Click on the following links. Please note these will open in a new window.

Group Projects

1. Inductive research can be easily conducted by students.  Split them into groups and assign a common social activity (e.g., grocery shopping, eating in a restaurant or cafeteria, waiting in line at a bank, social interactions at a club) or have them propose a social activity of their own.  Ask the members of the group to go into the field for an hour and observe how people conduct themselves in this activity (it will work better if they don’t all do it at the same time or in the same place).  Students should be attentive to patterns that emerge from the observation, but should try not to engage actors or make their observation too obvious (as this may bias results!)  After their hour of fieldwork, students should meet to discuss the patterns they observed.  During the next class period, each group should present empirical generalizations based on these observations.  If possible, students might then find some theory or research that corresponds to these generalizations and report as to whether their observations make sense given pre-existing research or theory.
2. Have students start by choosing a broad social justice issue. Have them then work through the process of identifying, refining, and evaluating their research question as it is outlined in the book. Have them consider how they would construct a study around their finalized research question. Discuss potential problems and limitations with their research questions and proposed studies.
3. If access to a computer proves possible, have groups of students go through the process of searching the literature as a team. This beings with specifying a research question, identifying helpful search databases, creating keywords, narrowing search and using appropriate search logic, and checking results. Students should keep a list of all the variations of keywords they check as well as the associated number of ‘hits’ in order to help them understand how different keywords and keyword combinations produce different results.
4. Students should identify or be given a social issue. They should then search and acquire 4 -6 articles that describe research done on that social issue. They should make a table where they note the different levels of measurement validity present in each study, as well as any mentions of generalizability and causal validity.
    

Mini Projects

1.  Identifying Good Research Questions

Formulating a good research question is one of the most difficult steps for many new social scientists.  It’s often not until after many false starts and dead ends that a worthwhile and feasible question emerges.  And it’s often not a whole lot easier for seasoned investigators.  This project will give you an overview of the process and perhaps some tips to use in formulating your own research questions.

1. Identify a local research organization, such as a survey research center at the university, the research department of a governmental agency, or a private research firm.  Or find a professor on your campus who has been active in social work research.  Ask your instructor for some suggestions.
2. Plan how you will ask an organizational representative, or the professor, for a 30-minute interview about his or her research experiences.  Call and make arrangements.
3. Prepare an interview plan, including a very brief introduction of yourself and the reason for the interview, as well as some background questions about the organization and your informant’s job.  The interview should focus primarily on the respondent’s experiences with formulating research questions and reviewing those formulated by others.
4. Ask the respondent to list the research questions he or she currently is seeking to answer.  You may also chose to ask about particularly interesting research question the respondent has investigated in the past.  Then ask the respondent how he or she selected each question.
5. Now ask your respondent to reflect on the quality of each research question.  What questions proved to be feasible, socially important, and scientifically relevant?  Which questions did your respondent end up changing (or wishing he or she had changed)?
6. What suggestions can your respondent make to help you avoid poor research questions?
7. Write up a short report on what you have learned about the process of formulating good research questions.

2.  How Popular is Social Science?}
What use is made of the results of social science research in the popular press?

1. Review one week’s daily papers and check all those articles that report or refer to social science research results.
2. Calculate the proportion of news articles that take advantage of social science research.
3. Read each of the articles you checked.  Indicate for each article the type of research involved (descriptive, evaluative, explanatory, or exploratory).  Circle any statements in the articles that pertain to measurement, causality, or generalizability.
4. Summarize the information presented in each article about measurement validity, causal validity, and sample and cross-population generalizability.
5. Now grade each article n the basis of the extent to which information was provided with which to judge the validity of any statements made about measurement, causality, and generalizability.  Use grades from 0 (failure) to 4 (excellent).
6. Describe your findings and review your conclusions in a short paper.

3.  What are Social Scientists Researching?
You are to focus on four issues of a social work journal, such as Social Work, Research on Social Work Practice, Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare, Affilia, Social Work Research or Social Service Review.

Count the number of articles involving empirical research in the four issues.  Express this count as a percentage of the number of regular articles in these issues.

1. Create a coding matrix, in which the rows will represent journal articles and the columns will contain codes to indicate they type of research used (descriptive, evaluative, explanatory, or exploratory), the explicit use of any social science theory and the name of the theory used.  The coding matrix should also include columns in which to note the presence of any statements about measurement, causality, sample generalizability, or cross-population generalizability and whether any rationale was given for accepting the validity of these statements.
2. Code each of the articles in this matrix.  In a footnote for each article, identify any errors that seem to have been made in reasoning.
3. Tally up your codes across the articles.  Write a brief summary of what you have learned about the characteristics of research reported in these social science journals.