Social Research Methods: Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches

THEORY AND RESEARCH

REVIEW QUESTIONS

1.How do concrete and abstract concepts differ? Give examples.

2.How do researchers use ideal types and classifications to elaborate concepts?

3.How do concepts contain built-in assumptions? Give examples.

4.What is the difference between inductive and deductive approaches to theorizing?

5.Describe how the micro, meso, and macro levels of social reality differ.

6.Discuss the differences between prediction and theoretical explanation.

7.What are the three conditions for causality? Which one is never completely

demonstrated? Why?

8.Why do researchers use diagrams to show causal relationships?

9.How do structural and interpretive explanations differ?

10.What is the role of the major theoretical frameworks in research?

NOTES

1. For more detailed discussions of concepts, see Chafetz
   (1978:45–61), Hage (1972:9–85), Kaplan (1964:34–80),
   Mullins (1971:7–18), Reynolds (1971), and Stinchcombe
   (1973).


2. Turner (1980) has provided an interesting discussion
   of how sociological explanation and theorizing can be
   conceptualized as translation.


3. Classifications are discussed in Chafetz (1978: 63–73)
   and Hage (1972).


4. For more on typologies and taxonomies, see Blalock
   (1969:30–35), Chafetz (1978:63–73), Reynolds (1971:
   4–5), and Stinchcombe (1968:41–47).
   5.Recursiverefers to a procedure that can repeat itself
   indefinitely or an iterative process that reoccurs with a
   feedback loop. Applied to a causal relationship, recur-
   sive suggests that a cause (X) operates on an effect (Y) to

produce an effect (Y), but this process repeats with the

effect (Y), at a later time, itself acting as a cause influenc-

ing the original cause (X).

6. Network theory is discussed in Collins (1988: 412–
   428), Fuhse (2009), Galaskiewicz and Wasserman (1993),
   and Schweizer (1997).


7. A basic introduction to functional explanation can be
   found in Chafetz (1978:22–25).


8. See Craib (1984), Phillips (1985:44–59), and Skid-
   more (1979). Chapter 1 of Bart and Frankel (1986) also
   offers an elementary introduction. Jasso (2004) offers a
   tripartite model of social science knowledge that consists
   of empirical analysis, theoretical analysis, and frame-
   work analysis, arguing that the advance of knowledge
   takes place on all three levels and their interrelationship.