Reading and Understanding Social Research
90 Summary
An important skill for researchers is the ability to read and understand social research. With the plethora of information available to researchers in today´s globally interconnected environment, a researcher not only requires reading and comprehension skills, but also the ability to not get lost in the research. In other words, being able to quickly scan abstracts, conclusions, acknowledgements, and reference lists in such as manner as to garner a general understanding of the presented study is also an important skill.
Key Takeaways
- A table provides a quick, condensed summary of the report’s key findings.
- Statistical significance tells us the likelihood that the relationships we observe could be caused by something other than chance.
- The null hypothesis is simply the assumption that no relationship exists between the variables in question.
- Being a responsible consumer of research means giving serious thought to and understanding what you do know, what you do not know, what you can know, and what you cannot know.
- Sociological research appears in many areas of our lives and sometimes can be of benefit n areas of your life outside of the classroom.
References
Schmitz, A. (2012). Principles of sociological inquiry; Qualitative and quantitative methods. Washington, DC: Saylor Academy. Retrieved from https://www.saylor.org/site/textbooks/Principles%20of%20Sociological%20Inquiry.pdf
