Main concepts

• What methods do Structuralists (Marxists, Functionalists and Feminists) do?


  Objective. Quantitative data with patters and trends. They are reliable and generalisable
• What are structuralists method of research?


  primary: surveys, questionnaires, formal interviews

  secondary: statistics, comparative methods
• What methods do Interactionists do?


  subjective, qualitative data, in depth
• What methods of research do Interactionists do?


  primary: ethnography, ppt observation and non ppt observation.

  secondary: diaries, photos, letters etc
• what is primary data?


  data collected by the researcher, to obtain a first hand picture of a group/society to test a hypothesis. The most common methods are Surveys, Observation and Experiment
• what are the strengths of primary data?


  • Allows sociologists to gather data that is realistically what they need to test their hypothesis
  • Can be collected for the purpose that the sociologist has in mind
• what are the weaknesses of primary data?


  • Can be time consuming and expensive
  • Sometimes it’s not possible for sociologists to study firsthand the subject they are interested in due to confidentiality or ethical issues
• what is secondary data?


  a wide range of material collected by organisations and individuals for their own purposes. Sources include: Documents (produced by government agencies) and Personal Items (letters, diaries, photographs, official reports)
• what are the strengths of secondary data?


  Cost-effective, time-saving, and can provide a large amount of data, Gives us access to information that we might not be able to collect for ourselves.
• what are the weaknesses of secondary data?


  • may not exactly reflect the information that sociologists need
  • may be outdated
  • may not be authentic / cannot trust it
• what is Quantitative data?


  information in numerical form, for e.g official statistics, opinion polls and market research. The data can be gathered from a. range of methods included surveys, official statistics, structured interviews and experiments.
• what is a strength of quantitative data?


  • methods that produce quantitative data can be repeated so that other researchers can assess the reliability of the research.
  • it often involves large samples so the data is more likely to be representative of the population so we can make generalisations.
  • Quantitative data allows us to study pages and trends and make comparisons over time
• what is a weakness of quantitative data?


  • it is criticised by Interpretivists for failing to give real insight into the feelings, opinions and emotions of people.
  • it fails to capture the reasons for people’s behaviour as well as their distincts experiences.
  • quantitative data is often lacking in validity since it does not always measure what is intends to measure for e.g; crime statistics tell us more about the processes involved in the reporting + recording of crime than the true levels of crime in society
• What is qualitative data?


  Evidence gathered by using participant, observation aims to give us a sense of what it feels like to be a member of a particular group. Qualitative data is seen as meaningful and produced by a range of methods, such as observations, unstructured interviews, and diaries.
• What are the strengths of qualitative data?


  • It is valid because the researcher revealed meanings and motives behind behaviour without forcing people into the artificial categories of some questionnaires, so it has greed to validity.
  • Enables a subjective perspective of the group being studied to be revealed, which may add to the understanding of the causes behind behaviour
• what are the weaknesses of qualitative data?

  • It is usually gathered from small samples, so there will be generalisability problems as the sample will lack representativeness.
  • Unstructured, interviews and participant observations are difficult to replicate, so it is hard to access the reliability of the findings
  • qualitative data is the product of the subjective interpretation of what the researcher is selectin
• what are the disadvantages of meta-analysis?


  • publication bias. (the researcher may not select all relevant studies, leaving out those with less./not significant results)
  • Incorrect conclusions can be made
• (Factors influencing the choice of research methods) what are practical issues?


  Different methods present, different practical problems. These can include things such as the time it takes design, carry out and analyse the data to things like not having the right personal skills or physical characteristics.
• (Factors influencing the choice of research methods) Ethical Issues


  Refers to moral issues of right and wrong. Methods that sociologists use to study people may raise a range of ethical questions. The British Sociological Association sets out guidelines for the conduct of research including things such as not causing anyone any harm or not infringing or anyone’s privacy
• (Factors influencing the choice of research methods) Theoretical Issues


  refers to questions like ‘ do I want to be able to make generalisations from the study‘ to ‘ do I want insight or replicability?’ our views on these issues will affect the kind of methods we favour using.
• (Practical Issue) Time and Money


  different methods require different amounts of time and money and this will be influenced as sociologists choice.

  • e.g; Eileen a barker was able to devote several years to studying the Moonies which meant that she could choose observations and interviews as her research methods.
  • A university professor is more likely to have access to funding than a student
• (Practical Issue) requirements of funding body


  Research institutions, businesses, and other organisations that provide the funding for research may require the results to be in a particular form.

  • e.g: government department funding research into educational achievement will have targets for past rates and will need quantitative data to see if this targets have been met. Therefore they will require a method that collects quantitative data.
• (Practical Issue) Personal skills and characteristics of the researcher


  each sociologist possesses a different personal skills, and this may affect their ability to use different methods.

  • e.g: Dobash and Dobash had the ability to empathise with the female victims of domestic violence, so we able to use in informal interviews
  • James Patrick was able to pass off as a gang member because of his age so was able to do ppts observation .
• (Practical Issue) Subject matter


  It may be harder to study a particular group or subject by one method than by another

  • e.g; written questionnaires will not be useful for studying very young children, because they would be unable to read or write
• (Practical Issue) research opportunity


  Sometimes opportunity to carry out research occurs unexpectedly, and this means that might not be possible to use structured methods, such as questionnaires which take longer to prepare.

  • e.g: Tim offered James Patrick to join his gang out of the blue. With a little time to prepare James had a little choice, but to carry out the ppt observation
• (Ethical Issue) informed consent


  Research participants should be offered the right to refuse to be involved. The researcher should tell them about the research so they can make a fully informed decision.

  • e.g; Eileen Barker was given informed consent by the members of the Moonies to join their prayer meetings and some of the policy meetings. The members all knew she was a sociologist during observations and interviews.
• (Ethical Issue) confidentiality and privacy


  Researchers should keep the identity of participants to prevent negative effects. Personal information should be kept confidential.

  • E.G; James Patrick waited 10 years before publishing his findings, and changed the names of the gang members and himself to ensure confidentiality and privacy of them
• (Ethical Issue) protection from harm on participants


  Researchers need to be aware of the possible effects of their work on the participants

  • e.g; Dobash and Dobash in their study ‘Violence against wives’ took care to use unstructured interviews with the women living in the refugees since they were asking them about very sensitive issues
• (Ethical Issue) vulnerable groups


  Special care should be taken care of where research participants are particularly vulnerable due to age, disability, mental or physical health.

  • e.g; when studying children sociologists will usually use unstructured interviews since this is less intimidating and allows the children to feel safe
• (Ethical Issue) deception in covert research


  Deceiving or lying to participants, makes it impossible to gain informed consent

  • e.g; Humphrey’s study, ‘Tearoom Trade’ made sure that the man he was observing in public toilets, having sexual encounters were not in any way identifiable by his findings. At the time homosexuality was illegal in the USA.
• (Theoretical Issue) Validity


  Method that produces a true or genuine picture of what something is really like

  • e.g; James Patrick wanted to understand what life was like in Street gang. He used a participant observation since this allowed him to experience the lifestyle firsthand, giving him insight and understanding of the life of a gang member, making his research valid.
• (Theoretical Issue) Reliability / replicability


  Is when a method that which were repeated by another researcher, gives the same results.

  • e.g; Hite’s questionnaire ‘Love, Passion and Emotional Violence’ in America, enable him to ask his participants, the same questions so that he could establish some patterns and trends. This is reliable since the questionnaire was consistent.
• (Theoretical Issue) representativeness


  Refers to whether or not the people we study other typical cross-section of the group we are interested in.

  • e.g: Hellas + Woodhead carried out a huge study of the new age in their study. the sample included 25 churches, therefore since the sample was huge, it was very representative of the Kendall area
• (Theoretical Issue) methodological perspective


  View of what society is like and how we should study it.

  positivists: study quantitative data, to see patters

  interpretivists: study qualitative data

  • e.g; as a positivitist, Durkheim chose to use official statistics of death rates for his study of suicide. He believe that statistics or social facts, therefore argued that he could look for causes of suicide in the data.
• Who are Positivists?

  Marxists, Feminists and Functionalists
• (factors influencing the choice of research topic) sociologists perspective


  The sociologist theoretical perspective is a major influence on their choice of research topic.

  • For example, a new researcher may study that affects of welfare benefits on the growth of single parent families since the idea of welfare dependency is central to their standpoint. By contrast, a feminist researcher is more likely to choose to study domestic violence as opposition to gender pppression lies at the heart of the feminist perspective.
• (factors influencing choice of topic) values of society


  Sociologist themselves part of the society study and influenced its values. As these values change, so does the focus of research.

  • For example, the rise of feminism movement in the 1960s, led to a focus on gender inequality research
• (factors influencing choice of topic) funding bodies


  Most research requires funding for an external body. This may include government, agencies, charities and businesses. As the funding is paying for the research, it would determine the topic to be investigated.
• (factors influencing choice of topic)practical factors


  Practical factors, such as the inaccessibility of certain situations with the researcher may also restrict what topic they are able to study.

  • for eg; although sociologists may wish to study the ways in which global corporations make their decisions, this may not be possible, because these are made in secret
• What are the stages that determine how the research must be designed?

  • Formulating an aim and hypothesis.
  • Operationalising concepts
  • Pilot study
  • Selecting A Sample