Lecture note - Method

1. Selecting a topic
What do you want to know?
How to decide the research topic?  
-  Curiosity basing on what you want to know
-  Social issues
→ better understand situation even help to solve issue.
- Fund availability

2. Defining the Problem

To determine what do you want to know.

To develop researchable question

e.g. education and work experience of rapists average age of victim

3. Reviewing the literature 

To check whether the question has already been answered or not

To study what has already researched.

To sharpen your question

4. Formulating a hypothesis

Hypothesis predict the relationship between variables  (factors thought to be significant)

e.g. income, religion, occupation, gender…can serve as variable.

Hypothesis needs an operational definition. (precise ways to measure their concept)

Variable; refers to an operationalized version of construct.

is specific, concrete expression of construct 

is measurable and manipulative 

Independent variable: the cause variable 

Dependent variable: effect variable, outcome

5. Choosing a research method

Survey

- collecting information or data as reported by individuals. Surveys can be questionnaires (or a series of questions) that are administered to research participants who answer the questions themselves.

* How to get your respondent???

2) Secondary analysis

3) DOCUMENT

4) Experiments

Artificially-created situations that allow the researcher to manipulate variables. It identifies cause-and-effect relationships .

e.g. Hypothesis: pornography creates attitudes that favor rape. (IV: pornography, DV: attitude toward rape)

* it may need to retest the result by repeating the experiment with other groups of men.

6) Participant observation

When the researcher “joins” a group for a period of time to get a sense of how it operates.

e.g. Street Corner's society