SOC 242 Methods of Social Research
Homework Assignment #1: Theory and Hypothesis Development
This lab should be typed and handed in at the beginning of class on the due date listed in the
syllabus.
Read through the article by Wright and Younts (2009) available for you to download and print
from Blackboard, and then address the following questions in paragraph format (outlines and
incomplete sentences are NOT acceptable).
1. What is the general topic addressed in the article? Give a brief (1 paragraph) introduction to
the topic and the main research question(s). Identify whether the article uses inductive or
deductive reasoning and explain how you determined this.
2. Pick ONE theoretical argument that explains how three (3) concepts are related and address
the questions below. NOTE: Sometimes authors are very clear about their arguments, other
times they are quite ambiguous. If they are ambiguous, you should be somewhat generous in
interpreting and then explaining the authors’ claims. Your job is to figure out what the
authors are saying and present their arguments clearly and validly in your assignment. As
well, there are several different arguments presented in the paper. You only need to pick
ONE argument (and only a part that relates three concepts to each other) to use in this
assignment.
a. Identify and define three key concepts that the authors relate to one another
theoretically in some causal sequence (there are more than 3 concepts in the article,
but focus on 3 that are related to each other to keep it simple). Evaluate the quality of
the definitions provided (e.g., are they abstract and general? Clearly defined and used
consistently?) If the authors do not define the concepts, you should provide
definitions based on your best guess as to what they mean given what the authors say
in the article.
b. Draw a diagram of the one theoretical argument you have chosen to focus on using
the tools we learned in class (you can draw it by hand on your typed report). Do NOT
just redraw diagrams presented in the paper (they use diagrams a little differently).
Based on what you have learned so far, is this a logically valid argument (Explain)?
c. Clearly describe the procedures the authors used to operationalize (i.e., measure or
observe) the key concepts of the argument you are focusing on. Here you need to
match up the concepts to the measures/variables. Sometimes authors won’t
distinguish the two, but we need to for this exercise. Even if the label for the concept
and the measure are the same, they rarely mean exactly the same thing.
d. Clearly state any hypotheses that the authors test regarding the relationship between
these 3 concepts by substituting the measures for the concepts in the theoretical
arguments. This will take the form of a claim, prediction or expectation for how
specific measures will be related to one another in the research.
e. Briefly describe the conclusions that the authors make with respect to the results of
their research and the theoretical argument you focused on. Does the research the
authors present support the hypothesis? Why?
Categories: