The Research Process

1. The Research Process The Core Sequence and Your Senior Thesis

2. The Wheel of Science

3. Sociological Explorations-Soc 230 • Wonder—become curious about something, pick potential topics • Review Literature—learn what others have found out about your potential topics

4. Sociological Theory-Soc 300 • Wonder—continue wondering and narrow down your topic • Review Literature—continue to learn what others have found out • Specify Question—state exactly what you are going to find out • Conceptualize—isolate and define key elements • Theorize—state how you believe concepts are related and explain why

5. Research Methods-Soc 340 • Review Literature—continue to learn what others have found out • Operationalize—specify your measures and develop the instruments and procedures you will use to obtain them • Hypothesize—state exactly how you expect your measures to be related • Observe—measure your concepts

6. Sociological Analysis-Soc 400 • Review Literature—continue to learn what others have found out • Analyze—systematically compare how your measures are really related to how you predicted they would be related • Assess and Revise—reject or adjust theory if predictions fail

7. The Wheel of Science