Research methods

• Observations


  A research method where a researcher observes the behavior of a group or of individuals in order to witness first-hand their social behaviors
• Observations


  • Give the researcher a far more in-depth look at how people demonstrate behaviors and uncovers other behaviors and motivations that might not be witnessed through other sociological methods
  • Involve the development of an observation schedule - a set list of times that the researcher will observe the behaviors of a group or individuals
  • Can be more flexible or more structured depending on the type of observation
• Types of observations


  • Participant - researcher is up close with those being studied and taking part in their activities
  • Non-participant - researcher observes the behavior whilst detached from the actions of the group
• Observations can be


  • Overt - those being researched are aware of the presence of the researcher and possibly the aims of the research
  • Covert - those being observed are unaware they are being observed and so act more naturally
• Advantages of observations


  • Allow the researcher to witness behaviour first hand including the interactions between individuals which may give them clues to the meanings and motivations behind those behaviors
  • Allow the researcher to observe people in their natural environment which increases the validity, particularly covert observations
  • Useful method to research hard-to-access groups such as subcultures and criminal gangs
• Practical limitations of observations


  • Gaining access to groups, particularly for covert observations
  • Recording information without disturbing the activities being undertaken
  • Maintaining cover and not being discovered
  • Cost of conducting the research
• Ethical issues with observations


  • Covert observations involve a degree of deception
  • Informed consent issues - people may not be aware they are being observed
  • Potential for harm if researchers are undercover with gangs
  • Ethical dilemmas around witnessing illegal or immoral activities
• Theoretical issues with observations


  • Reliability - observations can be difficult to replicate
  • Researcher objectivity - risk of forming attachments and empathizing with the group
  • Validity - overt observations may suffer from the Hawthorne effect
  • Generalizability - small scale nature means findings may not be representative of wider society
• Examples of observations


  • Keddie's non-participant observations into teachers' attitudes to students
  • Winlow's undercover work as a bouncer investigating the nighttime economy and organized crime
  • Venkatash's overt work with drug dealing gangs in Chicago
• Questionnaires


  A versatile research method often used by sociologists to assess people's attitudes, behaviors and motivations
• Questionnaire distribution


  1. Mailed out to respondents

  2. Researcher completes with respondent

  3. Self-completion by respondents
• Types of questions in questionnaires


  • Closed questions (fixed number of responses)
  • Open questions (allow respondent's own unique answer)
• Closed questions


  • Pre-coded to turn responses into quantitative data
  • Useful for finding out attitudes and intended behaviors
• Open questions


  • Produce more contextual qualitative data
  • Explain meanings and motivations behind responses
• Trend for combining closed and open questions to gather quantitative data on opinions and understand motivations
• In exams, students are often asked about written questionnaires or self-completion questionnaires
• Advantages of questionnaires


  • Relatively cheap and quick to produce
  • Less intrusive than interviews and observations
  • Potential for large-scale distribution to increase representativeness
  • Respondents familiar with the method
• Disadvantages of questionnaires


  • Low response rate
  • Need to carefully design questions to avoid leading or ambiguous questions
  • Closed questions limit respondent's voice
  • Open questions time-consuming to analyze
• Validity and reliability issues


  • Closed questions lower in validity due to fixed responses
  • Open questions may lack reliability due to variety of potential responses
  • Uncertainty if respondents giving true opinions or responding how they think researcher wants
• Positivists prefer quantitative data from closed questions, interpretivists prefer qualitative data from open questions
• Questionnaire examples


  • Census
  • Cultural capital study by Alice Sullivan
  • Crime Survey of England and Wales