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SOC 323 (Tollini): The Research Cycle

Social Research Methods I

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 older people.
Variables:
  • Independent: ethnicity
  • Dependent: attitudes towards older people
Hypotheses:
  • H 1 : Attitudes towards older people are related to ethnic background.
  • H 0 : Attitudes towards older people are not related to ethnic background.

Research cycle

How Relevant is the Article You Found?

Click on the link below to bring up a page with access to the article: "Belief in U.S. Government Conspiracies against Blacks among Black and White College Students: Powerlessness or System Blame?"