Sociology WCCC

1. Research Methods
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUB4j0n2UDU

2. “do no harm”
Informed Consent:
anonymity
confidentiality
Voluntary Participation
Protected Populations

3. What Makes “Good” Research?
Good research should be valid, reliable, and
generalizable:
Validity: does the study measure what it is intended to measure?
Reliability: if you conduct the study again, will you get the same
results?
Generalizability: will the findings of this study apply to some other
population or group of people?
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4. Science, junk science, pseudo-science, non-science
andnonsense
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8T_jwq9ph8k
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUB4j0n2UDU

5. Framing Social Problems

6. Jumpstarting exercise
Form groups of 2 and on a piece of paper write
down 10 social problems that come to mind
You have 10 minutes!

7. Personal or social problems?

8. What do you think is the difference between
personal and social problems?

9. Personal or social problem?
What difference does the distinction between personal and social problems make in
understanding the causes and consequences of problems?
Work in groups and choose one problem from the list you made at the beginning of this
class and try to understand this specific problems in terms of
a) A personal problem
b) A social problem
c) Make a comparison: what different analysis outcomes do you get? What
consequences does this have

10. Personal problem
A personal problem is one whose causes and solutions lie within the individual and
his/her immediate environment
“personal troubles or milieu”

11. Personal vs. Social problems
Viewing a problem as either personal or social leads to identifying very different
consequences as well as different causes
Helping individuals deal with personal problems is important but it is only a stopgap
approach to social problems.

12. Approaching rape: a personal or social problem ?

13. rape
defined as a personal problem
due to personal inadequacies
results in guilt in victim and impunity for the
offender
ends in appropriate or no action and
continuation of the problem
rape
defined a social problem
due in part to social attitudes about women
results in collective action –education of the
public and criminal justice personnel
ends in amelioration of the problem as attitudes change and
women are treated as victims rather than as the guilty ones

14. Defining itasa personal problem eitherblames thevictim or castigates
theoffender

15. Defining rapeas asocial problem organizestheneedforcollective action
thatattacksfactors outside the individual

16. Tackling personal problems
Individual strategies employed to deal with problem
Help from professionals depending on the type on problem (e.g. social workers,
psychologists etc.)
Possible consequences:
Personal empowerment
Escape mechanism
Sense of inadequacy (low self-esteem, self-fulfilling prophecy)

17. A broad definition of a social problem
“A social problem is a social condition that has negative consequences for individuals,
our social world, or psychical world” (Leon-Guerrero, 2010)

18. different Level of social problems
Problems of behavior deviance
Problems of inequality
Problems of social institutions
Global social problems
As we will learn it is difficult to place social problems in boxes of categories, since they
so complex and overlap.

20. Recognizing fallacies of thinking

21. 9fallaciesofthinkingwhenanalyzingsocialproblems:
1. Fallacy of dramatic instance:
Overgeneralizing
2. Fallacy of misplaced concreteness:
making something abstract into something concrete
3. Fallacy of personal attack:
Argument by attacking the opponent personally rather than dealing with the issue
Fallacies of thinking when analyzing SPs:

22. examples
Fallacy of dramatic instance:
Overgeneralizing
“We saw two young boys doing drugs in the street; the modern youth is really in decline”
Fallacy of misplaced concreteness:
Making something abstract into something concrete
“The masculine Aruban culture inhibits a good education for women.”
Fallacy of personal attack:
Argument by attacking the opponent personally rather than dealing with the issue
“We shouldn’t start a program for the homeless; they are all drug addicts.”

23. 9fallaciesofthinkingwhenanalyzingsocialproblems:
4. Fallacy of appeal to prejudice:
Argument by appealing to popular prejudices or passions
5. Fallacy of circular reasoning:
Using conclusions to support the assumptions that were necessary to make the conclusions
6. Fallacy of retrospective determinism:
That argument that things could have not worked out any other way than they did
Fallacies of thinking when analyzing SPs:

24. examples
Fallacy of appeal to prejudice:
Argument by appealing to popular prejudices or passions
“We shouldn’t hire gay people, they have AIDS”
Fallacy of circular reasoning:
Using conclusions to support the assumptions that were necessary to make the conclusions
“Poor people are inferior because they are unable to make any money.”
Fallacy of retrospective determinism:
That argument that things could have not worked out any other way than they did
“There will always be poor people, there always have been”
“Without tourism Aruba would be broke”

25. 9fallaciesofthinkingwhenanalyzingsocialproblems:
7. Fallacy of composition:
The assertion that what is true of the part is necessarily true of the whole
8. Fallacy of non sequitur:
Something that does not follow logically from what has preceded it
9. Fallacy authority:
Argument by an illegitimate appeal to authority
Fallacies of thinking when analyzing SPs:

26. examples
Fallacy of composition:
The assertion that what is true of the part is necessarily true of the whole
“Members of parliament are wasteful, parliament is wasteful”
Fallacy of non sequitur:
Something that does not follow logically from what has preceded it
“If you don’t donate to this charity organization, you don’t care about the poor.”
Fallacy authority:
Argument by an illegitimate appeal to authority
“Aruba’s crime rates are rising”
“Why do you think that?”
“Professor x said so.”

27. Defining the concept of “Social problems”
Defining the concept of ‘social problems’
Social problems can be defined in terms of different perspectives
The specific angle you choose will influence the way you approach social problems

28. Research Methods
Research methods are standard rules that social
scientists follow when trying to establish a causal
relationship between social elements.
Quantitative methods seek to
obtain information about the social
world that is in, or can be
converted to, numeric form.
Qualitative methods attempt to
collect information about the social
world that cannot be readily
converted to numeric form.

29. Approaches to Research
A deductive approach to research:
1) starts with a theory.
2)develops a hypothesis.
3) makes empirical observations.
4)analyzes the data collected through
observation to confirm, reject, or modify the
original theory.
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30. Do you believe in ghosts?

31. Deductive reasoning is more narrow and is generally used to test or confirm hypotheses.

32. The basic principle on which deductive
reasoning is based, is a well-known
mathematical formula;
If, 1 = 2 (premise)
and 2 = 3 (premise)
then, 1 = 3 (conclusion)

33. Given below are a few examples that will
help you understand this concept better:
All oranges are fruits
All fruits grow on trees
Therefore, all oranges grow on trees
Johnny is a bachelor,
All bachelors are single,
Hence, Johnny is single

34. Here are a few valid,
but unsound examples;
All flight attendants know how to swim
Ralph knows how to swim
Hence, Ralph is a flight attendant.
The above conclusion is untrue, because it is not necessary that
only flight attendants know how to swim. Absolutely any
swimmer can swim.

35. Do you believe in ghosts?

36. Everything is Data!
Data Will Rule Your lives!
You job – pre-interview – job performance - raise?
Your car insurance
Your credit
Your chances of staying married to a particular person.
Your chances of dying of dying soon.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiAHlZVgXjk

37. Approaches to Research
An inductive approach to research:
1) starts with empirical observation.
2) then works to form a theory.
3) determines if a correlation exists by noticing
if a change is observed in two things
simultaneously.
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38. Inductive reasoning is more open-ended and exploratory, especially during the early stages.
Sometimes called a “bottom up” approach.

42. The Black Swan
Outliers
The stock market –
-the housing crash
–your life.
All the swans that I have seen till date are white in color.
Therefore, all swans are white.

43. Do you believe in ghosts?

46. In research it is often a combination..
His initial observations led him to inductively create a
theory of religion, social integration, anomie, and
suicide.
His theoretical interpretations in turn led him
to deductively create more hypotheses and
collect more observations.
He noticed that Protestant countries consistently had higher suicide rates than Catholic ones.

47. What the current research said about suicide:
Suicide is greatest in late spring and summer NOT winter.
Media perpetuates myths – the winter suicide is “sexy.”
No strong interest in correcting or challenging the myth.
Cover the story on the pre-set anniversary dates.
Suicide has a stronger association with free time (summer) than sunshine.

48. Causality vs. Correlation
Causality is the idea that a change in one factor results in a
corresponding change in another factor.
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49. Causality vs. Correlation
Sociologists conduct research to try to prove causation.
To prove causation, correlation and time order are
established and alternative explanations are ruled out.
1.Correlation
2. Time order
3. Alternate Explanations.
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50. Correlation is not causation.

51. Does it meet all threecriteria?
Spurious Correlation

52. Variables – What Are We Studying?
A dependent variable is the outcome that a researcher is
trying to explain.
An independent variable is a measured factor that the
researcher believes has a causal impact on the dependent
variable.
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Example: a person’s income (dependent variable) may vary according
to age, gender and social class (independent variables).

53. The Hypothesis (if…then)
A hypothesis is a proposed relationship between
two variables, represented by either the null
hypothesis or an alternative hypothesis.
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Null Hypothesis (sometime called no-difference)
Hyperactivity is unrelated to eating sugar.
The null hypothesis is good for
experimentation because it's simple to
disprove. If you disprove a null hypothesis, that is evidence for a
relationship between the variables you are examining.

54. Marijuana and serious mental illness
(SMI) research
Prevalence of Past Year SMI among Adults Aged 18 or
Older, by Gender and Age Group: 2002 and 2003
Prevalence of Past Year SMI among Lifetime Marijuana Users Aged 18
or Older, by Age at First Marijuana Use: 2002 and 2003

55. Example:
What affects a student’s arrival to class?
Variables:
Type of School
Liberals Arts v. University
Type of Student
Athlete? Gender? GPA?
Time
Bedtime, Waking, Arrival
Mode of Transportation
walk, bus, carpool

56. Independent
(input)
1. Intentionally manipulated
2. Controlled
3. Vary at known rate
4. Cause
1. Intentionally left alone
2. Measured
3. Vary at unknown rate
4. Effect
For example:
•If a scientist conducts an experiment to test the theory that a vitamin could extend a
person’s life-expectancy, then the independent variable is the amount of vitamin that is given to
the subjects within the experiment. This is controlled by the experimenting scientist.
•The dependent variable, or the variable being affected by the independent variable in this case, is
life span.
Dependent
(output)

57. http://www.wired.com/medtech/drugs/magazine/17-09/ff_placebo_effect?currentPage=all

58. Researchers beware!

59. Quantitative Methods
Quantitativeresearchis researchthat uses numerical analysis.
In essence, this approach reduces the data into numbers.
www.gapminder.com
http://www.gapminder.org/videos/200-years-that-changed-the-world-bbc/