CHOOSING A RESEARCH METHOD

Question 1

Influencing Choice of Method (PET)-

Answer 1

• Sociologists look at practical issues.
• These include time and money, where, for example, large-scale surveys may employ dozens of interviewers and data-inputting staff which could cost a lot, whilst small-scale projects involving a lone researcher using participant observation may be cheaper, but takes years.
• Access to funding also differs, as research institutes and businesses that provide money for funding may require results to be in a particular form (e.g. government funding for research into educational achievement may have targets for pass rates and so require quantitative data to see if these targets are being met ). They also need to assess their own personal skills. For example, participant observation usually requires the ability to mix easily with others as well as good powers of observation and recall, whilst depth interviews call for an ability to establish a rapport with the interviewee. The subject matter is also important, as, for example, it may be hard for a male sociologist to study an all-female group.
• Lastly, the opportunity to carry out research may be unexpected and so structured research is harder, e.g. James Patrick got offered randomly by a Glasgow gang leader to spend time with them, so he had no choice but to use participant observation. Sociologists also look at ethical issues. These include informed consent as the people involved should be offered the right to refuse based on the research being conducted. Confidentiality and privacy is also important as the identity of participants should be secret in order to prevent possible negative side effects on them.
• Harm to participants is also vital to consider as researchers need to be aware of possible side effects, they should try and prevent harm. Special care should be taken towards vulnerable groups too (e.g. when studying schools researchers should consider issues of child protection).
• There is also ethical problems with covert research as it lacks consent.
• Lastly, sociologists look at theoretical issues. Validity (a method that produces true or genuine results) needs to be considered as its important when ‘uncovering the truth’. Many sociologists argue that qualitative methods like participant observation gives a more truthful account of what things are like as they give insight into first-hand experience. Reliability (method which can be repeated) is also important, and often uses quantitative methods like written questionnaires. Representativeness (having the people we study being a typical cross-section of the group we are interested in) is important when making generalisations, and large-scale quantitative surveys that use sophisticated sampling techniques often work well with representativeness. Methodological perspectives like positivists (quantitative, scientific) and interpretivists (qualitative, ‘feel’) are also important.

Question 2

Influencing Choice of Topic (Research Area)

Answer 2

• It may depend on the sociologists theoretical perspective.
• For example, a New Right researcher may study the effects of welfare benefits on the growth of lone-parent families, as the idea of welfare dependency is central to their standpoint.
• By contrast, afeminist researcher is more likely to choose to study domestic violence, and so varying areas of research
• It may also depend on societies values, as sociologists may be influenced by the values of those around them, and so the rise of feminism in the 1960s may have influenced more feminist research, whereas now people are more focused on the environment. Practical factors like the inaccessibility of certain situations could also restrict topics,
• e.g. business fraud would be hard to investigate.
• Funding bodies also may ask for certain things to be researched which could change the topic.

Question 3

Formulating an Aim/ Hypothesis (Research Process)-

Answer 3

• Most studies have a possible explanation which they test to prove it either true or false.
• For example, if someone hypothesises that family size affects educational achievement, a researcher could formulate a hypothesis that ‘differences in family size causes differences in achievement’.
• If a hypothesis is false, it is discarded, which can be used to formulate a new one. Hypothesis’ give directions to research.
• Positivists favour hypothesis’ as they seek to discover cause-and-effect relationships.
• Using quantitative methods like questionaries help to formulate questions designed to discover whether and why these factors are linked.
• It identifies what is intended to study, and what’s hoped to be achieved.
• The advantage of an aim is it’s open-endedness, as so the gathering of data can be used to find other things which may be interesting. In order to test a hypothesis an ‘operational’ definition is also needed.
• For example, in the case of social class and education, a working definition is needed so you can count the number of working-class pupils.
• They also would use something to measure it (operationalising), e.g. by looking at parent occupation. Operationalising concepts allows questions to be devised, and also differences in operationalising concepts between sociologists, whilst making research hard to compare, also helps show diverse results.

Question 4

Eval (Interpretivists)-

Answer 4

• Often favour a broader aim rather than a hypothesis as they want to understand actors’ meanings.
• They also place less emphasis on operationalising concepts as they want to know the actors’ meanings of things like the ‘working-class’, rather than imposing their own definitions.

Question 5

Samples and Sampling (Research Process)-

Answer 5

• Researchers who look into general areas do not have the time or money to include all needed people in their research.
• This leads to sampling, which is where a smaller sub-group is drawn from the wider group that we are interested in.
• This ensures that the people who are being studied are representative/ typical of the research population, including all those who have not been in the study.
• A representative sample means we should be able to generalise our findings to the whole research population, which is often used by positivists who like making general statements. A sampling frame is used, and then one of four sampling techniques:
• random sampling (sample is selected by chance),
• quasi-random/ systematic sampling (where every nth person in the sampling frame is selected),
• stratified random sampling (society is broken down into proportions and the samples are made in those proportions),
• quota sampling (population is stratified and then each interviewer is given a quota they have to fill within these characteristics).
• Sometimes, snowball sampling (collecting a sample by contacting individuals who contact others)
• opportunity sampling (choosing from individuals who are the easiest to reach) is also used.

Question 6

Eval (Practical and Theoretical Disadvantages)-

Answer 6

• Practically, social characteristics may not be known so it might be impossible to create a representative sample. Creating a sampling frame might also be hard, and also potential respondents may refuse to participate. Theoretically, some researchers may also not take samples due to their methodological perspective,
• e.g. interpretivists who believe that it is more important to obtain valid data and an authentic understanding rather than just generalisations.