Sociological Methods


A Guide to Sociology 2211

David Maddox is the Teaching Assistant this semester (Spring '10).  You can contact him at dmaddo1@tigers.lsu.edu.
His office hours are: In office (17-A Stubbs): Wednesdays from 2-4 pm. In lab (102 Stubbs): Wednesdays from 5:40-7:30 pm and Thursdays from 1-3 pm.

 

  • The Spring 2010 Baton Rouge Survey

  • The Fall 2009 "HOPE" Survey

    • Data Set: here
    • Survey Results: here
    • Final Questionnaire: here
      • "Getting Ahead" Program addition: here (use when interviewing clients who have taken that program)
    • Questionnaire in Development from Students: here
    • Renee Craft & Jeffrey Fairley from the Hope center visit the class and receive a report here
    • Slides for student reports: here (pdf)
      • PowerPoint version here

      See story in the Advocate, 9/7/09, here or here

  • The Spring 2009 Baton Rouge Survey

    • Data Set
    • Results (weighted percentages) here
    • Mayor Holden Visits the Class and Receives a Report here
    • Questionnaire
    • Questionnaire in Development: here
    • Field Disk here
    • Slides for student reports: here (pdf)
      • PowerPoint version here

  • Map of Baton Rouge, showing sections of town, here

  • Previous Years - here


 

 

Assignments - due dates
(Still updating for Spring '10 Semester)

(watch this section for possible changes)

  • Jan 29: 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 southside: 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]

  • Feb 5: Turn in five survey questions that you find in the GSS (esp here) or NES that might be usable for your group's module for the Baton Rouge survey.  [Also see my links page.]  Also, you can draw questions from our post-Katrina Survey (start page is here) or from the post-Katrina polls on PollingReport. Each group will discuss their questions and choose two of them for the group.  Important: Print out the exact question text from the web, including the exact answer categories, and include the exact question mnemonic (the funny abbreviated question name) from the GSS, and/or the table number from the NES, so that we can make sure to replicate the questions exactly.

  • Feb 5: Turn in 2 of the following Exercises in Healey, Chap. 4 Religiosity - RR4.1, IP4.1, IP4.2, CA 4.1

  • Feb 12: Turn in 2 of the following Exercises in Healey, Chap. 5 Attitudes toward abortion - RR5.2, IP5.1, CA5.2

  • Feb 12: We hope to have a visitor from the Mayor's office today. Our goal is to discuss the work of the Mayor's office with him/her, and discuss what survey questions would be valuable for them.
    • You should take notes of our discussion. You will use your notes to develop our next round of survey questions, which the Mayor's office can use in better understanding the community.
    • You will use your notes to develop your next round of 5 survey questions.
    • Aim to keep your questions concrete, rather than abstract; and make sure your questions are clear and not ambiguous.
    • Next meeting, we will again break into groups, and each group will discuss their questions and choose two of them for the group.

  • Feb 19: Turn in five survey questions that you find on the web or elsewhere (not the GSS or the NES) that might be usable for your group's module for the Baton Rouge survey.  See the box of links, below. Again, you can draw questions from our post-Katrina Survey (start page is here; links in the box below). Consider replicating questions used in previous Baton Rouge surveys to check for time trends.  Important: Print out the exact question text from the web, including the exact answer categories, and include the exact web address (url), so that we can make sure to replicate the questions correctly.  Include whatever percentaged results you find for the whole population (sub-population breakdowns optional).  Coordinate this within your group so that each person searches a different location.  Hint: use the leads to data sources listed in the box below, on my links page, plus the "Polls" articles in Public Opinion Quarterly and JStore linked above.  Or search LexisNexis Academic for questions stored in the Roper Center Archive.  (You can also access LexisNexis through the LSU library page.  If you're off-campus, you'll need to have an access code to search the database: consult a librarian.)  ...Or if you don't find a question you want to replicate, write your own!


     

    Selected Links for survey questions on topics
    for our Baton Rouge survey

    Note: You will have to register at the Gallup site to access their survey information. Registration is free. See Gallup's "Topics A-Z" for additional topics.


  • Feb 26: Turn in 2 of the following Exercises in Healey, Chap. 7 Crime - RR7.4, IP7.1, IP7.2, IP7.3, CA7.1

  • Feb 26: Extra credit quiz - Read the brochures about surveys at the American Statisical Association, here (also linked near the top of this page).  We'll have a simple quiz on what the brochures say.

  • March 5: 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

  • March 10: Mid-term exam

  • March 12: 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:
  • March 19: Sign-up sheets will be available in class beginning today for time slots at the CATI terminals in our lab room, 102 Stubbs. Interviewing will begin Monday, March 22. You are required to complete 12 interviews, and you can do additional interviews for extra credit.

  • March 19: 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

  • March 19: Attendance Important: Training at the CATI terminals for interviewing.  Please print out one copy of the questionnaire and bring it with you to class.
    • In-class quiz: 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 website may be temporarily down or under construction. They sent me this to use as a temporary webpage 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. 

  • March 22: Interviewing begins (4-9pm). Make sure to sign up for time slots at the CATI terminals. Sign-up sheets will be available in class beginning Monday, March 19.

  • March 26: 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

  • March 26: First 6 interviews to be completed by today.

  • April 2: 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

  • April 2: Second 6 interviews to be completed by today.

  • April 16: Develop five hypotheses to test using our new Baton Rouge 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 May 1.

  • April: We will be analyzing the results of our Baton Rouge 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. In addition, we will have a visitor, with whom we'll discuss our findings, and you can give reports for extra credit. Since the visitor will be very knowledgable in the topics we research, our discussions should be very informative for all of us.

  • May 7: Turn in your report, based on your analysis of our Baton Rouge 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 back up your analysis of Baton Rouge data with comparative data from the rest of the U.S., from the South or other regions, and/or from other countries, and you should take trend data into account if available.  You should also take Baton Rouge Census data into account, if relevant. Part of your analysis should discuss why Baton Rouge is the same or different from these comparisons.  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.

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