Unit 1 Part 2 Flashcards
types of research methods
Research Methods: Fieldwork
* While subjects may differ, all anthropologists rely heavily on fieldwork
* Archaeologists: excavation occurs on sites where ancient societies once lived
* Cultural anthropologists: interacting with modern social groups in order to better understand them or their distant ancestors
Ethnography: ‘the recording and analysis of a culture or society, usually based on participant-observation and resulting in a written account of a people, place or institution’ (Simpson & Coleman 2017)
* The ethnographic method is called participant-observation
* Open-ended, long-term living with and among the people studied
* Local knowledge, values, and practices ‘from the “native’s point of view”’ (Howell, 2018)
Psychology
* Psychologists study and understand mental processes, brain functions, and behaviour
* Many branches of psychology
* Strong connections to the medical sciences, social sciences, and education (Boyack, Klavans, & Borner, 2005).
Branches of psychology
* Clinical
* Understand, prevent, and alleviate psychologically-caused distress or dysfunction
* Ex: therapy
- Experimental
- Uses scientific methods to collect data and perform research
- Famous psychological experiments
- Little Albert
- The Monster study
- The Milgram experiment
- The Bystander experiment
- The Stanford Prison experiment
Psychology and social change
* Transformation of an individual’s beliefs, attitudes, behaviours, and the effect of these changes on society/groups
* How/why do individuals change, believe certain ideas, participate in social movements, etc.
* Why did so many seemingly normal German men and women collaborate with the Nazis in WWII?
Sociology
* Sociology examines the underlying patterns in human behaviour and our relationships with one another
* Sociology looks at anything involving more than one person - large scale or small scale
Micro-sociology: the study of small groups and individuals within a society
Questions in micro-sociology:
- What effect does the present of police in schools and communitys have on the personal development and life paths of block and nation boys who grew up om inner-city neighborhoods? Sociologist victor rios addresses this question in his celebrated book, punished: policing the lives of black and latino boys
- How do sexuality and gender intersect in the development of identity among boys in the context of high school? This question is the centre of sociologist C.J. Pascoe’s widely popular book, dude, you’re a fag: masculinity and sexuality in high school
Social institution
* Five major social institutions:
* Family
* Government
* Economy
* Education
* Religion
Sociology looks at
* Intimate family relationships
* Hostile mobs
* Organized crime
* Religious traditions
* Divisions of race, gender and social class
* Shared beliefs of the common culture
qualitative
Qualitative research: to explore the meaning of people’s relationships, experiences, cultures, or a particular care or issue
qualitative
Qualitative research: to explore the meaning of people’s relationships, experiences, cultures, or a particular care or issue
quantitative
Quantitative Research
* To examine the relationship between variables (characteristics):
* Independent (variable): Manipulated by researcher
* Dependent (variable): Impacted by the manipulation of the independent variable
* Extraneous (variable): Outside the scope of research i.e. demographic information
Research question/hypothesis - Qualitative
- Qualitative research in exploratory, and starts with the words
- What or hoe
- Typically does have a hypothesis
Data Collection - Qualitative
- Mainly reliant on WORDS
- Methods of data collection include interviews, observations, documents (ex. newspapers) audio-visual (videos), etc.
- The researcher is the instrument
- Data is collected “from the field”
Analysis of Research - Qualitative
- Involves separating data into themes
Final Report - Qualitative
- Narrative
- Interpretive
- May contains quotes from participants
Research Question/Hypothesis - Quantitative
- uantitative research questions might include the word:
- What, how, DOES/DO
- Often does not have a hypothesis
Data Collection - Quantitative
- Mainly reliant on NUMBERS
- Uses instruments, such as surveys or questionnaires.
Analysis of Research - Quantitative
- Uses statistics to crunch numbers
Final Report - Quantitative
- More rigid (less interpretable)
- Includes statistical and numerical data
- Dominant paradigm and paradigm shift/examples (ex: gender norms, relationships, the environment) and how they affect institutions (ie. family, education)
Paradigm shifts
Dominant Paradigms
* Systems of thought and values of a particular society that are most standard and widely held at a given time.
* Shaped by a specific society’s cultural background and by the context of the historical moment.
* Function is to organize and define reality for its members
Discuss: How has the dominant paradigm of gender equality changed throughout history?
Paradigm Shift
When a new set of ideals, beliefs, and values become strong enough to affect and change the way individuals see and perceive reality.
Example:
Our beliefs regarding single-use plastics have changed drastically and therefore so have institutions
social change
The tipping point is that magic moment when an idea, trend, or social behavior crosses a threshold, tips, and spreads like wildfire.”
― Malcolm Gladwell, The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference
