quantitative approaches explaining religiosity 1. wisdom ... · pdf filebryman, alan (2004)...

Quantitative approaches!

Explaining religiosity!sociologically: quantitative approaches !

Course 1: Introduction!


1. Wisdom!


!«"If you know how to do research, be a researcher.!!If you don't know how to do research, become a teacher. !!If you don't know how to teach become a methodologist."» !! ! ! ! !!! ! ! ! !Paul F. Lazarsfeld!


!«"There is no such thing as a specific method !!in sociology of religion » !

! ! ! ! !!! ! ! ! !Jörg Stolz!


2. Plan of semester!Quantitative approaches!

Programm!! !Theme Reading

22. Februar Intro + Theory + Sampling

7. März Interview + Questions Bryman 3+4

28. März Measuring + StatCrunch Bryman 5+11

4. April Crosstabs Wonnacott 17,

18. April Regression Wonnacott 11,12, Iannaccone

2. Mai Anova Wonnacott, Stolz

16. Mai Work on ind. projects Norris/Inglehart !


3. Reading!Quantitative approaches!

Inhaltliche Texte Stolz, Jörg. 2004. Religion und Sozialstruktur. Die zwei Gesichter der Religion. Faszination und Entzauberung, ed.

by R.J. Campiche, 53-88. Zürich: TVZ. Iannaccone, Laurence R. 1991. The Consequences of Religious Market Structure. Adam Smith and the

Economics of Religion. Rationality and Society 3.156-77. ) Norris, Pippa & Ronald Inglehart. 2004. Comparing Secularization Worldwide. Sacred and Secular. Religion and

Politics Worldwide, ed. by P. Norris & R. Inglehart, 53-79. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Quantitative Forschung Bryman, Alan (2004) "Chapter 3: The nature of quantitative research", in idem (ed.) Social Research Methods.

Second Edition, pp. 61-82. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Bryman, Alan (2004) "Chapter 4: Sampling", in idem (ed.) Social Research Methods. Second Edition, pp. 83-107.

Oxford: Oxford University Press. Bryman, Alan (2004) "Chapter 5: Structured Interviewing", in idem (ed.) Social Research Methods. Second

Edition, pp. 108-130. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Bryman, Alan (2004) "Chapter 11: Quantitative data analysis", in idem (ed.) Social Research Methods. Second

Edition, pp. 218-242. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Kreuztabellenanalyse Wonnacott, Thomas H. & Ronald J. Wonacott. 1990. Chapter 17: CHi-Square Tests. Introductory Statistics, 5th

Edition, ed. by idem, 423-43. New York: Wiley. Regression Wonnacott, Thomas H. and Wonacott, Ronald J. (1990) "Chapter 11: Fitting a Line", in idem (ed.) Introductory

Statistics, 5th Edition, pp. 357-370. New York: Wiley. Wonnacott, Thomas H. and Wonacott, Ronald J. (1990) "Chapter 12: Simple Regression", in idem (ed.)

Introductory Statistics, 5th Edition, pp. 371-395. New York: Wiley. ANOVA (Varianzanalyse) Wonnacott, Thomas H. & Ronald J. Wonacott. 1990. Chapter 10: Analysis of Variance. Introductory Statistics, 5th

Edition, ed. by idem, 213-46. New York: Wiley.


Reading - methodological!Quantitative approaches!

In this course, we will use StatCrunch. !Every student will have to purchase access for 6!months (12 USD) online.!

http://www.statcrunch.com/!


Work load!!The course needs 4-5 h work per week (minimum). All texts must be closely worked through. Exercises must be made with StatCrunch.!


Theme!!The theme of the course is «"explaining religiosity"». We will create a questionnaire, collect and analyze data during the course.!


Validation!!Students hand in: !!(1) An assignment with 1 data analysis (crosstabs), 1 page description + several pages of output (during the course)!!(2) A «"Seminararbeit"» of 10 pages based on data analysis with one of the data sets provided. There has to be : 1. Central question; 2. Theory/Hypotheses; 3. Method; 4. Results; 5. Discussion (at the end of the course)!


Data Sets!Dwarf data!-  various data sets with dwarfs (invented data)!

Real data!-  Religio_UNIL.sav !Religiosity of students at UNIL, N = 40!-  Religio_CH.sav !Religiosity; representative sample CH N= 1561!-  Abductees.sav !Data set of a research with people having been

!abducted by space aliens!-  Titanic.sav !Data on survivors from Titanic incident!


4. Explaining religiosity!Quantitative approaches!

Explanation!!explanation !

!! descriptions, typologies or ‘conceptual frameworks’, !

!= concrete answer to a ‘why-questions’. !

!= account that shows how the phenomenon to be explained resulted from initial conditions and a causal mechanism and that rules out alternative explanatory accounts. !


Explanation!•  Enigma!•  Methodological individualism/Macro-micro-macro"!•  « Verstehen"»!•  (Bounded) rationality!•  Causality !


Religiosity!!Religiosity = individual experience or action that refers to an existing (or self-made) religion. !

!Religiosity has different dimensions; we may distinguish religious knowledge, religious preferences (evaluations), religious feelings, religious identities as well as religious actions. !

!Note that in this definition, individual ‘religiosity’ refers to the phenomenon of ‘religion’. !


Religion!!Religion denotes the whole of cultural symbol-systems that respond to problems of meaning and contingency by alluding to a transcendent reality. !!Symbols are objects, actions or elements of communication that refer to something other than themselves. They consist of a "signifiant" and a "signifié".!!Problems of meaning and contingency are situations individuals or groups find themselves in, in which things are not how they should be or how they normally are (success, disappointment, catastrophe, positive or negative surprises, malady, death of a near one), thus leading to the question of "why" things have happened in this way.!!A transcendent reality is a superempirical (or "higher" or "ultimately real") plane which cannot be directly controlled by humans but which is thought to be influencing the lives of men in some way or other. The trandscendent reality may be seen as anthropomorphic (including spirits, gods) or not (superempirical laws or states of beings).!!Religious symbol systems normally comprise mythological, ritual and ethical elements which may be combined in order to offer various salvation ends and means. !


5. Quantitative and qualitative strategies!


Qualitative methods: Definition!!«"Qualitative research is an inquiry process of understanding based on distinct methodological traditions of inquiry that explore a social or human problem. The researcher builds a complex, holistic picture, analyzes words, reports detailed views of informants, and conducts the study in a natural setting."»!!Creswell , John W , 1998 , Qualitative inquiry and research design , S. 15!

!«"By the term "qualitative research", we mean any type of research that produces findings not arrived at by statistical procedures or other means of quantification."»!!Strauss / Corbin , Basics of qualitative research , S. 10!


Quantitative methods: Definition!!Quantitative methods = !!methods that !!- measure the attributes of their research objects and!!- correlate the resulting variables. !

!Measuring = Transposing an empirical relationship into a numeric relationship.!


Differences between quantitative and qualitative methods (I)!

! !Qual !Quan!

Theory !inductive !deductive!

Epistemology !Interpretivism !Natural science

Ontology !Constructivism !Objectivism !!

(Bryman, 2004, p. 20)!


Differences between quantitative and qualitative methods (II)!

!Qual !Quan!•  Field contact long, diffuse !Field contact short, specific!•  holistic picture of context !Strip of all unnecessary context#

describe with words !reduce to numbers!•  holistic picture of meaning !Strip of all unnecessary meaning #

describe with words !reduce to numbers!•  Explain how specific/typ. actors act !Explain how typical actors act!•  Little standardization !Great deal of standardization!•  Researcher as instrument !Researcher influence minimized !!•  Interpret !Measure!•  Link meanings !Correlate!•  Analyze words !Analyze numbers!


Differences between quantitative and qualitative methods (III)!

•  Concrete methods are normally not either qual or quan. Rather, they should be placed onto a continuum of more or less qual or quan!

•  It is often possible to combine qual and quan!•  One should not use the methods qual / quan because of a

certain «"paradigm"», but rather because of a specific research question. !

quantitative approaches explaining religiosity 1. wisdom ... · pdf filebryman, alan (2004)...

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