Sociological Methods


A Guide to Sociology 2211

  David Maddox is the Teaching Assistant this semester (Fall '09).  You can contact him at dmaddo1@tigers.lsu.edu.

 


 

 

Assignments - due dates

(Updates likely:
Check this section before class for any changes)

 

  • Aug 31: Presentation by the leaders of the HOPE site. Attendance mandatory! (Attendance will be taken)

  • Sept 4: Go to the American FactFinder site at the U.S. Census (see my links on this site).  Compare the economic level of Baton Rouge (city) to a rich place and a poor place, and look for two or three possible reasons for the differences.  Poke around the American FactFinder tables till you find some statistics you think are good indicators of economic level and the other factors you are looking for.  List the results side by side by making a table with the places down the side (rows) and the variables you've chosen along the top (columns).  A spreadsheet program will make a nice table for you.  Here are some places to try comparisons for:
    • Try these Baton Rouge Zip codes: 70802 (north of downtown); 70808 (south of campus)
    • Rich places: Marin (County), CA; Fairfax (County), VA; Greenwich (County), CT; Lake Forest (city), IL; Kenilworth (village), IL
    • Poor places: Harlan (County), KY; Tensas (Parish), LA; Mora (County), NM; Shannon (County), SD
    • ...And look at the characteristics of this place: Maywood, IL (a western suburb of Chicago); or these Zip codes on Chicago's south side: 60653, 60628

    • Link Hints (from my links page):
      • The main American FactFinder page is here.  Try using the "Fast Access to Information" section at the top of the page.
      • The Quick Tables of the American FactFinder is here.  You can look up states, counties, zip codes, etc. here.
      • Also try the State & County QuickFacts page, here.  (Can't be used for zip codes.)

    [For the following assignments, please turn in your SPSS output along with the exercise page from Healey.  Abbreviations for the following assignments: RR=Research Report; IP=Independent Project; CA=Comparative Analysis]

  • Sept 9, 9am-Noon: HOPE site visit (map is here). Sign up for times on David's sign-up sheet from his email.
    • We will observe the operations of the HOPE Center. You should take notes (on paper - preferably 8.5 x 11 - not computer) of what you see and hear during our visit. You will use your observations to help develop a survey of the HOPE Center's clients, which the Center can use to improve its delivery of services.
    • Observe things that might impact client satisfaction with HOPE's delivery of services, and take notes of your observations.
    • Think ahead, as you take notes, to how we might develop testable hypotheses out of the issues you observe, and how we will operationalize our hypotheses into concrete questions for the questionnaire.
    • At this stage, your notes and observations can be pretty free-form. Don't hesitate to think outside the box & keep things loose at this point - just make sure you see a connection to the central questions of client satisfaction. We will tighten and refine our themes as we go forward.

  • Sept 11: Field Notes/Journaling assignment due. Collect the notes you took on your site visit, and look for themes that run through them. Type up a 1-2 page condensation of your ideas, organized into themes or questions that we can begin to form into questions for the questionnaire. Bring your packet to class - staple the typed summary in front, and your hand-written field notes behind - and we will discuss our observations and ideas in class today. You will hand them in at the end of class, so that you have them to refer to in class.

  • Sept 16: Turn in five survey questions that you develop from your Field Notes.
    • Use your field notes, which should now be refining first impressions into hypotheses and into questions that we can use on a questionnaire. Type up your five questions onto the first page or two, and staple your field notes behind them. Bring them with you to class, and we will use them in class, and you'll turn them in at the end of class.
    • Aim to keep your questions concrete, rather than abstract; and make sure your questions are clear and not ambiguous.
    • We will break into groups, and each group will discuss their questions and choose two of them for the group. Important: Print out your question-and-answer texts exactly, plus, send them by email to David Maddox, so we can assemble them and post them on a class web page. Include whatever percentaged results you find for the whole population (sub-population breakdowns optional).
    • As background, you can look in the GSS (esp here) or NES for questions that might be usable.  [Also see my links page.]  As further background, you can also look at questions from our post-Katrina Survey (start page is here).

  • Sept 18, 9am-Noon: Second HOPE site visit (map is here). We may talk with clients of the HOPE Center this time to understand their needs and their satisfaction with the Center's services.
    • You should again take notes (on paper - preferably 8.5 x 11 - not computer) of your conversations during our visit. You will again use your notes in developing questions for our questionnaire of the HOPE Center's clients.
    • You should now be looking to see if some of the impressions you developed on your first visit are valid. That is, you will begin to transition from developing hypotheses to refining hypotheses. BUT, we are still at a transitional stage, so still keep your thinking a bit loose and prepare to be surprised and/or proven wrong in some of the things you are thinking of confirming.
    • Since you can talk with staff and clients this time, you can also begin to see if they see things the way you think you are beginning to see them. BUT, do more listening than talking, and try to stay fairly concrete, not abstract, in talking with people.
    • Of course, always treat people with respect, and remember: they are the experts about their situation, not us! We are here to learn from them. You might find it helpful to think of your conversations as collaborations in developing your ideas, not so much in terms of researcher/subject.

  • Sept 18: Turn in 2 of the following Exercises in Healey, Chap. 4 Religiosity - RR4.1, IP4.1, IP4.2, CA 4.1. (You can turn in your assignment to us at the Hope site or to David ahead of today.)

  • Sept 25: Turn in five more [new] survey questions that you develop from your Field Notes. We will break into the same groups, and each group will discuss their questions and choose two of them for the group.  Important: Print out your question-and-answer texts exactly, plus, send them by email to David Maddox, so we can assemble them and post them on a class web page. Include whatever percentaged results you find for the whole population (sub-population breakdowns optional).
    • As background, you can look on the web or elsewhere for questions that might be usable.  [See some links to try, here.]  Also, consider replicating questions used in previous Baton Rouge surveys to check for time trends.

  • Sept 25: Turn in 2 of the following Exercises in Healey, Chap. 5 Attitudes toward abortion - RR5.2, IP5.1, CA5.2

  • Oct 9: Turn in 2 of the following Exercises in Healey, Chap. 7 Crime - RR7.4, IP7.1, IP7.2, IP7.3, CA7.1

  • Oct 9: Extra credit quiz - Read the brochures about surveys at the American Statistical Association, here (also linked near the top of this page).  We'll have a simple quiz on what the brochures say.

  • Oct 14: Mid-term exam

  • Oct 16: Attendance Important: Practice Interviews & sign-up/planning for data collection. Please print out one copy of the questionnaire and bring it with you to class. Also, training data entry on SurveyMonkey. 
    • Sign-up sheets will be available in class beginning today for time slots at the HOPE Center. We will also try to arrange for students to be able to do interviews by phone from our classroom during class time (more info coming on that). Interviewing will begin Monday, October 19, MWF from 9am-12N. You are required to complete 12 interviews, and you can do additional interviews for extra credit.
  • Oct 16: Quiz - Read the LSU Institutional Review Board (IRB) Regulations for Human Subject Studies, here.  Almost all university research everywhere in America must pass a review (or get an exemption) to make sure that no one (humans or animals) is harmed by the research.  This is an important ethical issue.  We will be applying for an exemption from IRB review for our class survey.  You don't have to know all the details about this process, but you should have a quick look at the documents listed below.  We'll have a simple quiz on what they say, and we'll have a brief discussion about what this means for our research.  Here are the documents to look at:
  • Oct 19: Interviewing begins (9am-12N, MWF). Make sure to sign up for time slots at the HOPE Center. Sign-up sheets will be available in class beginning Monday, Oct 16.
  • Oct 23: Turn in 2 of the following Exercises in Healey, Chap. 9 Inequality and gender - RR9.3, IP9.1, IP9.2, CA9.1, CA9.2, CA9.3

  • Oct 23: First 6 interviews to be completed by today.

  • Oct 30: Turn in 2 of the following Exercises in Healey, Chap. 10 Inequality and race - RR10.3, RR10.4, IP10.1, IP10.2, IP10.3, CA10.1, CA10.2

  • Oct 30: Second 6 interviews to be completed by today.

  • Nov 2: In-class quiz: Although we will not be doing RDD (Random Digit Dial) telephone interviewing, it is important for you to know how samples are prepared. Read about Marketing Systems Group GENESYS Sampling Systems (this is the firm that is drawing our sample), especially their RDD Samples( Random Digit Dialing Samples) and their GENESYS-IDplus system, which we'll be using.  [Note: The Genesys web site may be temporarily down or under construction. They sent me this to use as a temporary web page. that should contain most of the same information.] Be prepared to summarize the basic steps they take in preparing a list of telephone numbers for us to use.  Don't worry about mathematical formulas or small details; just understand the basic steps. 

  • Nov 6: Turn in 2 of the following Exercises in Healey, Chap. 11 The Family - RR11.3, RR11.5, IP11.1, IP11.2, IP11.3, IP11.4, CA11.1

  • Nov 13: Turn in 2 of the following Exercises in Healey, Chap. 12 Voting - RR12.3, RR12.4, IP12.1, IP12.3, IP12.4, IP12.5, CA12.1, CA12.2

  • Nov 13: Develop five hypotheses to test using our new HOPE Center survey.  State briefly what causal relationship you expect to find in the data and why (e.g., women are more likely than men to say there is a neighborhood they would be afraid to walk in after dark because they feel less able to defend themselves).  These will probably form the core of your report, which will be due Dec 4.

  • Nov: We will be analyzing the results of our HOPE Center survey. You will develop a set of interrelated hypotheses, analyze the data, and write a report. The instructors will help you do this work in class.
    • We will present our findings to the HOPE Center leaders, and you can present reports to them for extra credit. We may also be joined by special visitor who will be very knowledgeable about the topics we research. Our discussions should be very informative for all of us.

  • Dec 4: Turn in your report, based on your analysis of our HOPE Center survey.  The reports should be about 5-10 pages, plus supporting output of data analysis (tables, graphs, etc.).  The reports should cover 5 or more connected hypotheses which, together, give a causal picture - or tell a story - of the situation you are investigating.  You should also discuss what questions your analysis raises that can't be answered with the available data, and you should suggest what new data would be desirable to answer these open questions, and what sort of study design would be appropriate to acquire these new data.  An outline of the sections of a good report is given here. You can use the reports from the workbook as a guide in developing your report.  The instructors will help you develop the report in class in the weeks leading up to the due date.  Examples of reports from previous years are here.

 

Return to Home Page

All materials on this site which I created, including animations,
are Copyright 1998-2009 by Frederick Weil; all rights reserved.