Practical issues

• Time and money

  • Different methods require different amounts of time and money and this may influence the sociologists choice.
  • The researcher’s access to resources can be a major factor in determining which methods they employ.
• Requirements of funding bodies

  • Research institutes, businesses, and other organisations that provide the funding for research may require the results to be in a particular form.
  • Sociologists have to use a method capable of producing such data, e.g. questionnaires or structured interviews.
• Personal skills and characteristics

  • Each sociologist possesses different personal skills and this may effect their ability to use different methods.
  • Not all sociologists have these qualities as some may have difficulty using these methods.
• Subject matter

  • It may be much harder to study a particular group or subject by one method than another.
• Research opportunity

  • Sometimes the opportunity to carry out research occurs unexpectedly. This means it may not be possible to use structured methods, e.g. questionnaires, which take longer to prepare.
  • Other circumstances, the researcher might have been able to set up the research opportunity carefully beforehand and have plenty of time to select their methods.
  • James Patrick (1973) - chance to spend time with his gang - had to use participant observation.