Transcript Human Inquiry and Science

Review I : From Research
Design to Measurement
Social Research Methods
2113 & 6501
Spring, 2007
03/03/07~03/05/07
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A former student’s words:
這裡是XXX...只是有感而發所以想回來說說話
結束研究所第一學期的課程
不得不大聲說 到社會系走這一趟實在是助益良多
尤其是對想要繼續深究的學弟妹
至少在相關科系是絕對吃香的
社統.社理.社研三個主科涵蓋許多研究所課程
唯一的差別在於社研大家分工~到了研究所要自己獨
立完成論文
社會學和社思則提供許多研讀經典的重要背景知識
唔...不知道有沒有犯了過度推論的謬誤?
• YYY 推:社會系對於研究法的訓練非常受用^^
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Research: finding answers to
questions
• social research: seek answers to
questions about the social world
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Science:
• a system for producing knowledge and
the knowledge produced from that system
(產生知識的系統及從此系統中產生的知識)
• gather empirical data (實證資料: 人們經由
感官所得到的觀察，社會科學研究者藉由
許多特定的方法直接或間接地觀察、測量
這些社會現象)
• Logic (邏輯) & Observation (觀察)(科
學的基本精神)
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Quantitative and Qualitative
Social Research
• 量化及質化研究的基本科學原則
是一樣的，可是兩種途徑也有顯著
的不同
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Responsibilities of the individual
researcher (研究者的責任與認知)
• Ethics begin and end with the researcher.
(研究倫理的實踐者為研究人員)
• Scientific misconduct (科學的不當行為)
– Research fraud (研究造假): fakes data or
falsely reports how research was conducted
– Plagiarism (抄襲): steals the ideas or writings
of others or uses them without citing the
source
• Power and trust (研究者不要濫用權力，不
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要破壞與被研究者之間建立的信任)
Ethical Issues in Social Research
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No Harm to the Participants (對參與者無害)
Voluntary Participation (志願參與)
Informed consent (告知同意)
Special populations and creating new
inequalities (特別受訪族群與研究造成的不
平等)
• Privacy (隱私權), Anonymity (匿名),
Confidentiality (保密)
• Analysis and Reporting Data (分析與報告)
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The Dimensions of Research
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Purposes of Research
• Exploration (探索) : to explore new issues,
to formulate more precise questions for
future research
– No definitive answers; be creative, openminded, flexible
• Description (描述) : to provide specific
details of a subject
– Focuses on “how” and “who” questions
• Explanation (解釋): to know “why” things
are the way they are (identify reasons)
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Time Dimensions in Research
• Quantitative research: crosssectional research (橫斷研究) vs.
longitudinal research (縱貫研究)
• Qualitative research: case study
(個案研究)
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Social Theory (社會理論)
• social theory: “a system of interconnected ideas
that condenses and organizes knowledge about
the social world” (一相互聯結、濃縮並組織有關
社會世界的知識系統)
• important to research
• How to use theory in research?
• Social theory ≠ ideology (see p. 51 for a
comparison of the two), although they have
some similarities (社會理論與意識型態不同，雖
然兩者有一些相似之處)
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Four parts of social theory
(理論的組成)
Assumptions (假設)
Concepts (概念)
Relationships (關係)
Units of analysis (分析單位)
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Concepts (概念)
• Concepts: the building blocks of theory
• Two parts: a symbol (word or term) and a
definition (符號及定義)
• Social science concepts form a
specialized language, or jargon (專業用語)
• Vary by level of abstraction (抽象程度不同)
• Single vs. concept clusters
– Variables (有些概念呈現出不同的數值)
• Simple vs. complex concepts
• Narrow vs. broad scope
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Relationships (關係)
• Kinds of relationships: not related, strongly
related, interaction effects, etc
• A proposition (命題): a theoretical
statement about the relationship between
two or more concepts (有關兩個或多個概
念間的特定關係之理論性的陳述)
• A hypothesis: an empirically testable
version of a proposition (可被測試的概念關
係)
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The concepts of variables and
attributes
• Variables (變數): 屬性的邏輯群聚 (logical
groupings of attributes)
• Attributes (屬性): 人或事物的特徵
• Independent variables (自變數) and
dependent variables (依變數)
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Stating Hypotheses
(建構假設)
• 兩個(或多個)變項之間的關係
• How to state hypotheses?
– 假設的寫法:變項之間的正向或負向關係陳述清
楚，不要只是說XX與XX有關。
– 例子(去年考題): 年齡與贊成或反對墮胎的態度
有關，愈年輕者愈贊成墮胎。
• Causal order
• Null hypothesis
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Direction of Theorizing
• Deductive (演繹): from abstract to
concrete, from the general to the specific
• Inductive (歸納): from concrete to abstract,
from the particular to the general
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Forms of explanation:
• Explanation: logical connection between
what happened with a more abstract or
basic principle about “how things work”
• Three major forms of theoretical
explanation: causal, structural, interpretive
(因果，結構性，詮釋性的解釋)
• Our focus is on causal explanation
(causality)-- cause and effect relationship
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Causality
• Three things to establish causality:
– Temporal order (a cause must come before
an effect) (時間順序)
– Association (關聯，相關性)(two phenomena
occur together in a patterned way or appear
to act together)
– The elimination of plausible alternatives (排除
其他可能的影響因素，非虛假關係) (an ideal
because eliminating all possible alternatives is
impossible)
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Diagram of Causal Explanation
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The dynamic duo: theory and
research
• Theory and research are interrelated
• Theory: tells us how to look at and think
about a topic; gives us concepts and
assumptions; directs us to important
questions; suggests ways to explain data,
and connects us to an immense base of
knowledge.
• Deductive and inductive approaches vs.
theory
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Research Design, Processes,
& Measurement
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The importance of research
questions: the story starts from
here (故事從研究問題開始)
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The purposes of literature review
• To demonstrate a familiarity with a body of
knowledge and establish credibility (顯示
出對某領域知識的了解及建立可信度)
• To show the path of prior research and
how a current project is linked to it (顯示出
先前研究的路徑和現在計劃的相關性)
• To integrate and summarize what is
known in an area (整合摘要該領域已知的
知識)
• To learn from others and stimulate new
ideas (向他人學習並刺激新的概念)
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Writing a literature review
• Writing a clear and crisp review is not easy
(文獻回顧要寫得清楚扼要並不容易)
• Keep your purposes in mind (把握主旨)
• Start from organizing your notes (整理你的文
獻閱讀筆記)
• Do not just summarize, should organize and
be critical (批判性的整理及摘要)
• All rules of good writing apply here (ex:
organization, transition, flow, introduction and
conclusion, etc)
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Overview of Research Design
• Research Purposes
– Exploration (探索), Description (描述),
Explanation (解釋)
• Units of Analysis (研究單位): possibly
individuals (個人)
• The Time Dimension: cross-sectional
design
• Design a Research Project: the
research process
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The Research Process
• Conceptualization: think about research
questions & important concepts
• Choice of research method: quantitative
and/or qualitative?
• Operationalizaion: measurement
• Population and sampling
• Observations (data collection)
• Data processing
• Analysis and interpretation
• Writing articles/reports
• Application
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Conceptualization,
Operationalization, and
Measurement
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Conceptualization
• The process through which we
specify what we mean when use
particular terms in research is
called conceptualization.
• The result is called a concept (概
念). Concepts have specific and
agree-upon meanings.
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Indicators and Dimensions of
Concepts
• An Indicator (指標): the presence or
absence of the concept [用來顯示概念存在
與否]
• Dimension (層面). : a specific aspect of a
concept [概念中的某一特別面向]
• During conceptualization and
operationalization, we often specify
different indicators to represent different
dimensions of a concept. [我們可以用不同
的指標來測量一概念的不同面向]
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Operationalization: developing
specific research procedures to
be used in empirical observations
representing those concepts
Consider:
Range of variation
Degree of precision
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Measurement Process:
Conceptualization & Operationalization
• Conceptualization (概念化): 將一抽象的想
法或概念發展出清楚的、嚴謹的、或系統
性的概念定義之過程
– conceptual definition(概念定義):抽象或理論式
的定義
• Operationalization (操作化): 將概念定義與
某種測量程序或技巧連結，以進行實證研
究
– Operational definition (操作定義): 研究者實際
上如何測量某變數(或概念)
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對 「相信傳統性別角色」這個變數
進行概念化及操作化 :
• ｢相信傳統性別角色」這個變數可以定義為對女性
的身分角色仍然抱持著傳統｢男主外、女主內｣的
觀念，若女性出外工作，尤其不贊成女性從事一
般認為屬於男性的職業，例如水電工、卡車司機、
搬運工等。
• 在操作化上，詢問屋主對以下陳述的看法：
• 1) 女性應該待在家中照顧家庭，不要外出工作。
• 答案選項: 非常同意 同意 不同意 非常不同意
• 2) 男性可以做的工作，女性也可以做。
• 答案選項: 非常同意 同意 不同意 非常不同意
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Four Levels of Measurement
• Nominal Measures (名義的測量): differences
among categories
– Ex: gender, religious affiliation, college major
• Ordinal Measures (順序、次序的測量):
categories can be ordered or ranked
– Ex: social class, prejudice
• Interval Measures (等距、間距的測量): can
specify the distance between categories
– Ex: IQ scores
• Ratio Measures (等比、比率的測量): attributes
are based on a true zero point
– Ex: age, # of times married, length of residence in a
given place
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The Quality of Measurement
We look at the reliability (信度) and
validity (效度) of measurement.
[測量的品質可由信度及效度判定]
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Definition of Reliability and Validity
• Reliability: 對同一受訪對象，如果我們運用
特定的技術，重覆進行研究，每次都能得
到相同的結果，此為信度(reliability)。
– Measurement reliability: 變數測量的可依賴度
或一致性
• Validity: 一實證測量(empirical measure)能
夠反映想要研究的概念之真實意義的程度，
即為效度(validity)。
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Relationship between reliability and
validity
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