Course Guide for Sociological Research Methods
Course Guide for
SOCIOLOGICAL RESEARCH METHODS
(last updated 10/2011)
Developed by Lisa Wade
Disclaimer: This course guide is far from comprehensive, but it does collect what we have in an organized way. If you’re a methods instructor, and would like to write a guest post, please do!
- The Trouble with Using the Population of (Cell) Phone Owners
- Comparing the Results of Landline-Only Polls and Cell Phone Inclusive Polls
- Using Starving Female Praying Mantis’ Increases the Likelihood that they Will Eat their Suitors
- Who “Skews” the Data?
- How Race Categories Can Obscure Difference
- Considerations in Collapsing Continuous Variables into Categories
- Of Unemployment
- Of Maternal Mortality
- Of Abortion Beliefs
- Of Graduation Rates
- Failing to Differentiate Between Sex Identity, Gendered Behavior, and Sexual Orientation
- Tuskegee Syphilis Study Recruitment Letter
- The Original Milgram Experiment Recruitment Flyer
- Video of a Replication of the Milgram Obedience Experiment
- A Leading Question in a Survey on Latino Attitudes about Women’s Roles
- The Problem with Forced Choice Questions
- The Trouble with Multiple Choice (hint: people will answer them) (humor)
- Question Language and Likelihood of Being an Organ Donor
- Know Your Respondent (humor)
Data Analysis and Interpretation
Data Requires Interpretation
- What Explains Color Preference By Sex?
- Stereotypes are not Theory: Explaining State Variation in Conscientiousness
Correlation vs. Causation
- Cancer vs. Cell Phone Usage
- Which Religion is the Opiate of the Masses?
- Do Statistics Classes Cause Statistical Knowledge? (humor)
- Does Passport Ownership Cause Diabetes?
- Does Knowing a Gay Person Increase Tolerance for Homosexuality?
Mean vs. Categorical Difference
Paying Attention to Variance
Types of Graphs
- What is a Venn Diagram? (humor)
- Venn Diagramming “Crazy, Insane Ethnocentrism” (humor)
- Illustrations of Statistical Relationships and Distributions (humor)
- Popular Songs Represented in Figures and Graphs (humor)
The X and Y Axis
- How (Not) to Manipulate the X and Y Axis
- Grades vs. Drinks per Week
- Is Divorce Waning? Depends on Your X Axis
- Mismatched Y Axes: Are Women Marrying Younger Men?
- When 40% Looks Like 100%: White People’s Perceptions of Black People
- Cumulative vs. Daily Collection of Oil by BP after the Gulf Spill
- Absolute vs. Relative Charitable Giving
- Misleading Title Misrepresents Findings
- Contextualizing Data: Psychiatric Prescriptions in the U.S.
- Cherry Picking: Is the U.S. #1?
- Misportraying the Occupy Wall Street Protesters
Lying with Statistics
- Examples from The Daily Show
- Statistical Illiteracy on the O’Reilly Factor
- The Folly of Two Data Points: Husband Acquisition (humor)
- Misrepresenting the Risk of Death Associated with “Normal” and “Overweight” BMI
- The Peer Review Process (humor)