Methods - key studies

• Sullivan - Cultural Capital


  • questionnaires, social class, education

  • conducted survey/questionnaire - 465 pupils, 4 schools

  • assessed their cultural capital - asked about activities e.g. reading, TV, cultural figures

  • findings:

  - read complex fiction + serious documentaries = higher cultural capital

  - greater cultural capital = middle class + successful GCSEs

  • conclusion: greater resources + aspirations of middle class families explain class gap in achievement
• Bandura


  • lab experiment

  • studying effect of child watching a woman punch inflatable clown

  • children who saw woman punching clown seen to be more violent when toys taken away than children who hadn't seen the woman punching

  • independent variable = adult's level of violence

  • dependent variable = children's level of aggression in response to toys being taken

  • control variable = saw doll ignored

  
  

  Criticisms:

  • practical issue - predisposition, child already aggressive

  • ethical issue - lasting effects on children
• Sue Sharpe


  • unstructured interviews, education

  • conducted interviews with young women about their aspirations 1970s vs 1990s

  • aim = identify impact of gender role socialisation on career choice

  • findings:

  - attitudes change over time

  - 1990 more career focused

  - 1970 more marriage focused

  • was going to use a questionnaire but changed to get more qualitative data
• Labov


  • unstructured interviews, ethnicity

  • studied Black American children's language

  • started with structured interviews - children struggled due to being linguistically challenged - invalid results

  • moved to unstructured interviews - sat on the floor, friendly atmosphere

  • unstructured interviews revealed the children to be competent speakers - allowed for valid information, language could be changed
• Young and Willmot


  • structured interviews, social class, family

  • interviewed 933 family members about their roles and relationships

  • aim = to establish the importance of extended family in East London

  • conclusion = most working class white peoples belonged to extended matrilocal families
• Durkheim - Suicide


  • official statistics

  • sociology is a science

  • hypothesised suicide is caused by lack of social integration

  • argued Protestants and Catholics integrate people into society differently

  • using official statistics, showed Protestants had higher suicide rate

  • able to argue his hypothesis was proven right by statistics

  • concluded: different levels of integration + regulation produce different rates of suicide
• Thomas + Znaiecki


  • documents

  • study of migration + social change

  • used Polish migrants letters to analyze the experience of relocating to the US - early 20th century

  • 764 letters
• James Patrick - Gangs


  • observations - participant + covert

  • participant observation of street gangs to examine violent and criminal activity

  • gained access through knowing one of its members from approved school + looking young

  • was suspected when he didn't want to carry gun or engage in fights

  • left Glasgow when violence became too unacceptable

  • waited publish due to fear + protecting identities

  Criticisms:

  • dangerous environment
• Vankstesh - Gangs


  • observations, participant, overt

  • was held hostage while asking questions as a sociologist - ended up living with the gang to observe

  • overtly observed them - gained trust, verstehen

  • tried to lead the gang for a day, didn't do anything illegal but understood difficulty

  • gang looked out for him

  • community have to rely on street gang

  Criticisms:

  • Hawthorne effect - know they're being observed

  • Dangerous environment

  • Loyalty bias - created loyalties