Summary The Practice of Social Research,

H3 Paradigms are general frameworks or viewpoints, they provide ways of looking at life and are grounded in sets of assumptions about the nature of reality. A theory aims at explaining what we see. Theories are systematic sets of interrelated statements intended to explain some aspect of social life. Thus, theories flesh out and specify paradigms. Idiographic explanations seek to explain a limited phenomenon as completely as possible, whereas nomothetic explanations attempt to explain a broad range of phenomena at least partially. A corresponding idea to observation is a fact. Laws: many facts organized under ‘rules’ Principles: laws are important statements about what is so. We speak of them as being ‘discovered’, granting that our paradigms affect what we choose to look for and what we see. Laws in and of themselves do not explain anything. They just summarize the way things are. Explanation is a function of theory. Theories explain observations by means of concepts. Concepts are abstract elements representing classes of phenomena within the field of study. A variable is a special kind of concept. Each variable comprises a set of attributes. Axioms or postulates are fundamental assertions, taken to be true, on which a theory is grounded. Propositions: specific conclusions derived from the axiomatic groundwork, about the relationships among concepts. From propositions, in turn, we can derive hypothesis. A hypothesis is a specified testable expectation about empirical reality that follows from a more general proposition. Operationalization literally means specifying the exact operations involved in measuring a variable. Deductive research begins with a theory, from which we may derive hypothesis – which are then tested through observations. Inductive research begins with observations and proceeds with a search for patterns in what we have observed. H4 Three purposes of research: - Exploration. o To satisfy the researcher’s curiosity and desire for better understanding. o To test the feasibility of undertaking a more extensive study. o To develop the methods to be employed in any subsequent study - Description - Explanation  Why? Idiographic explanation seeks an exhaustive understanding of the causes producing events and situations in a single or limited number of cases. Nomothetic explanation tries to find a few factors (independent variables) that can account for many of the variations in a given phenomenon. Criteria for nomothetic causality: - The variables must be correlated - The cause takes place before the effect - The variables are nonspurious (the effect cannot be explained in terms of some third variable) Statistical significance: the chance you are willing to take that a given relationship might have been caused by chance in the selection of subjects for study. A necessary cause represents a condition that must be present for the effect to follow. A sufficient cause represents a condition that, if it is present, guarantees the effect in question. This is not to say that a sufficient cause is the only possible cause of a particular effect. Thus a cause can be sufficient, but not necessary. Units of analysis: what or whom being studied. Descriptive studies with individuals as their units of analysis typically aim to describe the population that comprises those individuals, whereas explanatory studies aim to discover the social dynamics operating within that population. Social artifact = any product of social beings or their behavior. (Can be an unit of analysis) The ecological fallacy = erroneously drawing conclusions about individuals solely from the observation of groups Reductionism: attempts to explain a particular phenomenon in terms of limited and/or lower-order concepts [a strict limitation (reduction) of the kinds of concepts to be considered relevant to the phenomenon under study]. A cross-sectional study involves observations of a sample,