Research Methods MJ

• What are questionnaires?

  A list of questions that are distributed by sociologists to people taking part in research
• What are Interviews?


  Conversations between a respondent and a researcher about a certain topic
• What are experiments? 


  A research method where the researcher look to manipulate one factor to see if it will cause a change in behaviour
• Practical issues of questionnaires

  • response rates may be low
  • time consuming
• Ethical issues of questionnaires

  • may include sensitive topics
  • Responses may be immoral and may need to be reported
  • Answers may only be given if the participant remains anonymous
• Theoretical issues of questionnaires

  • Closed questions lack validity
  • Open questions lack reliability
  • Positivists prefer closed
  • Interpretivists prefer open
• Practical Issues of Interviews

  • Cost - training/recruiting interviewers may be expensive
  • Can be time-consuming
  • Skill level for interviewers varies
• Ethical issues of interviews

  • Sensitive topics may be touched on
  • Illegal activity may be disclosed
  • Revealing info in focus groups may promote social desirability
• Theoretical issues with interviews

  • Issues of validity e.g., social desirability
  • Positivists prefer structured
  • Interpretivists prefer unstructured
• Usefulness of questionnaires

  • Cheap and quick
  • Less intrusive
  • Broad range of respondants
• Usefulness of interviews

  • High Response rates
  • Can provide quantitative/qualitative data
  • Answers can be developed in un/semi-structured interviews to gain rapport (A development of relationship between the respondent and interviewer)
• Usefulness of experiments

  • Highly scientific
  • High in reliability
• Questionnaire examples

  • Tony Sewell - Gave 150 black students questionnaires across 5 different schools, found 80% said that peer pressure was one of their biggest barriers in education causing them to underachieve
  • Chubb and Moe - Used a questionnaire into parental choice and how schools should be run
• Examples of interviews

  • Becker - Demonstrated interviews with teachers to formulate ideas on what the ideal pupil is
  • Willis - Used unstructured interviews as a part of studying anti-school subcultures in learning to labour
• Examples of observations

  • Venkatesh -Gang leader for a day, used covert participant observations within a drug dealing gang in Chicago
  • Keddie - Used non-participant observations of schools to assess teacher attitudes towards students
• Examples of an experiment

  • Rosenthal and Jacobson - Used a field experiment in the pygmalion in the classroom study (AKA self-fulfilling prophecy)