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METHODS OF SOCIAL
RESEARCH
Introduction to Family Studies
WHAT IS SOCIOLOGY?
Sociological & Policy Perspectives on
Families
pops into your mind when you think
about Sociology?
 What do sociologists study?
 How is sociological thinking different from
other social science disciplines?
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 What
THE SOCIOLOGICAL APPROACH


Sociological & Policy Perspectives on
Families

Sociology focuses on how social forces
influence individual behavior, actions, and
feelings.
AND
Sociology examines how the interaction of
individuals and small groups influence the
economic or social change?
Humans viewed as both puppets and
puppeteers
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
THINKING LIKE A SOCIOLOGIST

Social structure: is a stable
framework of social relationships
that guides our interaction with
others
Sociological & Policy Perspectives on
Families
this class, we will focus on
how families are influenced by
the larger social structure
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In
Micro Level
Sociological & Policy Perspectives on
Families
Macro Level
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THE SOCIOLOGICAL APPROACH
Social institutions
A social institution is a major sphere of
social life with rules and roles that define a
social unit of importance to society
A social institution is a visible structure that
people can recognize and understand
Families are a social institution
Sociological & Policy Perspectives on
Families

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The Sociological Approach –
The Macro Level
THE SOCIOLOGICAL APPROACH – THE
MACRO LEVEL
Family sociologists examine how these social institutions interact and how they
influence behaviors, attitudes, and opportunities in families
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
Government
Education
Families
Religion
Healthcare
Sociological & Policy Perspectives on
Families
Economy
THINKING LIKE A SOCIOLOGIST

Social structure: is a stable
framework of social relationships
that guides our interaction with
others
Sociological & Policy Perspectives on
Families
this class, we will focus on
how families are influenced by
the larger social structure
5/25/2017
In
Sociological & Policy Perspectives on
Families
The macro level comprises:
Social Status
 Social statuses are:
the social positions people occupy and
the privileges and constraints that are
attached to these positions

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The Sociological Approach
– The Macro Level
Sociological & Policy Perspectives on
Families
This hierarchical arrangement of people
in terms of power, prestige, and
resources is called social stratification
 These hierarchies in the U.S. are often
based on race/ethnicity, education,
income, and gender
 Think about how your race or gender
or age has blocked your from an
opportunity or given you an advantage

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The Sociological Approach
– The Macro Level
THE SOCIOLOGICAL
APPROACH
THE MICRO LEVEL
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Sociological & Policy Perspectives on
Families
 Micro level deals with issues of social life at
the level of individuals or small groups
 At the micro level we focus on patterned
behaviors of people that are due to the
social conditions in which we find ourselves
 We act differently in different settings and
places
 Micro level analysis focuses on personal
choices
THE SOCIOLOGICAL
APPROACH –
THE MICRO LEVEL
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 Micro level analysis focuses on personal
choices
Sociological & Policy Perspectives on
Families
 Micro level deals with issues of social life at
the level of individuals or small groups
 Think of an example of a personal choice
you made recently and how it was
influenced by the larger society, your social
status, the economy, the government, the
culture of Montclair?
SOCIAL SCIENCE RESEARCH

How do we know what we know?
Most of us understand the world around us through
our personal experience -- the people and situations
we have been in or have seen
 This personal experience leads to your conclusions
about the world
 While there is nothing wrong with these ways of
knowing -- social scientists are skeptical about relying
ONLY on these sources because:
 An individual’s experience of those around them is not
representative of the broader society

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SOCIAL SCIENCE RESEARCH

How do we know what we know?
Social scientists use a systematic and more scientific
mode of investigation
 Social scientists rely on:
 Observations of the social world based on
representative samples
 Example: If we wanted to study why people in the
U.S. get married, we should not just survey college
students
 We avoid the error of overgeneralization: i.e.
using what we know about a small group of people
to conclude something about all people

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SOCIAL SCIENCE RESEARCH

How do we know what we know?
Most of us understand the world around us through
our personal experience -- the people and situations
we have been in or have seen
 This personal experience leads to your conclusions
about the world
 While there is nothing wrong with these ways of
knowing -- social scientists are skeptical about relying
ONLY on these sources because:
 An individual’s experience of those around them is not
representative of the broader society

5/25/2017
SOCIAL SCIENCE RESEARCH

How do we know what we know?
Social scientists use a systematic and more scientific
mode of investigation
 Social scientists rely on:




Observations of the social world based on representative
samples
Example: If we wanted to study why people in the U.S.
get married, we should not just survey college students
We avoid the error of overgeneralization: i.e. using
what we know about a small group of people to conclude
something about all people
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SOCIOLOGICAL THEORIES



Social science theories explain or help us make sense
of patterns in social life
Theories shape and direct research – they point us in a
direction
That direction influences what we look for, what we
find, and how we explain it
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SOCIOLOGICAL THEORIES


Theories about families and relationships are made up
a set of statements that explain why certain
relationships occur
For example: The age at first marriage has increased
because more women are graduating from college and
starting careers before marrying
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MACROLEVEL THEORIES
Macrolevel theories focus on:
 a whole society or a large part of it
 the BIG PICTURE
Example:
 How has the decline in real male wages influenced
husbands’ and wives’ involvement in the paid labor
force


Research might examine cost of living and employment
rates by gender and compare data from 1960 to 2000
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SOCIOLOGICAL THEORIES
Theories used to explain relationships at a more
personal level are micro level theories
Examples:
 A researcher wants to know how often husbands
and wives argue on a weekly basis


They might observe a husbands and wife in their
home – or tape their conversations over the week
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MOST FREQUENTLY USED
METHODS OF SOCIAL RESEARCH
 Demographic
 Survey
Research
 Participant
 Social
Studies
Observation (Field Observation)
Experiments
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DEMOGRAPHIC STUDIES
 Demography
is a subfield of social science that is
concerned with:



how social conditions are distributed in the human
population and
how these populations are changing
Core interests are trends in:
Fertility
 Mortality
 Migration
 Marriage and divorce
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HOW ARE DEMOGRAPHIC DATA COLLECTED?
Most data are collected at the state level and
compiled by the National Center of Health
Statistics (NCHS)
 NCHS is a department of the Center for Disease
control (CDC) in Atlanta GE

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DEMOGRAPHIC STUDIES
 Examples
of Demographic Studies in
Fertility
 What is the fertility rate by race/ethnicity in
the US?
 How has it changed over the past ten years?
 Go to the National Center for Health
Statistics:
 http://www.cdc.gov/nchs
 http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr55/nvsr55_01.pdf
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FERTILITY RATE
Fertility rate is the number of women age 15 - 44
who gave birth per 1000 women
 For example the rate for Non-Hispanic Black
women is 89 births per 1000 Non-Hispanic Black
women 15 - 44
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SURVEY RESEARCH



Collect information from a subgroup of people,
known as a sample
Samples are chosen to represent the larger
population from which they are selected.
Data is collected through in-person or phone
interviews, or by questionnaires sent through the
mail or NOW the internet (web-based)
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SURVEY RESEARCH
 Example

of Survey Research
General Social Survey
 Who

National Opinion Research Center (NORC)
 How

conducted the survey?
many people were interviewed?
More than 38,000 people interviewed since
1972
 National

Survey of Family Growth
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nsfg/abc_list.htm
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FIELD RESEARCH
 Used
to understand processes among
people by directly observing them as
the behaviors take place
 Researcher
participates directly in the
social life of individuals of groups in
question
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PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION
 Complete
 Arlie
Observation:
Hochschild observed the division of
household labor by visiting wives and
husbands in their homes
 Observation takes place in the real world
 Researcher attempts to fade into the
background
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PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION
 Complete
Participation:
 Researcher
tries to become a part of the group
they are studying
 Howard Becker hung around with Jazz
musicians to understand how people learned to
smoke pot - but he WAS also a Jazz musician
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FIELD RESEARCH
 Intensive
interviewing
Questions are open ended
 Designed to be very in depth, with a small sample
 Provide rich description of personal experience

 Focus
Groups
Designed to obtain information from a small group of
people
 Encourage open discussions of topics
 Used by market researchers and political pollsters

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SOCIAL EXPERIMENTS
A real test of an effect of A on B
 Or the effect a new housing opportunity for better
housing on family opportunities…
 Is to RANDOMLY assign subjects to an
experimental group and a control group
 Moving to Opportunity
 Disadvantaged families were randomly assigned to
 staying in public housing
 receiving a housing voucher for Section8
housing, or
 or moving to a nearby suburb?

ETHICS IN SOCIAL RESEARCH
Today, before you can even begin a research project –
you must go through an extensive process to receive
an okay to move forward
 Researchers must prove that the individuals
(subjects/respondents) who take part in a study will
not be mentally or physically injured by theory
participation
 Much of the ethical review process came out of the
Millgram experiements


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcvSNg0HZwk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=274wQJmdRQg
SUMMARY
 Families
are one social institution among
many
 Families are influenced by and influence the
larger society
 Family theories guide research on families as
well as methods chosen to collect data may
operate at the:
 Family sociologists use systematic methods
Demographic studies
 Survey Research
 Observation and
 Social Experiments

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