Social Research Methods: Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches

WHAT ARE THE MAJOR TYPES OF SOCIAL RESEARCH?

However, we learn distinct things from panel stud-
ies because we are studying the same people. For
example, Brewer et al. (2005) looked at the impact
of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attack on
attitudes. The researchers asked about trust in
other nations and resurveyed the same Americans
in a three-wave panel study (October 2001, March
2002, and September 2002). They found that
people’s feelings toward other nations after the
September 11 attack was not temporary but that
people’s distrust increased over time and was higher
one year later. This showed that the attack had ended
an entire era of positive feelings and had triggered
a much deeper xenophobia among many in the U.S.
population.
3.Acohort studyis similar to the panel study,
but rather than observing the exact same people, it
studies a category of people who share a similar life
experience in a specified period (see Example Box
10, Cohort Studies). Cohort analysis is “explicitly
macroanalytic” (i.e., researchers examine the

category as a whole for important features [Ryder,

1992:230]). We focus on the “cohort,” or a defined

category. Commonly used cohorts include all

people born in the same year (called birth cohorts),

all people hired at the same time, all people who

retire in a 1- or 2-year period, and all people who

graduate in a given year. Unlike panel studies, we

do not have to locate the exact same people for

each year in a cohort study but identify only those

who experienced a common life event. A cohort

study could, for example, compare three marriage

cohorts—all people married in each of three years

(1970, 1990, and 2010) to see whether they differ as

to the features of the marriage ceremony, whether

the bride was pregnant at the time of marriage, and

other features.

DATA COLLECTION TECHNIQUES

This section is a brief overview of the main data col-

lection techniques. We can group them into two cat-

egories based on the type of data you gather:

quantitative,collecting data in the form of numbers,

and qualitative,collecting data in the form of words

or pictures. Certain techniques are more effective at

addressing specific kinds of research questions or

FIGURE 2 Value Priorities of U.S. College Freshmen, 1967–2003
Source:From Higher Education Research Institute. (2004). Recent findings, Figure 4. Retrieved September 25, 2004, from
http://www.gseis.ucla.edu/heri/findings.html.

90

70

50

30

10

1967 1973 1979 1985 1991 1997 2003

Be very well off financially

Develop a meaningful philosophy of life

Percent citing Very Important/Essential

Cohort study Longitudinal research that traces

information about a category of cases or people who

shared a common experience at one time period across

subsequent time periods.