Key Points: Chapter 1

1. Key Course themes

One goal of this course is that students become informed consumers of information because there is a lot of "bad research" out there. Learning research methods is an excellent way to develop a skill set that will help us evaluate information we encounter on a daily basis.

As social researchers, we must be especially skeptical of information that is based solely on claims of authority, tradition, common sense, etc. However, we also need to be skeptical of information that claims to be science-based as even scientific research can be poorly conceived, incorrectly done, or presented in a misleading fashion. Don’t confuse skepticism with cynicism; cynicism implies distrust and negativity while skepticism refers to evaluating evidence instead of blindly accepting claims.

According to the lecture, the scientific method may not be perfect but it is the most accurate and most consistent technique we have for evaluating the physical world. “Positivism” is the position that principles of the scientific method—originally developed for the physical sciences—can be effectively applied to social research.

2. Key Lecture Points

Know the steps of the research process (which we will continue to go over), such as selecting a topic, developing a research question, designing a study, etc.

Understand the significance of the peer review process. Who qualifies as “peers?”

Understand the differences between basic and applied research. How are they differently applied? What are pros and cons for each?

Know the three types of research: exploratory, descriptive, and explanatory. Why did the lecture emphasize explanatory research?

Understand differences between cross-sectional and longitudinal dimensions of time.

Don’t over-think examples of cohort studies.  If you look close enough, I’m sure that you could find some commonality between the research subjects.  But this isn’t the point.  The key to a cohort study is that the common quality or characteristic is directly relevant to the research question.

Finally, a case study is an in-depth analysis of a small group, organization, event, etc.  Don’t confuse it with a panel study.  As the name implies, a case study analyzes a few select cases that serve as exemplars of a larger social phenomenon.  For example, you might study the activities of a political group over time. The members may come and go over the course of the research, but this doesn’t wreck your study because you’re interested in the group as a whole and not the specific members.