Lecture Three - Research Methods

This lecture will cover an introduction to information society and research methods.  I will not cover the research process but the types of methods.   In this lecture, we cover information society, and then the standard methods of data collection.

I. Information Society

We are on the edge of a new society.  We are in an era characterized by continuous change, advancing information technologies, and an expanding global economic system.  Information society, as we will see in later chapters, means that the processing, dissemination, and creation of information is becoming more important for our occupations and social relationships.  We are moving from developing things to developing ideas.  The research methods used in the social sciences today are a byproduct of the technological explosion beginning during and after WWII.  Surveys are now a  common tool used in advertising, industry, human services, and government.  As a research technique, interviewing has existed for a long time.  Today, we take it for granted that we will be interviewed and part of our education involves training for interviews.  We are training to be knowledge workers.  

Information society is characterized by cyber space, telecommunications, and virtual reality.  We no longer have to travel to different locations to interface with others if we operate multinationals or teach courses in more than one location.  Today, we operate communications which break down the time and space barriers between people and groups. Virtual reality is more than a video game, its a new paradigm where we communicate with others without being physically near them. Of course an internet class is a form of virtual reality.  In the near future we will have video courses where students are connected to home monitors.  We now have virtual offices which travel to where we can be doing other things.  One of my fellow professors wants to teach on Cherokee Lake and another on his sailboat to Italy to see his sweetie.  And so on.  These changes are part of the emerging global village or globalization process.

 The information explosion in relatively recent.  The industrial revolution led to the massive social change in the 18th and 19th centuries.  The information society is very recent emerging after World War Two.

The microprocessor is about 30 years old.  I'm 39 years old.  I feel older than my computer.  It is estimated that 80 percent of all scientists who have ever lived are alive today and the amount of information available in the world doubles every 18 months.  The information age requires adapting to increased speed, interconnected information systems, and continuous training to obtain new skills.  Most of us will retrain every two to three years in our occupation. I have about 15 years of college and am now learning front page, WebCT, and the internet while I teach five classes. Simply put, information is becoming more important to the relative success of an individual or group.

The following methods are useful for sociologists.  But they are also used in a number of circumstances in every occupation.  Everyone in the modern economy uses social research methods to some extent.  The list includes advertisers, business executives, accountants, real estate sales people, teachers, among others.  This is why I want you to address how they might be used in your current or perceived future occupation.

II. Methods of Data Collection

The text offers a good overview of research methods and type of methods.  I will also overview the main features of each. 

Self-administered questionnaires - Are often used with a survey. A survey is a questionnaire with a specified set of questions and either a specified set of responses or an open ended format.   We have all filled out a survey. Satisfaction in the service industries or (dissatisfaction) is a topic. Do you like ketchup? or What is your perspective on the following issue or proposal?  We are often frustrated by the lack of opportunity to put in our our categories or the limitations of the questions asked.  We may want to write our own answers.  Surveys are useful to reach large amounts of people.  They can be distributed cheaply taking very little time.  They are said to be objective because the researcher cannot influence the person taking the survey.  A survey can, however, lead to dispute as to the meaning of a question.  Also a person may throw the survey in the trash.  A survey with a 50 percent response rate is considered average.  Surveys are best for certain questions.  Very few people will respond to a very personal question such as sexual preference or offensive questions.  Rape or previous abortions are not good general survey questions.  

Researchers use samples when doing survey research.  Page 45 in your text overviews sampling.  Large numbers of people can be questioned using sampling.   Surveys are inexpensive and can be easily quantified.  One critique is that surveys cannot capture the richness of feelings and attitudes people have concerning a subject.  A respondent is often not able to elaborate on a survey question because they have fixed responses.  Surveys are best for attitudes and understanding  satisfaction.

Would you take another internet class?  Examples of responses include: Yes/No/Don't Know.  Very Likely/Unlikely/Very Unlikely.  I certainly hope so.  Some surveys have open-ended responses to allow for more information from the respondent. This allows a person to express their views.  Why would you not take another internet class?  For instance is an open-ended question.

Surveys are inexpensive and provide easy access to a large population.  Graduate students often do surveys for professors.  Surveys can be mailed out as self-administered questionnaires or they can be in the form of a telephone interview.  

Interviews - Another type of research tool is the interview.  Surveys often are used as pilot studies which then allow the researcher to come up with detailed questions to ask in an interview format.  Interviews can be structured or unstructured.  Structured maintain a list of questions which are asked.  A job interview is a structured interview.  (or supposed to be).  It is illegal to ask about sexual orientation, marriage, race and other traits in a job interview.  So a script must be followed.  On the other hand, unstructured interviews allow the researcher to go off the question schedule to gain in-depth, detailed knowledge about a subject matter.  Interviews are used to create knowledge.  Interviews are very expensive and time consuming.  They are used in all aspects of the social system.  Human resource specialists use interviews to make a number of decisions such as hiring and firing.  Social workers must interview clients to solve their problems.  Counselors must draw out issues from individuals who may or may not seek treatment or guidance for a problem.  A good interviewer must not use leading questions which may determine how someone responds.  A leading question might sound like this, "Don't you think the government should be spending less money on welfare?"  This will lead to bias.  We all know that welfare should be cut is what the sentence is saying.   

Participant Observation  Participant observation (PO) is a method based a detailed observation by a researcher who becomes involved in a group. Police officers and journalist often become members of a group in order to complete their job assignments. PO gives us first hand knowledge of the direct experience of subjects.  The goal is to gain an in-dept understanding of a gang, subculture, or social group.  You might become an autoworker, a student, or a villager.  Drug dealers, the KKK, or a social group can best be studied from inside the group.

In addition, ethnography and fieldwork are methods used by anthropologists.  This type of participant observation involves months or years of research time with a group.  Few of us will do fieldwork but many of us will have to research other cultures in order to work with them.  Today more than in the past you will be traveling with your job.  You will have to research a culture before you do business with it, advertise to it, or engage in any intercultural relationship.  The changing cultural and racial make up means using a combination of the above methods even fieldwork will not necessarily be unlikely.  This means understanding the family system of migrant workers from Mexico or how Germans do business.  For instance it is considered rude to rush a business deal in most countries. Germans do not like to use formal or intimate greeting with strangers.  They consider it rude.  The reverse is the true for east Tennesseans.  We will speak more about cultural differences later.  Take a break.  Breath deeply.  Pet the cat.  Read On.  

Available Information, Secondary or Archival Sources  There are many preexisting sources used in the social sciences.  Your text you get a definition of existing sources.  Government documents, newspapers, texts, and manuscripts all serve many different purposes.  Personal sources such as letters, diaries, newspapers, movies, art, literature, and everyday acts serve as research.  Garbage even leaves clues to the human mind and society.  Gee, what did I leave behind today?

Sociologist use records of public meetings, court records, organizations minutes (Welfare Rights, The NRA, The PTA, or the the sociology club) to study social groups.  Many of you will do the same in your job.   

Examples of Web sites with official data:

http:www.cdc.gov   The Center for Disease Control (CDC) is a national center providing data on the demographics of disease.

http:www.who.int/en/  The World Health Organization  (WHO) provides data on global health issues related not only to disease but also poverty, development, and other aspects of health.

http:www.fbi.gov/   The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) provides data on crimes against persons and property.  The FBI provides much of the data used by police departments to determine the crime rate.

Other Sites

Surveys and Statistics

http://www.asanet.org/media/surveyspols.html          Making Sense of Surveys

http://members.bellatlantic.net/~abelson/                   Survey Search Engine

http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/                                     Census 2000 Search

http://stats.bls.gov/                                                   Bureau of Labor Statistics

http://www.researchresources.net/                            Survey  Research Database

http://www.researchresources.net/socio.htm             Sociology Statistics

Oral Histories

http://www.uccb.ns.ca/mikmaq/oralhis.html              Oral Histories

http://www.uky.edu/Libraries/Special/oral_history/     Oral History University of Kentucky

http://www.mtsu.edu/~library/wtn/wtn-oral.html         Oral History: Tennessee Women

http://www.dohistory.org/on_your_own/toolkit/oralHistory.html   How to Do Oral History

Ethnography

http://www.aaanet.org/resinet.htm                              Resources in Anthropology

http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~i9248809/cultural.html     Resources in Anthropology

http://home.bredband.no/perdeh/fieldwork.htm           Fieldwork

http://www.slis.ualberta.ca/guides/canthro/anthro.htm  Internet Resources for Anthropology 

http://www.melanesia.org/fieldwork/tamakoshil/          Fieldwork