had to learn and then use research and evaluation skills.
My students designed the initial survey instrument and tested the survey with a diverse sample of their fellow students so that they could refine the measures. The following spring, my class fielded the baseline wave of the survey. They came up with a sampling strategy (using randomly selected course sections) and went through the approval process with our Institutional Review Board (IRB) to make sure that we protected our human subjects. The students distributed the surveys and entered all of the data into a computer program. Finally, we did statistical analysis of the data and prepared a report for our Women’s Center and the Public Prevention and Education Committee of the New Jersey Governor’s Advisory Council Against Sexual Assault.
Students in the sociology major worked on this project for over 3 years, eventually gathering three waves of data from over 1,000 students about their experiences with interpersonal violence, as well as their intentions to intervene to prevent violence. An important finding was that 1 in 5 of our female students and 1 in 10 of our male students had experienced interpersonal violence. Even more striking, two thirds of our students knew someone who had experienced interpersonal violence. We were also able to provide evidence that students who had received Green Dot training were more likely to intervene as active bystanders than students who had not. Being able to show the prevalence of the issue and the effectiveness of our prevention strategy were important for securing institutional resources to expand the program.
Through this experience, Public Sociologies students were able to engage in an important evaluation project that helped them develop real-world research skills. A number of my students have gone on to work in jobs that require them to consume and produce research, and to bridge theory and practice (e.g., social workers, police officers, and market researchers, to name a few). You can too!
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Kristin Kenneavy is an associate professor of sociology at Ramapo College of New Jersey where she works closely with the Center for Student Involvement to promote community-based learning and scholarship, and continues to research interpersonal violence prevention.
So far, we have focused on what sociology is and how sociologists know what they know and do the research they do. The rest of the book examines our social world as informed by methods and theory discussed in this chapter. The next chapter explores how you can understand your culture and society at the various levels of analysis in our social world.
What Have We Learned?
Theories serve as lenses to help us create research questions and to make sense of the data we gather using various research strategies. The data themselves can be used to test the theories, so there is an ongoing reciprocal relationship between theory (the lens for making sense of the data) and research (the evidence used to test the theories). The most important ideas in this chapter concern what sociology considers data or evidence and how sociology is a science. These ideas form the framework for the content of sociology.
The core features of scientific research are (a) a commitment to using the scientific method to collect, analyze, and understand data through systematic processes of testing using the five senses (sometimes enhanced by scientific instruments); (b) allowing ourselves to be convinced by the evidence rather than by our preconceived ideas; (c) absolute integrity and objectivity in how we conduct and report on our research; and (d) continual openness to having our findings reexamined and new interpretations proposed. We must always consider the possibility that we have overlooked alternative explanations of the data and alternative ways to view the problem.
Science—including social science—does not consist of just facts to be memorized. Science is a process made possible by a social exchange of ideas, a clash of opinions, and a continual search for truth. Knowledge in the sciences is created by vigorous debate. We hope you will engage in the creation of knowledge by entering into these debates.
Key Points
Attempts to understand society have existed for at least two and a half millennia, but gathering of scientific evidence to test hypotheses and validate claims is a modern idea.
Theories are especially important to science because they raise questions for research, and they explain the relationships among facts. Sociology has four primary, overriding theoretical perspectives or paradigms: symbolic interaction theory, rational choice theory, structural-functional theory, and conflict theory. Other perspectives, such as feminist theory, serve as correctives to the main paradigms. Most of these theories are more applicable at either the micro to meso level or at the meso to macro level.
Sociology is a science used to study society, and therefore it is essential to understand what is—and what is not—considered data or evidence. For a scientist, this means that ideas must be tested empirically, that is, scientifically.
As social scientists, sociologists use eight systematic steps to gather data and test theories about the social world.
The independent variable is the variable in a cause-and-effect relationship that comes first in a time sequence and causes a change in another variable—the dependent variable.
Major methods for gathering data in sociology include questionnaires, interviews, observational studies, secondary data analysis, content analysis, and experiments.
Quantitative data come in the form of numbers (e.g., derived from questionnaires or some secondary sources such as the census), and qualitative data come in nonnumerical forms (e.g., derived from semistructured and unstructured interviews or observational studies).
Use of multiple methods—triangulation—increases confidence in the findings.
Scientific confidence in results requires representative samples, usually drawn randomly.
Responsible research requires sensitivity to the ethics of research—ensuring that gathering scientific data does no one harm.
Public sociologists use sociological tools to understand and inform citizens about how society operates and to improve society.
Discussion Questions
1 If you were to examine the relationship between the government and the economy in the United States today, which of the four major theoretical perspectives outlined in the chapter would be most helpful? Why?
2 Imagine you would like to conduct a sociological study of the students with whom you attended the fourth grade to determine what key factors influenced their academic achievements. Which of the four major theoretical perspectives would you employ in your study? Why?
3 Why do research questions have to be asked in a precise way? Give an example of a precise research question. How do precise questions make it possible for you to test and measure your topic?
4 Sociologists must be continually open to having their findings reexamined and new interpretations proposed. Describe a time when you changed your mind due to new information. Was it difficult for you to change your mind? Why or why not?
5 Why is the ability to be
