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Asking and Answering
Sociological Questions
Chapter 2
Remember the issues sociology addresses
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Race, family, housing, health & illness, racial &
ethnic conflicts, poverty, education, immigration,
sexuality, gender, class, and crime & punishment,
environment & economic development.
Micro and macro
Morris Justice Project
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Research group to address NYPD stop and frisk
policies in the Bronx.
Group made up of
researchers, lawyers,
activists, community
members.
Basic Concepts
• Eight stages in the research process
– 1. Defining the research problem
– What are the gaps in our understanding
about the topic?
– What puzzles haven’t been solved?
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Morris Justice Project
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Morris Justice Project wanted to understand the
impact of stop and frisk policing policies on urban
communities.
A lot of research done on the impact of
contemporary policing policies.
No research that focused on working directly with
community members as researchers.
No research that focused specifically within one
police precinct.
Basic Concepts
• Eight stages in the research process
– 2. Reviewing the literature
– What questions have been raised?
– How have others approached the problem?
– 3. Formulating a Hypothesis
– Formulating hypothesis that are testable
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Hypothesis:
 Statement of a relationship between two or
more variables
-Variable—a characteristic that can change in value or
magnitude under different conditions
 Attitudes
 Behaviors
 Traits
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Statement that will be tested in the study
A hypothesis includes:
 An
independent variable is a characteristic that
determines or has an effect on the dependent
variable
 A dependent variable is the outcome, which may
be affected by the independent variable
Examples
– A scientist studies the impact of a drug on cancer.
The independent variables are the administration of
the drug - the dosage and the timing. The dependent
variable is the impact the drug has on cancer.
– A scientist studies the impact of withholding
affection on rats. The independent variable is the
amount of affection. The dependent variable is the
reaction of the rats.
– A scientist studies how many days people can eat
soup until they get sick. The independent variable is
the number of days of consuming soup. The
dependent variable is the onset of illness.
Basic Concepts
• Eight stages in the research process
– 4. Creating a Research Design
– Deciding what method (surveys, interviews,
participant observation, etc.) works best
– 5. Carrying out the research
– Gathering facts and data according to the
research design
– Dealing with unanticipated problems
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Morris Justice Project research methods:
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Participatory action research
Surveys
Interviews
Mapping
Public art
Community engagement/activism
Basic Concepts
• Eight stages in the research process
– 6. Interpreting the results
– Answering initial questions
– Evaluating hypotheses
– 7. Reporting the Research Findings
– Research reports, articles, books
– 8. Repeat
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Morris Justice Project
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http://morrisjustice.org/dear-nypd
Basic Concepts
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Asking and Answering Sociological
Questions: Historical Context
• Sociologists explore four types of
questions:
• Factual or empirical
• Morris Justice Project
• Comparative
• Privilege in social class (7up series)
• Developmental
• waves of gentrification
• Cultural imperialism
• Theoretical
• Durkheim’s Anomie
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Asking and Answering Sociological
Questions: Historical Context
• Sociology at the University of Chicago,
beginning in the 1920s, was extremely
influential in shaping the discipline.
• Robert Park focused on interviews and
firsthand observations.
• William Ogburn suggested that sociology
should be more scientific and rely on
statistics.
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Qualitative—nonnumerical description
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Morris Justice Project held weekly meetings in the
community library.
Interviews
Community engagement
Quantitative—numerical analysis
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Morris Justice Project conducted surveys.
Analyzed statistical data on # of stops, “successful
stops”, % of people stopped, etc.
METHODS
Asking and Answering Sociological
Questions Today: The Research Process
• Ethnography
– Participant observation, interviews
– Generates rich, deep data
– Typically not generalizable
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Asking and Answering Sociological
Questions Today: The Research Process
Alice Goffman’s 6 year long 6th St. boys study resulted in the book On The Run.
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Asking and Answering Sociological
Questions Today: The Research Process
• Surveys
– Generate a lot of data from large
numbers of people
– Appropriate for statistical analysis
– Random sampling of the population to
generate a sample, thus improving
ability to generalize
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Asking and Answering Sociological
Questions Today: The Research Process
• Surveys
– Can be superficial
– May lead to inaccurate results
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Morris Justice Project
Asking and Answering Sociological
Questions Today: The Research Process
• Experiments
– Control conditions to establish cause
and effect
– Hard to replicate findings from
controlled settings in natural settings
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Asking and Answering Sociological
Questions Today: The Research Process
The Stanford Prison
Experiment 1971
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Asking and Answering Sociological
Questions Today: The Research Process
• Comparative Research
– Comparison of behaviors, attitudes, or
other aspects of social life across time,
place, or group
– Use any of the other research methods to
gather data for making comparisons
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Comparative Research example
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Wendy Luttrell’s work
http://www.wendyluttrell.org/research/
Asking and Answering Sociological
Questions Today: The Research Process
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Unanswered Questions
• Understanding Cause and Effect of
Social Context
• How is social order patterned?
• What are the causal relationships that
pattern social life?
– Correlation is not the same as causation
– Variables may be related to each other
but not responsible for change in
another
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Unanswered Questions
• Human Subjects and Ethical
Dilemmas
– Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)
– Research must conform to ethical guidelines
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Must obtain subjects' consent
Must not harm participants
Must honor all guarantees
Must describe the limitations
– Political Influences
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Must identify sponsors
Must acknowledge contributions
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Unanswered Questions
• Can We Really Study Human Social
Life in a Scientific Way?
– Sociology is a science guided by a
theoretical approach and based on
empirical investigation
– Facts and data are gathered according to
a set of procedures and then analyzed
systematically.
– Sociologists look to theory and employ
logic to develop explanations for their
findings.
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Discussion Question: Thinking Sociologically
Suppose the dropout rate in your local high
school increased dramatically. Faced with
such a serious problem, the school board
offers you a $500,000 grant to study the
sudden increase. Following the
recommended procedures outlined in the
text, explain how you would conduct your
research. What hypotheses might you test?
How would you prove or disprove them?
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