Cases In Research

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Cases In Research

• Examples for a course on methods of social
  research

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Case 1 the Panama Canal Treaty

• Researchers staff for a United States Senator
• Purpose to find out what the people in the
  senators state thought about an idea the senator
  had concerning a treaty the Senate was debating
  about whether or not the United States should
  turn over the Panama Canal to the Republic of
  Panama

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Case 1 Panama Treaty, cont.

• Design
• systematically select phone numbers from phone
  books for the two largest cities in the state
• Call the numbers until 400 calls with interviews
  are completed
• Ask people one or two questions about the treaty
  without the senators suggestion and with his
  suggestion
• Compare the answers to see if attitudes are more
  favorable to the treaty when the suggestion is
  included

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Case 2 Mens Room Handwashing

• Researcher A sociology major at Buffalo State
  College
• Purpose to see if modeling hand washing
  behavior in a mens room would affect the
  likelihood that other people in the bathroom
  would wash their hands

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Case 3 Rudy Wants to Know

• NOTE this is an example of bad research
• Researcher staff for Senator Rudy Boscovitch
  (I think) of Minnesota
• Purpose -- Apparently to see if people in
  Minnesota were as enthusiastic about President
  Reagan as good old Rudy was

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Case 3 Rudy, cont.

• Importance
• In terms of answering whether or not Minnesotans
  were enthusiastic about Reagan, zero, zilch,
  nada, none
• However, it may have had important non-research
  consequences
• It might have helped link the senator in the
  publics eye with the very popular (at that time)
  president
• For those with research knowledge, it may have
  marked him as a research bozo

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Case 4 Cults in Europe

• Researcher J. Gordon Melton with Gary Ward and
  Isotta Poggi
• Purpose create a list of cults in Europe
• Design multi-method approach, including
  checking occult and similar bookstores and
  developing informants
• Dates about 10 years beginning in the early
  1980s
• Importance theory said there should be many
  cults in Europe, but people had not been able to
  find them. This research supported the theory

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Case 4 Cults in Europe, cont.

• Importance for SOCY3700
• Illustrates the value of research skill
• Illustrates one role of theory in research
• Theory told Melton to look for cults even though
  others had not found them
• Source pp. 401-3 in Rodney Stark. 1998.
  Sociology. 7th ed. Belmont, CA Wadsworth

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Case 5 The Double Helix

• Researchers Francis Crick and James Watson,
  assisted somewhat accidentally by Maurice
  Wilkins, who shared the Nobel Prize with them,
  Rosalind Franklin, and their competitor, Linus
  Pauling
• Purpose to determine the chemical and physical
  structure of DNA
• Design modeling the structure of the molecule
  based on data collected by others
• Dates 1951-3

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Case 5 Double Helix, cont.

• Importance at the time some scientists
  considered DNA to be the basic component of
  heredity
• Importance today
• Now we believe DNA is even more important than
  Crick and Watson thought
• Much of what DNA does derives from its structure

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Case 5 Double Helix, cont.

• Importance for SOCY3700
• Most important, illustrates the principle that
  scientists try to solve the most important
  problem they think they can
• Illustrates importance of knowing what is
  important
• Illustrates scientific opportunism
• Illustrates Cricks water cooler principle
  study the thing you find most interesting to talk
  about around the water cooler
• Illustrates the problems of secrecy in science

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Case 5 Double Helix, cont.

• Events
• Recent biology PhD Watson and former physicist
  Francis Crick meet at a lab in England
• Watson in Europe to learn enough chemistry to
  unravel the nature of the gene
• Crick used water cooler test to decide to go into
  biology after war work on naval mines
• Both have decided DNA is the essential stuff of
  genes and that understanding genes will require
  knowing their structure

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Case 5 Double Helix, cont.

• Neither has any DNA to work with both have been
  assigned other problems in the laboratory
• Taking advantage of information about DNA that is
  published, presented orally, talked about
  informally by experts, or included in funding
  agency documents, they eventually use little
  pieces of metal to build a model of DNA.
• They publish details in Nature.
• A major contribution was from an expert who
  explained that textbooks have fouled up their
  descriptions of adenine, guanine, thymine, and
  cytosine

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Case 5 Double Helix, cont.

• Sources
• James D. Watson. 1968 1980. The Double Helix A
  Personal Account of the Discovery of the
  Structure of DNA. Norton critical edition edited
  by G. S. Stent. New York Norton
• This book is a classic in the history of science.
  I seem to re-read it every few years.
• Matt Ridley. 2006. Francis Crick Discoverer of
  the Genetic Code. New York HarperCollins

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Case 6 Backman/Adams

• Researchers Carl Backman and Murray Adams
• Purpose to asses the importance of
  self-perceived physical attractiveness for
  self-esteem, with comparisons by race and gender
• Design questionnaire administered to sociology
  students at Auburn, Tuskegee, and Alabama State
• Date 1985
• Importance contribution to literatures on the
  effects of physical attractiveness and on
  differences by race in self-esteem

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Backman/Adams, cont.

• Importance for SOCY3700 illustration of typical
  academic study
• Source Backman, Carl B. and Murray C. Adams.
  1991. Self-Perceived Physical Attractiveness,
  Self-Esteem, Race, and Gender. Sociological
  Focus 24(4)283-90.

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Case 7 Policing in Buffalo

• Researchers Carl Backman and Ron Stewart
• Client Buffalo, NY Police Department
• really Gil Kerlikowske, Police Commissioner
• Purpose assess the attitudes and preferences of
  Buffalo citizens toward the police department
• Date 1984-5
• Design random telephone survey of 497 residents

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Policing in Buffalo, cont.

• Importance Intended for use in Buffalos
  community policing planning and to help bring new
  mayor and police commissioner up to speed on
  police-community relations
• Importance for SOCY3700
• Illustrates applied research for a client
• Illustrates form of final reports
• Source Carl B. Backman and Ron Stewart. 1995.
  Policing in Buffalo The Communitys Attitudes,
  Opinions, and Preferences. Final Report.

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Case 8 Lazarsfeld on The American Soldier

• Researcher Paul Lazarsfeld, commenting on
  research by Samuel Stouffer and others
• Date 1949
• Purpose to evaluate the extensive series of
  studies of soldiers conducted by the Army during
  World War II.
• Importance a spirited defense of survey
  research when much skepticism existed in the
  public and among the intelligentsia

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Case 8 Lazarsfeld on The American Soldier, cont.

• Importance for SOCY3700 explicitly makes the
  case for the primacy of empirical research in the
  scientific enterprise
• Lazarsfelds argument
• Surveys are in 1949 an increasingly important
  tool for social science
• Surveys have some limitations
• Some people think surveys are just an expensive
  way to discover what we already know from common
  sense

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Case 8 Lazarsfeld on The American Soldier, cont.

• Lazarsfelds argument (cont.)
• Lets examine the common sense argument with some
  representative results
• All the results can be explained by common sense
• All the results are the opposite of what was
  found!
• CONCLUSIONS
• Common sense is a lousy guide to truth
• Empirical observations are necessary to get at
  truth

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Case 8 Lazarsfeld on The American Soldier, cont

• Source Lazarsfeld, Paul F. 1949. The American
  Soldier An Expository Review. Public Opinion
  Quarterly 13377-81.