This study employs a cross-sectional design to explore sociology majors' attitudes toward research methods. Survey data from a convenience sample of students enrolled in 16 departments are used to compare the attitudes of students who have and have not completed a research methods course. Despite consistent anecdotal claims that students harbor…

Group research projects frequently are used to teach undergraduate research methods. This study uses multivariate analyses to examine the characteristics of higher-achieving groups (those that earn higher grades on group research projects) and to estimate the effects of participating in higher-achieving groups on subsequent individual learning…

Often in sociology, researchers are confronted with nonnormal variables whose joint distribution they wish to explore. Yet, assumptions of common measures of dependence can fail or estimating such dependence is computationally intensive. This article presents the copula method for modeling the joint distribution of two random variables, including…

This study provides a detailed analysis of all race-related articles published in prominent counseling journals between 1995 and 2004. Findings indicate that 75% of articles did not define race variables and in the absence of an operational definition, authors tended to conceptualize race as an inherent biological variable. (Contains 3 tables.)

Appropriate methods are described for research workers in sociology to use as they perform causal analyses of data from surveys. Particular emphasis is placed on the causal analysis of qualitative variables. (Author/DB)

This report for researchers in rural sociology develops a conceptual and analytic framework for evaluating policies or programs through interrelated models. Three models--structural analysis, control programming, and simulation--allow researchers to assess policy/program impact, determine why expected impacts did or did not occur, and modify…

Develops a conceptual and analytic framework for rural sociologists to document program results and consequences and to aid policy and program decisions. Addresses program/policy evaluation from perspectives of structural analysis, control programming, and simulation. Emphasizes dynamic, nonrecursive nature of evaluation processes. (LFL)

A ten-year study demonstrates the socializing effects of work and identifies facets of work that have major importance for occupational value change. Work autonomy and income are especially significant. Also, occupational reward values in the senior year of college are predictive of work experience ten years later. (Author/KC)

Sociological interpretations of racial and ethnic relations in modern industrialized societies are examined. Ethnic and racial relations are interpreted as areas of study within the discipline of sociology which focus on interaction of ethnic and/or racial aims and demands with social processes and cultural phenomena. To clarify the state of the…