PSCC Ch 5 and 6 Slides

8/4/2019 PSCC Ch 5 and 6 Slides

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/pscc-ch-5-and-6-slides 1/15

If we’re allsociologists, why do

social research?(Because, on average, we’re not very good observers)

The Science of Sociology

Monday, September 19, 2011



How do we come to

“know” things?Tradition

Authority

Personal Inquiry

Direct Exper ience and Observation




Errors in Observation

Inaccurate observations

Overgeneralization

Selecti ve observation

Illogical Reasoning




Looking for Reality

Two Criteria:Logical support - must make sense

Empirical support - must not contradict

actual observation.




The components of

scientif ic researchTheory - deals with logic.

Data collection - deals with observation.

Data Analysis - deals with the comparison

of what is logically expected with what isactually observed.




What do social

scientists observe?Patterns in social life (social regularities)

People with a lot of educat ion tend toearn more than people with less

Men tend to die of stress-relateddiseases more frequent ly than women




What do social

scientists observe?Deviations from patterns in social life (social irregularit ies)

Girls who participate in youth sportsdefy the pattern of gender-based income inequality

Some countries with low per capita GDP have the highest reported rates of personal happiness




Observation StepsAsk a question (hypothesize)

Def ine concepts (conceptualize)

Conceptualization...

Is the process of specifying what we mean when we use particular terms;

produces an agreed upon meaning for a concept for the purposes of research.

Descr ibes the indicators we'l l use to measure the concept and the different aspects of the concept.




What factors influence pedestrian safety in large cit ies?

“Dangerous by Design:

Solving the Epidemic of Preventable Pedestrian Deaths”

Transportation for AmericaTransportation for America is the largest, most diverse coalitionworking on transportat ion reform today. We believe it is time for ...transportation that guarantees our freedom to move however we choose and leads to a stronger economy, greater energy securit y,

cleaner environment and healthier America for all of us. We’re callingfor more responsible investment of our federal tax dollars to create asafer, cleaner, smarter transportat ion system that works for everyone.


http://t4america.org/resources/dangerousbydesign2011/states/worst-metros/






DensityRank

Citypopulation(thousands)

Land area(sq. miles)

Density(pop/sq.mi.)

1 NY, NY 7,323 309 23,700

2 San Francisco, CA 724 47 15,500

3 Chicago, IL 2,784 227 12,300

4 Boston, MA 574 48 11,900

5 Philadelphia, PA 1,586 135 11,700

6 Washington, DC 607 61 9,900

7 Baltimore, MD 736 81 9,100

8 Los Angeles, CA 3,485 469 7,400

9 Detroit, MI 1,028 139 7,400

10 Milwaukee, WI 628 96 6,500

11 San Jose, CA 782 171 4,600

12 San Diego, CA 1,111 324 3,400

13 Columbus, OH 633 191 3,300

14 Houston, TX 1,631 540 3,00015 Dallas, TX 1,007 342 2,900

16 San Antonio, TX 936 333 2,800

17 Memphis, TN 610 256 2,400

18 Phoenix, AZ 983 420 2,300

19 Indianapolis, IN 731 362 2,00020 Jacksonville, FL 635 759 800

P o p .

D e n s i t

y o f 2 0

l a

r g e s t U . S .

C i t i e s




Inequality in Pedestrian Safety




Inequality in Pedestrian Safety






More operationalizationif socioeconomic status is a person’s socialclass, we can measure it using income data

if age is the # yrs a person has been alive...if race/ethnicity is a person’s self-ident if ied ancestry, we can measure it byasking people to choose from specificracial/ethnic categories

if population density is the # of people per sq. mi.; we can use pop. and area data




Variables and AttributesVariable At tribute

SES low, medium, high

Age <16, 17-32, 33-48,

49-64, >64

race/ethnicity

American Indian or Alaska Native;Asian; Afr ican American; Nati ve

Hawaiian or Other PacificIslander; and White

(Hispanic/Latino or not)

pop. density

(in thousands/sq.mi.)<6, 6-10, 11-15, >15

Monday September 19 2011

Documents

PSCC Ch 5 and 6 Slides