Factors Effecting Choice Of Method Flashcards
The most common influences of a sociologists choice of methods are:
Practical issues
Ethical issues
Theoretical issues
Choice of topic
Practical issues
Time - some methods take more time than others
Finance - some methods cheaper than others
Personal - may have other commitments as well as research
Subject matter - some societal groups are less open
Theoretical issues
Validity and reliability
Representativeness
Choice of issue
Society values
Funding bodies
Practical issues
Theoretical perspectives
Ethical issues
Consent
Confidentiality
What are the effect on the research participants?
Does the research involve vulnerable groups?
Theoretical perspective
The sociologist’s theoretical perspective is a major influence upon their choice of research topic
Representative
Refers to whether or not people we study are a typical cross section of the group we are interested in.
MAKING SURE THE SAMPLE IS REPRESENTATIVE OF THE WIDER POPULATION
Methodical perspective
Interpretivist vs Positivism
Society’s values
Sociologists themselves are part of the society they study and thus are influenced by its value
Funding bodies
Funding bodies USUALLY EXTERNAL paying for the research, it will determine the topic investigated E.G Government agencies Charitable organisations Businesses
Practical factors
The inaccessibility of certain situations to the researcher,may also restrict topic they are able to study.
Vunerable groups
Special care should be taken where participants are vulnerable E.G Age Disability Physical health Mental health
Consent research
Can take/ create ethical issues as researchers results are hidden from participants.
If participants do not give consent from data collected, research CANNOT be published.
Reliability (replicability)
A reliable method is one which, when repeated by another researcher, gives the same results
Informed consent
Participants offered the right to refuse publish of data
Researcher should tell participant about all relevant aspects of the research so participants can make informed decision of they feel the need to leave.
Confidentiality + PRIVACY
Research should respect privacy of participants
Effects on research participants
Researchers need to be aware of the possible effects on their participants E.G Social exclusion Psychological damage Harm to employment prospects
Time and money
Large scale research - expensive - timely
Small scale research - cheaper - participant observation : cheaper, timely
Requirement of funding bodies
Research constitutes, business and other organisations that provide the funding research may require the results to be in a particular form
Personal skills and characteristics
Each sociologist possess different skills - may affect ability to carry out different methods
E.G Interviews
If find it hard to talk to people other methods may need to be used
Subject matter
May be harder to study a particular group or subject
E.G
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.
Research opportunity
Sometimes the opportunity to carry out can occur unexpectantly as a result methods may be spontaneous
E.G
An interview
Positivism
Laborital experiments
Official statistics/ documents
Social surveys/ questionares
Structured interviews
Interpreting
Direct observation
Participant observation
Unstructured interviews
Personal documents
Validity
A method that produces a true or genuine picture of what something is really like.
Pros of Interpretivism
Good at understanding social processes
Allows for complexity and contextual factors
Cons of interpretivism
Data collection can be time consuming
Data analysis is challenging and can be complex
Pros of positivism
Favoured by the government
Easily comparable data
Cons of positivism
Weak at understanding social processes
Inflexible - direction often cannot be changed once
