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Sociology: A Brief Introduction, 4/e
Richard T. Schaefer, DePaul University
Sociological Research

Internet Exercises

  1. Erving Goffman used content analysis in 1979 to examine the portrayal of men and women in magazines. Try your hand at a bit of content analysis by taking Goffman's research into cyberspace! Although this particular study will not be scientific, it will give you an introduction to this kind of research. First, review the material on researching existing sources in your textbook. Second, direct your web browser to the list of magazines featured (http://dir.yahoo.com/Arts/Design_Arts/Fashion_and_Beauty/News_and_Media/Magazines/). Next, choose two popular magazines directed toward women and two popular magazines for men. Link to those four magazine sites and answer the following questions for each:
    1. What are the predominant colors and layouts of each site and of this month's magazine?
    2. How are the models on the cover of the site portrayed? Specifically, describe the colors and styles of clothing, the body shapes and sizes, and facial expressions of the models.
    3. Does the magazine feature women, men, or both on this month's cover or on the website's homepage itself?
    4. What kind of topics and articles are found in the magazine? If you can look at back issues online, do there seem to be trends in terms of the topics or articles?
    5. What differences and similarities did you find between those magazine websites directed to a male audience and those to female readers?
    6. What conclusions could you draw from your examination? What kinds of methodological problems or challenges might a researcher face if she or he wanted to conduct a scientific update of Goffman's classic study?
  2. Social scientists conduct their research under a code of ethics geared toward their discipline. Your book summarizes some of the important elements of the code for sociologists. Using your computer, examine the code of ethics for each of the following disciplines: sociology (The American Sociological Association), psychology (The American Psychological Association), and anthropology (The American Anthropological Association).
    1. How does each code define and describe the issue of confidentiality?
    2. In your opinion, what are some of the core values or most important ethical guidelines listed in each of the three codes? Why did you choose them?
    3. What responsibilities to animal and human subjects does each code detail for researchers?
    4. What responsibilities does each code list for those teaching sociology, psychology, and anthropology?
    5. What does each code have to say-if anything-about neutrality and politics in research?
    6. How do the three codes compare overall? Which code do you feel is the most complete and best suited to assisting researchers as they try to make ethical decisions? Why?
    7. What additions or changes, if any, would you make to the guidelines or issues of the sociological code?
  3. One of the most important uses of the scientific method in social science research is to gather and interpret crime statistics. To learn more about how statistics are collected, visit Organized Crime: A Crime Statistics Site offered by Regina Schekall (http://www.crime.org/). Here you will find an online tutorial and crime statistics links. Explore the site and answer the following questions:
    1. What are the steps and processes by which researchers and law enforcement agencies obtain and gather crime statistics?
    2. What is the UCR? Which crime categories are used in the UCR?
    3. How are victim reports and surveys used to gain a better picture of crime in the United States?
    4. What are some of the problems and challenges in both gathering and interpreting crime data?
    5. Link to UCR data online through the site and check the most recent crime rates and statistics for murder-homicide. What statistic or fact surprised you the most and why?
    6. This site also allows visitors to link to various college and university campus police and safety sites. Try to find your own college or a college near you and link to their data. What kind of crimes are occurring on campus? If rates are reported over time, has there been a change over the last few semesters? What might account for the changes in crime rates, both on the college campus and in society in general?








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