Research Methods I

I've finished grading and input scores and grades into GradeQuery. I'll submit the grades to the Registrar in a couple of days. Contact me right away if you have a question or think there is an error in your scores.

Thank you for all your hard work. Congratulations to those of you who earned a B- or better. Good luck in Soc 90!

Each group will:
(a) state the research and null hypotheses; (b) identify variables to test a particular question using the GSS, ANES, NHIS or the US PUMS at SDA; (c) select the correct statistical test; and, (d) interpret the results.

1. Does gender affect health?
2. Does race affect health?
3. Does region affect cost of living?
4. Does marital status affect poverty?
5. Does education affect political view?

I've posted the questions for the final exam.

We'll practice hypothesis testing with this exercise. Each group will take a potential independent variable. We're trying to explain variation in household income.

1) State the null and research hypotheses.
2) Perform a means test using the 1% US PUMS data at SDA. Indicate which variables you used.
3) Interpret your results.

Post your summary as a comment to this page. Include everyone's name.

1. gender
2. race
3. marital status
4. English language skills

How might we do a program evaluation for the sociology major? Let's start with the learning goals and objectives. The aim of this program evaluation is to make the sociology degree more valuable. (So, for example, our graduates are more likely to get good jobs or get accepted into top-tier graduate programs.)

Each group should select one of the goals. Consider the learning objectives for that goal. Identify and describe some learning activities that would allow students to achieve these objectives. If you wish, add a new objective if you feel we've let something important out. How would these learning activities be assessed?

Post your report as a comment to this page. Indicate which learning goal you selected in your title. Remember to include everyone's name.

Each group will devise a sampling strategy for their hypothetical study and explain any anticipated problems with sampling (deposit or survival) bias.

1. The gender norms depicted in contemporary introductory sociology textbooks.
2. The arguments for political violence in right-wing blogs last year.
3. The depiction of family relationships in vacation photographs.
4. The use of race in advertisements during sporting events during the 1980s.

Remember to include everyone's name.

Let's say that we want to do a content analysis of newspaper coverage of climate change. How might we code for relevant content? What aspects of the stories would be relevant to examine? Think about the language, the tone of the stories, the images used, and even the grammar. Identify one kind of manifest content and one kind of latent content, and develop some coding rules for each. Post your coding rules and a brief explanation as a comment to this page.

If you are having difficulty in thinking of content to code, take a few minutes to look at newspaper stories about climate change.

I've extended the deadline for the third lab report to Sunday, 11/29.

Using the codebook you developed for the previous exercise, each person will code ten more photographs from one of the BrooklynSoc albums using the rules you developed.

Next, compare codes. Out of the ten photos, how many codes were the same?

Finally, for each photo that was coded differently, discuss the content in light of your coding rules and come to a consensus, if possible, on the correct code.

In your post, indicate the level of inter-coder reliability — how many of the ten photographs were coded the same? — and how easy or difficult it was to come to a consensus decision about the codes.

Develop a codebook for visual markers of social class in urban neighborhoods. Develop a few rules for identifying the content in images that would allow you to sort neighborhoods into three categories: poor, middle class, wealthy. Begin by defining each of the three categories — i.e., what is a poor neighborhood, a middle class neighborhood, a wealthy neighborhood. Then write at least one rule to assign content to that category. Ideally, you'll have three or four rules for each category.

Next, working as a team, code the first ten photographs from one of the BrooklynSoc albums using the rules you constructed. Each photo will be placed in one category. Calculate the proportion of photographs in the album in each of the class categories.

To develop the codebook, use images from Coney Island Avenue.

Post your codebook and your aggregate results as a comment to this page.