Social Research: Theory, Methods and Techniques

337 Pages·2003·1.35 MB·English

by  Piergiorgio Corbetta

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SOCIAL
RESEARCH
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SOCIAL
RESEARCH
Theory, Methods and Techniques
PIERGIORGIO CORBETTA
Translated from the Italian by Bernard Patrick
SAGE Publications
London • Thousand Oaks • New Delhi
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© Piergiorgio Corbetta 2003
First published 2003
Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or
private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, this publication
may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form, or by
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publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction, in
accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright
Licensing Agency. Inquiries concerning reproduction outside
those terms should be sent to the publishers.
SAGE Publications Ltd
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London EC2A4PU
SAGE Publications Inc.
2455 Teller Road
Thousand Oaks, California 91320
SAGE Publications India Pvt Ltd
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication data
Acatalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 0 7619 7252 8
ISBN 0 7619 7253 6 (pbk)
Library of Congress Control Number 2002112356
Typeset by C&M Digitals (P) Ltd., Chennai, India
Printed in Great Britain by The Alden Press, Oxford
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Contents
Introduction 1
PART ONE: THE LOGIC OF SOCIALRESEARCH 7
1 Paradigms of Social Research 9
1. Kuhn and the paradigms of sciences 9
2. Three basic questions 11
3. Positivism 13
4. Neopositivism and postpositivism 17
5. Interpretivism 20
6. Afinal note: radicalization, criticism
and new tendencies 25
2 Quantitative and Qualitative Research 30
1. Neopositivist paradigm: Crime in the Making
by Sampson and Laub 30
2. Interpretive paradigm: Islands in the Street
by Sánchez-Jankowski 33
3. Quantitative and qualitative research: a comparison 36
4. Afinal note: two different modes of
investigating social reality 49
PART TWO: QUANTITATIVE TECHNIQUES 55
3 From Theory to Empirical Research 57
1. The ‘typical’ structure of quantitative research 57
2. From theory to hypotheses 59
3. From concepts to variables 64
4. Units of analysis 66
5. Variables 68
6. Nominal, ordinal and interval variables 70
7. Concepts, indicators and indexes 75
8. Total error 78
9. Afinal note: reliability and validity 81
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vi Contents
4 Causality and Experimentation 88
1. The concept of cause 88
2. Empirical corroboration of the causal relationship 90
3. Covariation analysis and experimentation 91
4. Experiments in the social sciences 94
5. Laboratory experiments and field experiments 97
6. Experiments and quasi-experiments 102
7. Afinal note: advantages and limitations of experimentation 111
5 The Survey 117
1. Surveys in social research 117
2. Standardization, or the invariance of the stimulus 120
3. The reliability of verbal behaviour 123
4. Question form and substance 125
5. Formulation of the questions 129
6. Item batteries 139
7. Types of questionnaire administration 142
8. Organizing data collection 148
9. Secondary analyses and surveys repeated over time 150
10. Data sets and archives in the US and the UK 154
11. Afinal note: some emerging risks 158
6 Scaling 164
1. Operationalizing complex concepts 164
2. Questions with ordered answers: the semantic
autonomy of response categories 166
3. The Likert scale 170
4. Guttman’s scalogram 176
5. The semantic differential 180
6. Sociometry 185
7. Afinal note: unidimensional and multidimensional scaling 188
7 Official Statistics 194
1. Aclassic study based on official statistics 194
2. Main features of official statistics 196
3. US and UK official statistics 200
4. Afinal note: the study of social structures 207
8 Sampling 210
1. Population and sample 210
2. Sampling error 212
3. Sample size 214
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4. Probability sampling designs 218
5. Non-probability sampling designs 221
6. Problems of sampling in social research 223
7. Weighting 225
8. Afinal note: sample accuracy 228
PART THREE: QUALITATIVE TECHNIQUES 233
9 Participant Observation 235
1. Observation and participant observation 235
2. Fields of application and recent developments in
participant observation 238
3. Overt and covert observation: access and informants 242
4. What to observe 246
5. Recording observations 249
6. Analysis of empirical material 251
7. Observation in microsociology 256
8. Afinal note: limits and resources 261
10 The Qualitative Interview 264
1. Collecting data by asking questions 264
2. Quantitative and qualitative interviewing 265
3. Types of interview 269
4. Conducting interviews 277
5. Analysis of empirical material 281
6. Afinal note: interaction and lack of standardization 283
11 The Use of Documents 287
1. Reading social traces 287
2. Personal documents 288
3. Institutional documents 296
4. Afinal note: an endless source of social knowledge 305
References 309
Index 319
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Introduction
One of the problems facing a teacher of social social research must necessarily start out by
research methodology is the shortage of illustrating the philosophical foundations on
manuals of a general, introductory nature. which the various research methods have
Recent years have witnessed an ongoing been constructed. The empirical approach to
process of fine-tuning of the techniques of the study of society sprang from the enthusi-
collection and analysis of social data and a asm of the positivist illusion at a time when
marked differentiation among research instru- it seemed that the research methods that
ments. As regards the quantitative approachto reigned in the natural sciences and in techno-
research, these developments have involved logy could be applied to the study of man and
both data collection (with the near hegemony society. This perspective, however, was soon
of the survey, the growing importance of challenged by those who maintained that the
secondary analysis, centralized archives, panel human sciences could not be equated with the
studies, international comparative surveys) natural sciences and that research on people
and data analysis (through the creation of and society had to be conducted along alter-
increasingly sophisticated statistical techni- native pathways which would safeguard the
ques). At the same time, qualitative research intrinsic individuality and irreproducibility of
has experienced a veritable boom in new the human being. It was in these two oppos-
methods and approaches which, under vari- ing views, which became consolidated at the
ous labels (critical theory, semiotics, struc- beginning of the twentieth century, that the
turalism, deconstructionism, interpretive methods and techniques of social research
theory, biographical approach, etc.) have were rooted, and I am convinced that without
given fresh impetus to this way of tackling an understanding of this fundamental philo-
social research. sophical dichotomy it is impossible for the
This process of fine-tuning and differentia- student to understand fully the spirit that
tion has been mirrored by the production of animates the techniques themselves.
textbooks. Anyone who walks into a ‘social With regard to the methods of quantitative
research supermarket’ will find the shelves research, it was my intention to write a man-
stacked with manuals and handbooks, each ual that did not focus solely on the survey as
one focusing on some particular subject or a technique of social investigation. Although
technique. If, however, the reader is looking this subject has been given the attention it
for a complete general manual, a sort of ‘first deserves – today it is the most important and
textbook’ that explains what social research is, widely used social research technique –I have
how it developed historically and how it can also dealt with experimentation in depth. This
be undertaken today, in its various branches decision was based not only on the importance
and different approaches, the search is likely of experimentation in social psychology but
to be an arduous one. also, and especially, on the conviction that only
It is this need for a general synthesis that a complete understanding of the logic under-
has given rise to the present volume. First of pinning experimentation enables us fully to
all, I believe that an introductory manual of understand the issue of causality and how it