Choosing A Resarch Method

Question 1

What is primary data?

Answer 1

• information collected by sociologist themselves for their own purposes. These purposes may be to obtain a first hand ‘picture’ of a group or society, or to test a hypothesis

Question 2

What are the methods for gathering primary date?

Answer 2

• social surveys - also asking people questions in a written questionnaire or an interview
• participant observation - the sociologists joins in with the activities of the group they are studying
• experiments - sociology’s rarely use laboratory experiments, but they sometimes use Field experiments and the comparative method

Question 3

An advantage of using primary data?

Answer 3

• the sociologists may be able to gather precisely the information they need to test their hypotheses. However, doing so can often be costly and time consuming

Question 4

What is secondary data?

Answer 4

• is information that has been collected or created by someone else for their own purposes, but which the sociologist can then use

Question 5

Sources of secondary data

Answer 5

• official statistics - produced by government on a wide range of issues, such as education, crime, divorce and unemployment, as well as other statistics produced by charities, businesses, churches and other organisations
• documents - such as letters, emailed, diaries, photographs, official reports, novels, newspapers, the internet and television boardcast

Question 6

Advantages of using secondary data

Answer 6

• can be a quick and cheap way of doing research, since someone else has already produces the information. However, those which produce it may not be interested in the same questions as sociologist, and so secondary sources may not provide exactly information that sociologists need

Question 7

What is quantitative data?

Answer 7

• refers to information in a numerical form. Examples of quantitative data include official statistics on how many girls passed five or more GCSEs, the percentage of marriages ending in divorce or the number of people who are unemployed.
• similarly, information collected by opionon polls and market research surveys often comes in the form of quantitive data - e.g, on the proportion of the electorate intending to vote for a particular party on how many people take holidays abroad

Question 8

What is qualitative data?

Answer 8

• gives a ‘feel’ for what something is like - e.g, what it feels like to get good gcse results, or for ones marriage to end in divorce
  -evidence gathered by using participant observation aims to give us a sense of what it feels like to be a member of a particular group
• similarly, in depth interviews that probe deeply into a persons views can give us an insight onto what it is like to be in that person ‘shoes’. These methods can provide rich descriptions of peoples feelings and experiences

Question 9

Practical issues

Answer 9

1. Time and money
2. Requirements of funding bodies
3. Subject matter
   4.research opportunity

Question 10

Time and money

Answer 10

• different methods require different amounts of time and money and this may influence the sociologist choice
• e.g, large scale surveys may employ dozens of interviews and data inputting staff and cost a great deal of money. By contrast, a small scale project involving a lone researcher using participant observation may be cheaper to carry out, but can take several years to complete
• the researchers access to resources can be a major factor in determining which methods they employ. A well known professor will probably have access to more research funds that than a young student for example

Question 11

Requirements of funding bodies

Answer 11

• research institutes, businesses and other organisations that provide the funding for research may require the results to be particular form. E.g, a government department funding research into educational achievement may have targets for pass rates and so require quantitative data to see whether these are being achieved. This means the sociologist will have to used a methods capable of providing such data, such as questionnaires or structured interviews

Question 12

Personal skills and characteristics

Answer 12

• each sociologist possess different personal skills and this may affect their ability to used different methods. For example, participant observation usually requires the ability to mix easily with others as well as good powers of observation and recall, while depth interviews call for an ability to establish a rapport (relationship of empathy and trust) with the interviewee. Not all sociologist have these qualities and so may have difficulty using these methods

Question 13

Subject matter

Answer 13

• it may be much harder to study a particular group or subject by one method than by another. E.g, it might prove difficult for a male sociologist to study an all female group by means of partisans observation, while written questionnaires may be useless for studying those who cannot read or write

Question 14

Subject matter

Answer 15

• it may be much harder to study a particular group or subject by one method than by another. E.g, it might prove difficult for a male sociologist to study an all female group by means of participant observation, while written questionnaires may be useless for studying those who cannot read or write

Question 16

Research opportunity

Answer 16

• sometimes the opportunity to carry out research occurs unexpectedly and this means that it may not be possible to use structured methods such as questionnaires, which take longer to prepare. E.g, a Glasgow gang leader offered the sociologist Patrick the change to ‘out the blue’ to spend time with his gang. With little time to prepare he has to use participant observation

Question 17

Ethical issues

Answer 17

• the British sociological association sets out ethnical guidelines for the conduct of research:
• informed consent
• confidentiality and privacy
• harm to research participants
• vulnerable groups
• covert research

Question 18

Informed consent

Answer 18

• research participants should be offered the right to refuse to be involved. The researcher should also tell them about all relevant aspects of the research so that they can make a fully informed decision. Consent should be obtained before research begins and, if the study is lengthy, again at intervals throughout the process

Question 19

Confidentiality and privacy

Answer 19

• researchers should keep the identity of research participants secret in order to help to prevent possible negative effects on them. Researchers should also respect their privacy. Personal information concerning research participants should be kept confidential

Question 20

Harm to research participants

Answer 20

• researchers need to be aware of the possible effects of their work on those they study. These could include police intervention, harm to employment prospects, social exclusion and psychological damage. Wherever possible, researchers should anticipate and prevent such harm

Question 21

Vulnerable groups

Answer 21

• special care should be taken where research participants are particularly vulnerable because of their age, disability, or physical or mental health. E.g, when studying children in schools, researchers should have regard for issues of child protection. They should obtain the consent of both the child and the parent, and they should provide information in language that the child ca understand

Question 22

Covert research

Answer 22

• covert research is when the researchers identity and research purpose are hidden from the people being studied. This can create serious ethical problems, such as deceiving or lying to people in order to win their trust or obtain information. It is impossible to gain consent while at the same time keeping the research purpose a secret
• some sociologist argue that the use of covert methods may be justified in certain circumstances. These may include aging access to secretive, dangerous or powerful groups

Question 23

Theoretical issues

Answer 23

• refers to questions about what we think society is like and whether we can obtain and accurate, truthful picture of it.
• validity
• reliability
• representativeness
• methodological perspective

Question 24

Validity

Answer 24

• a valid method is one that produces a true or genuine picture of what something is really like. It allows the researcher to get closer to the truth
• many sociologist argue that qualitative methods such as participant observation give us a more valid or truthful account of what it is like to be a member of a group than quantitative methods such as questionnaires. This is because participant observation can give us a deeper insight through first hand experience

Question 25

Reliability

Answer 25

• another word for reliability is replica. A replica is an exact copy of something, so a reliable method is one which, when repeated by another researcher gives the same results
• in sociology quantitative methods such as written questionnaires tend to produce more reliable results than qualitative methods such as unstructured interviews

Question 26

Representativeness

Answer 26

• refers to whether or not the people we study are typical cross section of the group we are interested in. imagine for example that we want to know about its effects of divorce on children. It would take a great deal of time and money to study every child of divorces parents, and we might obey be able to afford to study a sample of say 100 children
• however, if we ensure our sample is representative or typical of the wider population, we can use our findings to make generalisations about all children of divorced parents, without actually having to study them all
• large scale quantitative surveys that use sophisticated sampling techniques to select their sample are more likely to produce representative data

Question 27

Methodological perspective

Answer 27

• sociologists children of method is also influence by their methodological perspective - their view of what society is like and how we should study it. There are two contrasting perspectives on the choice of methods: positivism and interpretivism
• functionalist and Marxists often taken a positivist approach they see society’s as a large scale structure that shapes our behaviour. By contrast, interactionist favour an interprevist approach. They take a micro level view of society, focusing on on small scale, face to face interactions

Question 28

Conclusion of practical, ethical and theoretical issues (PET)

Answer 28

• the sociologists theoretical perspective, is usually the most important factor when choosing which method to use. Whenever possible, they will want to obtain the type of data - quantitative or qualitative - that they’re perceptive views as most appropriate
• however, practical and ethical factors usually limit the choice. Just because a sociologist prefers a particular kind of method, doesn’t mean that they can’t simply go ahead and use it. Time, resources, access, consent, privacy and so on are all constraints on their choice
• finally, even sheer chance may determine the method. E.g, Tackett describes how one postgraduate sociology student found himself taken ill with tuberculosis and confined to. Hospital ward, so he used this as an opportunity to conduct participant observation study

Question 29

Factors influencing choice of topic

Answer 29

• before choosing which method to use, sociologist need to decide what topic they wish to study. Several factors influence their choice
• the sociologist perspective
• societies values
• practical factors
• funding bodies

Question 30

The sociologists perspective

Answer 30

• the sociology’s theoretical perspective is a major influence on their choice of research topic. E.g, a new right researcher may study the effects of welfare benefits on the growth of lone parent families, since the idea of welfare dependency is central to their standpoint. By contrast, a feminist researcher is more likely to choose to study domestic violence, as opposition to gender oppression lies at the heart of the feminist perspective

Question 31

Society’s values

Answer 31

• sociologists themselves are part of the society they study and thus are influenced by its values. As these values change, so does the focus of research. The rise of feminism in the 1960s led to a focus on gender inequality and todays environmentalist concerns have generated interest in ‘green crimes’ such as toxic waste dumping

Question 32

Practical factors

Answer 32

• practical factors, such as the inaccessibility of certain situations to the researcher, may also restrict what topic they are able to study. E.g, although sociologists may wish to study the ways in which global corporations make their decisions, thus may not be possible because these are made in secret

Question 33

Funding bodies

Answer 33

• most research requires funding from an external body. These bodies include government agencies, the economic and social research council, charities and businesses. As the finding body is paying for the research, it will determine the topic to be investigated

Question 34

The process of research

Answer 34

Once they have chosen a topic for research there are a number of further steps we need to go through.

Question 35

Formulating an aim or hypothesis

Answer 35

• most studies have a general aim or specific hypothesis. A hypothesis is a possible explanation that can be tested by collecting evidence to prove it true or false
• e.g, we may suspect that family size affects education achievement. If so, we can formulate a specific hypothesis as a cause and effect statement, such as : ‘differences in family size cause differences in achievement’ we can collect evidence to test whether or not this us true. If the hypothesis turns out to be false, we must discard it.

Question 36

Advantage of hypothesis

Answer 36

• that it gives direction to our research. It will give a focus you our questions, since their purposes is to gather information that will either confirm or disprove our hypothesis

Question 37

Why do positivists favour hypothesis?

Answer 37

• because they seek to discover cause and effect relationships. E.g, that large family size causes underachievement. Using quantitative methods such as questionnaires, they formulate questions designed to discover whether and why these factors are linked

Question 38

Operationalising concepts

Answer 38

• this is the process of converting a sociological concept into something we can measure is called ‘operationalisation’
• once we have operationalised our concept, we can start devising questions that measure it. E.g, might ask parents ‘what is your job’? This will allow us to see what social class each pupil belongs to. We can then correlate this with information we collect about their qualifications to find out whether the hypothesis is true or false
• a problem can arise when different sociologists operationalise the same concept different. This cab make it hard to compare the findings of different pieces of research.
• positivists are concerned to operationalise concepts because of the importance they place on creating and testing hypothesis. In contrast, interprevists put less emphasis on operationalising concepts. This is because they are more interested in actors own definitions and understandings of ideas such as ‘class’, ‘achievement’ etc

Question 39

The pilot study

Answer 39

• sociologists who use social surveys often carry out a pilot study before conducting their main survey. This involves trying out a draft version of the questionnaire or interview schedule on a small sample
• The basic aim of the pilot study is to iron out any problems, refine or clarify questions and their wording and give interviewers practise, so that the actual survey goes as smoothly as possible
• e.g, young and willmott carried out just over 100 pilot interviews which helped them decide on the design of their study, what questions to ask and how to word them.
• a pilot study may reveal that some questions are badly worded and hard to understand, or that the answers are difficult to analyse. After carrying out the pilot study, it should be possible to finalise the questionnaire or interview schedule

Question 40

Samples and sampling

Answer 40

• sociologists often aim to produce generalisations that apply to all cases of the topic they are interested in. E.g, if we were interested in educational achievement, we would ideally want our theory to explain the achievement levels of all pupils, not just the ones in the study
• however, we do not have the time or money to include every pupil in the uk in out study, so we have to choose a sample of pupils to include. The process of creating or selecting a sample is called sampling

Question 41

What’s the purpose of sampling?

Answer 41

• the basic purpose of sampling is usually to ensure that those people we have chosen to include in the study are representative or typical of the research population, including all the people we have not been able to include in the study.
• as long as our sample is representative, we should be able to generalise our findings to the whole research population. This is particularly attractive to positivist sociologists, who wish to make general, law like statements about the wider social structure

Question 42

The sampling frame

Answer 42

• to choose a sample, we first need a sampling frame. This is a list of all the members of the population we are interested in studying. E.g, young and willmott used the electoral register as their sampling frame. It is important that the list we use as sampling frame is as complete and accurate as possible. To should also be up to date and without duplicates - otherwise the sample chosen from it may not be truly representative of the population
• once we have obtained our sampling frame, we can choose our sample from it. In selecting the sample, we need to ensure it is representative of the wider population we are interested in

Question 43

Sampling techniques

Answer 43

• random sampling
• systematic sampling
• stratified random sampling
• quota sampling

Question 44

What is random sampling?

Answer 44

• the simplest technique, where the sample is selected purely by chance. E.g, names drawn from a hat.
• everyone has an equal chance of being selected.
• a large enough random sample should reflect the characteristics of the whole research population. However, not all random samples are large enough to ensure this happens

Question 45

What is systematic sampling?

Answer 45

• where every nth person in the sampling frame is selected. Young and willmott used every 36th person on the electoral register for their sample

Question 46

What is stratified random sampling?

Answer 46

• the researcher first stratifies the population in the sampling frame by age, class, gender etc. the sample is then created in the same proportions, e.g, if 20% of the population awe under 18, then 20% of the sample have to be under 18

Question 47

What is quota sampling?

Answer 47

• the population is stratified as above, and the each interviewer is give a quota of say, twenty females and twenty males, which they have to fill with respondents who fit these characteristics. The interviewer keeps at this task until their quota is filled

Question 48

Non representative sampling

Answer 48

• the purpose of sampling is usually to ensure that people we include in our study are representative of the research population. However, for both practical and theoretical reasons, not all studies use representative sampling techniques.

Question 49

Practical reasons why it may not be possible to create a representative sample

Answer 49

• the social characteristics of the research population, such as age, gender and class, may not be known. It would thus be impossible to create a sample that was an exact cross section of the research population
• to may be impossible to find or create a sampling frame for that particular research population. E.g, not all criminals are convicted, so there is no complete list available from which to select a samole
• potential respondents mat refuse to participate for example, some criminals may refuse for fear that their responses may be passed to the police
• where it is nit possible to obtain a representative sample, sociologists sometimes use snowball or opportunity samples

Question 50

What is snowball sampling?

Answer 50

• involves collecting a sample by contacting a number of key individuals, who are asked to suggest others who might be interviewed, and so on, adding to the sample ‘snowball’ fashion, until enough data has been collected. Although not representative, this can be a useful way to contact a sample of people who might otherwise be difficult to find out persuade to take part, such as criminals

Question 51

What is opportunity sampling?

Answer 51

• sometimes called convenience sampling, involves choosing from those individuals who are easiest to access. E.g, include selecting from passers by in the street or from a captive audience such as a class of pupils. In neither case is the sample likely yo be representative of the target research population

Question 52

Theoretical reasons - representative sample

Answer 52

• even where it is possible to create a representative sample, some researchers may nor choose to do so, because of their methodological perspective. Interprevists believe that it is more important to obtain valid data and an authentic understand of social actors meanings than to discover general laws of behaviour. Because interprevists are less concerned to make generalisations., they have less need for representative samples