Social Patterns
- Quantitative Methods
- sociologists focus on levels of variables
eg. what is the overall level of psychological distress in the population? - sociologists focus on associations between variables
eg. how is being temporarily unemployed associated with levels of psychological distress - sociologists focus on mechanisms that explain the associations between variables
Social Causation Hypothesis
experiencing economic hardship increases the risk of subsequent mental illness
Social Drift Hypothesis
the argument that illness causes one to have a downward shift in social class
Theoretical Model
The stress process model: when disruptive events occur, individuals often struggle to establish homeostasis and this process can be wearing and taxing
- a stressor liek being laid off should elevate distress because its involuntary, undesired and unscheduled
Wheaton
- stressed importance of social context in shaping stress exposure potentially altering its meaning and threat level
Social Comparison theory
suggests that people value their own personal and social worth by assessing how they compare to others
Analytical framework
countervailing factors: yes youre losing a job but there may be governmental supports to soften the financial strain you may endure, its a cushion effect
Longitudinal Research Design
- repeated surveys with the same time, repeating measures
- to understand what has changed and what hasn’t
- conduct in-depth interviews with people who endured the event
The Essentials
randomisation samples were selected from a large national panel of individuals to match “a balanced sample matrix” this was done to ensure a representative sample
Operationalization/Measurement
the focal dependent variable is psychological stress
- to measure this we asked different questions
- we used these reponses and coded them as follows
- create an index of psychological distress
independent variable
-in this application of the stress model we identify financial strain as a secondary stressor
- primary stressor: losing the job
- secondary stressor: the possibility of experiencing financial strain
Conceptualization and operationalization of the sense of mastery
- of all beliefs about self and society that might affect an individuals distress the belief in control over ones life may be the most important
- the sense of control or mastery is the opposite of perceived powerlessness
Melvin Seeman
hypothesized that powerlessness is the main type of alienation in society
Control Variables
a varaible the researcher attempts to statistically “hold constant” its not the main interest in the studys objective but we statistically control it because that variable could potentially influence the other relationships were interested in
What about X?
- categorization and data reduction
“- baseline” control variables - how does that variable potentially affect another variable? taking all things into account
Qualitative Findings
Example : what explains the lower distress among individuals who were temporarily laid off relative to their peers who remained working?
1. A temporary state: many were afforded pause from work and exempted from work stressors, they had more time for self care
- Reduced Internal Attribution: the normatoivty level of being TLO allowed workers to appraise job distribution as a societal level of phenomena affecting the entire labor market rather than due to personal qualities
- Alleviated Financial Strain: the unusual financial strain associated with TLO was reduced by increased personal savings and reduced spending, government support and employer provided pay and benefits
In Depth Interviews
ideal to probe how individuals interpret events in social life and unpack complex processes that underlie the nuances of experiences and perceptions
NVivo
an application for analysis the authors separately analysed interview transcripts developed modesto code themes, met frequently to discuss themes, refine themes and review transcripts
