Sociology Research Methods

• The- theoretical

  P- practical

  E- ethical

  R- reliability

  V- validity

  E- evaluation

  R- representativeness T- triangulation

  (THE PERVERT)
• PRIMARY METHODS

  Questionnaires

  Structured Interviews

  Focus Group Interviews

  Unstructured Interviews

  Field Experiments

  Participany Observation: Covert and Overt

  Non Participant Observation
• SECONDARY METHODS

  Official Statistics

  Personal Documents

  Historical Documents

  Mass Media Conteny Analysis
• Positivism

  A theoretical mode of enquiry or a research approach which views social reality as being the result of cause and effect relationships just like physical reality

  • Individuals are shaped by social forces (social facts)-external to them

  • It therefore believes that scientific methods used in the natural sciences can be used to investigate social issues-such as categorisation, and correlation studies (cause and effects)

  • Uses Quantitative methods such as structured interviews, questionnaires, experiments are used to obtain statistical data
• Interpretivism

  • According to this approach of study Sociology should attempt to understand the way individuals experience and make sense of social reality-Find out deeper meaning (Verstehen) in German means ‘understand’.

  • Qualitative methodologies are used to gather qualitative data and are more often associated with the interpretive model (Burton et al, 2008;
• Quantitative Methodology

  • A quantitative study seeks numerical data. Some researchers set out to collect data that measures how many, how often, what percentage or proportion

  • Or to what extent is there a connection between variables

  • Quantitative data always requires measuring in some way
• Qualitative Methodology •Descriptive data, in-depth data

  Seeks to find out participants reasons/perceptions/attitudes/behavior with regards to an issue
• Primary Research: Research collects first hand data for a specific sociological purpose
• Secondary Research: Second hand data already collected by others
• Triangulation

  • Triangulation is kind of an insurance policy approach, where the researcher tries to counter all predicted weaknesses that exist in different methods of data collection and analysis

  • In essence when the researcher triangulates he uses more than 1 method of data collection and analysis to increase research reliability and validity
• Validity

  • Refers to the accuracy of the data collected
• Reliability

  • The extent to which a research (method) can be duplicated and achieve the same findings
• Representative

  •This is when the sample used to undertake a research study is representative (share the same characteristics) of the target population.

  • The findings from the sample can generalise about the entire population
• Interviews

  ► Involves meeting with subject to collect data directly from them about an issue

  ► There are three types of interview, ranged somewhere on what is called a continuum formality (Bell, 1999)

  ► At one extreme, is the completely formalized interview, referred to as structured interview and at the other end is the informal structure, which the shape is determined by the respondent – unstructured interview.
• Structured Interviews

  Definition: usually using a set of closed questions, researcher asks a set of questions to the respondent and records the answers.
• Strengths of structured interview:

  researcher can explain any questions that the respondent does not understand.

  researcher can make sure that they have answered all questions

  researcher can ensure that respondent is not asking others about how to answer the questions.

  Quantitative data – patterns and trends
• Weaknesses of structured interviews:

  Interviewer presence may make the respondent feel intimidated

  Cannot add on questions to get rich in depth information.

  respondents might rush their answers to please the researcher.

  interviewer bias – leading and loaded questions.
• Unstructured Interviews Definition: an informal interview that mainly uses open-ended questions.
• Unstructured Interviews

  ► Encourages respondents to open up and provide in-depth information

  ► A lot of information can be collected

  ► May encourage researcher to see things from a different perspective
• Strengths of Unstructured interview:

  Flexible – interviewer can add on questions

  Can build a rapport with respondent. – honest and open in their answers.

  Respondents can express their ideas in their own words. Answers are not imposed on them.

  Qualitative data – rich in depth data.
• Weaknesses of Unstructured interview:

  Time consuming – as questions can lead on to other questions

  Small number of people can only take part – unrepresentative

  Topic of interview – some people may not want to relive traumatic experiences.

  Money – have to pay interviewers over long period of time

  Interviewer bias – interviewer might influence respondent’s answers.

  The success of the interview depends on the skill and personality of the interviewer in preventing the respondent from being distracted
• What

  general problems may be encountered when interviewing?

  Can produce distorted data

  ► Practical problems such as time, place, recording

  ► Qualitative nature and small sample size limits broader applicability of results

  ► Interviewer needs good communication skills

  ► Produces qualitative data which can be difficult to

  analyze

  ► Can be highly unreliable as the research has a significant impact on the findings
• Social surveys/questionnaires produce mostly QUANTITATIVE DATA

  And for this reason they are considered a POSITIVIST research method

  They produce OBJECTIVE FACTS about the world

  However INTERRPREVETISTS may sometimes use questionaries with OPEN QUESTIONS before moving to interviews
• QUANTITATIVE DATA enables researchers to

  Test hypotheses.

  • Study trends

  Test reliability

  • Make comparisons.

  • Establish causality between variables

  Make predictions

  (Questionnaires)
• Questionnaires are PRE-CODED made up of two types of questions Closed ended (which can be quantified)

  Open ended where limited opinions are asked for (these are qualitative)
• In a questionnaire the question is the

  and the response is the

  DEPENDENT VARIABLE

  as the question (IV)

  changes so might the response e.g there might be a correlation between (IV – AGE) and (DV) number of cigarettes smoked
• Examples of questionnaires used in education

  Connor and Dewson (2001) posted nearly 4000 questionnaires to students at 14 higher education institutions in their study of the factors which influenced working class decisions to attend university.

  • Rutter (1979) Used questionnaires to gather data on how class size correlated with behaviour and achievement from twelve different schools in Inner London
• Practical advantages of questionnaires

  • Quick and cheap way of gathering a lot of useful quantitative data
  • Those administering the questionnaire (face to face questionnaires) do not need training
  • Sending questionnaires over the internet is free
  • Even postal questionnaires are relatively cheap
  • Data is easy to quantify and can be worked out very quickly by a computer and RELATIONSHIPS between VARIABLES established
  • More likely to be used in large scale environments so that a big sample can be gained, and results are therefore more REPRESENTATIVE
• Questionnaires are a quick and cheap way of gathering a lot of useful quantitative data
• Sending questionnaires over the internet is free
• Even postal questionnaires are relatively cheap
• Data from questionnaires is easy to quantify and can be worked out very quickly by a computer
• Relationships between variables can be established from questionnaire data
• Questionnaires are more likely to be used in large scale environments so that a big sample can be gained, and results are therefore more REPRESENTATIVE
• Ethical advantages of questionnaires

  •Have relatively few ethical problems

  •In person survey – researcher asks for consent

  •Online/postal questionnaires – no pressure to complete -right

  •HOWEVER: researchers must be careful not to ask overly SENSITIVE QUESTIONS if dealing with VULNERABLE GROUPS

  •They must also guarantee ANONYMITY
• Theoretical advantages

  •Participants will be drawn from a SAMPLING FRAME – e.g. electoral register

  •Those RANDOMLY chosen will be REPRESENTATIVE of the TARGET GROUP

  •There will then be a SYSTEMATIC way in which people are picked e.g. every tenth name. OBJECTIVITY

  •Questionnaires are high in RELIABILITY •They are carried out in a DETACHED manner •Sociologists can produce SOCIAL FACTS •The data is GENERALIABLE
• Questionnaires


  • Widely distributed, might take a long time for them to come back
  • Sometimes take a long time to complete, resulting in a low response rate
• Questionnaire response rate

  • S. Hite (1991) tried to investigate domestic violence in America and sent out 100,000 questionnaires by post, receiving only 4.5% back
• Incentives


  Offered to fill out the questionnaire, e.g. enter into a prize draw, to increase response rate
• Offering incentives increases the cost of using questionnaires