Sociology Now, Census Update

These are convenient myths, but they are incorrect; they are, themselves, the result

of bias. Both quantitative and qualitative methods are capable of understanding social

reality—although each type of method illuminates a different part of that reality. Both

types of methodology have biases, but qualitative methodologists struggle to make

their biases explicit (and thus better control them), while quantitative researchers,

assuming they have no biases, sometimes don’t see them. Personal values always influ-

ence the sorts of questions we ask, the hypotheses we develop and test, and the inter-

pretation of the results.

After all, most great scientific discoveries initially relied on simple and

close observation of some phenomenon—like the apple falling on the head

of Sir Isaac Newton leading to his “discovery” of gravity. Gradually, from

such observations, other scientists are able to expand the reach of explana-

tion to include a wider variety of phenomena, and these are then subject to

more statistical analysis.

Here’s perhaps the classic example. You study a random sample of

glasses with water in them, and you discover that the average level of water

in the glasses is at about 50 percent. Is the glass half full or half empty? Every

single interpretation of data contains such biases.

Try another, less conventional example. Recently, a study found that

nationally, 72 percent of the girls and 65 percent of the boys in the high

school class of 2003 actually earned their diplomas and graduated from high

school (Lewin, 2006). One can interpret this in several different ways: (1)

Things are going well, and the overwhelming majority of boys and girls do

earn their diplomas; (2) things are going terribly for everyone because nearly

one in every three high school students did not earn his or her diploma; (3)

things are going significantly worse for boys than for girls, as there is a sig-

nificant “gender gap” in high school graduation. (Each of these interpreta-

tions was made by a different political group.)

108 CHAPTER 4HOW DO WE KNOW WHAT WE KNOW? THE METHODS OF THE SOCIOLOGIST

Happiness

Sociological research has many applications. Large-scale, representative surveys can tell us a lot

about our population, about social trends, and about attitudes, behaviors, and beliefs. They also

give us results that we can generalize to the larger population. For example, researchers might

want to know how happy a population is. One way to find that out is to directly ask a represen-

tative sample how happy they feel. Researchers can then generalize their findings to the larger

population. For example, national survey data tell us that, in general, Americans say they are

happy. So where do you fit in that survey?

See the back of the chapter to compare your answers to national survey data.

4.1

What

do

you

think

❍Very Happy

❍Pretty Happy

❍Not Too Happy

Taken all together, how would you say things are these days? Would you say that you are very happy,

pretty happy, or not too happy?

?

Social surveys generate large
bodies of data for quantitative
analysis. n