Practical, Ethical, Theoretical considerations

• Practical : Cost


  Most sociological research is funded through grants, but there are low cost options, such as questionnaires, or choosing a less extensive topic. It is becoming harder to get grants as government funding has decreased since 2010. Researchers may have to choose a topic that is socially useful or attracts publication deals.

  • Mike Savage's Great British Class Survey was funded by a publishing company and ther e was public interest in the research
• Practical : Time 


  Some research, like demonstrating change over time, cannot be done quickly, and the longer it takes the higher likelihood of participants dropping out.

  • Sue Sharpe's study was over a 19 year span so very time consuming
• Practical : Access 


  Sociologists must consider whether they can access the group they want to study (e.g. gang or school). They may choose a topic or method based on access, try and gain access, or use secondary data instead. Also involve finding a gatekeeper to give you access.

  • Ball's Beachside comprehensive had access because he was already a teacher at the school
• Ethical : Consent


  Non-negotiable and must be informed, so the researcher tells the sample what is going to happen and their right to withdraw.

  • Humphrey's Tea Room Trade observed men meeting for sex in toilets, recorded their number plates and found their address. Showed up at their houses and found many had wives and kids
• Ethical : Harm


  Participants must be protected from physical, emotional and mental harm both during and after the research, offered counselling and debriefed. Harmful research can be justified if the findings could help people later on, but it isn't supported by the BSA.

  • Bandura's Bobo Doll study, the children had responsible adults, were not given dangerous weapons and were debriefed.
• Ethical : Anonymity


  Participants names and identifying features are removed from research. They are informed that what they say may be used and can choose to not answer, look over their answers or ask for certain parts to be excluded.

  • Winlow's Bad Fellas looking at male violence at night, participants could read through transcripts and change their identifying features prior to publication
• Theoretical : Positivist


  Sociologists can prove facts by creating hypotheses that are falsifiable and scientifically tested, observing patterns through statistics, correlations and other quantitative data.

  Associated with Karl Popper and Emile Durkheim, preferring methods with little room for interpretation.

  • Durkheim's work on suicide used positivist methods to identify that protestants had higher rates than catholics, and higher among urban people. Occurred because of too little or too much integration or regulation
• Theoretical : Interpretivists


  Related to social action theorists and believe that society shouldn't and couldn't be studied scientifically, as research reflects an individual's view. They prefer methods with qualitative data and small samples, minimising the values of researchers to maximise participant findings.

  • Winlow's Bad Fellas where participants weren't asked questions and weren't influenced by Winlow.