Doing Sociological Research

1
Doing Sociological Research

• Preparing for your Research Proposal Project

2
Decide on a Reason For Research

• Four Motives for doing Social Research
• Policy
• Academic
• Personal
• A Mixture

3
Find a Topic That Interests YOU!Where to Look
4
What Type of Research Will it Be?

• Descriptive
• describes a situation
• Exploratory
• not much known, no theory
• Explanatory
• testing a theory or hypothesis
• Evaluation
• of program or policy
• Critical
• analyze in unconventional way

5
Practical Concerns

• Access-
• -ability to obtain the information needed
  to answer a research question.
• Time
• Money

6
Ethical Concerns (Nuremberg Code
1946)

• Voluntary Consent
• Informed Consent
• Do No Harm
• Physical, Psychological, Emotional, Legal
• Anonymity
• No names or identifiable data
• Confidentiality
• Researcher doesnt release ID info it to anyone

7
The Project Itself

• Present a Problem (who, what, where, when, how).
• Relevance
• Methodology
• Implications

8
Some Useful Sites

• Sociologist Index (Theory)
• http//raven.jmu.edu/ridenelr/DSS/INDEX.HTML
• Academic Journals
• http//libwww.syr.edu/research/database/index.html
  
• Government Statistics
• http//www.census.gov/statab/www/
• Domestic News
• http//www.usnews.com/usnews/
• Local News
• http//www.syracuse.com/about/newspapers.html
• International Environmental
• http//www.nationalgeographic.com/

9
The American Journal of Economics and Sociology
2000, 59, 3, July, 433-449.Additional Info
United Kingdom   The Social Science
Journal   Journal of Poverty 1999, 3, 4,
93-96.Additional Info United States   Journal
of Social Distress and the Homeless 1999, 8, 1,
Jan, 1-20.Additional Info United
States   Annual Review of Sociology v. 26 (2000)
p. 547-62 Journal Code Annu Rev
SociolAdditional Info United States
10
the most significant value of knowledge of
research methods is that it permits a critical
evaluation of what passes for knowledge when we
and others develop social theory.

• --Adler and Clark (19994)

11
Review of Importance of Assumptions and
Epistemology
Assumptions underlay Epistemology
Epistemology forms the basis for what we know.
What we know frames how we look at the world.
How we look at the world influences how we act
within it.