Understanding Quantitative Social Research

Understanding

Description and causation

Research questions and research methodologies

Patterns, inclusions and exclusions

Definitions, presentation and interpretation

‘In examining claims of race and migration we are not arguing that statistics have no place in policy debate. On the contrary, it is our contention that democracy functions better if everyone has access to the best possible information. Thus it cannot be in the interest of our society for debate about such important issues to be based on myths’ (Finney and Simpson, Sleepwalking to Segregation?, p2)

Quantitative

Method(s), not philosophy

Descriptive and/or inferential

Numbers of: deaths, births, crimes, arrests…

Proportions of: men, disabled people, incomes…

Changes in: employment rates, educational participation, voting…

Some jargon

• Primary and secondary analysis• Variables and Cases• Indicators, validity and reliability• Continuous and discrete variables• Probability and significance• Correlation and causation

CORRELATION

HTTP://XKCD.COM/552/

Social

Factors such as• Age• Health• Gender• Employment• Ethnicity• Education• Class• Disability

Behaviours such as• Opinion• Participation• Consumption• Representation• Family• Migration• Discrimination• Crime

BIG data

• Commercial research surveys; enormous corporate and government databases

• Implications for what we know about the social world

• Implications for HOW we know the social world

• Implications for what research questions we ask, and how

Free data!

http://ukdataservice.ac.uk

http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page/portal/statistics/themes

http://stats.oecd.org/

http://data.worldbank.org/

http://www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/ [http://www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/LeadThematic.do?a=7&b=6275069&c=CV4+7AL&d=13&e=4&f=34078&g=6484426&i=1001x1003x1004x1005&l=2212&o=404&m=0&r=0&s=1384264911466&enc=1 ]

Data Visualisations

http://www.gapminder.org/data/

http://www.worldmapper.org/

http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2010/may/17/uk-public-spending-departments-money-cuts

http://mondediplo.com/blogs/mapping-europe-s-war-on-immigration

http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/

Exercise

• Review the handout, which shows data from an opinion poll by YouGov, on behalf of The Sun newspaper

http://cdn.yougov.com/cumulus_uploads/document/fupsj8wpnk/YG-Archive-immigration-van-results-120813.pdf

This presents the results of a telephone survey to a purposive sample of 1660 adults, the answers have then been weighted in line with the national population.(1) What patterns can you see in the data?(2) What conclusions can be drawn from this survey?(3) Comment on the methodology used and its relationship to the findings.