SOAN 2120 Chapter 10: SOAN 2120 ch.10.docx
9 Mar 2012
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Methods of studying social behaviour w/out affecting it. 3 types: analysis of exiting statistics, content analysis, historical/comparative research. Content analysis [researcher examines a class of social artifacts that are usually written documents i. e. newspaper] Existing statistics [looking at statistics and making observations about them that relate to the population] Comparative research [form of research w/venerable history in the social sciences] Researcher must often face the limitations and constraints of available measures. Durkheim"s study on suicide [found that rates of suicide were around a certain time of year {many in the summer}, noticed predominant protestant countries had higher rates] Often not the individual [looking more at groups] A little ingenuity and reasoning can generally turn up several independent tests of a given hypothesis. Process of record keeping affects the records that are kept and reported. Researchers must be aware that these problems [reliability] exist. One of the most valuable sources is statistics canada.
