Sociology 513
Research Methods in Sociology (Graduates)
Spring 1996

Instructor: Richard A. Williams
471 Decio (631-6668)
Office Hours: TBA
Email: Richard.A.Williams.5@ND.EDU

Time and Place: Tuesday-Thursday, 11:00-12:15, 244 DeBartolo

Course objectives:

Sociology 513 is designed to provide an in-depth view of quantitative and qualitative research methods in the social sciences. Topics covered include (1) hypothesis formulation and theory construction (2) the measurement of sociological variables (3) data collection techniques - experimental, survey, and observational. At the end of the course, students should appreciate both the strengths and the limitations of sociological research techniques, and will hopefully have a solid foundation for beginning to conduct research on their own.

Texts:

REQUIRED:

The text is in the book store. The readings packet is in the Copy Shop, Lafortune Student Center. Most of the readings are from the Readings Packet.

Qualitative Research Methods, by Bruce L. Berg. 1989. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

Readings packet for Sociology 513, compiled by Richard Williams. 1994.

RECOMMENDED: (In the bookstore or on reserve in the library):

Profiles of Social Research, by Morton Hunt. 1985. New York: Russel Sage Foundation (Bookstore).

The Research Experience, by M. Patricia Golden. 1976. Itasca, IL: F. E. Peacock Publishers (Library).

You actually have a fair amount of required reading from the Golden and Hunt books, but, since they are relatively easy to follow, I will leave it to you to decide whether you would rather save money or save time in the library. My own recommendation would be to try to borrow the books from previous years' students.

READINGS PACKET:

The readings packet contains excerpts from the following:

The Handbook of Research Design and Social Measurement, by Delbert C. Miller. 1983. New York: Longman, Inc. (Also on Reserve)

Constructing Social Theories, by Arthur L. Stinchcombe. 1968. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

The Logic of Causal Order, by James A. Davis. 1985. Paper # 55 in the Sage Series on Quantitative Applications in the Social Sciences. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.

Quasi-Experimentation: Design and Analysis Issues for Field Settings, by Thomas D. Cook and Donald T. Campbell. 1979. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

Experimental and Quasi-Experimental Designs for Research, by Donald T. Campbell and Julian C. Stanley. 1966. Chicago: Rand McNally.

Handbook of Social Psychology, Third Edition, Vol. I. 1985. Edited by Gardner Lindzey and Elliot Aronson. New York: Random House.

Reliability and Validity Assessment, by Edward G. Carmines and Richard A. Zeller. 1979. Paper # 17 in the Sage Series on Quantitative Applications in the Social Sciences. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.

Survey Questions: Handcrafting the Standardized Questionnaire, by Jean M. Converse and Stanley Presser. 1986. Paper # 63 in the Sage Series on Quantitative Applications in the Social Sciences. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.

The Research Act: A Theoretical Introduction to Sociological Methods, by Norman K. Denzin. 1989. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall.

Research Methods in Social Relations, Sixth Edition, by Charles M. Judd, Eliot R. Smith, and Louise H. Kidder. 1991. Fort Worth: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.

Survey Research Methods by Floyd J. Fowler. 1984. Beverly Hills: Sage.

Survey Research Methods, 2nd edition, by Earl Babbie. 1990. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing.

Sample questions from previous exams, compiled by Richard Williams.

Final exam -- critique of Heckathorn/Broadhead AIDS experiment.

ALSO ON RESERVE:

The National Survey of Families and Households: Design and Content and Survey Instruments. 1988. Center for Demography and Ecology, University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Assignments, exams, grading:

There will be two exams during the semester (each will count for 15% of your grade), a final exam (25%), and three projects (15% each, 45% total). Exams will have multiple choice, true-false (correct the false), short problems and long essay questions. Being able to apply what has been learned to hypothetical or real problems is crucial. The final will be cumulative, with an emphasis on integrating concepts learned throughout the course. The final will be a take-home exam; we will discuss that later. The projects (which are at the end of this syllabus) give you the opportunity to apply what you have learned in class.

Format:

Classes will emphasize lectures with, hopefully, a lot of discussion. In lectures, I will try to pull together the most important ideas contained in the readings and provide supplementary material as needed. Discussions will emphasize the application of principles to real or hypothetical research problems. Regular attendance is expected.

I also hope to make extensive use of the instructional technology in Debartolo. I have done this in the past, and it seemed to work very well. Every class is different though, and the physical characteristics of the room can also affect how effective the computer presentations are. After a few classes, we will assess how well things are going.

I am often out of my office. However, I check my voice mail and Email regularly. People who learn to use Email will find that I am much more accessible to them!

TENTATIVE SCHEDULE
Sociology 513
Research Methods in Sociology (Graduates)
Spring 1996

Required readings are in italics; other readings are recommended. You often only have to read part of a chapter, so pay attention to what pages are required. I reserve the right to make changes in the schedule and reading materials.

Jan. 16 - Introduction.

Handbook of Research Design and Social Measurement, sections 2.1, 2.2, 2.3 (Guides to methods and techniques of collecting data in library, field, and laboratory); 5A, 5.D.4, 5.D.5, 5.E.2 (Research proposal, funding, costing, reporting, and utilization)

Qualitative Research Methods, ch. 11, "Writing research papers..."

Profiles of Social Research, ch. 2, "Dilemma in the classroom..."

Jan. 18, 23, 25, 30 - Principles of social research. Why do research; Choosing a problem; forming hypotheses; The logic of causal order.

Handbook of Research Design and Social Measurement, sections 1.1 - 1.7 (General description of the guides to research design and sampling)

Quasi-Experimentation: Design and Analysis Issues for Field Settings, ch. 1, "Causal inference and the language of experimentation," pp. 30-36 .

Constructing Social Theories, ch. 2, "The logic of scientific inference"

The Logic of Causal Order, pp. 7 - 34

Feb. 1, Feb. 6, 8, 13 - Experimentation. Advantages and disadvantages of experiments, threats to internal and external validity, Experimental design, Lab vs. field experiments, quasi-experiments, how to conduct an experiment. Note: everyone will be required to see the film Obedience, either on your own or, time permitting, in class.

Quasi-Experimentation, ch. 2, "Validity," pp. 37-50 (Statistical conclusion validity), pp. 50-59 (Internal validity), pp. 70-80 (External validity), and pp. 80-85 (Relationships among the different kinds of validity)

Experimental and quasi-experimental designs for research, pp. 13-26 (Three true experimental designs; skip the sections on Tests of significance)

Quasi-Experimentation, ch. 3, "Quasi-experiments: Nonequivalent Control group designs," pp. 95-103 (Three designs that often do not permit reasonable causal inferences), pp. 103-112 and 123-124 (Some generally interpretable nonequivalent control group designs); ch. 5, "Quasi-Experiments: Interrupted Time series designs," pp. 207-218; ch. 8, "The conduct of randomized experiments," pp. 341-346 (Introduction).

The Research Experience, ch. 3, "Experiments"

Profiles of Social Research, ch. 4, "One thing at a time..."; ch. 6, "Twenty thousand volunteers..."; also, pp. 41-48, "Experiments"

Handbook of Social Psychology, ch. 8, "Experimentation," pp. 441-466.

Feb. 15 - Finish up/ Review for first exam

Feb. 20 - First exam

Feb. 22, 27 - Measurement I. Levels of measurement, validity, reliability, random vs. nonrandom error.

Handbook of Research Design and Social Measurement, section 3.4 (Four levels of measurement...)

Reliability and validity assessment. pp. 9-51.

Feb. 29 - Project 1 due.

Feb. 29, Mar. 5 - Measurement II. Scaling, questionnaire construction.

Handbook of research design and Social Measurement, 2.16 (Guides for the selection and construction of social scales and indices), 3.10 (Factor analysis)

Survey Questions: Handcrafting the Standardized Questionnaire, pp. 9-51.

Handbook of research design, Part 4, pp. 271-274 (Selected sociometric scales and index); skim through rest of part 4. (On reserve in library)

The National Survey of Families and Households: Design and Content and Survey Instruments. Skim through the questionnaires that are included in the "Survey Instruments" section of the codebook. (On reserve in library)

Mar. 7 - Surveys I. Reasons for surveys, types of surveys, sample vs. population, types of samples, probability vs. nonprobability sampling

Survey Research Methods (Fowler), pp. 19-60.

Survey Research Methods (Babbie), pp. 97-101.

Handbook of research design, section 1.15 (The sampling chart).

Mar. 19, 21 - Surveys II. Examples of surveys, longitudinal designs, Administering surveys, Adv and disads of mail/telephone/personal interview approaches

Profiles of social research, pp. 35-41, "Surveys;" ch 3, "Sampling social reality;" ch. 5, "The slowest, costliest..."

The research experience, ch. 4, "Surveys"

Handbook of research design and Social Measurement, sections 2.4, 2.5, 2.6; 2.9 - 2.15 (Guides to methods and techniques of collecting survey data)

Survey Research Methods (Fowler), pp. 61-73.

Qualitative research methods, ch. 3, "A dramaturgical look at interviewing"

The National Survey of Families and Households. Skim through the opening section entitled "The design and content of the national survey of families and households." (On reserve in library)

Mar. 26 - Finish up/ Review for second exam

Mar. 28 - Second exam

April 2 - Overview of qualitative & case study research.

Qualitative research methods, ch 1, "Introduction"; ch. 2, "Designing qualitative research"

April 4, 9 - Indirect observation. Content analysis, unobtrusive measures, secondary analysis.

Qualitative research methods, ch. 9, "An introduction to content analysis"; ch. 7, "Unobtrusive measures in research"

The research experience, ch. 5, "Using available data"

Profiles of social research, pp. 21-35, "Indirect observation"

April 4 - Second project due

April 11, 16 - Direct Observation. Participant observation, field studies.

The Research Act, ch. 7, "Participant observation...", pp. 160-176.

Qualitative research methods, ch. 5, "Ethnographic field studies"

The research experience, ch. 2, "Field studies"

Profiles of social research, pp. 6-20, "Direct observation"

April 18 - Focus groups.

Qualitative research methods, ch. 4, "Focus group interviewing"

April 23,25 - Research ethics. Note: We will probably see the film series Protecting Human Subjects.

Qualitative research methods, ch. 10, "Ethical issues and concerns"

Research Methods in Social Relations, ch. 20, "Ethical Implications", pp. 477-528

April 30 - Finish up/ Review for final exam; Third project due

FIRST PROJECT: EXPERIMENTS

Sociology 513

In this project, you will formulate a hypothesis and design a lab and/or a field experiment to test it. You may choose either option A or B. Papers should be typed and double-spaced.

OPTION A:

(1) Develop a hypothesis on a topic that is interesting to you. Briefly explain why you think it would be important and worthwhile to test your hypothesis. Also explain why you think your hypothesis is plausible. For example, you might note how your hypothesis can be inferred from some sociological theory, how the hypothesis is consistent with your own personal observations, etc. Try to show that you have given some thought to the problem before blindly going out to investigate it. Your background in the logic of causal order may be useful here.

(2) Design either a lab or a field experiment to test your hypothesis. Ideally, the experiment will be something that could reasonably be conducted by a researcher with a small grant (or even by a student such as yourself).

(3) Discuss the following:

(a) How would you set the stage? What "cover story" (if any) would you use? That is, if your experiment uses deception, how would you keep subjects from becoming suspicious of the true nature of the experiment? Also, be sure to note just who your subjects would be (e.g., college students, riders on a subway, etc.), and where the experiment would take place.

(b) Explain how you would manipulate the independent variables. Be very explicit as to what the treatment would be, and explain why you think the treatment is appropriate given your hypothesis. Also explain how you would go about controlling for extraneous influences - for example, would you use random assignment to groups? If you didn't (or couldn't) use random assignment, what would you do to safeguard against threats to internal validity?

(c) Discuss how you would measure the dependent variable. Again, be very explicit as to what the dependent variable is, and why you think it is appropriate. Note whether you would rely on the respondent's own reports, or whether you would rely on observations of his/her actions.

(4) Critique your experiment. Note how well or how poorly it deals with threats to internal and external validity. Be sure to note the advantages and disadvantages of the type of setting you have chosen. Point out any problems you think you may encounter. Most research is not perfect, and good researchers recognize and acknowledge the limitations of their work.

(5) Papers should be 5 to 8 pages long.

OPTION B:

Same as option A, except that you may work together with one other person, and you should design and discuss BOTH a lab and a field experiment. While both experiments should test the same hypothesis, the actual procedures used should be as different as possible; that is, you should have very different ways of operationalizing your dependent and independent variables. (The different ways that Latane and Darley and Piliavin looked at the "diffusion of responsibility" hypothesis is a good example of the sort of thing I want). Your critique should make a point of contrasting the strengths and weaknesses of your two experiments; also, you might indicate whether you think your results could differ because of differences in the setting or in the way you have operationalized your concepts. Co-authored papers should be 8 to 12 pages long.

HINTS:

When looking for inspiration for your hypothesis, you may find it helpful to refer to some of the other coursework you have had in sociology or other fields. It is not essential, but doing a little bit of research on the topic you are interested in (and briefly reviewing that research in your paper) could be tremendously helpful.

It is permissible to use one of the readings from Golden as a source of inspiration for your hypothesis. However, your experiment(s) should be radically different, i.e. don't just make one or two little changes. For example, taking Goldberg's "Misogyny and the college girl" and substituting blacks for women would not be acceptable. It would be okay if you could figure out how to conduct a substantially different field experiment which examined whether women discriminated against other women in some important way.

If you choose option B, you and your partner may find it useful to first agree on the hypothesis you will be examining. One person could then design a lab experiment while the other works on a field experiment. This would minimize the risk that the experiments will be too similar, and you could then work together to "fine-tune" each other's proposals.

You may find the personal logs in Golden very useful for seeing how researchers got an idea, how they developed an experiment to test their idea, and how they dealt with the practical problems they encountered in the course of their work.

When grading, I will be primarily interested in how well the paper illustrates your understanding of lab and field experiments and your appreciation for threats to internal and external validity. Beyond that, I will consider such things as how innovative and original the experiment is, the complexity of the experiment, how well you have thought out the issues you wish to address, how feasible it would be to actually conduct the experiment, and your appreciation for problems researchers are likely to encounter.

Sociology 513

Second project: Surveys and Measurement

The Catholic Church has been shocked by charges of sexual abuse by the clergy. Shaken, the Pope has commissioned Notre Dame, the greatest Catholic research institution in the world, to get to the bottom of this controversy. The Pope is determined to find out whether recent charges are only isolated incidents or merely the tip of an iceberg. He will spare no expense in getting to the truth.

There is general agreement that some sort of survey research is called for. Beyond that, confusion reigns. No one is quite sure who should be surveyed, let alone how. As the most talented and gifted students in the University, it is up to you to propose a coherent strategy.

In making your recommendations, you may wish to address some (but not necessarily all) of the following issues:

The Pope wants to get this settled as soon as possible. Your recommendations should be typed, double-spaced, and 6 to 8 pages long. If you prefer to work with a partner and come up with a much more exhaustive discussion, the paper can be twice as long.

HINTS:

1. Be careful that your answer is not too generic. People who have received similar assignments in the past have tended to repeat what was said in lecture, without explaining why and how it was relevant for this particular problem.

2. Try to get some inspiration from the readings. The experiences of other researchers may be helpful as you try to design and discuss your own study.

3. Remember, the Pope is not a social scientist. Your paper should be written so that non-specialists can comprehend it. Examples may be a big help.

4. Don't be overly broad. Try to pick what you think are the most crucial issues, and develop them in depth. As noted, you do not necessarily need to cover every possible issue. If you really want to cover everything, you might want to take on a partner.

5. If you work with a partner, you could perhaps agree to discuss specific areas, and then critique each other's work.

Sociology 513

Third project: Content Analysis

The Alumnae Association wants to see how the attitudes and interests of Notre Dame students have changed over the last 30 years. Some of the things they want to investigate include (1) religious attitudes (e.g. are students less religious than they used to be?) (2) attitudes toward women (have N.D. students become more "feminist" or less "sexist"?) (3) reasons for getting an N.D. education (are today's students more motivated by career concerns, and less motivated by other benefits of education?) (4) social consciousness (are students more concerned or less concerned about social issues than they used to be?) and (5) students' perceptions about the quality of education they are receiving (has increased emphasis on research led students to be less satisfied today than in the past?)

Choose one of these topics (or, with the instructor's permission, some other topic that you think would also be worth examining). Explain to the Alumnae Association how content analysis could be used to research this topic. You don't need to go over all aspects of content analysis, but you should be sure to discuss the following:

(1) What would an appropriate sample frame be? The student newspaper is one obvious source, but suggest other documents that might be worth considering, and why. Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of this sample frame -- in particular, are there any important ways in which the sample frame might be biased?

(2) What are some of the categories that should be used? A complete set of categories probably cannot be specified until after the analysis is well underway, but you ought to be able to suggest at least four or five categories that are likely to be relevant. Give examples of the types of statements that would be coded in each category. (Note: Examples drawn from actual documents are likely to be the most helpful. Be sure to provide the source for any illustrations you use, e.g. "The Observer", Dec. 5, 1975).

(3) (Optional) You can discuss other ways in which content analysis could be useful. For example, previous students have taken a quantitative approach, counting the frequency with which topics were mentioned or the amount of space allotted to them.

Your recommendations should be typed, double-spaced, and 5 to 8 pages long.

HINTS:

1. The rare book department and the archives of the library contain all sorts of material on N.D. You will almost certainly find it helpful to go browsing through them. These are not always open, however, so do not wait until the last minute to start your research! [NOTE: In the past, the library has sometimes been overwhelmed by the sudden invasion of my students! To make things easier for them and you, I will try to schedule training sessions to learn how to use the archives.]

2. Try to use a variety of sources, from a variety of times. Only using the last two weeks of the Observer is not a good strategy!

3. The examples from Golden on content analysis should be extremely useful to you. Go over them carefully so you have an idea as to how a good content analysis study can proceed.

4. Remember, the Alumnae Association is not only interested in students' attitudes, it is interested in how attitudes have changed across time. Your discussion should indicate how content analysis could be used to detect such changes, e.g. what sorts of things would indicate that students had become less sexist?