrect And both of us experience quite different physi- answer. For example, in subsequent studies, Asch cal “realities” than, say, do bats. In what to us is varied the size of one group and the number of total darkness, a bat “sees” things such as flying “dissenters” who chose the “wrong” (that is, the insects by emitting a sound we humans can’t hear. correct) answer. Thus, it is possible to study nonra- The reflection of the bat’s sound creates a “sound tional behavior rationally and scientifically. picture” precise enough for the bat to home in on the moving insect and snatch it up in its teeth. In a More radically, we can question whether social similar vein, scientists on the planet Xandu might life abides by rational principles at all. In the physi- develop theories of the physical world based on cal sciences, developments such as chaos theory, a sensory apparatus that we humans can’t even fuzzy logic, and complexity have suggested that we imagine. Maybe they see X-rays or hear colors. may need to rethink fundamentally the orderliness of events in the physical world. Certainly the social Despite the inescapable subjectivity of our world might be no tidier than the world of physics. experience, we humans seem to be wired to seek an agreement on what is really real, what is objec- tively so. Objectivity is a conceptual attempt to get beyond our individual views. It is ultimately a mat- ter of communication, as you and I attempt to find a common ground in our subjective experiences. Whenever we succeed in our search, we say we are dealing with objective reality. This is the agreement reality discussed in Chapter 1. To this point, perhaps the most significant studies in the history of social science were con- ducted in the 1930s by a Turkish American social

Some Social Science Paradigms ■ 43 psychologist, Muzafer Sherif (1935), who slyly said perceptions predominated in science. For the most he wanted to study “auto-kinetic effects.” To do part, it was not simply held as a useful paradigm this, he put small groups in totally darkened rooms, but held as The Truth. The term positivism has gen- save for a single point of light in the center of the erally represented the belief in a logically ordered, wall in front of the participants. Sherif explained objective reality that we can come to know better that the light would soon begin to move about, and better through science. This is the view chal- and the subjects were to determine how far it was lenged today by postmodernists and others. moving—a difficult task with nothing else visible as a gauge of length or distance. Some say that the ideal of objectivity conceals as much as it reveals. As we saw earlier, in years Amazingly, each of the groups agreed on the past much of what was regarded as objectivity in distance the point of light moved about. Oddly, Western social science was actually an agreement however, the different groups of subjects arrived primarily among white, middle-class European at quite different conclusions. Strangest of all—as men. Equally real experiences common to women, you may have guessed—the point of light had to ethnic minorities, to non-Western cultures, or to remained stationary. If you stare at a fixed point the poor were not necessarily represented in that of light long enough it will seem to move about reality. (Sherif’s “auto-kinetic effect”). Notice, however, that each of the groups agreed on a specific delu- Thus, early anthropologists are now criticized sion. The movement of the light was real to them, for often making modern, Westernized “sense” but it was a reality created out of nothing: a socially out of the beliefs and practices of nonliterate tribes constructed reality. around the world, sometimes by portraying their subjects as superstitious savages. We often call Whereas our subjectivity is individual, then, orally transmitted beliefs about the distant past our search for objectivity is social. This is true in “creation myth,” whereas we speak of our own all aspects of life, not just in science. While you beliefs as “history.” Increasingly today, there is a and I prefer different foods, we must agree to some demand to find the native logic by which various extent on what is fit to eat and what is not, or else peoples make sense out of life and to understand it there could be no restaurants or grocery stores. on its own terms. The same argument could be made regarding every other form of consumption. Without agreement Ultimately, we’ll never be able to distinguish reality, there could be no movies or television, no completely between an objective reality and our sports. subjective experience. We can’t know whether our concepts correspond to an objective reality or are Social scientists as well have found benefits in simply useful in allowing us to predict and control the concept of a socially agreed-on objective reality. our environment. So desperate is our need to know As people seek to impose order on their experience what is really real, however, that both positivists of life, they find it useful to pursue this goal as a and postmodernists are sometimes drawn into the collective venture. What are the causes and cures belief that their own view is real and true. There is of prejudice? Working together, social research- a dual irony in this. On the one hand, the positiv- ers have uncovered some answers that hold up to ist’s belief that science precisely mirrors the objec- intersubjective scrutiny. Whatever your subjective tive world must ultimately be based on faith; it can- experience of things, for example, you can discover not be proved by “objective” science, because that’s for yourself that as education increases, prejudice precisely what’s at issue. And the postmodernists, generally tends to decrease. Because each of us who say nothing is objectively so and everything can discover this independently, we say that it is is ultimately subjective, do at least feel that that is objectively true. really the way things are. From the seventeenth century through the Postmodernism is often portrayed as a denial middle of the twentieth, however, the belief in an of the possibility of social science. Because this objective reality that was independent of individual book has already expressed sympathy for some

44 ■ Chapter 2: Paradigms, Theory, and Social Research postmodern views and concerns, a word of expla- According to this way of thinking, a scientific nation may be in order. This textbook makes no theory is a mathematical model that describes assumption about the existence or absence of an and codifies the observations we make. A good objective reality. At the same time, human beings theory will describe a large range of phenom- demonstrate an extensive and robust ability to es- ena on the basis of a few simple postulates tablish agreements as to what’s “real.” This appears and will make definite predictions that can be in regard to rocks and trees, as well as ghosts and tested. If the predictions agree with the obser- gods, and even more elusive ideas such as loyalty vations, the theory survives that test, though and treason. Whether something like “prejudice” it can never be proved to be correct. On the really exists, research into its nature can take place, other hand, if the observations disagree with because enough people agree that prejudice does the predictions, one has to discard or modify exist, and researchers can use agreed-on tech- the theory. (At least, that is what is supposed to niques of inquiry to study it. happen. In practice, people often question the accuracy of the observations and the reliabil- Another social science paradigm, critical ity and moral character of those making the realism, suggests that we define “reality” as that observations.) which can be seen to have an effect. Since preju- dice clearly has an observable effect in our lives, it (2001: 31) must be judged “real” in terms of this point of view. This paradigm fits interestingly with a statement In summary, a rich variety of theoretical attributed to an early U.S. sociologist, W. I. Thomas: paradigms can be brought to bear on the study of ”If men define situations as real, they are real in social life. With each of these fundamental frames their consequences.” of reference, useful theories can be constructed. We turn now to some of the issues involved in theory This book will not require or even encourage construction, which are of interest and use to all you to choose among positivism, postmodernism, social researchers, from positivists to postmodern- or any of the other paradigms discussed in this ists—and all those in between. chapter. In fact, I invite you to look for value in any and all as you seek to understand the world that Elements of Social Theory may or may not exist around you. As we have seen, paradigms are general frame- Similarly, as social researchers, we are not works or viewpoints: literally “points from which to forced to align ourselves entirely with either view.” They provide ways of looking at life and are positivism or postmodernism. Instead, we can treat grounded in sets of assumptions about the nature them as two distinct arrows in our quiver. Each of reality. approach compensates for the weaknesses of the other by suggesting complementary perspectives Theories, by contrast, are systematic sets of that can produce useful lines of inquiry. interrelated statements intended to explain some aspect of social life. Thus, theories flesh out and For example, the renowned British physicist specify paradigms. Whereas a paradigm offers a Stephen Hawking has elegantly described the way of looking, a theory aims at explaining what appealing simplicity of the positivistic model but we see. Recall from Chapter 1 that social scientists tempers his remarks with a recognition of the way engage in both idiographic and nomothetic expla- science is practiced. nations. Idiographic explanations seek to explain a limited phenomenon as completely as possible— postmodernism A paradigm that questions the explaining why a particular woman voted as she assumptions of positivism and theories describing an did, for example—while nomothetic explanations “objective” reality. attempt to explain a broad range of phenomena critical realism A paradigm that holds things are real insofar as they produce effects.

Elements of Social Theory ■ 45 at least partically: identifying a few factors that ac- As I just indicated, laws should not be confused count for much voting behavior in general. with theories. Whereas a law is an observed regu- larity, a theory is a systematic explanation for obser- Let’s look a little more deliberately now at vations that relate to a particular aspect of life. For some of the elements of a theory. As I mentioned example, someone might offer a theory of juvenile in Chapter 1, science is based on observation. In delinquency, prejudice, or political revolution. social research, observation typically refers to seeing, hearing, and (less commonly) touching. A corr- Theories explain observations by means of esponding idea is fact. Although for philosophers concepts. Jonathan Turner (1989: 5) calls concepts “fact” is as complex a notion as “reality,” social the “basic building blocks of theory.” Concepts are scientists generally use it to refer to some phenom- abstract elements representing classes of phenom- enon that has been observed. It is a fact, for ex- ena within the field of study. The concepts relevant ample, that Barack Obama defeated John McCain to a theory of juvenile delinquency, for example, in the 2008 presidential election. include “juvenile” and “delinquency,” for starters. A “peer group”—the people you hang around with Scientists aspire to organize many facts under and identify with—is another relevant concept. “rules” called laws. Abraham Kaplan (1964: 91) “Social class” and “ethnicity” are undoubtedly rel- defines laws as universal generalizations about evant concepts in a theory of juvenile delinquency. classes of facts. The law of gravity is a classic exam- “School performance” might also be relevant. ple: Bodies are attracted to each other in proportion to their masses and in inverse proportion to the A variable is a special kind of concept. Some distance separating them. of the concepts just mentioned refer to things, and others refer to sets of things. As we saw in Laws must be truly universal, however, not Chapter 1, each variable comprises a set of at- merely accidental patterns found among a tributes; thus, delinquency, in the simplest case, is specific set of facts. It is a fact, Kaplan points out made up of delinquent and not delinquent. A theory (1964: 92), that in each of the U.S. presidential of delinquency would aim at explaining why some elections from 1920 to 1960, the major candidate juveniles are delinquent and others are not. with the longest name won. That is not a law, however, as shown by the next three elections. The Axioms or postulates are fundamental assertions, earlier pattern was a coincidence. taken to be true, on which a theory is grounded. In a theory of juvenile delinquency, we might begin Sometimes called principles, laws are important with axioms such as “Everyone desires material statements about what is so. We speak of them as comforts” and “The ability to obtain material com- being “discovered,” granting, of course, that our forts legally is greater for the wealthy than for the paradigms affect what we choose to look for and poor.” From these we might proceed to propositions: what we see. Laws in and of themselves do not specific conclusions, derived from the axiomatic explain anything. They just summarize the way groundwork, about the relationships among con- things are. Explanation is a function of theory, as cepts. From our beginning axioms about juvenile we’ll see shortly. delinquency, for example, we might reasonably formulate the proposition that poor youths are There are no social science laws that claim the more likely to break the law to gain material com- universal certainty of those of the natural sciences. forts than are rich youths. Social scientists debate among themselves whether such laws will ever be discovered. Perhaps social This proposition, incidentally, accords with life essentially does not abide by invariant laws. Robert Merton’s classic attempt to account for This does not mean that social life is so chaotic as deviance in society. Merton (1957: 139–57) spoke to defy prediction and explanation. As we saw in of the agreed-on means and ends of a society. In Chapter 1, social behavior falls into patterns, and Merton’s model, nondeviants are those who share those patterns quite often make perfect sense, the societal agreement as to desired ends (such as although we may have to look below the surface to a new car) and the means prescribed for achieving find the logic.

46 ■ Chapter 2: Paradigms, Theory, and Social Research them (such as to buy it). One type of deviant— There are three main elements in the tradi- Merton called this type the “innovator”—agrees tional model of science: theory, operationalization, on the desired end but does not have access to and observation. At this point we’re already well the prescribed means for achieving it. Innovators acquainted with the idea of theory. find another method, such as crime, of getting the desired end. Theory From propositions, in turn, we can derive According to the traditional model of science, hypotheses. A hypothesis is a specified testable scientists begin with a thing, from which they expectation about empirical reality that follows derive testable hypotheses. So, for example, as from a more general proposition. Thus, a re- social scientists we might have a theory about the searcher might formulate the hypothesis, “Poor causes of juvenile delinquency. Let’s assume that youths have higher delinquency rates than do rich we have arrived at the hypothesis that delinquency youths.” Research is designed to test hypotheses. In is inversely related to social class. That is, as social other words, research will support (or fail to sup- class goes up, delinquency goes down. port) a theory only indirectly—by testing specific hypotheses that are derived from theories and Operationalization propositions. To test any hypothesis, we must specify the mean- Let’s look more clearly at how theory and ings of all the variables involved in it, in obser- research come together. vational terms. In the present case, the variables are social class and delinquency. To give these terms Two Logical Systems Revisited specific meaning, we might define delinquency as “being arrested for a crime,” “being convicted of a In Chapter 1, I introduced deductive and inductive crime,” or some other plausible phrase, whereas reasoning, with a promise that we would return to social class might be specified in terms of family them later. It’s later. income, for the purposes of this particular study. The Traditional Model of Science Once we have defined our variables, we need to specify how we’ll measure them. (Recall from Most of us have a somewhat idealized picture of Chapter 1 that science, in the classical ideal, de- “the scientific method,” a view gained from science pends on measurable observations.) Operational- instruction ever since elementary school, especially ization literally means specifying the exact opera- in the physical sciences. Although this traditional tions involved in measuring a variable. There are model of science tells only a part of the story, it’s many ways we can attempt to test our hypothesis, helpful to understand its logic. each of which allows for different ways of measur- ing our variables. hypothesis A specified testable expectation about empirical reality that follows from a more general For simplicity, let’s assume we’re planning to proposition; more generally, an expectation about conduct a survey of high school students. We might the nature of things derived from a theory. It is a operationalize delinquency in the form of the ques- statement of something that ought to be observed in tion “Have you ever stolen anything?” Those who the real world if the theory is correct. answer “yes” will be classified as delinquents in operationalization One step beyond conceptual- our study; those who say “no” will be classified as ization. Operationalization is the process of develop- nondelinquents. Similarly, we might operational- ing operational definitions, or specifying the exact ize social class by asking respondents, “What was operations involved in measuring a variable. your family’s income last year?” and providing them with a set of family income categories: under $10,000; $10,000–$24,999; $25,000–$49,999; and $50,000 and above.

Two Logical Systems Revisited ■ 47 At this point someone might object that $24,999 category; still fewer delinquents will be delinquency can mean something more than or found in the $25,000–$49,999 category; and the different from having stolen something at one time lowest percentage of delinquents will be found or another, or that social class isn’t necessarily the in the $50,000-and-above category. Now we’re same as family income. Some parents might think ready for the final step in the traditional model of body piercing is a sign of delinquency even if their science— observation. Having developed theoreti- children don’t steal, and to some social class might cal clarity and specific expectations, and having include an element of prestige or community created a strategy for looking, all that remains is to standing as well as how much money a family has. look at the way things actually are. For the researcher testing a hypothesis, however, the meaning of variables is exactly and only what Observation the operational definition specifies. The final step in the traditional model of science In this respect, scientists are very much like Humpty Dumpty in Lewis Carroll’s Through the involves actual observation, looking at the world Looking Glass. “When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty tells Alice, “it means just what I choose it and making measurements of what is seen. to mean—neither more nor less.” Let’s suppose our survey produced the follow- “The question is,” Alice replies, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.” To ing data: which Humpty Dumpty responds, “The question is, which is to be master—that’s all.” Percent delinquent Scientists have to be “masters” of their Under $10,000 20 operational definitions for the sake of precision in observation, measurement, and communica- $10,000–$24,999 15 tion. Otherwise, we would never know whether a study that contradicted ours did so only because it $25,000–$49,999 10 used a different set of procedures to measure one of the variables and thus changed the meaning of $50,000 and above 5 the hypothesis being tested. Of course, this also means that to evaluate a study’s conclusions about Observations producing such data would confirm juvenile delinquency and social class, or any other variables, we need to know how those variables our hypothesis. But suppose our findings were as were operationalized. follows: The way we have operationalized the variables in our imaginary study could be open to other Percent delinquent problems, however. Perhaps some respondents will lie about having stolen anything, in which cases Under $10,000 15 we’ll misclassify them as nondelinquent. Some respondents will not know their family incomes $10,000–$24,999 15 and will give mistaken answers; others may be embarrassed and lie. We’ll consider issues like these $25,000–$49,999 15 in detail in Part 2. $50,000 and above 15 Our operationalized hypothesis now is that the highest incidence of delinquents will be found These findings would disconfirm our hypothesis among respondents who select the lowest family regarding family income and delinquency. income category (under $10,000); a lower percent- Disconfirmability—the possibility that observations age of delinquents will be found in the $10,000– may not support our expectations—is an essential quality of any hypothesis. In other words, if operational definition The concrete and specific definition of something in terms of the operations by which observations are to be categorized. The op- erational definition of “earning an A in this course” might be “correctly answering at least 90 percent of the final exam questions.”

48 ■ Chapter 2: Paradigms, Theory, and Social Research there is no chance that our hypothesis will be FIGURE 2-2 disconfirmed, it hasn’t said anything meaningful. The Traditional Image of Science. The deductive model of For example, the hypothesis that juvenile scientific inquiry begins with a sometimes vague or general delinquents commit more crimes than do non- question, which is subjected to a process of specification, delinquents cannot possibly be disconfirmed, resulting in hypotheses that can be tested through empirical because criminal behavior is intrinsic to the idea observations. of delinquency. Even if we recognize that some young people commit crimes without being caught picture is tidy, but in reality science uses inductive and labeled as delinquents, they couldn’t threaten reasoning as well. Let’s consider a real research ex- our hypothesis, because our actual observations ample as a vehicle for comparing the deductive and would lead us to conclude they were law-abiding inductive linkages between theory and research. nondelinquents. Years ago, Charles Glock, Benjamin Ringer, and I (1967) set out to discover what caused differing Figure 2-2 provides a schematic diagram of levels of church involvement among U.S. Episco- the traditional model of scientific inquiry. In it we palians. Several theoretical or quasi-theoretical see the researcher beginning with an interest in a positions suggested possible answers. I’ll focus on phenomenon (such as juvenile delinquency). Next only one here: what we came to call the “Comfort comes the development of a theoretical under- Hypothesis.” standing, in this case that a single concept (such as social class) might explain others. The theoretical In part, we took our lead from the Christian considerations result in an expectation about what injunction to care for “the halt, the lame, and should be observed if the theory is correct. The the blind” and those who are “weary and heavy notation X ϭ f(Y) is a conventional way of saying laden.” At the same time, ironically, we noted the that X (for example, delinquency) is a function of Marxist assertion that religion is an “opiate for the (depends on) Y (for example, social class). At that masses.” Given both, it made sense to expect the level, however, X and Y still have rather general following, which was our hypothesis: “Parishioners meanings that could give rise to quite different whose life situations most deprive them of satisfac- observations and measurements. Operationalization tion and fulfillment in the secular society turn to specifies the procedures that will be used to mea- sure the variables. The lowercase x in Figure 2-2, for example, is a precisely measurable indicator of capital X. This operationalization process results in the formation of a testable hypothesis: for example, self-reported theft is a function of family income. Observations aimed at finding out whether this statement accurately describes reality are part of what is typically called hypothesis testing. (See “Hints for Stating Hypotheses” for more on the process of formulating hypotheses.) Deductive and Inductive Reasoning: A Case Illustration As you probably recognized, the traditional model of science just described is a nice example of deductive reasoning: From a general theoretical understanding, the researcher derives (deduces) an expectation and finally a testable hypothesis. This

Two Logical Systems Revisited ■ 49 Hints for Stating Hypotheses Riley E.Dunlap In this hypothesis,note that both of the variables (age, the independent variable or likely“cause,”and SWL, the dependent Department of Sociology, variable or likely“effect”) range from low to high.This feature of the Oklahoma State University two variables is what allows you to use“negatively”(or“positively”) to describe the relationship. Ahypothesis is the basic statement that is tested in research.Typi- cally a hypothesis states a relationship between two variables. Notice what happens if you hypothesize a relationship between (Although it is possible to use more than two variables,you should stick gender and SWL.Because gender is a nominal variable (as you’ll learn to two for now.) Because a hypothesis makes a prediction about the in Chapter 5) it does not range from low to high—people are either relationship between the two variables,it must be testable so you can male or female (the two attributes of the variable gender).Conse- determine if the prediction is right or wrong when you examine the quently,you must be careful in stating the hypothesis unambiguously: results obtained in your study.A hypothesis must be stated in an unam- biguous manner to be clearly testable.What follows are suggestions for 1. “Gender is positively (or negatively) related to SWL”is not an developing testable hypotheses. adequate hypothesis,because it doesn’t specify how you expect gender to be related to SWL—that is,whether you think men Assume you have an interest in trying to predict some phenomenon or women will be more supportive of women’s liberation. such as “attitudes toward women’s liberation,”and that you can measure such attitudes on a continuum ranging from “opposed to women’s libera- 2. It’s tempting to say something like“Women are positively tion”to “neutral”to “supportive of women’s liberation.”Also assume that, related to SWL,”but this really doesn’t work,because female is lacking a theory,you’ll rely on “hunches”to come up with variables that only an attribute,not a full variable (gender is the variable). might be related to attitudes toward women’s liberation. 3. “Gender is related to SWL,with women being more supportive In a sense,you can think of hypothesis construction as a case of than men”would be my recommendation.Or,you could say, filling in the blank:“_____ is related to attitudes toward women’s “with men being less supportive than women,”which makes the liberation.“ Your job is to think of a variable that might plausibly be identical prediction.(Of course,you could also make the opposite related to such attitudes,and then to word a hypothesis that states a prediction,that men are more supportive than women are,if you relationship between the two variables (the one that fills in the“blank” wished.) and“attitudes toward women’s liberation”).You need to do so in a pre- cise manner so that you can determine clearly whether the hypothesis is 4. Equally legitimate would be“Women are more likely to support supported or not when you examine the results (in this case,most likely women’s liberation than are men.”(Note the need for the the results of a survey). second“are,”or you could be construed as hypothesizing that women support women’s liberation more than they support The key is to word the hypothesis carefully so that the prediction men—not quite the same idea.) it makes is quite clear to you as well as others.If you use age,note that saying “Age is related to attitudes toward women’s liberation”does not The above examples hypothesized relationships between a say precisely how you think the two are related (in fact,the only way this “characteristic”(age or gender) and an“orientation”(attitudes toward hypothesis could be falsified is if you fail to find a statistically significant women’s liberation).Because the causal order is pretty clear (obvi- relationship of any type between age and attitudes toward women’s lib- ously age and gender come before attitudes,and are less alterable), eration).In this case a couple of steps are necessary.You have two options: we could state the hypotheses as I’ve done,and everyone would assume that we were stating causal hypotheses. 1. “Age is related to attitudes toward women’s liberation,with younger adults being more supportive than older adults.”(Or,you Finally,you may run across references to the null hypothesis, could state the opposite,if you believed older people are likely to especially in statistics.Such a hypothesis predicts no relationship be more supportive.) (technically,no statistically significant relationship) between the two variables,and it is always implicit in testing hypotheses.Basically,if 2. “Age is negatively related to support for women’s liberation.”Note you have hypothesized a positive (or negative) relationship,you are here that I specify“support”for women’s liberation (SWL) and then hoping that the results will allow you to reject the null hypothesis and predict a negative relationship—that is,as age goes up,I predict verify your hypothesized relationship. that SWL will go down.

50 ■ Chapter 2: Paradigms, Theory, and Social Research the church for comfort and substitute rewards” The hypothesis was even confirmed in a test (Glock, Ringer, and Babbie 1967: 107–8). that went against everyone’s commonsense expec- tations. Despite church posters showing worship- Having framed this general hypothesis, we set ful young families and bearing the slogan “The about testing it. Were those deprived of satisfaction Family That Prays Together Stays Together,” the in the secular society in fact more religious than Comfort Hypothesis suggested that parishioners those who received more satisfaction from the sec- who were married and had children—the clear ular society? To answer this, we needed to distin- American ideal at that time—would enjoy secular guish who was deprived. The questionnaire, which gratification in that regard. As a consequence, they was constructed for the purpose of testing the Com- should be less religious than those who lacked one fort Hypothesis, included items that seemed to offer or both family components. Thus, we hypothesized indicators of whether parishioners were relatively that parishioners who were both single and child- deprived or gratified in secular society. less should be the most religious; those with either spouse or child should be somewhat less religious; To start, we reasoned that men enjoy more and those married with children—representing status than women do in our generally male-dom- the ideal pictured on all those posters—should be inated society. Though hardly novel, this conclu- the least religious of all. That’s exactly what we sion laid the groundwork for testing the Comfort found. Hypothesis. If we were correct in our hypothesis, women should appear more religious than men. Finally, the Comfort Hypothesis suggested that Once the survey data had been collected and ana- the various kinds of secular deprivation should lyzed, our expectation about gender and religion be cumulative: Those with all the characteristics was clearly confirmed. On three separate measures associated with deprivation should be the most re- of religious involvement—ritual (such as church ligious; those with none should be the least. When attendance), organizational (such as belonging we combined the four individual measures of to church organizations), and intellectual (such deprivation into a composite measure, the theoreti- as reading church publications)—women were cal expectation was exactly confirmed. Comparing more religious than men. On our overall measure, the two extremes, we found that single, childless, women scored 50 percent higher than men. elderly, lower-class female parishioners scored more than three times as high on the measure In another test of the Comfort Hypothesis, we of church involvement than did young, married, reasoned that in a youth-oriented society, old peo- upper-class fathers. Thus was the Comfort Hypoth- ple would be more deprived of secular gratification esis confirmed. than the young would. Once again, the data confirmed our expectation. The oldest parishioners I like this research example because it so clearly were more religious than the middle-aged, who illustrates the logic of the deductive model. Begin- were more religious than young adults. ning with general, theoretical expectations about the impact of social deprivation on church involve- Social class—measured by education and ment, one could derive concrete hypotheses link- income—afforded another test of the Comfort ing specific measurable variables, such as age and Hypothesis. Once again, the test succeeded. Those church attendance. The actual empirical data could with low social status were more involved in the then be analyzed to determine whether empirical church than those with high social status were. reality supported the deductive expectations. null hypothesis In connection with hypothesis I say this example shows how it was possible testing and tests of statistical significance, that hy- to do it that way, but, alas, I’ve been fibbing. To pothesis that suggests there is no relationship among tell the truth, although we began with an interest the variables under study. You may conclude that in discovering what caused variations in church the variables are related after having statistically re- involvement among Episcopalians, we didn’t jected the null hypothesis. actually begin with a Comfort Hypothesis, or any

Two Logical Systems Revisited ■ 51 other hypothesis for that matter. (In the interest Most qualitative research is oriented toward of further honesty, Glock and Ringer initiated the the inductive rather than the deductive approach. study, and I joined it years after the data had been However, qualitative research does not, by defini- collected.) A questionnaire was designed to collect tion, allow us to use statistical tools to find cor- information that might shed some light on why relations that point toward patterns in need of some parishioners participated in the church more explanation (see Chapter 14). Although there are than others, but the construction of the question- computer programs designed for recording and naire was not guided by any precise, deductive analyzing qualitative data, the qualitative induc- theory. Once the data were collected, the task of tive analyst needs a strong reserve of insight and explaining differences in religiosity began with reflection to tease important patterns out of a body an analysis of variables that have a wide impact of observations. on people’s lives, including gender, age, social class, and family status. Each of these four variables was A Graphic Contrast found to relate strongly to church involvement, in the ways already described. Indeed, they had a As the preceding case illustration shows, theory cumulative effect, also already described. Rather and research can usefully be done both inductively than being good news, however, this presented a and deductively. Figure 2-3 shows a graphic com- dilemma. parison of the two approaches as applied to an in- quiry into study habits and performance on exams. Glock recalls discussing his findings with col- In both cases, we are interested in the relationship leagues over lunch at the Columbia faculty club. between the number of hours spent studying for Once he had displayed the tables illustrating the an exam and the grade earned on that exam. Using impact of each individual variable as well as their the deductive method, we would begin by exam- powerful composite effect, a colleague asked, ining the matter logically. Doing well on an exam “What does it all mean, Charlie?” Glock was at a reflects a student’s ability to recall and manipu- loss. Why were those variables so strongly related to late information. Both of these abilities should be church involvement? increased by exposure to the information before the exam. In this fashion, we would arrive at a hy- That question launched a process of reasoning pothesis suggesting a positive relationship between about what the several variables had in common, the number of hours spent studying and the grade aside from their impact on religiosity. Eventually earned on the exam. We say “positive” because we he saw that each of the four variables also reflected expect grades to increase as the hours of studying differential status in the secular society. He then had increase. If increased hours produced decreased the thought that perhaps the issue of comfort was grades, that would be called a negative, or inverse, involved. Thus, the inductive process had moved relationship. The hypothesis is represented by the from concrete observations to a general theoretical line in part 1(a) of Figure 2-3. explanation. Our next step would be to make observations It seems easier to lay out the steps involved relevant to testing our hypothesis. The shaded in deductive than inductive research. Deductive area in part 1(b) of the figure represents perhaps research begins with a theory, from which we may hundreds of observations of different students, derive hypotheses—which are then tested through specifically, how many hours they studied and observations. Inductive research begins with obser- what grades they received. Finally, in part 1(c), we vations and proceeds with a search for patterns in compare the hypothesis and the observations. Be- what we have observed. In a quantitative study, we cause observations in the real world seldom if ever can search for correlations or relationships between match our expectations perfectly, we must decide variables (discussed further in Chapter 16). Thus, whether the match is close enough to consider once a relationship has been discovered between gender and religiosity, our attention turns to figur- ing out logical reasons why that is so.

52 ■ Chapter 2: Paradigms, Theory, and Social Research FIGURE 2-3 Deductive and Inductive eMthods. Both deduction and induction are legitimate and valuable approaches to understanding. Deduc- tion begins with an expected pattern that is tested against observations, whereas induction begins with observations and seeks to find a pattern within them. the hypothesis confirmed. Put differently, can we would begin with a set of observations, as in part conclude that the hypothesis describes the general 2(a) of Figure 2-3. Curious about the relationship pattern that exists, granting some variations in real between hours spent studying and grades earned, life? Sometimes, answering this question neces- we might simply arrange to collect relevant data. sitates methods of statistical analysis, which will be Then we’d look for a pattern that best represented discussed in Part 4. or summarized our observations. In part 2(b) of the figure, the pattern is shown as a curved line run- Now suppose we used the inductive method to ning through the center of our observations. address the same research question. In this case, we

Deductive Theory Construction ■ 53 The pattern found among the points in this Some social scientists would more or less agree case suggests that with 1 to 15 hours of studying, with this inductive position (see especially the each additional hour generally produces a higher dis-cussion of grounded theory in Chapter 10), grade on the exam. With 15 to about 25 hours, whereas others would take a more deductive however, more study seems to lower the grade stance. Most, however, concede the legitimacy of slightly. Studying more than 25 hours, on the other both approaches. hand, results in a return to the initial pattern: More hours produce higher grades. Using the inductive With this understanding of the deductive and method, then, we end up with a tentative conclu- inductive links between theory and research in sion about the pattern of the relationship between hand, let’s now delve a little more deeply into how the two variables. The conclusion is tentative theories are constructed using either of these two because the observations we have made cannot be different approaches. taken as a test of the pattern—those observations are the source of the pattern we’ve created. Deductive Theory Construction As I discussed in Chapter 1, in actual practice, To see what’s involved in deductive theory con- theory and research interact through a never-end- struction and hypothesis testing, imagine that ing alternation of deduction and induction. A good you’re going to construct a deductive theory. How example is the classic work of Emile Durkheim on would you go about it? suicide ([1897] 1951). When Durkheim pored over table after table of official statistics on suicide rates Getting Started in different areas, he was struck by the fact that Protestant countries consistently had higher suicide The first step in deductive theory construction is to rates than Catholic ones did. Why should that be pick a topic that interests you. The topic can be very the case? His initial observations led him to create broad, such as “What is the structure of society?” or inductively a theory of religion, social integration, it can be narrower, as in “Why do people support anomie, and suicide. His theoretical explanations or oppose the idea of a woman’s right to an abor- in turn led deductively to further hypotheses and tion?” Whatever the topic, it should be something further observations. you’re interested in understanding and explaining. In summary, the scientific norm of logical Once you’ve picked your topic, the next step is reasoning provides a two-way bridge between to undertake an inventory of what’s already known theory and research. Scientific inquiry in practice or thought about it. In part, this means writing typically involves alternating between deduction down your own observations and ideas. Beyond and induction. Both methods involve an interplay that, it means learning what other scholars have of logic and observation. And both are routes to the said about it. You can talk to other people, and construction of social theories. you’ll want to read the scholarly literature on the topic. Appendix A provides guidelines for using the Although both inductive and deductive meth- library—you’ll likely spend a lot of time there. ods are valid in scientific inquiry, individuals may feel more comfortable with one approach than the Your preliminary research will probably un- other. Consider this exchange in Sir Arthur Conan cover consistent patterns discovered by prior schol- Doyle’s story “A Scandal in Bohemia,” as Sherlock ars. For example, religious and political variables Holmes answers Dr. Watson’s inquiry (Doyle [1891] will stand out as important determinants of atti- 1892: 13): tudes about abortion. Findings such as these will be very useful to you in creating your own theory. “What do you imagine that it means?” “I have no data yet. It is a capital mistake In this process, don’t overlook the value of introspection. Whenever we can look at our own to theorise before one has data. Insensibly one personal processes—including reactions, fears, and begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of prejudices—we may gain important insights into theories to suit facts.”

54 ■ Chapter 2: Paradigms, Theory, and Social Research human behavior in general. I don’t mean to say as beauty, intelligence, or wealth), compare that everyone thinks like you or me, but introspec- themselves to others, experiencing a funda- tion can provide a useful source of insights that can mental instantaneous magnitude of the justice inform our inquiries. evaluation (J), which captures their sense of being fairly or unfairly treated in the distribu- Constructing Your Theory tions of natural and social goods. Now that you’ve reviewed previous work on the (Jasso 1988: 11) topic, you’re ready to begin constructing your theory. Although theory construction is not a lock- Notice that Jasso has assigned a symbolic step affair, the process generally involves something representation for her key variable: J will stand like the following steps. for distributive justice. She does this to support her intention of stating her theory in mathemati- 1. Specify the topic. cal formulas. Though theories are often expressed 2. Specify the range of phenomena your theory mathematically, we’ll not delve too deeply into that practice here. addresses. Will your theory apply to all of human social life, will it apply only to U.S. Jasso indicates that there are three kinds of citizens, only to young people, or what? postulates in her theory. “The first makes explicit 3. Identify and specify your major concepts and the fundamental axiom which represents the variables. substantive point of departure for the theory.” She 4. Find out what is known (propositions) about elaborates as follows: “The theory begins with the the relationships among those variables. received Axiom of Comparison, which formalizes 5. Reason logically from those propositions to the the long-held view that a wide class of phenomena, specific topic you’re examining. including happiness, self-esteem, and the sense of distributive justice, may be understood as the prod- We’ve already discussed items (1) through (3), uct of a comparison process” (Jasso 1988: 11). so let’s focus now on (4) and (5). As you identify the relevant concepts and discover what’s already Thus, your sense of whether you’re receiving been learned about them, you can begin to create a “fair” share of the good things of life comes from 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 Let’s look now at an example of how these beginnings 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 of distrib- An Example of Deductive utive justice is a function of “Actual Holdings (A)” Theory: Distributive Justice and “Comparison Holdings (C)” of some good. Let’s consider money, for example. My sense of justice A topic of interest to scholars is the concept of in this regard is a function of how much I actually distributive justice, people’s perceptions of whether have, compared with how much others have. By they are being treated fairly by life, whether specifying the two components of the comparison, they are getting “their share.” Guillermina Jasso Jasso can use them as variables in her theory. describes the theory of distributive justice more formally, as follows: Next, Jasso offers a “measurement rule” that further specifies how the two variables, A and C, The theory provides a mathematical description will be conceptualized. This step is needed because of the process whereby individuals, reflecting some of the goods to be examined are concrete and on their holdings of the goods they value (such commonly measured (such as money), whereas others are less tangible (such as respect). The former kind, she says, will be measured conven- tionally, whereas the latter will be measured “by

Deductive Theory Construction ■ 55 the individual’s relative rank . . . within a specially Actual Holdings, but what about your Comparison selected comparison group.” The theory will pro- Holdings? vide a formula for making that measurement (Jasso 1988: 13). A moment’s thought should suggest that steal- ing from people in your comparison group will Jasso continues in this fashion to introduce ad- lower their holdings, further increasing your rela- ditional elements, weaving them into mathematical tive wealth. To simplify, imagine there are only two formulas to be used in deriving predictions about people in your comparison group: you and I. the workings of distributive justice in a variety of Suppose we each have $100. If you steal $50 from social settings. Here is just a sampling of where her someone outside our group, you will have in- theorizing takes her (1988: 14–15). creased your relative wealth by 50 percent com- pared with me: $150 versus $100. But if you steal • Other things [being] the same, a person will $50 from me, you will have increased your relative wealth 200 percent: $150 to my $50. Your goal is prefer to steal from a fellow group member best served by stealing from within the comparison rather than from an outsider. group. • The preference to steal from a fellow group • In the case of theft, informants arise only in member is more pronounced in poor groups cross-group theft, in which case they are mem- than in rich groups. bers of the thief’s group. • In the case of theft, informants arise only in Can you see why it would make sense for in- formants (1) to arise only in the case of cross-group cross-group theft, in which case they are mem- theft and (2) to come from the thief’s comparison bers of the thief’s group. group? This proposition again depends on the fundamental assumption that everyone wants to • Persons who arrive a week late at summer increase his or her relative standing. Suppose you and I are in the same comparison group, but this camp or for freshman year of college are more time the group contains additional people. If you likely to become friends of persons who play steal from someone else within our comparison games of chance than of persons who play group, my relative standing in the group does not games of skill. change. Although your wealth has increased, the average wealth in the group remains the same (be- • A society becomes more vulnerable to deficit cause someone else’s wealth has decreased by the same amount). So my relative standing remains the spending as its wealth increases. same. I have no incentive to inform on you. • Societies in which population growth is wel- If you steal from someone outside our com- parison group, however, your nefarious income comed must be societies in which the set of increases the total wealth in our group. Now my valued goods includes at least one quantity- own wealth relative to that total is diminished. good, such as wealth. Because my relative wealth has suffered, I’m more likely to inform on you in order to bring an end Jasso’s theory leads to many other propositions, to your stealing. Hence, informants arise only in but this sampling should provide a good sense of cross-group theft. where deductive theorizing can take you. To get a feeling for how she reasons her way to these This last deduction also begins to explain propositions, let’s look briefly at the logic involved why these informants come from the thief’s own in two of the propositions that relate to theft within comparison group. We’ve just seen how your theft and outside one’s group. decreased my relative standing. How about mem- bers of the other group (other than the individual • Other things [being] the same, a person will you stole from)? Each of them actually profits from prefer to steal from a fellow group member rather than from an outsider. Beginning with the assumption that thieves want to maximize their relative wealth, ask yourself whether that goal would be best served by stealing from those you compare yourself with or from outsiders. In each case, stealing will increase your

56 ■ Chapter 2: Paradigms, Theory, and Social Research How to Do It: Framing a Hypothesis As we have seen,the deductive method of research typically focuses you came across them in your study.This process of specification will on the testing of a hypothesis.Let’s take a minute to look at how to be discussed at length in Chapter 5.For now,let’s assume you will ask create a hypothesis for testing. student-subjects whether they consider themselves liberals or conserva- tives,letting each student report on what the terms mean to them.(As Hypotheses state an expected causal relationship between two we’ll see later,this simple dichotomy is unlikely to work in practice,as (or more) variables.Let’s suppose you’re interested in student political some students would want to identify themselves as independents or orientations,and your review of the literature and your own reasoning something else.) suggest to you that college major will play some part in determining students’political views.Already,we have two variables:college major Identifying students’majors isn’t as straightforward as you might and political orientation. Moreover,political orientation is the dependent think.For example,what disciplines compose the social sciences in your variable—you believe it depends on something else,on the indepen- study? Also,must students be declared majors or simply be planning to dent variable,which in this case is college major. major in one of the relevant fields? Now we need to specify the attributes comprising each of these Once these issues have been settled,you are ready to state your variables.For simplicity’s sake,let’s assume political orientation includes hypothesis.For example,it might be the following: only liberal or conservative. And to simplify the matter of major,let’s sup- pose your research interests focus on the presumed differences between “Students majoring in the social sciences will be more likely to business students and those in the social sciences. identify themselves as liberals than are those majoring in business.” Even with these simplifications,you would need to specify more In addition to this basic expectation,you may wish to specify“more concretely how you would recognize a liberal or a conservative when likely”in terms of how much more likely.Chapter 16 will provide some options in this regard. the theft, because you have reduced the total with then seeking to discover patterns that may point to which they compare themselves. Hence, they have relatively universal principles. Barney Glaser and no reason to inform on you. Thus, the theory of Anselm Strauss (1967) coined the term grounded distributive justice predicts that informants arise theory in reference to this method. from the thief’s own comparison group. Field research—the direct observation of events This brief peek into Jasso’s derivations should in progress—is frequently used to develop theories give you some sense of the enterprise of deduc- through observation. In a long and rich tradition, tive theory. Of course, the theory guarantees none anthropologists have used this method to good of the given predictions. The role of research is advantage. to test each of them to determine whether what makes sense (logic) actually occurs in practice Among modern social scientists, no one (observation). has been more adept at seeing the patterns of human behavior through observation than Erving See “How to Do It: Framing a Hypothesis” for Goffman: a look at creating hypotheses for deductive purposes. A game such as chess generates a habitable universe for those who can follow it, a plane of Inductive Theory Construction being, a cast of characters with a seemingly un- limited number of different situations and acts As we have seen, quite often social scientists through which to realize their natures and des- begin constructing a theory through the inductive tinies. Yet much of this is reducible to a small method by first observing aspects of social life and set of interdependent rules and practices. If the meaningfulness of everyday activity is similarly dependent on a closed, finite set of rules, then

Inductive Theory Construction ■ 57 explication of them would give one a powerful Those who reported smoking marijuana had es- means of analyzing social life. sentially the same academic records as those who didn’t smoke it, and both groups were equally in- (1974: 5) volved in traditional “school spirit” activities. Both groups seemed to feel equally well integrated into In a variety of research efforts, Goffman uncov- campus life. ered the rules of such diverse behaviors as living in a mental institution (1961) and managing the There were other differences between the “spoiled identity” of being disfigured (1963). In groups, however: each case, Goffman observed the phenomenon in depth and teased out the rules governing behavior. 1. Women were less likely than men to smoke Goffman’s research provides an excellent example marijuana. of qualitative field research as a source of grounded theory. 2. Asian students (a large proportion of the stu- dent body) were less likely to smoke marijuana Our earlier discussion of the Comfort Hypoth- than non-Asians were. esis and church involvement shows that qualitative field research is not the only method of observa- 3. Students living at home were less likely to tion appropriate to the development of inductive smoke marijuana than those living in apart- theory. Here’s another detailed example to illustrate ments were. further the construction of inductive theory using quantitative methods. As in the case of religiosity, the three variables independently affected the likelihood of a student’s An Example of Inductive smoking marijuana. About 10 percent of the Asian Theory: Why Do People women living at home had smoked marijuana, Smoke Marijuana? in contrast to about 80 percent of the non-Asian men living in apartments. And, as in the religiosity During the 1960s and 1970s, marijuana use on study, the researchers discovered a powerful pat- U.S. college campuses was a subject of consider- tern of drug use before they had an explanation for able discussion in the popular press. Some people that pattern. were troubled by marijuana’s popularity; others welcomed it. What interests us here is why some In this instance, the explanation took a peculiar students smoked marijuana and others didn’t. A turn. Instead of explaining why some students survey of students at the University of Hawaii by smoked marijuana, the researchers explained David Takeuchi (1974) provided the data to answer why some didn’t. Assuming that all students had that question. some motivation for trying drugs, the researchers suggested that students differed in the degree of At the time of the study, a huge number of “social constraints” preventing them from follow- explanations were being offered for drug use. ing through on that motivation. People who opposed drug use, for example, often suggested that marijuana smokers were academic U.S. society is, on the whole, more permis- failures trying to avoid the rigors of college life. sive with men than with women when it comes to Those in favor of marijuana, on the other hand, of- deviant behavior. Consider, for example, a group ten spoke of the search for new values: Marijuana of men getting drunk and boisterous. We tend to smokers, they said, were people who had seen dismiss such behavior with references to “camara- through the hypocrisy of middle-class values. derie” and “having a good time,” whereas a group of women behaving similarly would probably be re- Takeuchi’s analysis of the data gathered from garded with disapproval. We have an idiom, “Boys University of Hawaii students, however, did not will be boys,” but no comparable idiom for girls. support any of the explanations being offered. The researchers reasoned, therefore, that women would have more to lose by smoking marijuana than men would. In other words, being female pro- vided a constraint against smoking marijuana.

58 ■ Chapter 2: Paradigms, Theory, and Social Research Students living at home had obvious con- an anthropological account of food and dress in a straints against smoking marijuana, compared with particular society. students living on their own. Quite aside from dif- ferences in opportunity, those living at home were As you read social research reports, however, seen as being more dependent on their parents— you’ll often find that the authors are conscious of hence more vulnerable to additional punishment the implications of their research for social theories for breaking the law. and vice versa. Here are a few examples to illus- trate this point. Finally, the Asian subculture in Hawaii has tra- ditionally placed a higher premium on obedience to When W. Lawrence Neuman (1998) set out the law than other subcultures have, so Asian stu- to examine the problem of monopolies (the “trust dents would have more to lose if they were caught problem”) in U.S. history, he saw the relevance violating the law by smoking marijuana. of theories about how social movements trans- form society (“state transformation”). He became Overall, then, a “social constraints” theory was convinced, however, that existing theories were offered as the explanation for observed differences inadequate for the task before him: in the likelihood of smoking marijuana. The more constraints a student had, the less likely he or she State transformation theory links social move- would be to smoke marijuana. It bears repeating ments to state policy formation processes by that the researchers had no thoughts about such focussing on the role of cultural meaning in a theory when their research began. The theory organized political struggles. Despite a resem- came from an examination of the data. blance among concepts and concerns, construc- tionist ideas found in the social problems, social The Links between Theory movements, and symbolic politics literatures and Research have not been incorporated into the theory. In this paper, I draw on these three literatures Throughout this chapter, we have seen various to enhance state transformation theory. aspects of the links between theory and research in social science inquiry. In the deductive model, (Neuman 1998: 315) research is used to test theories. In the inductive model, theories are developed from the analysis of Having thus modified state transformation theory, research data. This final section looks more closely Neuman had a theoretical tool that could guide his into the ways theory and research are related in inquiry and analysis into the political maneuver- actual social science inquiry. ings related to monopolies beginning in the 1880s and continuing until World War I. Thus, theory Whereas we have discussed two idealized logi- served as a resource for research and at the same cal models for linking theory and research, social time was modified by it. science inquiries have developed a great many variations on these themes. Sometimes theoreti- In a somewhat similar study, Alemseghed cal issues are introduced merely as a background Kebede and J. David Knottnerus (1998) set out to for empirical analyses. Other studies cite selected investigate the rise of Rastafarianism in the Carib- empirical data to bolster theoretical arguments. In bean. However, they felt that recent theories on neither case do theory and research really interact social movements had become too positivistic in for the purpose of developing new explanations. focusing on the mobilization of resources. Resource Some studies make no use of theory at all, aim- mobilization theory, they felt, downplays ing specifically, for example, at an ethnographic description of a particular social situation, such as the motivation, perceptions, and behavior of movement participants . . . and concentrates instead on the whys and hows of mobilization. Typically theoretical and research problems include: How do emerging movement organiza- tions seek to mobilize and routinize the flow

Main Points ■ 59 of resources and how does the existing Choosing a particular paradigm or theory does political apparatus affect the organization of not guarantee a particular research conclusion, resources? but it will affect what you look for and what you ignore. Whether you choose a functionalist or (1998: 500) a conflict paradigm to organize your research on police– community relations will made a big To study Rastafarianism more appropriately, the difference. researchers felt the need to include several concepts from contemporary social psychology. In particular, This is a difficult issue to resolve in practice. they sought models to use in dealing with problems Choosing a theoretical orientation for the purpose of meaning and collective thought. of encouraging a particular conclusion would be re- garded as unethical as a general matter, but when Frederika Schmitt and Patricia Martin (1999) research is linked to an intention to bring about were particularly interested in discovering what social change, the researcher will likely choose a made for successful rape crisis centers and how theoretical orientation appropriate to that inten- they dealt with the organizational and political tion. Let’s say you’re concerned about the treat- environments within which they operated. The ment of homeless people by the police in your researchers found theoretical constructs appropri- community. You might organize your research in ate to their inquiry: terms of interactionist or conflict paradigms and theories that would reveal any instances of mis- This case study of unobtrusive mobilizing by treatment that may occur. Southern California Rape Crisis Center uses archival, observational, and interview data to Two factors counter the potential problem of explore how a feminist organization worked to bias from theoretical orientation. First, as we’ll see change police, schools, prosecutor, and some in the remainder of the book, social science re- state and national organizations from 1974 to search techniques—the various methods of obser- 1994. Mansbridge’s concept of street theory vation and analysis—place a damper on our simply and Katzenstein’s concepts of unobtrusive seeing what we expect. Even if you expect to find mobilization and discursive politics guide the the police mistreating the homeless and use theo- analysis. ries and methods that will reveal such mistreat- ment, you will not observe what isn’t there if you (1999: 364) apply those theories and methods appropriately. In summary, there is no simple recipe for Second, the collective nature of social research conducting social science research. It is far more offers further protection. As indicated in Chapter 1, open-ended than the traditional view of science peer review in which researchers evaluate each suggests. Ultimately, science depends on two cat- other’s efforts will point to instances of shoddy egories of activity: logic and observation. As you’ll and/or biased research. Moreover, with several re- see throughout this book, they can be fit together searchers studying the same phenomenon, perhaps in many patterns. using different paradigms, theories, and meth- ods, the risk of biased research findings is further Research Ethics and Theory 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 Introduction issues 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 research efforts.

60 ■ Chapter 2: Paradigms, Theory, and Social Research Some Social Science Paradigms Two Logical Systems Revisited • Social scientists use a variety of paradigms to • In the traditional image of science, scientists pro- organize how they understand and inquire into ceed from theory to operationalization to observa- social life. tion. But this image does not accurately depict how scientific research is actually done. • A distinction between types of theories that cuts • Social scientific theory and research are linked across various paradigms is macrotheory (theories about large-scale features of society) versus mi- through the two logical methods of deduction crotheory (theories about smaller units or features (the derivation of expectations and hypotheses of society). from theories) and induction (the development of generalizations from specific observations). • The positivistic paradigm assumes that we can • In practice, science is a process involving an alter- scientifically discover the rules governing social life. nation of deduction and induction. • The Social Darwinist paradigm sees a progressive Deductive Theory Construction evolution in social life. • Guillermina Jasso’s theory of distributive justice • The conflict paradigm focuses on the attempt of illustrates how formal reasoning can lead to a vari- ety of theoretical expectations that can be tested individuals and groups to dominate others and to by observation. avoid being dominated. Inductive Theory Construction • The symbolic interaction paradigm examines how • David Takeuchi’s study of factors influencing shared meanings and social patterns develop in the course of social interactions. marijuana smoking among University of Hawaii students illustrates how collecting observations • Ethnomethodology focuses on the ways people can lead to generalizations and an explanatory theory. make sense out of social life in the process of liv- ing it, as though each were a researcher engaged The Links between Theory and Research in an inquiry. • In practice, there are many possible links between • The structural functionalist (or social systems) para- theory and research and many ways of going digm seeks to discover what functions the many about social inquiry. elements of society perform for the whole system. Research Ethics and Theory • Feminist paradigms, in addition to drawing atten- • Researchers should not use paradigm and theory tion to the oppression of women in most societies, highlight how previous images of social reality selection as a means of achieving desired research have often come from and reinforced the experi- results. ences of men. • The collective nature of social research offers pro- • Like feminist paradigms, critical race theory both tection against biased research findings. examines the disadvantaged position of a social group (African Americans) and offers a different KEY TERMS vantage point from which to view and understand society. The following terms are defined in context in the chapter and at the bottom of the page where the • Some contemporary theorists and researchers term is introduced, as well as in the comprehensive glossary at the back of the book. have challenged the long-standing belief in an objective reality that abides by rational rules. conflict paradigm interest convergence They point out that it is possible to agree on an critical race theory macrotheory “intersubjective” reality, a view that characterizes critical realism microtheory postmodernism. feminist paradigms null hypothesis hypothesis operational definition Elements of Social Theory • The elements of social theory include observa- tions, facts, and laws (which relate to the reality being observed), as well as concepts, variables, axioms or postulates, propositions, and hypothe- ses (which are logical building blocks of the theory itself ).

Online Study Resources ■ 61 operationalization postmodernism 4. Using InfoTrac College Edition (Article paradigm structural functionalism A67051613) or the library, locate Judith A. positivism symbolic interactionism Howard (2000), “Social Psychology of Identi- ties,” Annual Review of Sociology 26:367–93. What PROPOSING SOCIAL RESEARCH: THEORY paradigm does she find most useful for the study of social identities? Explain why she feels that it is As this chapter has indicated, social research can be the appropriate paradigm. Do you agree? Why or pursued within numerous theoretical paradigms— why not? each suggesting a somewhat different way to approach the research question. In this portion of your proposal, SPSS EXERCISES you should identify the paradigm(s) that will shape the design of your research. See the booklet that accompanies your text for ex- ercises using SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social We have also seen that paradigms provide frame- Sciences). There are exercises offered for each chapter, works within which causal theories may be developed. and you’ll also find a detailed primer on using SPSS. Perhaps your research project will explore or test an existing theory. Or more ambitiously, you may Online Study Resources propose a theory or hypothesis for testing. This is the section of the proposal in which to describe this aspect If your book came with an access code card, visit of your project. www.cengage.com/login to register. To purchase access, please visit www.ichapters.com. Not all research projects are formally organized 1. Before you do your final review of the chapter, around the creation and/or testing of theories and hypotheses. However, your research will involve take the CengageNOW pretest to help identify the theoretical concepts, which should be described in areas on which you should concentrate. You’ll this section of the proposal. As we’ll see more fully in find information on this online tool, as well as Chapter 17, this portion of your proposal will reflect instructions on how to access all of its great re- the literature on previous theory and research that has sources, in the front of the book. shaped your own thinking and research plans. 2. As you review, take advantage of the CengageNOW personalized study plan, based on your quiz REVIEW QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES results. Use this study plan with its interactive ex- ercises and other resources to master the material. 1. Consider the possible relationship between educa- 3. When you’re finished with your review, take the tion and prejudice that was mentioned in Chapter posttest to confirm that you’re ready to move on 1. Describe how you might examine that relation- to the next chapter. ship through (a) deductive and (b) inductive methods. WEBSITE FOR THE PRACTICE OF SOCIAL RESEARCH 12TH EDITION 2. Review the relationships between theory and re- search discussed in this chapter. Select a research Go to your book’s website at www.cengage.com/ article from an academic journal and classify the sociology/babbie for tools to aid you in studying relationship between theory and research you find for your exams. You’ll find Tutorial Quizzes with there. feedback, Internet Exercises, Flash Cards, Glossaries, and Essay Quizzes, as well as InfoTrac College Edition search 3. Using one of the many search engines (such as terms, suggestions for additional reading, Web Links, Google, Excite, HotBot, Ask Jeeves, LookSmart, and primers for using data-analysis software such as Lycos, Netscape, WebCrawler, or Yahoo), find in- SPSS. formation on the web concerning at least three of the following paradigms: functionalism, symbolic interactionism, conflict theory, ethnomethodol- ogy, feminist paradigms, critical race paradigms, rational choice paradigm. Give the web locations and report on the theorists discussed in connec- tion with the discussions you found.

CHAPTER THREE The Ethics and Politics of Social Research CCHHAAPPTTEERR OOVVEERRVVI IEEWW Introduction Two Ethical Controversies Trouble in the Tearoom Social research takes place in a Ethical Issues in Social Observing Human social context.Researchers must Research Obedience therefore take into account many ethical and political considerations Voluntary Participation The Politics of Social alongside scientific ones in No Harm to the Research designing and executing their Participants research. Often, however, clear-cut Anonymity and Objectivity and Ideology answers to thorny ethical and Confidentiality Politics with a Little “p” political issues are hard to come by. Deception Politics in Perspective Analysis and Reporting Institutional Review Boards Professional Codes of Ethics CengageNOW for Sociology Use this online tool to help you make the grade on your next exam. After reading this chapter, go to “Online Study Resources” at the end of the chapter for instructions on how to benefit from CengageNOW.

Introduction ■ 63 Introduction questionnaires in conjunction with the exam, for example, and the problem of nonresponse could be My purpose in this book is to present a realistic eliminated altogether. and useful introduction to doing social research. For this introduction to be fully realistic, it must I left the meeting excited about the prospects include four main constraints on research projects: for the study. When I told a colleague about it, I scientific, administrative, ethical, and political. glowed about the absolute handling of the nonre- sponse problem. Her immediate comment turned Most of the book focuses on scientific and everything around completely. “That’s unethical. administrative constraints. We’ll see that the logic There’s no law requiring the questionnaire, and of science suggests certain research procedures, participation in research has to be voluntary.” The but we’ll also see that some scientifically “perfect” study wasn’t done. study designs are not administratively feasible, be- cause they would be too expensive or take too long In retelling this story, I can easily see that re- to execute. Throughout the book, therefore, we’ll quiring participation would have been inappropri- deal with workable compromises. ate. You may have seen this even before I told you about my colleague’s comment. I still feel a little Before we get to the scientific and administra- embarrassed over the matter, but I have a specific tive constraints on research, it’s useful to explore purpose in telling this story about myself. the two other important considerations in doing research in the real world—ethics and politics— All of us consider ourselves ethical—not which this chapter covers. Just as certain proce- perfect perhaps, but as ethical as anyone else and dures are too impractical to use, others are either perhaps more so than most. The problem in social ethically prohibitive or politically difficult or impos- research, as probably in life, is that ethical consid- sible. Here’s a story to illustrate what I mean. erations are not always apparent to us. As a result, we often plunge into things without seeing ethical Several years ago, I was invited to sit in on a issues that may be apparent to others and may planning session to design a study of legal edu- even be obvious to us when pointed out. When I cation in California. The joint project was to be reported back to the others in the planning group, conducted by a university research center and the for example, no one disagreed with the inappropri- state bar association. The purpose of the project ateness of requiring participation. Everyone was a was to improve legal education by learning which bit embarrassed about not having seen it. aspects of the law school experience were related to success on the bar exam. Essentially, the plan was Any of us can immediately see that a study to prepare a questionnaire that would get detailed requiring small children to be tortured is unethical. information about the law school experiences of in- I know you’d speak out immediately if I suggested dividuals. People would be required to answer the that we interview people about their sex lives and questionnaire when they took the bar exam. By then publish what they said in the local newspaper. analyzing how people with different kinds of law But, as ethical as you are, you’ll totally miss the school experiences did on the bar exam, we could ethical issues in some other situations—we all do. find out what sorts of things worked and what didn’t. The findings of the research could be made The first half of this chapter deals with the available to law schools, and ultimately legal educa- ethics of social research. In part, it presents some tion could be improved. of the broadly agreed-on norms describing what’s ethical in research and what’s not. More important The exciting thing about collaborating with the than simply knowing the guidelines, however, is bar association was that all the normally irritating becoming sensitized to the ethical component in logistical hassles would be handled. There would research so that you’ll look for it whenever you be no problem getting permission to administer plan a study. Even when the ethical aspects of a situation are debatable, you should know that

64 ■ Chapter 3: The Ethics and Politics of Social Research there’s something to argue about. It’s worth noting surprisingly, different groups have agreed on dif- in this context that many professions operate under ferent codes of conduct. Part of living successfully ethical constraints and that these constraints differ in a particular society is knowing what that society from one profession to another. Thus, priests, phy- considers ethical and unethical. The same holds sicians, lawyers, reporters, and television producers true for the social research community. operate under different ethical constraints. In this chapter, we’ll look only at the ethical principles Anyone involved in social science research, that govern social research. then, needs to be aware of the general agreements shared by researchers about what is proper and Political considerations in research are also improper in the conduct of scientific inquiry. This subtle, ambiguous, and arguable. Notice that the section summarizes some of the most important law school example involves politics as well as ethical agreements that prevail in social research. ethics. Although social researchers have an ethical norm that participation in research should be vol- Voluntary Participation untary, this norm clearly grows out of U.S. political norms protecting civil liberties. In some nations, Often, though not always, social research repre- the proposed study would have been considered sents an intrusion into people’s lives. The inter- quite ethical. viewer’s knock on the door or the arrival of a questionnaire in the mail signals the beginning of In the second half of this chapter, we’ll look at an activity that the respondent has not requested social research projects that were crushed or nearly and that may require significant time and energy. crushed by political considerations. As with ethi- Participation in a social experiment disrupts the cal concerns, there is often no “correct” take on a subject’s regular activities. given situation. People of goodwill disagree. I won’t try to give you a party line about what is and is not Social research, moreover, often requires politically acceptable. As with ethics, the point is to that people reveal personal information about become sensitive to the political dimension of social themselves—information that may be unknown research. to their friends and associates. And social research often requires that such information be revealed Ethical Issues to strangers. Other professionals, such as physi- in Social Research cians and lawyers, also ask for such information. Their requests may be justified, however, by their In most dictionaries and in common usage, eth- aims: They need the information in order to serve ics is typically associated with morality, and both the personal interests of the respondent. Social words concern matters of right and wrong. But researchers can seldom make this claim. Like medi- what is right and what wrong? What is the source cal scientists, they can only argue that the research of the distinction? For individuals the sources vary. effort may ultimately help all humanity. They may be religions, political ideologies, or the pragmatic observation of what seems to work and A major tenet of medical research ethics is what doesn’t. that experimental participation must be voluntary. The same norm applies to social research. No one Webster’s New World Dictionary is typical among should be forced to participate. This norm is far dictionaries in defining ethical as “conforming to easier to accept in theory than to apply in practice, the standards of conduct of a given profession or however. group.” Although this definition may frustrate those in search of moral absolutes, what we regard Again, medical research provides a useful paral- as morality and ethics in day-to-day life is a matter lel. Many experimental drugs used to be tested on of agreement among members of a group. And, not prisoners. In the most rigorously ethical cases, the prisoners were told the nature and the possible dangers of the experiment, they were told that par- ticipation was completely voluntary, and they were

Ethical Issues in Social Research ■ 65 further instructed that they could expect no special of scientific research, such as bringing no harm rewards—such as early parole—for participation. to the people under study, becomes all the more Even under these conditions, it was often clear that important. volunteers were motivated by the belief that they would personally benefit from their cooperation. No Harm to the Participants When the instructor in an introductory The need for norms against harming research sociology class asks students to fill out a question- subjects has stemmed in part from horrendous naire that he or she hopes to analyze and publish, actions by medical researchers. Perhaps at the top students should always be told that participation of list stand the medical experiments on prisoners in the survey is completely voluntary. Even so, of war by Nazi researchers in World War II. The most students will fear that nonparticipation will subsequent war-crimes trials at Nuremberg added somehow affect their grade. The instructor should the phrase crimes against humanity to the language therefore be sensitive to such implications and of research and political ethics. make special provisions to eliminate them. For example, the instructor could insure anonymity Less well-known were the Tuskegee syphilis by leaving the room while the questionnaires are experiments conducted by the U.S. Public Health being completed. Or, students could be asked to Service between 1932 and 1972. The study fol- return the questionnaires by mail or to drop them lowed the fate of nearly 400 impoverished, rural in a box near the door just before the next course African American men suffering from syphilis. meeting. Even after penicillin had been accepted as an effec- tive treatment for syphilis, the subjects were denied This norm of voluntary participation, though, treatment—even kept from seeking treatment in goes directly against several scientific concerns. In the community—because the researchers wanted the most general terms, the scientific goal of gen- to observe the full progression of the disease. At eralizability is threatened if experimental subjects times, diagnostic procedures such as spinal taps or survey respondents are all the kind of people were falsely presented to subjects as cures for who willingly participate in such things. Because syphilis. this orientation probably reflects more general personality traits, the results of the research might When the details of the Tuskegee syphilis ex- not be generalizable to all people. Most clearly, in periments became widely known, the U.S. govern- the case of a descriptive survey, a researcher can- ment took action, including a formal apology by not generalize the sample survey findings to an President Bill Clinton and a program of financial entire population unless a substantial majority of reparations to the families of the subjects. (You the scientifically selected sample actually partici- can learn more about this sad history in medical pates—the willing respondents and the somewhat research at the link on this book’s website: http:// unwilling. www.cengage.com/sociology/babbie.) As you’ll see in Chapter 10, field research has Human research should never injure the its own ethical dilemmas in this regard. Very often people being studied, regardless of whether they the researcher cannot even reveal that a study volunteer for the study. In social research practice, is being done, for fear that that revelation might this often concerns being careful not to reveal significantly affect the social processes being stud- information that would embarrass subjects or ied. Clearly, the subjects of study in such cases are endanger their home lives, friendships, jobs, and not given the opportunity to volunteer or refuse to so forth. We’ll discuss this aspect of the norm more participate. fully in a moment. Though the norm of voluntary participation Because subjects can be harmed psychologi- is important, it is often impossible to follow. In cally in the course of a social research study, the cases where researchers feel ultimately justified in researcher must look for the subtlest dangers and violating it, their observing the other ethical norms guard against them. Quite often, research subjects

66 ■ Chapter 3: The Ethics and Politics of Social Research are asked to reveal deviant behavior, attitudes they As you can see, just about any research you feel are unpopular, or personal characteristics that might conduct runs the risk of injuring other may seem demeaning, such as low income, the people in some way. It isn’t possible to insure receipt of welfare payments, and the like. Reveal- against all these possible injuries, but some study ing such information usually makes subjects feel at designs make such injuries more likely than others least uncomfortable. do. If a particular research procedure seems likely to produce unpleasant effects for subjects—asking Social research projects may also force partici- survey respondents to report deviant behavior, for pants to face aspects of themselves that they don’t example—the researcher should have the firmest normally consider. This can happen even when of scientific grounds for doing it. If your research the information is not revealed directly to the re- design is essential and also likely to be unpleas- searcher. In retrospect, a certain past behavior may ant for subjects, you’ll find yourself in an ethical appear unjust or immoral. The project, then, can netherworld and may go through some personal cause continuing personal agony for the subject. agonizing. Although agonizing has little value in If the study concerns codes of ethical conduct, for itself, it may be a healthy sign that you’ve become example, the subject may begin questioning his or sensitive to the problem. her own morality, and that personal concern may last long after the research has been completed and Increasingly, the ethical norms of voluntary reported. For instance, probing questions can injure participation and no harm to participants have a fragile self-esteem. become formalized in the concept of informed consent. This norm means that subjects must base In 1971 the psychologist Philip Zimbardo cre- their voluntary participation in research projects on ated his famous simulation of prison life, widely a full understanding of the possible risks involved. known as the Stanford prison experiment, to study In a medical experiment, for example, prospec- the dynamics of prisoner–guard interactions. tive subjects are presented with a discussion of the Zimbardo employed Stanford students as subjects experiment and all the possible risks to themselves. and randomly assigned them to roles as prison- They are required to sign a statement indicat- ers or guards. As you may be aware, the simula- ing that they are aware of the risks and that they tion became quickly and increasingly real for all choose to participate anyway. Although the value the participants, including Zimbardo, who served of such a procedure is obvious when subjects will as prison superintendent. It became evident that be injected with drugs designed to produce physical many of the student-prisoners were suffering psy- effects, for example, it’s hardly appropriate when chological damage as a consequence of their mock a participant observer rushes to a scene of urban incarceration, and some of the student-guards were rioting to study deviant behavior. Whereas the re- soon exhibiting degrees of sadism that would later searcher in this latter case must still bring no harm challenge their own self-images. to those observed, gaining informed consent is not the means to achieving that end. As these developments became apparent to Zimbardo, he terminated the experiment. He then Although the fact often goes unrecognized, created a debriefing program in which all the par- another possible source of harm to subjects lies in ticipants were counseled so as to avoid any lasting the analysis and reporting of data. Every now and damage from the experience. (See the link on then, research subjects read the books published this book’s website, http://www.cengage.com/ about the studies they participated in. Reason- sociology/babbie, for a link to Zimbardo’s discussion ably sophisticated subjects can locate themselves of the experiment.) in the various indexes and tables. Having done so, they may find themselves characterized—though informed consent A norm in which subjects base not identified by name—as bigoted, unpatriotic, their voluntary participation in research projects on irreligious, and so forth. At the very least, such a full understanding of the possible risks involved. characterizations are likely to trouble them and

Ethical Issues in Social Research ■ 67 threaten their self-images. Yet the whole purpose of response with a given respondent. This implies that the research project may be to explain why some a typical interview-survey respondent can never people are prejudiced and others are not. be considered anonymous, because an interviewer collects the information from an identifiable In one survey of churchwomen (Babbie 1967), respondent. An example of anonymity is a mail ministers in a sample of churches were asked to survey in which no identification numbers are put distribute questionnaires to a specified sample on the questionnaires before their return to the of members, collect them, and return them to research office. the research office. One of these ministers read through the questionnaires from his sample before As we’ll see in Chapter 9 (on survey research), returning them, and then he delivered a hellfire assuring anonymity makes keeping track of who and brimstone sermon to his congregation, saying has or hasn’t returned the questionnaires difficult. that many of them were atheists and were going to Despite this problem, paying the necessary price is hell. Even though he could not identify the people advisable in certain situations. For example, in who gave particular responses, many respondents one study of drug use among university students, certainly endured personal harm from his tirade. I decided that I specifically did not want to know the identity of respondents. I felt that honestly Like voluntary participation, avoiding harm assuring anonymity would increase the likelihood to people is easy in theory but often difficult in and accuracy of responses. Also, I did not want to practice. Sensitivity to the issue and experience be in the position of being asked by authorities for with its applications, however, should improve the the names of drug offenders. In the few instances researcher’s tact in delicate areas of research. in which respondents volunteered their names, such information was immediately obliterated from In recent years, social researchers have been the questionnaires. gaining support for abiding by this norm. Federal and other funding agencies typically require an Confidentiality independent evaluation of the treatment of human subjects for research proposals, and most universi- A research project guarantees confidentiality ties now have human-subject committees to serve when the researcher can identify a given person’s this evaluative function. Although sometimes responses but essentially promises not to do so troublesome and inappropriately applied, such publicly. In an interview survey, for example, the requirements not only guard against unethical re- researcher could make public the income reported search but also can reveal ethical issues overlooked by a given respondent, but the respondent is as- by even the most scrupulous researchers. sured that this will not be done. Anonymity and Confidentiality Whenever a research project is confidential rather than anonymous, it is the researcher’s The clearest concern in the protection of the responsibility to make that fact clear to the subjects’ interests and well-being is the protection of their identity, especially in survey research. If anonymity Anonymity is achieved in a research revealing their survey responses would injure them project when neither the researchers nor the readers in any way, adherence to this norm becomes all the of the findings can identify a given response with a more important. Two techniques—anonymity and given respondent. confidentiality—assist researchers in this regard, confidentiality A research project guarantees although people often confuse the two. confidentiality when the researcher can identify a given person’s responses but promises not to do so Anonymity publicly. A research project guarantees anonymity when the researcher—not just the people who read about the research—cannot identify a given

68 ■ Chapter 3: The Ethics and Politics of Social Research respondent. Moreover, researchers should never Moreover, many of the respondents were Native use the term anonymous to mean confidential. Americans, whose cultural norms made such pub- lic revelations all the more painful. With few exceptions (such as surveys of public figures who agree to have their responses pub- Happily, the Exxon Valdez case was settled lished), the information respondents give must at before the court decided whether it would force least be kept confidential. This is not always an easy survey respondents to testify in open court. Unhap- norm to follow, because for example the courts pily, the potential for disaster remains. (For more have not recognized social research data as the kind information on this ecological disaster, see Picou, of “privileged communication” priests and attor- Gill, and Cohen (1999).) neys have. The seriousness of this issue is not limited This unprotected guarantee of confidentiality to established research firms. Rik Scarce was a produced a near disaster in 1991. Two years graduate student at Washington State University earlier, the Exxon Valdez supertanker had run when he undertook participant observation among aground near the port of Valdez in Alaska, spill- animal-rights activists. In 1990 he published a book ing ten million gallons of oil into the bay. The based on his research: Ecowarriors: Understanding the economic and environmental damage was widely Radical Environmental Movement. In 1993, Scarce was reported. called before a grand jury and asked to identify the activists he had studied. In keeping with the The media paid less attention to the psychologi- norm of confidentiality, the young researcher cal and sociological damage suffered by residents of refused to answer the grand jury’s questions and the area. There were anecdotal reports of increased spent 159 days in the Spokane County jail. He alcoholism, family violence, and other secondary reports, consequences of the disruptions caused by the oil spill. Eventually, 22 communities in Prince William Although I answered many of the prosecutor’s Sound and the Gulf of Alaska sued Exxon for the questions, on 32 occasions I refused to answer, economic, social, and psychological damages suf- saying, “Your question calls for information that fered by their residents. I have only by virtue of a confidential disclo- sure given to me in the course of my research To determine the amount of damage done, the activities. I cannot answer the question without communities commissioned a San Diego research actually breaching a confidential communica- firm to undertake a household survey asking tion. Consequently, I decline to answer the residents very personal questions about increased question under my ethical obligations as a problems in their families. The sample of residents member of the American Sociological Associa- were asked to reveal painful and embarrassing tion and pursuant to any privilege that may information, under the guarantee of absolute extend to journalists, researchers, and writers confidentiality. Ultimately, the results of the survey under the First Amendment.” confirmed that a variety of personal and family problems had increased substantially following the (Scarce 1999: 982) oil spill. At the time of his grand jury appearance and When Exxon learned that survey data would his incarceration, Scarce felt that the American So- be presented to document the suffering, they took ciological Association (ASA) code of ethics strongly an unusual step: They asked the court to subpoena supported his ethical stand, and the ASA filed a the survey questionnaires. The court granted the friend of the court brief on his behalf. In 1997, request and ordered the researchers to turn over the ASA revised its code and, while still upholding the questionnaires—with all identifying informa- the norm of confidentiality, warned researchers to tion. It appeared that Exxon’s intention was to call inform themselves regarding laws and rules that survey respondents to the stand and cross-examine may limit their ability to promise confidentiality to them regarding answers they had given to inter- research subjects. viewers under the guarantee of confidentiality.

Ethical Issues in Social Research ■ 69 You can use several techniques to guard against fidentiality of research subject data against forced such dangers and ensure better performance on the disclosure by the police and other authorities. Not guarantee of confidentiality. To begin, interviewers all research projects qualify for such protection, but and others with access to respondent identifications it can provide an important support for research should be trained in their ethical responsibilities. ethics in many cases. Beyond training, the most fundamental technique is to remove identifying information as soon as Under section 301(d) of the Public Health it’s no longer necessary. In a survey, for example, Service Act (42 U.S.C. 241(d)) the Secretary all names and addresses should be removed from of Health and Human Services may authorize questionnaires and replaced by identification persons engaged in biomedical, behavioral, numbers. An identification file should be created clinical, or other research to protect the privacy that links numbers to names to permit the later of individuals who are the subjects of that re- correction of missing or contradictory informa- search. This authority has been delegated to the tion, but this file should not be available except for National Institutes of Health (NIH). legitimate purposes. Persons authorized by the NIH to protect the privacy of research subjects may not be Similarly, in an interview survey you may need compelled in any Federal, State, or local civil, to identify respondents initially so that you can criminal, administrative, legislative, or other recontact them to verify that the interview was proceedings to identify them by name or other conducted and perhaps to get information that was identifying characteristic. missing in the original interview. As soon as you’ve verified an interview and assured yourself that (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services 2002) you don’t need any further information from the Source: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/policy/COC/ respondent, however, you can safely remove all background.htm?print=yes& identifying information from the interview booklet. Often, interview booklets are printed so that the In all the aspects of research ethics discussed in this first page contains all the identifiers—it can be torn chapter, professional researchers avoid settling for off once the respondent’s identification is no longer mere rote compliance with established ethical rules. needed. J. Steven Picou (1996a, 1996b) points Rather, they continually ask what actions would be out that even removing identifiers from data files most appropriate in protecting the interests of those does not always sufficiently protect respondent being studied. Here’s the way Penny Becker (1998: confidentiality, a lesson he learned during nearly a 452) addressed the issue of confidentiality in con- year in federal court. A careful examination of all nection with a qualitative research project studying the responses of a particular respondent sometimes religious life in a community: allows others to deduce that person’s identity. Imagine, for example, that someone said he or she Following the lead of several recent studies, was a former employee of a particular company. I identify the real name of the community, Oak Knowing the person’s gender, age, ethnicity, and Park, rather than reducing the complexity of other characteristics could enable the company to the community’s history to a few underlying identify that person. dimensions or creating an “insider/outsider” dynamic where some small group of fellow Even if you intend to remove all identify- researchers knows the community’s real name ing information, suppose you have not yet done and the rest of the world is kept in the dark. . . . so. What do you do when the police or a judge In all cases individual identities are disguised, orders you to provide the responses given by your except for Jack Finney, the Lutheran pastor, research subjects? who gave permission to be identified. “City Baptist” is a pseudonym used at the request of In 2002, the U.S. Department of Health and the church’s leadership. The leaders of Good Human Services announced a program to issue a Shepherd Lutheran Church (GSLC) gave per- “Certificate of Confidentiality” to protect the con- mission to use the church’s real name.

70 ■ Chapter 3: The Ethics and Politics of Social Research Deception ogy, for example, test the extent to which subjects will abandon the evidence of their own observa- We’ve seen that the handling of subjects’ identi- tions in favor of the views expressed by others. ties is an important ethical consideration. Handling Recall Figure 2-1 (p. 42), which shows the stimulus your own identity as a researcher can also be tricky. from the classic Asch experiment—frequently rep- Sometimes it’s useful and even necessary to iden- licated by psychology classes—in which subjects are tify yourself as a researcher to those you want to shown three lines of differing lengths (A, B, and C) study. You’d have to be an experienced con artist to and asked to compare them with a fourth line (X). get people to participate in a laboratory experiment Subjects are then asked, “Which of the first three or complete a lengthy questionnaire without letting lines is the same length as the fourth?” on that you were conducting research. You’d probably find it a fairly simple task to Even when you must conceal your research identify “B” as the correct answer. Your job would identity, you need to consider the following. be complicated, however, by the fact that several Because deceiving people is unethical, deception other “subjects” sitting beside you all agree that A is within social research needs to be justified by com- the same length as X! In reality, of course, the oth- pelling scientific or administrative concerns. Even ers in the experiment are all confederates of the re- then, the justification will be arguable. searcher, told to agree on the wrong answer. As we saw in Chapter 2, the purpose of the experiment Sometimes researchers admit that they’re do- is to see whether you’d give up your own judg- ing research but fudge about why they’re doing ment in favor of the group agreement. I think you it or for whom. Suppose you’ve been asked by a can see that conformity is a useful phenomenon public welfare agency to conduct a study of living to study and understand, and it couldn’t be studied standards among aid recipients. Even if the agency experimentally without deceiving the subjects. is looking for ways of improving conditions, the We’ll examine a similar situation in the discussion recipient-subjects are likely to fear a witch hunt for of a famous experiment by Stanley Milgram later “cheaters.” They might be tempted, therefore, to in this chapter. The question is, how do we get give answers that make them seem more destitute around the ethical issue that deception is necessary than they really are. Unless they provide truthful for an experiment to work? answers, however, the study will not produce ac- curate data that will contribute to an improvement One appropriate solution researchers have of living conditions. What do you do? found is to debrief subjects following an experi- ment. Debriefing entails interviews to discover One solution would be to tell subjects that any problems generated by the research experi- you’re conducting the study as part of a university ence so that those problems can be corrected. Even research program—concealing your affiliation with though subjects can’t be told the true purpose of the welfare agency. Although doing that improves the study prior to their participation in it, there’s the scientific quality of the study, it raises serious usually no reason they can’t know afterward. ethical questions. Telling them the truth afterward may make up for having to lie to them at the outset. This must be Lying about research purposes is common in done with care, however, making sure the subjects laboratory experiments. Although it’s difficult to aren’t left with bad feelings or doubts about them- conceal that you’re conducting research, it’s usually selves based on their performance in the experi- simple—and sometimes appropriate—to conceal ment. If this seems complicated, it’s simply the price your purpose. Many experiments in social psychol- we pay for using other people’s lives as the subject matter for our research. debriefing Interviewing subjects to learn about their experience of participation in the project. Espe- As a social researcher, then, you have many cially important if there’s a possibility that they have ethical obligations to the subjects in your studies. been damaged by that participation. “Ethical Issues in Research on Human Sexuality”

Ethical Issues in Social Research ■ 71 Text not available due to copyright restrictions illustrates some of the ethical questions involved in In any rigorous study, the researcher should a specific research area. be more familiar than anyone else with the study’s technical limitations and failures. Researchers have Analysis and Reporting an obligation to make such shortcomings known to their readers—even if admitting qualifications and In addition to their ethical obligations to subjects, mistakes makes them feel foolish. researchers have ethical obligations to their col- leagues in the scientific community. These obliga- Negative findings, for example, should be tions concern the analysis of data and the way the reported if they are at all related to the analysis. results are reported. There is an unfortunate myth in scientific reporting that only positive discoveries are worth reporting

72 ■ Chapter 3: The Ethics and Politics of Social Research (journal editors are sometimes guilty of believing to all research, including that funded by nonfederal this as well). In science, however, it’s often as im- sources and even research done at no cost, such as portant to know that two variables are not related student projects. as to know that they are. The chief responsibility of an IRB is to ensure Similarly, researchers must avoid the tempta- that the risks faced by human participants in re- tion to save face by describing their findings as the search are minimal. In some cases, the IRB may ask product of a carefully preplanned analytic strategy the researcher to revise the study design; in others, when that is not the case. Many findings arrive the IRB may refuse to approve a study. Where some unexpectedly—even though they may seem obvi- minimal risks are deemed unavoidable, research- ous in retrospect. So an interesting relationship ers are required to prepare an “informed consent” was uncovered by accident—so what? Embroider- form that describes those risks clearly. Subjects may ing such situations with descriptions of fictitious participate in the study only after they have read hypotheses is dishonest. It also does a disservice the statement and signed it as an indication that to less-experienced researchers by leading them they know the risks and voluntarily accept them. into thinking that all scientific inquiry is rigorously preplanned and organized. Much of the impetus for establishing IRBs had to do with medical experimentation on humans, In general, science progresses through honesty and many social research study designs are gener- and openness; ego defenses and deception retard ally regarded as exempt from IRB review. An it. Researchers can best serve their peers—and example is an anonymous survey sent to a large scientific discovery as a whole—by telling the truth sample of respondents. The guideline to be fol- about all the pitfalls and problems they’ve experi- lowed by IRBs, as contained in the Federal Exemp- enced in a particular line of inquiry. Perhaps they’ll tion Categories (45 CFR 46.101 [b]), exempts a save others from the same problems. variety of research situations: Finally, there is a sense in which simple (1) Research conducted in established or com- carelessness or sloppiness can be considered an monly accepted educational settings, involv- ethical problem. If the research project uses up ing normal educational practices, such as (i) limited resources and/or imposes on subjects with research on regular and special education no benefit produced by the research, many in the instructional strategies, or (ii) research on the research community would consider that an ethical effectiveness of or the comparison among in- violation. This is not to say that all research must structional techniques, curricula, or classroom produce positive results, but it should be conducted management methods. in a manner that promotes that possibility. (2) Research involving the use of educational Institutional Review Boards tests (cognitive, diagnostic, aptitude, achieve- ment), survey procedures, interview proce- The issue of research ethics in studies involving dures or observation of public behavior, unless: humans is now also governed by federal law. Any agency (such as a university or a hospital) wishing (i) information obtained is recorded in to receive federal research support must establish such a manner that human subjects can be an Institutional Review Board (IRB), a panel of fac- identified, directly or through identifiers ulty (and possibly others) who review all research linked to the subjects; and (ii) any disclo- proposals involving human subjects so that they sure of the human subjects’ responses out- can guarantee that the subjects’ rights and inter- side the research could reasonably place the ests will be protected. Although the law applies subjects at risk of criminal or civil liability specifically to federally funded research, many uni- or be damaging to the subjects’ financial versities apply the same standards and procedures standing, employability, or reputation. (3) Research involving the use of educational tests (cognitive, diagnostic, aptitude,

Ethical Issues in Social Research ■ 73 achievement), survey procedures, interview provisions inappropriately. As chair of a university procedures, or observation of public behavior IRB, for example, I was once asked to review the that is not exempt under paragraph (b)(2) of letter of informed consent that was to be sent to this section, if: medical insurance companies, requesting their agreement to participate in a survey that would (i) the human subjects are elected or ap- ask which medical treatments were covered under pointed public officials or candidates for their programs. Clearly the humans involved were public office; or (ii) Federal statute(s) not at risk in the sense anticipated by the law. In a require(s) without exception that the case like that, the appropriate technique for gaining confidentiality of the personally identifiable informed consent is to mail the questionnaire. If information will be maintained throughout a company returns it, they’ve consented. If they the research and thereafter. don’t, they haven’t. (4) Research involving the collection or study Other IRBs have suggested that research- of existing data, documents, records, pathologi- ers need to obtain permission before observing cal specimens, or diagnostic specimens, if these participants in public gatherings and events, before sources are publicly available or if the informa- conducting surveys on the most mundane mat- tion is recorded by the investigator in such a ters, and so forth. Christopher Shea (2000) has manner that subjects cannot be identified, di- chronicled several such questionable applications rectly or through identifiers linked to the of the law while supporting the ethical logic that subjects. originally prompted the law. (5) Research and demonstration projects Don’t think that these critiques of IRBs mini- which are conducted by or subject to the ap- mize the importance of protecting human sub- proval of Department or Agency heads, and jects. Indeed, some universities exceed the federal which are designed to study, evaluate, or other- requirements in reasonable and responsible ways: wise examine: requiring IRB review of nonfederally funded proj- ects, for example. (i) Public benefit or service programs; (ii) procedures for obtaining benefits or ser- Research ethics is an ever-evolving subject, be- vices under those programs; (iii) possible cause new research techniques often require revis- changes in or alternatives to those pro- iting old concerns. Thus, for example, the increased grams or procedures; or (iv) possible use of public databases for secondary research has changes in methods or levels of payment caused some IRBs to worry whether they need to for benefits or services under those reexamine such projects as the General Social Sur- programs. vey every time a researcher proposes to use those data. (Most have decided this is unnecessary; see (6) Taste and food quality evaluation and con- Skedsvold 2002 for a discussion of issues relating to sumer acceptance studies, (i) if wholesome public databases.) foods without additives are consumed or (ii) if a food is consumed that contains a food ingredi- Similarly, the prospects for research of and ent at or below the level and for a use found to through the Internet has raised ethical concerns. In be safe, or agricultural chemical or environ- November 1999, the American Association for the mental contaminant at or below the level found Advancement of Science sponsored a workshop on to be safe, by the Food and Drug Administra- this subject. The overall conclusion of the report tion or approved by the Environmental Protec- produced by the workshop summarizes some of the tion Agency or the Food Safety and Inspection primary concerns already examined in this chapter: Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The current ethical and legal framework Paragraph (2) of the excerpt exempts much for protecting human subjects rests on the of the social research described in this book. principles of autonomy, beneficence, and Nonetheless, universities sometimes apply the law’s