Pamela Oliver
Sociology Dept.
1180 Observatory Dr. Madison, Wisconsin
53706-1393
608-262-6829

Professor Pamela Oliver

Department of Sociology

CLASS SESSIONS: Introductions. Lecture on variables, propositions, measurement. Examples of research. Introduce Observation assignment. Explain the similarities and differences between observational research and experiments. Make a point of getting to know your fellow students, as you will do research in teams.

More on the logic of research and measurement of variables; measurement validity, internal validity and external validity explained

Part II. Details on doing the observation assignment.

3) Read Observation assignment distributed in class and available on the web. Singleton 11 (observation research); Also Singleton pp. 383-389, especially if you will study documents. Review Chapters 4 and 5 as necessary to be comfortable with the research terms used in this assignment. Also recommended is Stern pp. 61-88 ( controlling for observation errors).

CHANGED FROM PRINTED SYLLABUS

Part I. Finishing the observation assignment. Lecture will provide detailed instruction for doing the computations and interpreting the results of your observation.

PREPARE
1) Read Singleton 18 (writing a report) and pp. 465-485 on elementary statistics.

2) DO HW #3Observation Pretest should have been done, turn in 2 paragraph report (see observation assignment for details)

Part II. Lectures continue on logic of research: Hypothesis testing, the difference between observational and experimental research, and the logic of experimentation.

Part I: Finishing the Observation Assignment: This class will answer final questions on doing the observation exercise. It will be very helpful to you if you can have your data collected before this class.

Part II. Examples of Experiments

Part II. This class will explain how to do the experiment.

PREPARE
Read Experiment Assignment in Workbook and Singleton 7 and 8 on experiments (FYI: your assignment will use Design 5.) Recommended: Stern 3, especially pages 88-105. We will also continue discussing the articles from last class.

This class will introduce the experiment exercise and provide a lecture on the logic of randomized experiments.
DO YOUR PRETEST BY TOMORROW. It is OK if team members do this separately. I will make time at the end of class and/or in office hours to be sure that every team has a do-able idea.

PREPARE: Experiment pretest should be done so you know what questions or problems you have. Plan data collection that can be done by tomorrow. Before collecting data, you should be have a draft of the written report for "body of paper" Part B "methods" for all parts except how this actually worked out in practice.

Part II. Begin learning about survey research.

Experiment data should be collected by now. You have time to check with me if problems have come up.

Part II. Writing good questions.

Part I: Answers to questions about experiment exercise.

Part II: Get questionnaire questions developed and approved. Make copies of questionnaire and collect data over the weekend. Collecting the data should go quickly, just do a convenience sample.

EXPERIMENT EXERCISE REPORT DUE Be prepared to give a one minute summary of your experiment and its findings in class.

Part II. How to code survey data

Questionnaire data must be coded up and submitted by the end of today's class. I will be available in the classroom or in my office to work with teams who need help. We will organize team work sessions in the next three days in which we will analyze your data and go over it together.

Sampling theory and practice

PREPARE
1) Read Singleton Chapter 6 (sampling) plus sample descriptions from Gallup, NYTimes (links posted on my web page). Review your notes on the sampling in articles we have read.
2) DO HW #8. Write short summaries of the sampling procedures in three of the articles we have read this term.

Identifying causal relationships in survey research. Discussion of the elaboration model, third-variable analysis, and internal-external validity issues.

II. Ethics of research
PREPARE
1 2) Read Singleton 17 (Ethics). Also look at the human subjects and ethics documents in the workbook and/or linked to on my web page.
2) Read Humphreys, "Tearoom Trade" and "Methods" in Golden p. 85 AND Haney, et al., "Interpersonal Dynamics in a Simulated Prison," and "The Play's The Thing" in Golden p. 157.
3) DO HW #4: (1) State which ethical issues raised (or not raised) in the text most concern you; (2) briefly give your opinion of the ethics of the research in the Humphreys and Haney et al. articles. Also pay attention to what was learned from observation in each of these articles. NOTE: The Humphreys article contains some fairly explicit but not graphic descriptions of male homosexual sex. Past classroom debates about ethics have concerned the privacy issues of doing the research, and the question of whether gay men and lesbians are helped or hurt by articles like this one; there is also the concern that I am contributing to gay-bashing in assigning this kind of article in times like these. The ethical issues in the Zimbardo article are less controversial today, but are still important. I believe that vigorous discussion and debate about these issues is vital.