Introducing Social Science Research (Scientific Method).
Vocabulary
Quizlet on Social Science Research
Data
Quantified facts or statistics
Theory
An idea that may or may not be proven (The earth is flat; the earth is round)
Statistics (the data)
The actual numbers, quantity and data collected and sorted
Scientific Method
A step-by-step method of investigation involving observation and theory to test the scientific assumption
Background research / literature review
Literature review or research on the topic
Hypothesis
An idea based on observation or other thought
To confirm a hypothesis
To prove that the idea was correct
To reject a hypothesis
to disprove or argue against the main idea
Qualitative
Data in the form of recorded descriptions rather than numerical measurements.
Quantitative
Capable of being measured or expressed as an amount
Variable
A factor that can change in an experiment
Likert Scale
A way of organizing categories on a survey question that ranks preferences on a numerical scale
Independent Variable
The experimental factor that is changed; the variable whose effect is being studied.
Dependent Variable
The variable that is measured in an experiment;
the measurable effect, outcome, or response in which the research is interested.
APA Style
American Psychological Association style for writing and citations.
Plagiarism
a piece of writing that has been copied from someone else and is presented as being your own work
Empirical
based on observation or experiment
In-text citation (APA)
Cummings, Butler and Kraut (2002)
APA Reference
Cummings, J. N., Butler, B., & Kraut, R. (2002). The quality of online social relationships. Communications of the ACM, 45(7), 103-108.
Participant Consent
A researcher asks for permission of the subject or person to be included in the survey or study
Confidentiality agreement
the researcher is committed to keep all of the subject or person's information confidential
Research Ethics
Standards of conduct that researchers must honour and protect their research participants from physical or psychological harm.
Ethics in Social Science Research
What is Ethics?
Ethics – ‘that branch of philosophy dealing with values relating to human conduct, with respect to the rightness and wrongness of certain actions and to the goodness and badness of the motives and ends of such actions.’
Ethical dilemmas are more likely to arise out of qualitative research, more so than in quantitative survey research. Because quantitative research relies on data, respondents to quantitative surveys will not be experimented upon, but there are still issues of informed consent and protecting the privacy of participants
Study of children, qualitative or quantitative, has additional requirements (background checks, etc.).
Ethical issues in Social Science research
All social science researchers should take the following into consideration:
Participant Safety
Participant Consent
Participant Privacy
Truthfulness
Internet research
Participant Safety
The researcher must ensure that no harm is being done to participants.
Harm to participants can include
physical harm,
mental harm (stress, anguish),
embarrassment, shaming
resentment at being labelled, etc.
Participant Consent
Researchers should tell participants that participating in research is a freedom of choice. No one can be forced into participating in a study. This means that researchers should seek the approval of participants or the approval of their guardians. Participating in research should be done is voluntary – research disrupts the respondent’s normal activity, it should be on the basis of informed consent,
How to observe with vulnerable populations who may not be able to give consent: children, mentally challenged, elderly, people with mental health issues?
Bias
Is your volunteer sample representative?
Can you generalise your results to the wider population if only volunteers take part?
Participant Privacy
Researchers should respect the privacy of participants and never disclose information without their knowledge
Anonymity – Respondent not identified in any way.
Confidentiality – Information is confidential. Is this always possible?
What if immoral or illegal activities are revealed?
Data quality - a later researcher cannot check whether questionnaires have been completed.
Truthfulness
Researchers should be truthful about the purpose of their research when they talk to participants
Deception – Deceiving respondents and participants about the nature of research.
What level of deception is acceptable?
Sometimes you may need to be ‘economical with the truth’ to get interviews.
Internet Research
Exciting area for new research, but ethical and data quality issues need careful consideration.
Are online postings ‘public’ and therefore informed consent is not required?
How can a researcher protect the confidentiality of an individual when using what they’ve posted online?
As technology and culture change at a rapid pace, these issues are causing new ethical guidelines to be discussed and drawn up.
Blue-eye/Brown-eye
Jane Elliott’s experiment in 1968 gave us profound insight into human behavior.
Think of the children in the video, was the experiment ethical? Why/why not?
Ethics Today
Social science studies can have a powerful effect on the people taking part in them. How?
Early social scientists sometimes did not know this. Why not?
Ethics committees have developed around the world to prevent harm from happening to people. Why?
Research Methods
Mixed methods research uses both quantitative and qualitative techniques, in an effort to build convincing claims about the relationships between attributes and outcomes
Independent and Dependent Variables
Learn the difference between and use of independent variables (what is changed or changes) and dependent variables (what is measured).
Quizlet, click HERE.
Independent Variables influence the Dependent Variable
For example, the Level of Education in a society may be shown to be reliant upon as well as to influence the Level of Income. In that case, the Level of Education found among a social group, or social class is an independent variable that can correlate with the Level of Income, the dependent variable.
In the Social Sciences, Independent Variables may be represented in the X Axis on an Excel Chart and the Dependent Variable may be represented along the Y Axis. Therefore we can usually designate the value of the Independent Variable with the symbol X, and the value of the Dependent Variable as Y (Witt & Hermiston, 2010, p. 27)
Another example is the amount of Time Spent Studying for a Quiz. This is an independent variable that will influence the Perfromanc on a Quiz (the dependent variable)
1. In this worksheet go to Gapminder
https://www.gapminder.org/tools/#$chart-type=bubbles
In the X Axis select a data set that is an independent variable and in the Y Axis select a data set that would measure as a dependent variable.
Go the chart that shows the level of Education for Women aged 25-34 in X Axis and the level of income in the Y Axis. You may change the parameters or data set to see different combinations as well as to select or deselect countries (the various circles that are shown)
See the Screenshot below for an example. Explore other possibilities and see what you come up with.
Preferences and Beliefs in Ingroup Favouritism
Ingroup favoritism—the tendency to favor members of one’s own group over those in other groups—is well documented, but the mechanisms driving this behavior are not well understood. In particular, it is unclear to what extent ingroup favoritism is driven by preferences concerning the welfare of ingroup over outgroup members, vs. beliefs about the behavior of ingroup and outgroup members. In this review we analyze research on ingroup favoritism in economic games, identifying key gaps in the literature and providing suggestions on how future work can incorporate these insights to shed further light on when, why, and how ingroup favoritism occurs. In doing so, we demonstrate how social psychological theory and research can be integrated with findings from behavioral economics, providing new theoretical and methodological directions for future research.
Retrieved: http://www.jimaceverett.com/publications/preferences-and-beliefs-in-ingroup-favouritism/
Year: 2015, Journal Article, Authors: Jim A.C. Everett, Nadira S. Faber, Molly J. Crockett
Source: Frontiers in Behavioural Neuroscience (9)
Urlhttps://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2015.00015, BibTeX.
Bias in Research
The Hawthorne Effect
When someone is being watched they behave differently
Confirmation Bias
When you look for information to agree with your hypothesis
Halo Effect
When your impression of someone affects your thoughts, feelings and behavior towards that person.
In-group bias
Preferential treatment towards one's in-group and against outsiders
Projection bias
The belief that everyone agrees with you or understands what you mean.
Self-fulfilling prophesy
To behave in ways that unconsciously confirm our beliefs
White Hat bias
To bias information towards what we morally believe is true
Optimism Bias
To overly estimate the success or good results (similar to confirmation bias)
Find Quizlet HERE.
Vocabulary
Quizlet on Social Science Research
Data
Quantified facts or statistics
Theory
An idea that may or may not be proven (The earth is flat; the earth is round)
Statistics (the data)
The actual numbers, quantity and data collected and sorted
Scientific Method
A step-by-step method of investigation involving observation and theory to test the scientific assumption
Background research / literature review
Literature review or research on the topic
Hypothesis
An idea based on observation or other thought
To confirm a hypothesis
To prove that the idea was correct
To reject a hypothesis
to disprove or argue against the main idea
Qualitative
Data in the form of recorded descriptions rather than numerical measurements.
Quantitative
Capable of being measured or expressed as an amount
Variable
A factor that can change in an experiment
Likert Scale
A way of organizing categories on a survey question that ranks preferences on a numerical scale
Independent Variable
The experimental factor that is changed; the variable whose effect is being studied.
Dependent Variable
The variable that is measured in an experiment;
the measurable effect, outcome, or response in which the research is interested.
APA Style
American Psychological Association style for writing and citations.
Plagiarism
a piece of writing that has been copied from someone else and is presented as being your own work
Empirical
based on observation or experiment
In-text citation (APA)
Cummings, Butler and Kraut (2002)
APA Reference
Cummings, J. N., Butler, B., & Kraut, R. (2002). The quality of online social relationships. Communications of the ACM, 45(7), 103-108.
Participant Consent
A researcher asks for permission of the subject or person to be included in the survey or study
Confidentiality agreement
the researcher is committed to keep all of the subject or person's information confidential
Research Ethics
Standards of conduct that researchers must honour and protect their research participants from physical or psychological harm.
Ethics in Social Science Research
What is Ethics?
Ethics – ‘that branch of philosophy dealing with values relating to human conduct, with respect to the rightness and wrongness of certain actions and to the goodness and badness of the motives and ends of such actions.’
Ethical dilemmas are more likely to arise out of qualitative research, more so than in quantitative survey research. Because quantitative research relies on data, respondents to quantitative surveys will not be experimented upon, but there are still issues of informed consent and protecting the privacy of participants
Study of children, qualitative or quantitative, has additional requirements (background checks, etc.).
Ethical issues in Social Science research
All social science researchers should take the following into consideration:
Participant Safety
Participant Consent
Participant Privacy
Truthfulness
Internet research
Participant Safety
The researcher must ensure that no harm is being done to participants.
Harm to participants can include
physical harm,
mental harm (stress, anguish),
embarrassment, shaming
resentment at being labelled, etc.
Participant Consent
Researchers should tell participants that participating in research is a freedom of choice. No one can be forced into participating in a study. This means that researchers should seek the approval of participants or the approval of their guardians. Participating in research should be done is voluntary – research disrupts the respondent’s normal activity, it should be on the basis of informed consent,
How to observe with vulnerable populations who may not be able to give consent: children, mentally challenged, elderly, people with mental health issues?
Bias
Is your volunteer sample representative?
Can you generalise your results to the wider population if only volunteers take part?
Participant Privacy
Researchers should respect the privacy of participants and never disclose information without their knowledge
Anonymity – Respondent not identified in any way.
Confidentiality – Information is confidential. Is this always possible?
What if immoral or illegal activities are revealed?
Data quality - a later researcher cannot check whether questionnaires have been completed.
Truthfulness
Researchers should be truthful about the purpose of their research when they talk to participants
Deception – Deceiving respondents and participants about the nature of research.
What level of deception is acceptable?
Sometimes you may need to be ‘economical with the truth’ to get interviews.
Internet Research
Exciting area for new research, but ethical and data quality issues need careful consideration.
Are online postings ‘public’ and therefore informed consent is not required?
How can a researcher protect the confidentiality of an individual when using what they’ve posted online?
As technology and culture change at a rapid pace, these issues are causing new ethical guidelines to be discussed and drawn up.
Blue-eye/Brown-eye
Jane Elliott’s experiment in 1968 gave us profound insight into human behavior.
Think of the children in the video, was the experiment ethical? Why/why not?
Ethics Today
Social science studies can have a powerful effect on the people taking part in them. How?
Early social scientists sometimes did not know this. Why not?
Ethics committees have developed around the world to prevent harm from happening to people. Why?
Research Methods
Mixed methods research uses both quantitative and qualitative techniques, in an effort to build convincing claims about the relationships between attributes and outcomes
Independent and Dependent Variables
Learn the difference between and use of independent variables (what is changed or changes) and dependent variables (what is measured).
Quizlet, click HERE.
Independent Variables influence the Dependent Variable
For example, the Level of Education in a society may be shown to be reliant upon as well as to influence the Level of Income. In that case, the Level of Education found among a social group, or social class is an independent variable that can correlate with the Level of Income, the dependent variable.
In the Social Sciences, Independent Variables may be represented in the X Axis on an Excel Chart and the Dependent Variable may be represented along the Y Axis. Therefore we can usually designate the value of the Independent Variable with the symbol X, and the value of the Dependent Variable as Y (Witt & Hermiston, 2010, p. 27)
Another example is the amount of Time Spent Studying for a Quiz. This is an independent variable that will influence the Perfromanc on a Quiz (the dependent variable)
1. In this worksheet go to Gapminder
https://www.gapminder.org/tools/#$chart-type=bubbles
In the X Axis select a data set that is an independent variable and in the Y Axis select a data set that would measure as a dependent variable.
Go the chart that shows the level of Education for Women aged 25-34 in X Axis and the level of income in the Y Axis. You may change the parameters or data set to see different combinations as well as to select or deselect countries (the various circles that are shown)
See the Screenshot below for an example. Explore other possibilities and see what you come up with.
Preferences and Beliefs in Ingroup Favouritism
Ingroup favoritism—the tendency to favor members of one’s own group over those in other groups—is well documented, but the mechanisms driving this behavior are not well understood. In particular, it is unclear to what extent ingroup favoritism is driven by preferences concerning the welfare of ingroup over outgroup members, vs. beliefs about the behavior of ingroup and outgroup members. In this review we analyze research on ingroup favoritism in economic games, identifying key gaps in the literature and providing suggestions on how future work can incorporate these insights to shed further light on when, why, and how ingroup favoritism occurs. In doing so, we demonstrate how social psychological theory and research can be integrated with findings from behavioral economics, providing new theoretical and methodological directions for future research.
Retrieved: http://www.jimaceverett.com/publications/preferences-and-beliefs-in-ingroup-favouritism/
Year: 2015, Journal Article, Authors: Jim A.C. Everett, Nadira S. Faber, Molly J. Crockett
Source: Frontiers in Behavioural Neuroscience (9)
Urlhttps://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2015.00015, BibTeX.
Bias in Research
The Hawthorne Effect
When someone is being watched they behave differently
Confirmation Bias
When you look for information to agree with your hypothesis
Halo Effect
When your impression of someone affects your thoughts, feelings and behavior towards that person.
In-group bias
Preferential treatment towards one's in-group and against outsiders
Projection bias
The belief that everyone agrees with you or understands what you mean.
Self-fulfilling prophesy
To behave in ways that unconsciously confirm our beliefs
White Hat bias
To bias information towards what we morally believe is true
Optimism Bias
To overly estimate the success or good results (similar to confirmation bias)
Find Quizlet HERE.
