research methods 1

• use of research methods for sociologists

  • produce what they hope will be more indepth and credible knowledge about social worlds
  • 3 main things: gathers data, establishes correlations, confirms or contradicts theories
• establishes correlations

  • explore relationships between different elements of society e.g when one social event occurs, another one tends to do so as well
  • Bennett and Holloway conducted research project over a number of years, which involved testing the urine of people arrested by the police
  • results of the urine tests demonstrates the offenders had a very high chance of illegal drug use
  • statistical results in a correlation between drug use and crime
• cause and effect

  • Bennett and Holloway's research project can conclude people why commit crime also take drugs
  • or people who like to do drugs also like to commit crime
  • just because two events correlate does not mean one causes the other (a casual relationship)
• qualitative data

  • non-numerical data
  • primary research: interviews, observations
  • secondary research: historical documents, TV programmes
• quantitative data

  • numerical data (e.g league tables, truancy figures)
  • primary research: statistical surveys
  • secondary research: official statistics
• evaluating data (rvro)

  • look at reliability, valididty, representativeness and objectivity
• reliability

  • if same piece of research is repeated, it should produce the same results
  • well designed questionnaires produce similar results each time= highly reliable
  • lone sociologist engaging in participant observation= less reliable
  • quantitive methods are more reliable, qualitive less reliable
• validity

  • how far it gives a true picture of what is being studied
  • observational studies may not be reliable but may be valid
• construct validity

  • whether statistics really measure what they claim to measure
  • e.g. crime statistics claim to measure actual amount of crime, but its only the crime recorded by police
• ecological validity

  • are people in a study behaving naturally?
  • e.g. questionnaires lack validity e.g. when asking about embarrassing subjects, people lie
  • it may be impossible for any research to be valid because it represents a shorthand description of a social world
• representativeness

  • does the sample of people reflect the entire group or society as a whole?
  • if the knowledge gained from studying group cannot be generalised to all society, then it has limited use
• objectivity and the researcher

  • researchers must ensure that their values and beliefs have no influence on research
  • if sociologists allow their own values to intrude, it will seriously weaken the research and impact on the validity
  • no research can provide a unbiased account of the social world