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SOC332 

Sociological Research Methods II
Last update: Sep 11th, 2009 URL: http://wiu.libguides.com/soc332  Print Guide  RSS Updates

Getting Started            Print Page
  
 

Need Ideas?

Are you having problems coming up with a topic?

•Look at published articles in:

  American Sociological Review
  Sociological Focus
      and many others...

•Scan a textbook or reference book for a topic; get an overview plus some possible sources:

  Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology
      REF. HM425 .B53 2007
  Survey of Social Science: Sociology
      Ref HM17 .S86 1994

 
 

Identifying Your Variables

 

Topic vs. Variables

Once you have a topic, go a step further: identify the variables that can be measured. As you have learned in class, there are two types of variables:

  • INDEPENDENT: the variable that causes or influences the outcome
  • DEPENDENT: the variable that is affected or influenced (by the independent variable)
You'll need at least one of each to create a hypothesis. Also, it's difficult to know what to search for in Sociological Abstracts until you think about your topic in terms of variables.


Example:

Topic: I'm interested in the attitudes of different ethnic groups towards the aged.

Variables:
  • Independent: ethnicity
  • Dependent: attitudes toward the aged
Hypotheses:
  • H 1 : Attitudes toward the aged are related to ethnic background.
  • H 0 : Attitudes toward the aged are not related to ethnic background.

 

Library Instructor

Profile ImageKrista Bowers Sharpe
Contact Info:
309-298-2785 ext 1
Send Email

Subjects:
sociology, religion, foreign languages

 
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