Intro

This section of the Resource Center offers you guidance in putting the things you've learned into practice.  Three general research projects are introduced below.  You should pick one of the projects that you think you might like to pursue.  Then, for each chapter in the book, I have given you some guiding comments on how that chapter might apply to your project.  I haven't tried to delineate all the implications of each chapter, but I think you'll find the comments useful in getting you oriented and started.

Each of the comments contains some questions that you should answer in terms of your project.  If you take the exercise seriously, your answers to those questions should suggest more issues to be dealt with in the project.  Regardless of whether you actually conduct the project, you should come away from this activity with a fully designed research project.

If you are actually conducting a project, the ideal method would be to complete the 14-chapter process first and then launch your project.  Given the constraints of the academic calendar, however, you may need to study a chapter in the textbook, deal with the comments on that chapter below, and then take the actions necessary in the execution of your study.  Then move on to the next chapter.

Here are the three projects I've suggested.  Even if you have a different topic in mind, you should find one of these projects useful in suggesting issues you'll need to deal with in your project.
 

Project 1: Poverty

    Poverty is a persistent social problem that social scientists often address.  A variety of research methods have been used to address different aspects of poverty, and several different theories and paradigms have been used to make sense of the data collected.  The focus for your research might be on the life styles of poor people or on the society which contains impoverished people.  You can examine the causes of poverty or its effects on those impoverished.  In addition to social scientific understanding, this is a topic obviously open to related social action.  Your research can both clarify the nature of poverty and point to solutions.

    Here are a few readings that might get you started on this topic.  Some are academic, others are from the popular press.  As indicated, some can be accessed via <InfoTrac>.  The others should be obtainable through your library.

        Levernier, William. ; Partridge, Mark D. ; Rickman, Dan S., "The causes of regional variations in U.S. poverty: a cross-county analysis,"
           Journal of Regional Science v. 40 no3 (Aug. 2000) p. 473-97.
        Seccombe, Karen, "Families in poverty in the 1990s: trends, causes, consequences, and lessons learned," Journal of Marriage and the
            Family v. 62 no4 (Nov. 2000) p. 1094-113.
        Edna Molina, "Informal Non-Kin Networks among Homeless Latino and African American Men," American-Behavioral-Scientist;
            2000, 43, 4, Jan, 663-685.
        Kathryn Edin, "Few Good Men: Why Poor Mothers Don't Marry or Remarry" The American Prospect, Jan 3, 2000 v11 i4 p26 <InfoTrac>
 

Project 2: Attitudes toward Abortion

    Abortion is one of the most hotly contested issues in the United States today.  This one issue is often a litmus test for voters and for political appointments.  Personal feelings on the issue tend to run deep as well, even when they are sometimes ambivalent.  It would certainly be useful for you to understand where people stand on this issue and why.  What causes differences in such deeply held views?  Listed below are some academic and popular articles that can get you started on this issue.

        Michael McCarthy. "US court rules in favour of radical anti-abortion activists,"The Lancet, April 7, 2001 v357 i9262 p1104 <InfoTrac>
        The Christian Century, "Responsibility claimed for abortion clinic bomb," (a letter from the 'Army of God' claims that the
            group is responsible for a Birmingham, Alabama, abortion clinic bombing), Feb 18, 1998 v115 n5 p166(2)  <InfoTrac>
        Raymond J. Adamek, "Public opinion and Roe v. Wade: measurement difficulties," The Public Opinion Quarterly v. 58 (Fall '94) p. 409-18
        Geoffrey C. Layman, "'Culture wars' in the American party system: religious and cultural change among partisan activists since 1972.
           American Politics Quarterly v. 27 no1 (Jan. '99) p. 89-121
 

Project 3: Gender Inequality

    The Declaration of Independence grounded the United States on the fundamental principle that "all men" were created equal.  Clearly, women were not created equal to men in the eyes of the male founders.  Indeed, American women were not allowed to vote until 1920.  Today women trail behind men in occupational status, income, political office, and many other opportunities and rewards in society.  You might organize your research project around discovering why that is so.  Or you could step back a pace and examine how members of society explain the inequalities that separate the genders.  Here are some readings to get you started.

    Sandra S. Smith, "Mobilizing social resources: race, ethnic, and gender differences in social capital and persisting wage inequalities,"
        The Sociological Quarterly v. 41 no4 (Fall 2000) p. 509-37.
    Oriel Sullivan, "The division of domestic labor: twenty years of change?"  Sociology v. 34 no3 (Aug. 2000) p. 437-56
    Carol Sanger, "Speaking of Sex: The Denial of Gender Inequality," (book review), Signs, Wntr 2001 v26 i2 p617 <InfoTrac>
    Patti A. Giuffre, "Legalizing Gender Inequality: Courts, Markets, and Unequal Pay for Women in America," (book review)
        Social Forces, March 2000 v78 i3 p1163
 
 
 

WilChapter	Application to Projects
1. Human Inquiry and Science	General What can you learn about this topic in the literature?  Are you interested in replicating some earlier research, studying aspects of the topic missed by earlier reearchers, critiquing earlier research findings?  Are you interested in conducting primarily qualititative or quantitative research?  What are the key variables you want to study?  What is the purpose of your research: pure or applied?  What kinds of ethical issues are likely to be involved in this inquiry? 1. Poverty This is a broad topic, so you'll need to specify what aspect(s) will be considered.  You can examine the role of poverty in society, including the functions it serves within the larger social system, for example.  Or you could focus on the poor: how they got that way, what it's like to live in poverty, and what some of the noneconomic consequences are.  What will your research focus on?  What kind of data would be relevant to that topic? 2. Attitudes toward Abortion Are you interested how people feel about abortion, per se, or whether women should have the right to choose to have an abortion.  Probably you will want to distinguish the different circumstances under which people might approve or disapprove of abortions: rape, probably birth defects, poverty, personal choice, etc.  Are you interested in opinions among the general public or within special subpopulations? 3. Gender Inequality What type(s) of inequality interest you: wages, employment, education, family, roles, politics, etc.?  Are you interested in factual differences (e.g., income differences) or prejudicial attitudes?  How do you plan to study the issue: observing situations in which the inequality is manifested, measuring attitudes, examining government statistics, etc.?
2. Paradigms, Theory, and Research	General After reading this chapter, you will have an idea of some of the general theoretical framework that may be useful in order to answer your research question.  Review the competing theories that can explain some of the issues that are relevant for the particular project you chose.  In the literature-review sections of the articles you read on this topic, you will find overviews of the current models of explanation or paradigms used by prior researchers.  Perhaps you will find references to some of the paradigms explored in your textbook.  Which theory or paradigm seems the most useful or convincing?  Which lens are you using, macro, micro or middle-range? 1. Poverty The several paradigms and theories discussed in Chapter 2 offer very different views of poverty. A structural approach might examine the variables causing poverty and/or the functions served by poverty within society.  The conflict paradigm might examine the same phenomena, with a different point of view.  An interactionist perspective might look into lifestyles of the poor.  Even feminist paradigms are relevant to poverty, given the predominance of women among the poor in America. 2. Attitudes toward Abortion In addition to learning whether people support or oppose a woman's right to an abortion, you will want to explore the sources of those attitudes.  One approach would involve discovering the structural variables (e.g., religion, politics, ethnicity) that produce differing attitudes.  Or  you might want to take a closer look at how attitudes are formed in the process of interactions with others.  Or you could see the issue in terms of oppressing or empowering women.  Can you identify the paradigms relevant to these different approaches?  How would other paradigms structure the inquiry? 3. Gender Inequality For this project you will probably want to familiarize yourself with various feminist theories.  Other paradigms could be relevant as well.  An interactionist approach might focus on the ways in which the inequalities are acted out in the workplace, home, church, office, or other locale.  This approach would probably involve the notion of prejudice.  A more structural examination, however, might look for aspects of the culture (e.g., patterns of family roles or images of "executive leadership") that might disadvantage women in the workplace even if no prejudiced attitudes were evident.
3. The Politics and Ethics of Social Research	General The political aspect of your project is two-headed.  First, political considerations may place limits on the ways you can do your research.  Second, the results of your research may have action implications.  Ethically, you will want to design research that abides by the ethical principles elaborated in the chapter. 1. Poverty Poverty is political in many ways.  The issue is frequently addressed, with different explanations and prescriptions, by political parties and candidates.  Laws are passed to deal with poverty, and research into the topic often shapes those laws.  As you frame your research project, can you see political implications in it?  How about the ethics of studying poverty?  In particlar, can you see ways in which such studies could harm poor people, in the process of conducting the research?  How could that be avoided? 2. Attitudes toward Abortion Abortion is a highly politicized issue in American society.  Since laws relating to abortion have changed during the past, any research on the topic could eventually have an impact on future laws.  Can you think of what in which this political atmosphere might limit or shape the research you are planning to conduct?  How might ethical issues arise both in the pursuit of this topic in general and in the specific ways in which you might seek out and measure people's attitudes?  How could you avoid ethical risks? 3. Gender Inequality Like abortion, the issue of gender inequality is highly politicized, so you should look at ways in which that might interfere with your ability to conduct scientific research into the topic.  How might your own political orientations affect your research, and how could you avoid that?  Now think of ways in which people might be injured in the course of your studying this topic.  For example, how might a discriminated-against women be injured?  Or how might the study harm a man with prejudiced attitudes?  How could these risks be avoided in your study?
4. Research Design	General This chapter offers a number of dimensions along which to specify the scope of your research: purpose, unit of analysis, and time dimension.  There are instructions for designing your project and for writing a research proposal.  If you are interested in explanation, the chapter will guide you in the logic and techniques of causal analysis. 1. Poverty Is it your intention to describe poverty--either statistically or ethnographically--are you more interested in explaining why poverty exists, or is this simply exploratory work?  Are your units of analysis individuals or some aggegate such as cities or countries: will you study poor people or poor societies?  Will you focus on an examination of one point in time or changes over time? 2. Attitudes toward Abortion Will your research constitute an initial exploration of this topic, are you interested in discovering the percentages who approve or disapprove of abortion (in varying circumstances, perhaps), or would you like to learn why people approve or oppose abortion?  Probably you are interested in the attitudes of individuals, but realize that you could characterize aggregates such as organizations or countries in terms of their modal attitudes toward abortion (e.g., whether newspapers have taken editorial positions, pro or con,  on the issue).  Do you want to study attitudes at present or look at changes over time? 3. Gender Inequality Do you want to explore, describe, or explain gender inequalities in whatever arenas you have specified (e.g., income disaprities)?  Probably your unit of analysis will be individuals, but realize you could also study something like the differential funding of men's and women's athletic teams in college, whereas the teams would be the units of analysis.  You can look at current discrepancies and/or you can look at changes over time: has inequality lessened and, if so, how much?
5. Conceptualization, Measurement, and Operationalization	General Now you need to specify your concepts sufficiently for measurement.  While this is most obvious in the case of quantitative research, such as a survey, it is also important in qualitative research where you must get clearer about what you will observe and record among the countless possibilities that will confront you.  You'll need to specify what aspects of your concepts will be included and excluded.  How will you identify the different phenomena you are interested in studying?  How can you maximize validity and reliability? 1. Poverty What will constitute poverty for your study?  If you are doing qualitative observations of life experiences among the poor, you will need to specify how you will identify people who qualify as poor.  If you are doing a quantitative study, perhaps you can use definitions established by government agencies--if those definitions are appropriate to the intentions of your research.  2. Attitudes toward Abortion For most people, the issue is not one of favoring or opposing abortion per se but whether a pregnant woman has the right to choose it.  The most common way of conceptualizing this variable is in terms of the circumstances under which people would approve a woman being able to legally choose to have an abortion: e.g., if a birth defect was likely, if her health was endangered, in the case of rape, for any reason.  You might aim at getting a basic approval/disapproval under such circumstances, or you might seek more of a range of response: e.g., Strongly Approve, Approve, etc. 3. Gender Inequality Your main decision here revolves around the kind of inequality you are interested in: e.g., economic, occupational, political, familial.  Also, you must decide if you are interested in the existence of inequality or people's attitudes about it.  To measure the existence of inquality, you might be able to use existing statistics (Chapter 11) or may need to collect data, say in a Survey (Chapter 9) or direct observation (Chapter 10).
6. Indexes, Scales, and Typologies	General Will you be able to measure the variable(s) with a single indicator or will you need to combine several in a composite measure.  For a composite measure, if you are measuring a single dimension of your variable, an index or scale might be appropriate.  If the indicators available to you form an intensity structure, perhaps a scale would work best.  If you are measing more than one dimension (e.g., ethic prejudice and religious prejudice), then a typology will be appropriate. 1. Poverty There are many ways in which composite measures might be appropriate here.  For example, you could note which and/or how many possessions different families have: TV, telephone, private bathroom, etc.  Or you could compute other indexes, such as number of people per room. 2. Attitudes toward Abortion If you are asking people to approve-disapprove a woman's right to choose under various conditions, you could simply add up the number of approvals.  Or you could create a scale based on the fact that "for any reason" represents stronger pro-choice support than "if her health is endangered" and other conditions fit into an intensity structure. 3. Gender Inequality Depending on the type of gender. Suppose, for example, you were looking for inqualities among men and women faculty members at your school.  You could create an index or scale of various noneconomic factors: tenure, teaching assistants, committee chairships, office facilities, release time for research, etc.
7. The Logic of Sampling	General No matter what kind of study you plan, you will not be able to observe everything that's relevant.  Sampling determines what will be observed and what will be ignored.  In a qualitative study, your chief concern will probably be diversity: including all major aspects of what you are interested in.  Study both gang leaders and hangers-on, for example.  In a quantitative study, you will probably want to utilize probability sampling techniques, achieving proportionate representativeness. 1. Poverty To study poverty, you may need to sample all economic classes, to have someone to compare the poor with--determining the effects of poverty on health, for example.  Or you may want to do a qualitative study of homeless people, in which case your task will be locating and identifying them, as well as including different types of homeless.  Which approach is most appropriate for your study?  How will you select the proper sample. 2. Attitudes toward Abortion Whose attitudes are you interested in studying?  Is a probability or non-probability sample most appropriate to your study?  How will you select your sample? 3. Gender Inequality To study gender inequality, by definition, you will have to study both men and women.  Are you interested in gender comparisons among the general public or in some specific subset--like the labor force or your college?  How will you identify the population to be sampled and how will you select your sample?
8. Experiments	General Perhaps you can study your topic through an experiment, by setting up a controlled situation and observing what happens.  You'll need to identify (1) your dependent variable, (2) the independent variable or stimulus, and (3) how you will create experimental and control groups among your subjects.  In most experiments, you will need to give special attention to ethical issues.  If you are pressuring subjects to behave in a certain way or subjecting them to certain experiences, how will you insure that no one is harmed? 1. Poverty The experimental method is probably not the best one for studying poverty, but some researchers have done so effectively.  You might set up a competitive game in which some participants start out with more resources than others.  You could observe how the different groups deal with their circumstances and interview them about how they felt. 2. Attitudes toward Abortion You could conduct an experiment to determine how propaganda materials from a "pro-life" or "pro-choice" perspectives affect subjects' attitudes toward abortion.  Or create discussions groups in which all the participants but one have been instructed to take a certain point of view--pro or con--and see how the real subjects react to the group pressure. 3. Gender Inequality Experiments could be designed to help learn the dynamics of prejudice and discrimination against women.  You could set up work groups with a task to perform--determining why a car won't start, for example--and include women who are particularly effective (secretly tell them what's wrong with the car) and see if that affects the attitudes of the male subjects.
9. Survey Research	General Surveys involve two major elements: a sample (see chapter 7) and a standardized questionnaire.  Having decided who you will survey, you must now convert the variables under consideration into questions people can be asked.  The questionnaire will differ according to the data-collection method: face-to-face interview, self-administered questionnaire, or telephone interview. 1. Poverty There are several types of questions you might want to frame: those that will allow you to determine who's poor (asking about income, for example), you might ask about lifestyles of different respondents, or attitudes toward poverty (like why people are poor).  What will your study examine?  What questions will you ask? 2. Attitudes toward Abortion Who's opinions are you interested in: the general, adult population or some subset, like students at your school, for example.  You will need to answer these questions in order to design your sampling plan, and the target population will also have implications for the questions you will ask.  The project comments for Chapter 5 will help you organize the items for your questionnaire. 3. Gender Inequality Review your Chapter 5 notes regarding the aspect(s) of gender inequality your study will examine.  This will tell you the questions you need to ask.  If you are asking about attitudes toward gender inequality, you'll need to deal with the issue of social desirability.  Given the temper of the times, some people will be reluctant to express support for inequality, so you may have to show some ingenuity in drafting questions.
10. Qualitative Field Research	General What types of data will you use?  Will you use on observations alone or will you interview people as well?  In your observational work, will you identify yourself as a researcher or act the part of a full participant?  Consider the ethical issues involved in this decision.  Which of the paradigms discussed in the chapter offers the best theoretical approach to your study? 1. Poverty Where will you locate the people you want to study?  How will you present yourself to them?  Be very sensitive to the ethical issues involved in this situation, since you will be asking to observe people who are struggling with personal difficulties.  What exactly do you hope to learn and how will you get the data needed? 2. Attitudes toward Abortion Whose opinions are you interested in studying in direction observations?  Perhaps you will want to study people in particular settings, such as in a family planning clinic, a protest rally, or among members of an activist organization.  It will make a difference whether you present yourself as a fellow participant or as a researcher. 3. Gender Inequality Perhaps you can study this topic by observing interactions in situations where men and women work together, study together, or engage in similar joint ventures.  How will you identify instances of equality and inequality?  As in the project comments for Chapter 9, you may need to grapple with the issue of social desirability: people may be on better behavior if they know they are being observed.  How will you deal with this?
11. Unobtrustive Research	General This chapter in the textbook suggested a number of research technqiues that share the characteristic of not affecting what is being studied: historical research, content analysis, and the use of existing statistics.  Each of these could be used to examine the extended projects. 1. Poverty How have the poor been regarded and treated during different historical periods and in different societies?  How are the poor and the issue of poverty dealt with in various forms of communication: newspaper editorials, novels, cartoons, paintings, etc.?  What percentages of the population are reported to be below official poverty levels over time, in different states; is poverty primarily a rural or urban phenomenon?  All these questions could be answered through unobtrusive means. 2. Attitudes toward Abortion What is the history of laws relating to abortion: in the United States and elsehwere?  How are abortion issues portrayed in various media?  You might examine the use of terms such as "pro-life," "pro-choice," "family planning," "abortion doctor," etc. in various communications.  What is the pattern of attitudes toward abortion over time, using resources such as the Gallup Poll, the General Social Survey, and other long-running surveys? 3. Gender Inequality When and how did the issue of gender inequality become defined as a social problem (rather than just the way things are supposed to be)?  Trace the history of social movements generated around this issue.  How is the concept of gender equality conceptualized in various media: women's magazines, religious documents, liberal and conservative newspapers, by talk-show hosts and callers: how to they differ in what equality would presumably mean?  How has gender equality in income, education, voting, etc. changed over time as indicated by published statistics?  Use those statistics to test assertions that women earn less money because of "legitimate" factors such as being more likely to work part-time or have less seniority.
12. Evaluation Research	General Evaluation research is not a special way of doing research but a special purpose: to determine the effectiveness of programs implimented to achieve some goal.  This framework could be laid over each of the three extended projects. 1. Poverty There have been countless governmental and private programs designed to eliminate poverty or ease some of its pains.  How have they done?  You may not have the resources to undertake a full-scale evaluation of an anti-poverty program, but you could (1) lay out the design for such an evaluation or (2) review the literature and pull together evaluations that have already been done, looking for patterns in what seems to work and what doesn't. 2. Attitudes toward Abortion There are many possibilities here.  As one example, you might evaluate attempts by advocates, pro and con, to affect public opinion.  See if you can locate a deliberate and sustained attempt to shift public opinion in a particular direction and finds public opinion surveys on the issue to determine whether or not the campaign had any impact.  As an alternative, you could design such a campaign and corresponding evaluation. 3. Gender Inequality Since we have looked at many types of gender inequality, one possibility here would be to determine which forms of inequality have been most successfully reduced over time.  Were the biggest reductions of inequality the result of deliberate programs or some other factors?
13. Qualitative Data Analysis	General Data analysis will depend on the specific issues you have chosen to address, and we've already looked at some of the analytical possibilities.  Here's a review of the kinds of analyses you might pursue. 1. Poverty Detail the experience of poverty for those who have never been there.  What things that most people take for granted are missing from the lives of the poor?  How do they see themselves and explain their poverty?  Many people have ideas about how to help the poor; what do poor people feel is needed? 2. Attitudes toward Abortion This powerful issue has often been reduced to bumper-sticker simplicity.  Can you distinguish more than two viewpoints on the issue and describe each in such a way that it might make sense for a "reasonable" person to hold that view?  What kinds of circumstances and experiences would lead a person to one or another of those positions? 3. Gender Inequality Describe the variety of ways in which gender inequalities show up, going beyond income differences.  How are these inequalities experienced by women and what impact do those experiences have?  In what ways are men discriminated against, how is that experienced, and with what impact?  How are inequalities maintained over time: in social structure, socialization, cultural ideals, jokes, etc.?
14. Quantitative Data Analysis	General Here are the kinds of results that might emerge from quantitative studies of the three topics. 1. Poverty What percentages of people are below the poverty level, by various definitions of poverty?  Is poverty increasing or decreasing?  How do Americans compare with other societies in terms of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita, for example, or in terms of income disparity separating the rich from the poor? 2. Attitudes toward Abortion What percentages of the public feel a woman should have the right to a legal abortion: if her health is threatened by the pregnancy, if a birth defect is likely, if her pregnancy resulted from rape or incest, if she is poor, or just because she chooses it?  How do different groups compare in their attitudes toward abortion: men vs women, liberals vs conservatives, different religious groups, etc.?  Are American attitudes changing and how?  How do Amerians compare with other countries on this issue? 3. Gender Inequality How do men and women differ in America (or other society) as evidenced by compiled statistics or by surveys of attitudes toward gender inequality?  Why do the observed inequalities exist?  If income differences simply reflect the fact that women are more likely than men to work part-time (and part-time workers, reasonably, earn less than full-time workers), then men and women working full-time should earn the same.  Do they?  Has gender inequality increased, decreased, or remained constant over time?