SOCI 1F90 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Participant Observation, Gord Downie, Cara Delevingne
Document Summary
Theories: explanations developed from careful observations of the social world we call these observations empirical data. Research: systematic processes by which we gather empirical data. Goal of social research: learn something about the social world. Systematic process of social research: gather empirical data, describe, explain (develop theory) Statistical probabilities- the poles for the american election. Philosophy of quantitative research borrowed from physical sciences. 4 tenets: a single objective truth can be discovered, right and wrong answers, numbers don"t lie, research can be objective, unbiased researcher doesn"t show up in the research. Process of deduction: 3 stages: develop a theory from other research, develop hypotheses (logical extensions of the theory), sample, design, collect data and conduct statistical analyses. When mothers work outside the home, they experience role strain: playing too many roles at once- especially working women- causes them to be psychologically distressed. She measured psychological distress: she concluded that role strain wasn"t caused by working factors.
