Second Edition

Basics of Social Research:

Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches

by W. Lawrence Neuman

Chapter 4: Reviewing the Scholarly Literature and

Planning a Study
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Goals of a Literature Review

1. Demonstrate a
familiarity
2. Show the path of prior
research
3. Integrate and
summarize
4. Learn from others

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Where to Find Research Literature

Periodicals
Scholarly journals
Books
Dissertations
Government
documents
Policy reports
Presented paper
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Citation Format

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Question

Conduct a Systematic Literature

Review
1. Define and refine topic
What are the key points (Not too broad
and not too narrow)

2. Design search
How to search

3. Locate research reports (Mendeley)

Articles
Scholarly books
Dissertation
Government documents
Policy reports and presentation papers
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Evaluating Research Articles

Taking Notes (Mendeley)
What to record
Organize notes

Writing the Review

Purpose in mind
Clear organization
Remain critical
Hypothesis/method/findings
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Using the Internet for Social

Research
Upside
Easy, fast, and cheap
Links connect sources
Globalisation and
Democratizing effect
Wide net cast

Downside

No quality control
Not complete
Often time consuming
Difficult to document

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Qualitative and Quantitative

Orientations towards Research
Nature of data
Soft data (Qualitative research)
Hard data (Quantitative research)

Linear and non linear paths

Linear (Quantitative research)
Non linear (Qualitative research)

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Qualitative and Quantitative

Orientations towards Research
Preplanned and emergent research questions
Start with a topic of your interest
Qualitative research: Start with a vogue research question
and the topic emerge as the study progress
Quantitative research: Narrow the topic before deciding on
the research design

Limitations to research
Time, cost, access, approval, ethics, expertise

Narrowing a Research Question

1.
2.
3.
4.

Examine literature
Talk over with others
Apply to a specific context
Define the aim of the study

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Narrowing a Research Question

Examine the literature
Replicate a previous research project exactly or
with slight variations
Explore unexpected findings discovered in
previous research
Follow suggestions an author gives for future
research at the end of an article
Extend an existing explanation or theory to a new
topic or setting
Challenge findings or attempt to refute a
relationship
Specify the intervening process and consider
linking relations

Narrowing a Research Question

Talk over ideas with others
Ask people who are knowledgeable
about the topic for questions about it
that they have thought of
Seek out those who hold opinions that
differ from yours on the topic and
discuss possible research questions with
them

Narrowing a Research Question

Apply to a specific context
Focus the topic onto a specific historical
period or time period
Narrow the topic to a specific historical
period or geographic unit
Consider which subgroups or categories
of people/units are involved and
whether there are differences among
them

Narrowing a Research Question

Define the aim or desired
outcome of the study
Will the research question be for an
exploratory, explanatory, or descriptive
study?
Will the study involve applied or basic
research?

Quantitative vs. Qualitative

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Qualitative Design Issues

Language of cases and context
Grounded theory

- Social theory that is rooted in observations of specific, concrete

details
Context is critical
Same events or behaviours can have different meaning in
different cultures or historical eras
Bricolage (creation from a diverse range of available
things)
- A term referring to the deliberate mixing of qualitative methods
and ways of thinking in order to address a specific issue or problem
Case and process
Case-oriented approach that places cases, not variables, center
stage

Qualitative Design Issues

Language of cases and context
Interpretation: to assign significance or a coherent meaning
to something
First-order interpretation: what the people who are being studied
actually feel and think
Contains the inner motives, personal reasons and point if view of the
people who are being studied in the original context

Second-order interpretation: what a researcher believes the people

being studied feel and think
Tries to elicit an underlying coherence or sense of overall meaning in
the data

Third-order interpretation: what a researchers tells the reader of a

research report that the people he or she studied felt and thought
Translates the researchers own understanding in a way that facilities
communication with people who are more distant from the original
source

Quantitative Design Issues

Language of variables and hypotheses
Variable: A concept or its empirical measure that can take
on multiple values
Eg. Gender, Marital Status, Type of Crime committed, etc

Attribute: The categories or levels of a variable

Eg. Male, Female, Married, Robbery, etc

Simple and complex theories

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Quantitative Design Issues

Language of variables and hypotheses
Types of variables
Independent variable (IV)
The first variable that causes or produces the effect in a
causal explanation
Dependent variable (DV)
The effect variable that is last and results from the causal
variable(s) in a causal explanation. Also the variable that is
measured in the pretest and posttest and that is the result of
the treatment in experimental research
Intervening variable
A variable that is between the initial causal variable and the
final effect variable in a causal explanation

Characteristics of Causal
Hypotheses
Hypothesis: a proposition to test or a tentative statement that
two variables are causally related
5 Characteristics:
1. At least 2 variables
2. Expresses a cause-effect relationship
3. Can be expressed as a prediction
4. Logical link between hypothesis and theory
5. Falsifiable - it is capable of being tested against
empirical evidence and shown to be true or false

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Testing and Refining Hypothesis

Aspects of Explanation
Level of analysis
the level of social reality in a theoretical explanation
can include a mix of the number of people, the amount of space, the
scope of the activity, and the length of time
delimits the kinds of assumptions, concepts, and theories that you can
use

Units of analysis
the type of unit you use when measuring concepts and variables
Common units in social science are the individual person, the group, a
community, the organization, the social category, the social institution
and the society
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Aspects of Explanation

Aspects of Explanation
Ecological fallacy
a type of error that arises from a mismatch of units of analysis
indicates imprecise reasoning or generalizing beyond what the
evidence warrants
occurs when you have data at high or aggregated unit of
analysis but make statements about low or disaggregated units
Reductionism (Fallacy of nonequivalence)
involve mismatched units of analysis and imprecise reasoning
about evidence
occurs when you observe a lower or disaggregated unit of
analysis but then make statements about higher or aggregated
units

Aspects of Explanation
Spurious association
Spuriousness a statement that appears to be a causal
explanation, but is not because of a hidden, unmeasured, or
initially unseen variable
The unseen variable comes earlier in the temporal order, and it
has a causal impact on what was initially posited to be the
independent variable as well as the dependent variable
occurs when two variables appear to be associated, but the
variables actually are not related

Spurious Relationship
between Race and Test Scores

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Summary of Errors

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Good and Bad Research Questions