Research Methods Essay

Sociology Research Methods Essay Assignment

"Bringing Home the Bacon: Marital Allocation of Income-Earning Responsibility, Job Shifts and Men's Wages" By: Gorman, Elizabeth H. 1999

Research Question

The research question addressed in the article "Bringing Home the Bacon: Marital Allocation of Income-Earning Responsibility, Job Shifts and Men's Wages" discusses the issue of marriage and how it impacts men's job shift patterns and how job shifting also influences men's wages. The research question was presented clearly and the reader knew exactly what the researchers wanted to investigate. The research question could have been more effectively presented to the reader earlier on in the piece instead of at the bottom of the second page. The introduction and background information that was presented to the reader was also helpful in understanding how the researchers came to their thesis. A lot of the research paper however, is spent discussing the previous research and theories that lead to the research question which is helpful but also takes away the focus away from the original question. The three theoretical perspectives that are discussed throughout the majority of the paper help the reader understand the assumptions and predictions of what the answer to the question will be. The authors provided their thesis, background information, and predictions to the research questions clearly and for the most part efficiently.

Plan Attack

The authors presented the research question clearly however did not spend a lot of time discussing how they were going to go about assessing the problem. It is clear when looking at their research methods and data what their plan of attack was going to be, but it would have been helpful if there was a brief summary about this earlier on in the beginning of the article instead of on page 114. The researchers discussed their predictions and assumptions about what they would find but never really discussed their exact plan of attack. It was only clear when looking at the research methods which included six sub headings that discussed the type measures and controls that they were going to use in order to get their proper discoveries. Their plan of attack of what could be understood when they were describing their research methods followed a logical sequence and was for the most part served to answer their question.

Relevance

The researchers did a good job of displaying the relevance of their question and how it tied into other topics. They showed how the three theoretical approaches of the relationship between wages and married men related to the idea of wage growth and job shifts. It study discovered why married men make more money than single men and how being married