Theory and Methods

• Field experiments

  Primary research method where the researcher looks to manipulate the independent variable, and measure the dependent variable in a real-world situation
• Unlike lab experiments, extraneous variables are not controlled as the field experiment is conducted in the "field" - a real world situation
• Rosenthal and Jacobson experiment

  • Manipulated teacher's perceptions of pupils and found this had a positive impact on their educational achievements
• Strengths of field experiments

  • Subjects are observed in their natural environment, less chance of Hawthorne effect influencing their behaviours
  • Has higher ecological validity than lab experiments as it takes place in real-world situations
• Limitations of field experiments

  • Ethical issues such as deception and informed consent as subjects are often unaware they are part of an experiment
  • Cost of monitoring the subjects in the real world is higher, with specific equipment being required to record subjects' behaviours
  • Presence of extraneous variables means it cannot produce a cause and effect relationship merely a correlation between two factors
• Laboratory experiments


  Primary research method that focuses on proving or disproving a hypothesis (informed prediction) about human behaviour through manipulating the independent variable whilst controlling all other variables
• Milgram experiment


  • Experiment on whether individuals would obey orders of a researcher even if harming another
• Strengths of laboratory experiments

  • Experiments are often seen as being more scientific and objective as they produce quantitative data that can be replicated
  • Isolating behaviours means they can create cause and effect relationships between two variables
• Limitations of laboratory experiments

  • The artificial environment is argued to impact the ecological validity of research
  • Participants often need to be deceived about the purpose in order to gain valid results
• Questionnaires


  A form of social survey where respondents answer a list of standardised questions
• Self-completion questionnaires


  Respondents answer a list of standardised questions without a researcher present
• Strengths of self-completion questionnaires

  • Census has to legally be filled out every 10 years, high response and comparable data
  • Hawthorne effect not able to be present as no respondent
  • High reliability due to standardised
• Limitations of self-completion questionnaires

  • No researcher is present which could negatively impact on the response rate and validity as not sure who is completing them
  • Questions may be misleading or difficult to understand - false responses
• Mailed questionnaires


  Questionnaires that are distributed by postal services or e-mail and require the respondent to return the completed questionnaire
• Strengths of mailed questionnaires

  • Standardised questions so same questionnaires can be sent out with relative ease allowing for research to be replicated and to expand sample of their research
• Limitations of mailed questionnaires

  • Mailed often regarded as not being important enough by potential respondents/not returned as people simply forget to return leading to a low response rate
  • Hite's research got less than 5% of over 100,000 questionnaires returned
  • Problematic gaining access to potential participants unless agreed to take part, storing information in accordance to official guidelines
• Structured interviews

  Primary research method consisting of a series of standardised questions that a researcher asks the respondent
• Strengths of structured interviews

  • Standardised nature of these allows for easy replication giving them higher reliability
  • Produce comparable quantitative data to give broad trends
  • Higher response rates than other forms of questionnaires and less intrusive than other interview types
• Limitations of structured interviews

  • Presence of an interviewer means that some people may give socially desirable answers that do not reflect true feelings which will impact the validity of the research
  • Although favoured by positivists, other approaches would see this method as lacking empathy and insight into the worldview of the respondent
  • Masculine model of research and patriarchal
• Official statistics

  Quantitative data that is compiled by the UK government
• Hard statistics

  Birth rates, death rates
• Soft statistics

  Rate of unemployment, crime rates and domestic violence
• Strengths of official statistics

  • Provide an overview into social issues that can be used to generate further research in that area
  • High reliability as some statistics are done on a monthly basis - prison stats
  • Can provide useful insight into trends over time in areas such as education and family diversity
• Limitations of official statistics

  • Can be manipulated to serve political ideologies
  • Can lack validity, should not be used as social facts as crime stats in particular have issues such as dark figure of crime and under-reporting
• Unstructured interviews

  Less formal than structured interviews and do not follow an interview schedule. Researchers will have several topics to discuss and will have freedom to ask follow up questions.
• Strengths of unstructured interviews

  • Allows researcher to develop a rapport with the respondent potentially leading to more informative responses
  • Allows the researcher to show empathy towards the respondent, particularly when dealing with socially sensitive topics (victims of crime)
  • Interpretivists argue that the use of unstructured interviews enable the researcher to gain an insight into the meanings and motivations behind an individual's actions -> research validity
• Limitations of unstructured interviews

  • Difficult to replicate and therefore lack reliability
  • However, critics have suggested that this leads to a loss of objectivity on the researcher's part
  • Time consuming and can go off topic
• Group interviews

  Follow the format of either structured or unstructured and involve a researcher or researchers asking a group of people from a specific background about their opinions or experiences
• Strengths of group interviews

  • It can provide a lot of data in a short space of time
  • Validity of responses is often higher if respondents agree on experiences or motivations behind behaviours
  • Skilled researchers may also be able to draw conclusions about people's opinions and motivations through observing body language of respondents when together which is a form of qualitative data
• Limitations of group interviews

  • Presence of others may influence the responses a respondent gives may want to conform to others of the group
  • People are also unlikely to want to discuss personal issues in front of others
  • Due to status differences people may still answer in a socially desirable way
• Observations

  Researchers study the ongoing behaviour of participants
• Participant observations

  The researcher integrates themselves into a group to study their way of life
• Strengths of participant observations

  • Gain trust of participants and getting better idea of how and why people do things
  • Natural environments
• Limitations of participant observations

  • Going native and not wanting to share information you sought to do research on
  • Overt has issues of Hawthorne effect occurring
• Non-participant observations

  Researcher studies their subjects from the sidelines and they don't participate or integrate themselves into the lives of the group they study
• Strengths of non-participant observations

  • Generally cheaper and quicker to do as does not require time and resources for the researcher to integrate themselves into the group
• Limitations of non-participant observations

  • Overt has issues with Hawthorne effect
  • Relies on only observing behaviour as cannot interact with subjects
• Historical documents

  Secondary sources that can be either quantitative or qualitative in nature, such as parish records, birth/death registers and many personal/public documents of the past
• Laslett's use of parish records

  • Found that the nuclear family existed long before industrialisation and was more common than other sociologists suggested
• Strengths of historical documents

  • Give a valuable insight into the past that is unobtainable from other methods
  • Can provide qualitative data that shows the meanings and motivations people had in their social behaviours
  • Documents such as parish records, birth/death certificates pre-date many records of official statistics