Lecture 1 - Research Methods PDF

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Lecture 1 by Sam...

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Research Methods: Sam Shirazi 2/1/2021 ● Guiding Questions: ○ What do social scientists research? ○ Why do we need research ○ How can we identify solid social research vs. other less credible sources? ○ How do we know what we know? ● How do we know what we know? ○ A gender wage gap exists, men make more money than women in comparable occupations ○ Birthrates in the united states have remained relatively steady over recent decades ○ Earning a college degree is associated with higher earnings and better health compared to not earning a degree ○ If you are on facebook right now, you will be less likely to retain info than your classmates who are paying attention ○ These statements have been interrogated ■ Imperial Testing, Data collection, and Analysis ● Research is the Science of Knowing ○ Why and assumption or hypothesis is the case ○ Come to a conclusion about a thing or trend you are asking ○ Not to prove if something is correct ○ Social scientist work to provide explanations for what happens in the world ● Epistemology: The science of Knowing ○ Logic: Strict reasoning (it must make sense) ○ Methodology: The science of finding out ○ Empirical conclusions: Based on, or verified by, actual data ■ Essentially the scientific method ○ Key Point: Social science research involves logical reasoning followed by empirical support ● Making Scientific Claims ○ In general: social scientists work to make claims that have both logical and empirical support ■ Theory - why this exist and relationship ■ Test it by analyzing ○ Cumulative knowledge ■ We base our studies on the body of knowledge that has already been built within the field ■ Literature review ● Reviewing the current literature ● Giving the reader the logical underpinning for your claim ● BASING ON PRIOR RESEARCH or theory ■ Probabilistic causation

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Extremely complicated network of factors than other fields Increasing likelihood’s vs.definitive answers No determinism ○ If x happens then y happens, is not applicable o

Super Bowl ○ Chiefs chance to win the Super Bowl is 53% ○ This does not mean that the chiefs will win the Super Bowl Scientific Claims vs. Uncle Jim’s Claims ○ Social Science Claim ■ High school students from high income families have higher odds of attending college than low income students ■ Each star a business has on yelp affects sale by 5% - 9% ■ Each 1% increase in GDP is associated with 1.25% increase in greenhouse gas emissions ○ Uncle Jim ■ When my knee hurts, it's going to rain ■ If you knock on wood, the thing you use said definitely won't happen ■ Women are better suited or housework than men ○ Key Points: Scientist use probabilistic causation when making claims Avoiding Illogical Reasoning ○ Stereotypes ■ “Woman are just more caring and empathetic than men” ● Simply observablelist ● Represent an observation of the world, rather than the relationship that gave rise to such ○ Beliefs and conspiracies ■ Anti-vax and “QAnon” ○ “Common Sense” ■ Things in society taken as common nature ● Not empirically impelling claims ■ “Well that’s just human nature” or “that’s just the way it is” ■ Gambler’s Fallacy ● It really is just chance, you can’t reliably predict it ● “A gambler rolls a dice ten times to get a 6, but doesn’t get a 6, that means a6 is coming soon” is completely false, there might never be a 6 ○ There’s are NOT empirically sound Foundations of Social Science ○ Theory ○ Social Regularities ○ Aggregates, Not Individuals ○ Concept and Variables ○ The purposes of Social research ○ The Ethics of Human Inquiry

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Theory is Linked to Research ○ Often, we will here people sat, “it’s not proven, it is just a theory” ■ Theory’s give u a framework to see what something means, or we there it can be tested ■ But in social science, theory is what links logic to empirical data ■ Theory guides our choices in research and helps us consider interesting questions ■ We can’t research just anything, we need a theoretical basis ● I hypothesize that as individuals eat more Taco Bell, they will be more likely to pass research methods ■ Theory provides us with logical reasoning, we then need to formulate our question and empirical strategy Theory ○ Social Science theory has to do with what is, not what should be ■ Grounded in previous work (knowledge) ■ Logical and empirical support ■ Neither ideological nor philosophical ○ Cannot settle debates on values ■ Capitalism is better than socialism ■ Ken Durant is the greatest human on earth (before he betrayed the Thunder) ○ Scientific Theory must be based on an agreed upon set of criterion than can be empirically tested Theory of the Best Car ○ In developing a theory of the best car, what objective criterion can we use? Social Regularities ○ In social science, we aim to find the pattern in social life ○ The vast number of formal norms in society create a considerable degree of regularity ■ Not normal to be chased by an axe wielding maniac, thusly is regular to go outside not worrying about it ■ This makes our job much easier, our lives are not just chaos and randomness (in the long run) ○ There will always be expectations, but social regularities are the rule! But, Avoid Overgeneralization ○ Social scientists research social regularities and patterns, but we must avoid the overgeneralization fallacy. ○ Overgeneralization: making broad generalizations based on a few similar events ○ Examples ■ I know several bald men who are musicians, therefore all bald men must be musically talented ■ I know three Canadians, they’re all good at math; so, Canadians are good at math Aggregates, Not Individuals

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In social science, we study the aggregate, not individuals (at least when generalizing) ■ Social patterns, not individual decisions ○ Create theories about the nature of group, rather than individual, life ■ Explain why an aggregate pattern exists ■ Interactions between groups, individuals, societies ■ Help understand the systems in which we operate Aggregate vs. Individual Example ○ Aggregate (populations) ■ Students who multitask in class, on average, have lower test scores than those who do not ■ Job applicants of color are less likely to be called back by employers than white candidates ○ Individual ■ Sally multitasks in class, but she did better on the test than Jerry, who paid attention ■ We can conclude something about Sally, but not all students ■ Individuals are hard to understand...