Research methods

• Types of research issues


  • Practical issues
  • Ethical issues
  • Theoretical issues
• Factors influencing choice of research method

  • Time & money
  • Requirements of funding bodies
  • Personal skills & characteristics
  • Subject matter
  • Research opportunity
  • Access
• Informed consent


  Participants should have the right to refuse involvement in the research, and the researcher should tell them about all relevant points so they can make an informed decision. Consent is given beforehand and can be withdrawn at any time
• Confidentiality & privacy


  Researchers should keep participants' identity secret to prevent any negative effects on them, as well as respecting their privacy surrounding personal info
• Harm to research participants


  Researchers need to know the possible effects their work can have on participants and should anticipate and prevent such harm
• Vulnerable groups


  Age, disability, physical/mental health are groups researchers should take special care for
• Covert research


  Has ethical issues like lying to people to gain their trust, which means you can't get informed consent with covert methods. However, some sociologists think exceptions should be made when investigating secretive/dangerous/powerful groups
• Validity


  A method that produces a true/genuine picture
• Reliability or repeatability


  A method can be done again by someone else and get the same results
• Representativeness


  Are those being studied a typical cross-section of the group we're interested in?
• Methodological perspective


  The sociologist's view of what society is like and how we should study it
• Positivists use quantitative data, look for patterns in behaviour, and see sociology as a science, while interpretivists use qualitative data, understand social actors' meanings and reject the idea that sociology is a science
• Lab experiments


  Test a hypothesis in a controlled environment, where the researcher changes the independent variable in the experimental group and measures how this affects the dependent variable. Results are then compared to the control group
• Lab experiments


  • Highly reliable because they're highly repeatable and a detached method
  • Positivist sociologists who like a scientific approach will prefer them
  • Can't be used to study the past
  • Not as representative as other methods because they're best carried out with small samples
• Interpretivists believe


  We have free will, so our behaviour can't be explained as 'cause-and-effect', making the experimental method useless for studying human beings
• Types of interview


  • Structured interviews
  • Unstructured interviews
  • Semi-structured interviews
  • Group interviews
• Structured interviews


  Interviewer has strict instructions on how to ask questions, interviews are standardised
• Unstructured interviews


  A guided conversation where the interviewer can vary questions, wording, etc. and pursue any line of inquiry
• Questionnaires and structured interviews are patriarchal and give a distorted and invalid image of women's experience, and instead advocates for using direct observation or unstructured interviews
• The non-female researcher is in control of the interview and line of question, which mirrors women's subordination in society
• These methods see women as isolated individuals instead of in the context of the power relationships that oppress them
• These methods impose the researcher's categories on women, which means they can't express their experiences of oppression and the unequal power relationship of the sexes is concealed
• Unstructured interviews


  • Rapport & sensitivity
  • The interviewee's view
  • Checking understanding
  • Flexibility
  • Exploring unfamiliar topics
• Theoretical issue - positivism vs interpretivism

  • Interpretivists see unstructured interviews as highly valid as they understand actors' meanings
  • Positivists see unstructured interview as unable to be quantified, generalised/compared and therefore unrepresentative and invalid because rapports can distort findings
• Participant observations


  • Researcher takes part in the everyday life at a group/event while observing
• Covert observation


  • Researcher's identity and purpose are concealed from the group, and they take on a false identity/role in order to observe them
• Overt observation


  • Researcher makes their identity and purpose of research known to people in the study
• Official statistics


  Quantitative data gathered by the government/official bodies
• Positivists see official stats as a valuable source for sociologists, as they establish social facts about phenomena in society
• Interpretivists argue official stats lack validity because they do not represent real things/social facts that exist, but instead are socially constructed under that represent the labels some people give to other's behaviour
• Marxists don't see stats as the outcome of labels applied by officials, but as serving the interests of capitalists
• Documents


  Any written text, government reports, novels, newspapers, etc. Other texts can also be included like paintings, drawings, photos, maps, TV programmes
• Personal documents


  Letters, diaries, photo albums and autobiographies which are first-hand accounts of social events/personal experiences that often include the writer's personal feelings
• Historical documents


  Documents created in the past, and are often the only source of information for studying the past
• Positivists tend to reject documents as they are unstandardised and unreliable, and generalisations can't be drawn on them to everyday life
• Interpretivists tend to see documents favourably as they provide an authentic account of the author's worldview and meanings
• Assessing documents


  • Authenticity
  • Credibility
  • Representativeness
  • Meaning
• Content analysis


  A method that systematically deals with the content of documents and is best known for being used to analyse raw data produced documents such as TV programmes