General Issues in Research Design Chapter 3 Foundations

General Issues in Research Design Chapter 3

Foundations of Social Science Two pillars of science are logic and observation These pillars relate to the three key aspects of science: ◦ Theory ◦ Data collection ◦ Data analysis

Theory Theory: systematic explanation for the observed facts and laws that relate to a particular aspect of life Provide general statements about social life Used to guide research and develop a hypothesis Hypothesis is a specified expectation and empirical reality Y = f(X) Hypothesis testing involves finding out if observations are consistent with the hypothesis

Regularities and Exceptions • Goal of theory is to find patterns of regularity in social life • Formal and informal norms create regularity • Regularities can be studied via scientific analysis • Exceptions do not negate regularities – patterns need not be reflected in 100% of observations • Relationships are probabilistic

Aggregates, Not Individuals • Social scientists study social patterns, not individual behavior • We care about why aggregated patterns of behavior are regular even when participating individuals change over time • e. g. , processing and classifying new inmates

Variables and Attributes • Social science involves the study of these two concepts • Theory is written in a variable language; people are the carriers of those variables • e. g. , lower-class juveniles are more likely to steal • Attributes - characteristics that describe some object/person; Variables - logical groupings • Male and female are the attributes of the variable gender

Variables and Relationships • Theories describe the relationships that might be logically expected among variables • Causation – an attribute on one variable is expected to cause, predispose, or encourage an attribute on another variable • Independent variable: “cause”, “influencer” • Dependent variable: “effect”, “depends” • Type of defense attorney -> prison or probation

Differing Avenues for Inquiry Three distinctions underlie many of the variations in social scientific research: ◦ Explanations ◦ Reasoning ◦ Type of data

Idiographic and Nomothetic Explanations Idiographic explanations seek a full and detailed understanding of a single case or situation Nomothetic explanations are partial explanations that explain a class of situations or events rather than a single one. Both types are powerful tools in criminal justice research

Example of Ideographic Explanations Cliffard R. Shaw developed ideographic explanations to understand the lives of juvenile delinquents. These case studies, described in such books as The Jack-Roller and Brothers in Crime, offered researchers a comprehensive view of the effect that variables such as family factors, peer influences, and community circumstances have on the engagement in juvenile delinquency. Data collection involved interviews with the youths and their parents, analyzing diaries kept by the youths, and reviewing juveniles medical, school, and arrest records. These case studies were later used to develop monothetic explanations of juvenile delinquency that could be generalized to all delinquents.

Inductive and Reductive Reasoning • Inductive – moves from the specific to the general • From a set of observations to the discovery of a pattern among them • Grounded theory • Deductive – moves from the general to the specific • From a logically or theoretically-expected pattern to observations that test the presence of the pattern

Qualitative and Quantitative Data • All observations are qualitative at the outset • Qualitative = non-numerical; greater richness of meaning • Quantitative = numerical; carries a focusing of attention and specification of meaning • Both are useful and legitimate – choose based on topic or combine aspects of both • e. g. , What constitutes “worldliness”?

Criteria for Causation • Posited by Shadish, Cook, & Campbell (2002) • Empirical relationship between variables • Temporal order (cause precedes effect) • No alternative explanations – no spurious other variable(s) affecting the initial relationship

Validity and Causal Inference • When we make a cause-and-effect statement, we are concerned with its validity – whether it is true and valid • Certain threats to the validity of our inference exist • These are reasons why we might be incorrect in stating that some cause produces some effect

Does Drug Use Cause Crime? • • Temporal order: which comes first? A statistical relationship exists, but underlying causes affect both drug use and crime (IV threat) Relationship between crime and drug use varies by type of drug How will policy affect drug use and crime? A crackdown on all drugs among all populations will do little to reduce serious crime.

Scientific Realism Scientific realism: bridges idiographic and nomothetic approaches to explanation by seeking to understand how casual mechanisms operate in specific contexts Scientific realism studies how other possible influences are involved in cause-and-effect relationships Contains elements of both idiographic and monothetic modes of explanation

Units of Analysis • What or who is studied • Individuals - (police, victims, defendants, inmates, gang members, burglars) • Groups - multiple persons with same characteristics (gangs, police beats, patrol districts, households, city blocks, cities, counties) • Organizations - formal groups w/established leaders and rules - (prisons, police departments, courtrooms, drug treatment facilities, businesses, agencies) • Social artifacts - products of social beings and their behavior - (stories in newspapers, posts on the Internet, photographs of crime scenes, incident reports, police/citizen interactions)

Issues in Logic • Ecological fallacy - danger of making assertions about individuals based on the examination of groups or aggregations (Poor areas = more crime, therefore poor people commit more crime) • Individual fallacy – using anecdotal evidence to make an argument (O. J. Simpson court resources)

Time Dimension • Time sequence is critical in determining causation • Time is also involved in the generalizability of research findings • Observations can either be made more or less at one point, or stretched over a longer period

Cross-Sectional Studies • Observing a single point in time (crosssection); simple and least costly way to conduct research • We cannot see social processes or changes; have to worry if we picked a bad point in time to capture • Typically descriptive or exploratory in nature

Longitudinal Studies • Permit observations over time • Trend – those that study changes within some general population over time (UCR) • Cohort – examine more specific populations as they change over time (Wolfgang study) • Panel – similar to trend or cohort, but the same set of people is interviewed on two or more occasions (NCVS) (panel attrition)

Cincinnati Study on Lead Exposure Researchers at the University of Cincinnati recruited individuals born from 1979 -1985 to take part in a longitudinal panel study. During childhood, the research subjects’ blood was tested for lead exposure several times. Interviews and surveys of the subjects and their parents were used to assess the youths’ levels of delinquency. The results showed that youths who were exposed to lead engaged in more acts of delinquency and used marijuana more than those not exposed. At the time of this study, the research subjects were between 15 and 17. The researchers are still studying this subjects, which will allow for more examinations of the effects of lead exposure on adult behaviors. Dietrich, K. N. , Ris, M. D. , Succop, P. A. , Berger, O. G. & Bornschein, R. L. (2001). Early exposure to lead and juvenile deliqnency. Neurotoxicology and Teratology, 23, 511 -518.

Approximating Longitudinal Studies • May be possible to draw approximate conclusions about processes that take place over time, even when only CS data is available • When time order of variables is clear, logical inferences can be made about processes taking place over time

Retrospective Research • • Asks people to recall their past for the purpose of approximating observations over time People have faulty memories; people lie Analysis of past records also suffer from problems – records may be unavailable, incomplete, or inaccurate Prospective research – longitudinal study that follows subjects forward in time (Widom – child abuse/drug use)

Time Dimension Summarized • Cross-sectional study = snapshot – an image at one point in time • Trend study = slide show – a series of snapshots in sequence over time, allows us to tell how some indicator varies over time • Panel study = motion picture – gives information about individual observations over time