SOC150H1 Lecture 4: SOC 150H1LEC 5101 S Introduction to Research Methods. Date, February 5, 2019
Document Summary
Outline: the research process, research design/methods, midterm test, announcements/reminders, key term. The research process: identify the problem, review existing research literature, formulate research question, conceptualize and operationalize, select research method, sample/collect data, record findings, analyze data, develop the conclusion, discussion/reflection. The research process: where (and how) you start the research process, depends on the methodological approach most appropriate for your research question. Next steps: research designs/methods: the next step is to identify an appropriate research method with which to examine our questions of interest, research methods are the rules and procedures that social scientists use to approach a research question. It is necessary that the rules of practice are standardized because this allows for rigorous and reproducible work. And why: choices are laden with value, beyond positionality which we discussed last week, choices reveal personal stakes, motivations, how we provide meaning to and utilize of available information. Research design/methods: we cannot completely avoid values in social research.
