Research Methods

• Cost


  The amount of money the method will cost
• Access


  The ability of the sociologist to gain access to the site and/or people they want to study
• Time


  The amount of time the research will take to complete
• Skills


  The training needed to use a certain method and the characteristics needed in the researcher
• Observation


  • A sociologist observes someone in the real world or in a laboratory
  • It takes a lot of time to set up and do
  • Allows sociologists to pay very close attention to how individuals and groups behave in different contexts
  • Some types of observation are very difficult as gaining access to observe sensitive or criminal behaviour is difficult
  • Can take a long time as the sociologist is waiting for something interesting to happen
• Unstructured interviews


  • Require the sociologist to have been trained on how to guide an interview
  • Can take place over several hours
  • After, the sociologist has to type them up (transcript)
  • Transcripts can be thousands of words long
  • The sociologist has to read through the transcript carefully and might only use one or two quotes from the whole interview
• Official statistics


  • Statistics produced by the government which help them run the country
  • Sociologists call data made by other people secondary sources
  • Sociologists like to use them because they are often free
  • Include things like school results and census data
  • Allow sociologists to compare large numbers of people
  • Sociologists need mathematical and technical training to analyse official statistics
• Postal surveys


  • Surveys sent out in the post
  • Can be sent out to large numbers of people for the cost of envelope or stamp
  • The sociologist does not need to present when the person fills them out
  • Saves time and money compared to some other methods
  • Making and sending surveys is cheaper than other methods
• Harm


  Participants in research should not be put at risk of danger or distress. They should not feel bad about themselves because of the research.
• Deception


  If a researcher deceives or conceals the purpose or procedure of the study, they are misleading their research subjects. This has the potential to cause harm to participants.
• Debriefing


  Researchers are required to reveal any deception, and explain the true purpose of the study to subjects after the data is gathered. This should relieve participants of tension and anxiety.
• Anonymity, Privacy and confidentiality


  Keeping the participants' personal information private so the results of the research cannot be linked back to them.
• Informed consent


  Sociologists should explain what the research is about and why it is being carried out. Participants should be made aware of their right to refuse to participate.
• Covert Research


  Can be justified in certain situations to overcome the Observer Effect, but violates informed consent and may invade privacy. Should only be used if no other method is available.
• Reliability


  The extent to which, if you repeated the research, you would get the same results. Quantitative data is said to be high in reliability.
• Validity


  Whether the research has uncovered the truth about social life. Qualitative data is high in validity.
• When sociologists plan research, they address which method(s) to use, influenced by positivism or interpretivism
• Positivism


  • Adapts natural science methods to study human behaviour
  • Believes behaviour is influenced by social forces and the way society is organised
  • Takes a macro approach to study objective patterns and trends
  • Research should be systematic, objective, and quantitative to uncover causal relationships and social facts or laws
• Interpretivism


  • Rejects using natural science methods to study people, who are conscious beings that actively create their social world
  • Aims to understand human behaviour and motives by seeing it from the participant's point of view
  • Prefers qualitative, valid research methods to obtain in-depth information about participants' meanings and interpretations
  • Reliability is not important as meanings may change over time
• Target population


  The group the researcher wants to study, which may be people or institutions
• Sampling


  The process of selecting a subgroup (sample) to study that is representative of the target population
• Representative sample


  A sample that mirrors and reflects the characteristics of the target population, allowing findings to be generalized
• To collect data from everyone in the target population is not feasible
• Sampling


  The process of selecting a subgroup of the target population (a sample) to study
• Representative sample


  • It should mirror, reflect and be typical of the characteristics of the target population
  • It is a smaller version of the target population
• An unrepresentative sample might overrepresent certain characteristics of the target population
• When a sample is representative, the findings of the research can be generalized to the target population
• Sampling process


  Selecting the subset of individuals to study that are part of the target population
• Probability (random) sampling


  There is a sampling frame, and each member of the sampling frame has a known chance of being selected
• Non-probability sampling


  Used when a sampling frame is unavailable
• Questionnaire


  A type of social survey consisting of a list of pre-set questions for the respondent to answer
• Ways to deliver questionnaires

  • Postal
  • Via email
  • Hand-delivered
• Closed questions


  • Quick and easy to complete
  • Easy to process and analyse
  • High in reliability
  • Uncover patterns and trends
  • Make comparisons
• Open questions


  • Provide qualitative data to uncover reasons, opinions, meanings and understanding
  • High in validity to obtain verstehen
• Questionnaires


  • High validity
  • High reliability
• Questionnaires


  • Expensive
  • Low response rate
• Structured interview


  A formal question and answer session with standardized questions read from an interview schedule
• Unstructured interview

  A flexible conversation with a purpose, without a standardized interview schedule
• Group interview


  The researcher talks to a group of people at the same time, covering several areas, themes and topics
• Focus group


  A group interview that focuses on one particular topic in depth