Theories & Methods Flashcards
Definition of a sociological theory
Way of thinking about society.
Centre on how much freedom or control an individual has on their lives and how much power they have to influence society.
What is a structural theory?
- Form of macro sociology - based on assumptions that society is more important than an individual.
- Deterministic (no choice) - argue that social forces and institutions dictate our behaviour. Lives are controlled by society.
- Use quantitative data - numerical data to discover ‘bigger picture’ - meta narratives.
What are social action theories?
- Form of micro sociology - based on assumption that people have free will, agency & choose how they behave.
- Argue society is constructed & shaped by behaviours of individuals & are NOT predictable and are diverse.
- Use qualitative data - written data to give insight (verstehen) & understand human behaviour.
e.g. post modernism & interactionism
Definition of social norms
Perceived, unwritten rules that are deemed acceptable and appropriate within a society.
Definition of a value consensus
Societies develop a set of believes and principles to co-operate and meet societies functional prerequisites.
e.g. Functionalists
Definition of Social solidarity
The feeling of being part of a larger social group. Durkheim stated that society should provide individuals with this sense of social solidarity through all the institutions.
What is Parsons organic analogy?
- Society is like a human body - all social institutions need to function together like a human body requires organs to survive.
- If one institution is dysfunctional, this will have a knock on effect.
What do Marx believe?
The economy is a driving force in society and it is this that determines the nature of social institutions and people’s values and beliefs. They believe society serves and maintains interests of the bourgeoise.
Definition of bourgeoisie and the proletariat
- The bourgeoisie are the people who control the means of production in a capitalist society
- The proletariat are the members of the working class.
Describe the Marxist belief of structure of society.
- Superstructure - social institutions such as school, family & the ideologies of the dominant views of ruling class.
- Economic base - determined everything in society and consists the means of production such as land, factories & relations of production such as shared or private ownership, owners and non-owners.
Definition of Capitalism
Economic and political system where a country’s trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit, bourgeoisie. Market competition.
Definition of Surplus value (profit)
Accumulated exploitation of workers by the new value created by workers in excess of the cost of their own labour.
Definition of False consciousness
People’s inability to recognize inequality, oppression, and exploitation in a capitalist society because of the prevalence within it of views that naturalise and legitimise the existence of social classes.
What was Marx’ prediction?
Class conflict would lead to a revolution whereby the means of a production is given to the state creating a communist society.
Definition of Communism.
Classless society in which all property and wealth are communally owned, instead of being owned by individuals.
Definition of Labelling
The behaviour of human beings is influenced significantly by the way other members in society label (perceive or describe) them.
Definition of self-fulfilling prophecy
Acts as the label they are given.
What do Post-modernists argue?
-That society changes rapidly and cannot be understood through metanarratives.
-They believe that society is no longer bound by societal structures and there’s an increase in diversity.
-They believe there is no single truth.
-Media saturated consumer culture where individuals can ‘pick & mix’ their identities.
Definition of Metanarratives
Big stories / theories that study society as a whole.
What is media- saturated culture?
Baudrillard (2001) says that the mass media is so far into our lives that it begins to shape the way we live. Our society therefore is so saturated with media imagery.
E.g. media image of war zones eliminate the corpses and death before being sent home, only to show war torn streets.
4 main features of the New Right
-Emphasis on limited state involvement in business problems.
-Want the state to reduce spending money.
E.g. Welfare benefits.
-Want a free market, where there’s competition. PRO- capitalists.
-Importance of traditional values.
E.g. Religion, marriage, work ethic etc.
Charles Murray: Underclass
Developed the idea of an underclass. He suggested that the welfare state created welfare dependency and that there were perverse incentives in the welfare system that could encourage lone parenthood and discourage work.
Positivists
Positivist sociologists believe that it is possible to establish objective facts through scientific research methods and the thorough collection and analysis of empirical evidence.
Positivists prefer quantitative methods such as social surveys, structured questionnaires and official statistics because these have good reliability and representativeness.
Interprevism
-Social action theory.
-Qualitative methods such as unstructured interviews or participant observation.
-Interpretivists, argue that individuals are not just puppets who react to external social forces.
Reliability definition
Reliable if someone can do the same research with the same method & find the same findings.
CONSISTENCY.
Positivists prefer this as they like objective ‘social facts’.
Validity definition
-For data to be regarded valid, it must be a true picture of what is being studied. Also it it really evidence of what it claims to be evidence of.
-ACCURACY & TRUTHFULNESS.
-Interprevists favour validity as greater understanding & depth is discovered.
Verstehen: Weber (interprevists)
Inspired interactionist theories & believed we need to gain a deeper understanding and look at the meanings associated with the actions & behaviours we study.
Reliability: Durkheim (positivist)
-Reliable study of suited where he studied suited rates using official statistics.
-Reliable since another sociologist could repeat the experiment and cross check his findings.
-He believes that he could take a highly personalised experience of suicide & scientifically study it to uncover social facts of reasons for.
-Led to theory of 4 types of suicide.
Qualitative methods recognise..
that each individual is completely different & have different thoughts and emotions & experiences.
Therefore they can’t be studied merely through a number statistic & instead should be thoroughly investigated for truthful meaning.
Quantitative methods recognise…
that overall from a wider perspective, statistics are what should be used to be reliable as they have been seen numerous times. These statistics can be cross checked with other research & receive the same outcome.
-They use standardised procedures - step by step replication.
Representative research
When the group being studied (sample) should share characteristics of the target population (people you want to study) thus the findings of the research can be applied to the wider group.
Generalisability
Info collected from smaller groups can be applied to wider groups.
Sampling frame
List of all members of a population you are studying.
Stratified random sampling
-Definition - choosing people at random from predefined categories designed to reflect the characteristics of the target population.
E.g. if target population has 10% black people, sample should have 10% black people to increase representativeness
-Evaluation - :) representative :( time consuming & difficult.
Opportunity sampling
-Definition - choosing easy to access people. Convenience sampling & picking yourself.
-Evaluation - :) quick & easy :( not representative & sample could be biased.
Systematic random sampling
-Drawing every Nth person from sampling frame. E.g. every 3rd or 5th. Size of frame or desired size of sample could affect size of gap between names chosen.
-Evaluation - :) reduces bias :( difficult to achieved because of practical issues of sorting ppts - time consuming.
Quota sampling
-Definition - giving each interviewer from predefined groups of people based on social class, gender etc. A flaw is that people’s characteristics can sometimes cut across several categories compromising the data.
-Evaluation - :) simple & easy & desired characteristics :( bias (time of day, appearance) & unrepresentative.
Random sampling
-Definition - most basic type of sample. Equal chance of being chosen (could be through hat)
-Evaluation - :) avoids bias/subjective judgements & equal chance of selection :( not representative- people with certain variables can be left out.
Snowball sampling
-Definition- relies on ppts recommending others to take part in the research. Traditionally used to gain access to deviant or secret groups who did illegal activities. Researcher has no control over who’s nominated.
-Evaluation - :) can access people who are difficult to access (minority group)
:( unrepresentative, not generalisable & relies on personal recs.
Volunteer sampling
-Definition - allows ppts to approach researcher e.g. through posters.
-Evaluation - :) easy :( time consuming & unrepresentative & not generalisable.
Ethical issues (British sociologists associations) & ethics committee.
-Security - all data must be in accordance with GDPR guidelines.
-Confidentiality - anonymity.
-Deception - should be honest with participants.
-Informed consent - participants should be aware of aims of study & that they are part of research.
-Protection from harm - participants should not be in any form of harm.
Unconventional issues
-Values of sociologists - personal interests & theoretical perspective.
-Aim of research - used to further knowledge or inform social policy.
-Research preferences - what methods they prefer.
-Quantitative or qualitative.
-Validity
-Reliability
-Representativeness
Quantitative methods: questionaries
Social surveys involve gaining info in a standardised manner.
Used to:
-find out facts about population.
-uncover differences in beliefs, values & behaviour.
-to test a hypothesis.
2 types of questionaries:
-self completed.
-structured interview.
Closed & Open questionaries
Closed - designed to get quantitative results. Quick & easy to analyse (pre set responses).
Open - asks respondent to answer in their own words & designed for qualitative info.
Longitudinal survey
Surveys which use a sample over time to survey. These show clear social changes.
What affects research?
-Sociologist values: current social issues ie. In 1960s society was more concerned with gender inequality so further research into this.
-Funding bodies: funded by an external body ie. govt, charities, businesses. As they pay, they’ll affect what & how we research.
Why do we have non representative sampling?
- Theoretical reasons: interprevists aren’t necessarily concerned with representing all individuals, rather with understanding individual norms.
- Practical reasons: time, money & access can be an issue.
Access
-Wallis 1976: church leaders refused to cooperate so he had to find ex members. In this way he created a non-representative sample of church members to study.
-Charlton et al 2001: study of young children’s mobile phones use & abuse used an opportunity sample of school children to the absence of any available sampling.
Advantages & Disadvantages of closed questionaries
ADV:
-quick.
-quantitative (easy to analyse).
-allow to compare with other sets of data.
-easily replicable.
DIS:
-cant explain question to ppt (could be confusing).
-cant follow up with extra questions.
-ppt may not agree with any of the answers.
Advantages & Disadvantages of open questionaries.
ADV:
-ppt isn’t limited with set of answers so they can be expressive.
-richer data - interviewer can follow up with more questions.
-answers are longer & more depth.
DIS:
-qualitative (hard to quantify & analyse).
-hard to complete.
-open to interpretation so might be interpreted different to intent.
Postal / Self questionaries
When ppt picks up or is sent a questionnaire which they fill out themselves and return by post or via the internet.
Longitudinal - ADV & DIS
ADV:
-patterns & trends.
-can quantify & analyse.
DIS:
-high dropout rate.
-expensive.
Michael Rutter
Used questionaries to gain large quantities of data from 12 schools. Large & more representative data. Still not representative of all schools in London. He was given funding.
However, questionaries usually suffer with a low response rate which makes data unrepresentative.
E.g. Hites 1991 study of “love passion & emotional violence” sent out 100,000 but only 4.5% were returned.
Advantages of questionaries
Practical:
-inexpensive.
-postal ones allow geographically dispersed samples.
-easy to quantify.
-can test hypothesis.
Theoretical:
-possible to survey large sample - representative.
-geographically dispersed sample.
-no interview bias.
-reliable & replicable.
-generally objective - validity.
Ethical:
-can be confidential & anonymous.
Disadvantages of questionaries
Practical:
-respondents may not understand question.
-may not access enough qualitative info.
-inflexible - new areas are inexplorable.
Theoretical:
-low response rate - unrepresentative.
-incomplete answers - validity.
-data limited as depth is limited.
-snapshots - idea of social reality cor short amount of time.
-not true reflection of ppts views.
-detachment.
Experiments
-Research in which all variable (that can change) are clearly controlled, so that the effect of changing 1 or more variables can be understood.
-To establish cause & effect.
-Lab experiments used less in socio.
-Occasionally field experiments are used in socio.
Hawthorne effect (demand characteristics)
Happens when people are aware that they are in an experiment so consequently, they alter their behaviour.
Milgram: obedience
-Found that 65% of ppts went to 450V on the shock machine which would’ve killed the person.
-Authority figures & fear of punishment causes obedience.
Bandura: Bobodoll
-1 group of children exposed to a violent role model beating hobo doll.
-Control group not shown this.
-When children introduced to doll they attacked it if they were exposed to violent role model.
Shows violence is a learnt response.
Experimenter group & Control group
Experimenter - you’d vary quantities & measure changes.
Control - you’d keep nutrients constant & measure changes.
Why is it called the Hawthorne effect?
Elton did research into factors affecting work ethic & productivity by altering lighting, heating to worsen / better behaviour but despite what he changed the workers would work hard to impress experimenter.
Advantages of experiments
-reliable & can be replicated.
-positivists see it as an objective way of researching.
-can be used to test out a hypothesis.
-establishes cause & effect.
Disadvantages of experiments
-all variables cannot be controlled as human behaviour is subject to many variables.
-cannot recreate normal life in a lab setting.
-ethical issues.
-experimenter effect.
-impractical to study many social issues in form of an experiment.
-only study small samples - unrepresentative.
Field experiments
-When your research takes place in a natural surrounding.
-Usually not aware they’re in an experiment.
-Researcher manipulates 1 or more variables to see effects on unknowing subjects.
Rosenhan: Sane in insane places
-Confederate acted insane (claimed to hear voices & acted schizophrenic) to be admitted into a mental hospital, then acted normal to see how long it would take for professionals to realise they are actually sane.
-Stays ranged from 7 to 52 days.
Rosenthal & Jacobson (1968)
Teacher expectations & effects of labelling:
-investigating impact of teachers expectations & effect on pupils achievement (self-fulfilling prophecy).
-students labelled “bloomers” gained higher IQ 8 months later.
-unreliable as other factors may have had part in it.
Filed experiments: strengths & weaknesses
Theoretical:
:) no Hawthorne effect.
:) validity increases.
:( unreliable
Practical:
:( time consuming.
:( no control (too many variables).
Ethical:
:) anonymous.
:( deception.
:( social sensitivity.
:( lack of consent.
:( psychological harm.
Why do positivists favour lab experiments?
Achieves their goal of reliability:
-careful control.
-replicable.
-establish cause & effect.
-often impossible to control variables.
-small scale - unrepresentative or un generalisable.
Why do interprevists reject lab experiments?
Fails to achieve goal of validity:
-artificial situation & not naturalistic.
-argue humans are fundamentally different.
-behaviour cant be explained through basic ‘cause & effect’.
Comparative experiment
-‘thought’ experiment.
-identify 2 groups alike in major respects except the variable interested in.
-compare 2 groups to see if 1 difference has effect.
:) avoids artificiality
:) can be used to study past events
:) no ethical problems
:( less control over variables.
Durkheim’s suicide study
Compared rates of suicide between catholics & protestants. His hypothesis was Protestants were less interested into society & more likely to commit.
Structured interviews
-List of questions focussed on rigidly.
-Interview given strict instructions on how to ask questions.
-Carried out in a standardised manner asking each respondent the same questions. With the same tone, order etc.
Young & Wilmott - Structured interviews
Helpful as there was 933 ppts & it would have been impossible for them to carry out all interviews by themselves so they employed interviews & used the same standardised and formal procedures
Limitation could be that limited data collected & not a huge range of alternative answers.
Advantages & Disadvantages of Structured interviews
-easily replicable.
-comparative.
-time efficient.
-generalisable.
-easily quantified.
-too detached.
-bias.
-lack of depth - quantitative.
-inflexibility
Feminist criticisms of Structured interviews
Graham 1983 argued surgery methods are patriarchal as they give a distorted picture of women’s experiences.
-researcher is in control & woman is controlled (mirrors women’s subordination in society).
-treat women like isolated individuals rather than in the context of oppressed power relationships.
-imposes categories on women making it difficult to express experiences.
Unstructured interviews
Interview has a topic but no set questions.
Very conversational.
Advantages of Unstructured interviews: Rapport & sensitivity
Allows interviewer to develop trust with interviewee putting them at ease & encouraging opening up.
-Labov (1973) studied language of black Americans & found they appeared to be tongue tied.
-but when he adopted a relaxed informal style & sat on the floor allowing child to bring friend, child had a completely different response, spoke freely & showed they were competent.
Dobash & Dobash used in study of DV.
Advantages of Unstructured interviews: the Interviewee’s view
No set questions so interviewee can speak about what they think is important.
Fresher insight & valid data.
Dean & Gooby used unstructured tape recorded interviews lasting up to 90 mins with 85 claimants.
Questions went in order, wording falter, appropriate questions or prompts etc.
Allows for freedom.
Advantages of Unstructured interviews
-highly flexible
-can explore unfamiliar topics as they use open ended communication.
Disadvantages of Unstructured interviews: Practical
-time & sample size (take a long time limiting amount that can be carried out).
-training needs to be more thorough so they can use appropriate line of questioning. (higher cost)
-interpersonal skills (interviews need good skills to establish rapport & ensure honesty).
Disadvantages of Unstructured interviews: Theoretical
-not representative & harder to make generalisable.
-not reliable as it’s not a standardised procedure & can’t be replicated.
-not quantifiable due to no pre coded answers. (Harder to establish C&E).
-usually more valid but can hinder through researcher bias.
Why do Positivists prefer structured interviews?
-acheives their goal of reliability, generalisability & representativeness:
-through standardised questions producing reliable data.
-pre coded responses allow quantitative data & cause and effect.
-large scale & representative.
Why do Interpretivists prefer Unstructured interviews?
Favour unstructured interviews because they achieve man goal of validity:
-absence of pre set structure.
-open ended allow qualitative data and insight.
-verstehen.
Interview as a Social interaction: Interviewer bias
-interview may ask leading questions.
-less of a danger in structured interviews since the scheduler restricts to fixed wording.
-may influence answer by expression, body language, tone etc.
Oakley admits that as a mother herself, she found it hard to remain detached & neutral when interviewing other women about maternity & childbirth.
Interview as a Social interaction Artificiality
-even in unstructured interviews, it’s still not a normal conversation.
-both know it’s an initiative & asks the questions.
-these conditions make it doubtful if truthful answers can be obtained.
Interview as a Social interaction: Status & power inequalities
-inequalities bietween parties may affect honesty or willingness to answer.
-the bigger the status difference, the less valid the answer.
Rich(1968) shows when adults interview children, children wanting to please interview affects answers.
Similarly, gender differences make interviewing difficult .
Griffin 1962 abandoned interviewing in favour of participant observation.
Interview as a Social interaction: Cultural differences
-undermines validity (may be diff meanings given to same words).
-culture gap means interviews don’t know when they’re being lied to.
Mead’s 1943 research on adolescents in Samoa in western pacific was criticised that she couldn’t speak the manager & was unable to spot she was misled deliberately by the interviewee.
Interview as a Social interaction: Social desirability effect
-people want to win approval.
-best behaviour & make selves favourable.
-don’t want to appear uninteresting or ignorant & may give random answers.
Interview as a Social interaction: Ethical issues
-interviewee may feel pressure to answer.
-researchers must gain informed consent, guarantee anonymity & all that.
Improving the validity of interviews
-Kinsey (1953) asked questions on sexual behaviour rapidly & checked answers with follow up interviews 18 months later
-Becker (1971) developed approach with 60 schoolteachers. Used aggression, disbelief and playing dumb to gain sensitive info on how they classified children based on background.
-Nazroo (1997) survey of health of Britain’s ethnic minorities allowrd interviewee to pick language interviews in.
Semi structured interviews
Mix of both.
Some set questions & prompts.
Group interviews
Multiple people being interviewed at once.
Participant observation
-non participant
-participant
-overt
-covert
-structured
-unstructured
Non participant observation
Researcher observed without taking part.
E.g. 2 way mirror to observe children playing.
Participant observation
Researcher takes part in an event or the very day life of the group while observing it.
Overt observation
Researcher makes true identity & purpose known to those being studied & is open about what they’re doing.
Covert observation
Study carried out under cover & real purpose is concealed.
Researcher takes on a false identity & role usually posing as a genuine member of the group.
Unstructured observation
All behaviour is observed.
Observer writes down all usually in a field note journal.
Structured observation
Follows a set structure & certain behaviours are noted & tallied.
2 main issues sociologists cace when conducting participant observation
-getting in, staying in & getting out the group.
-whether to use covert or overt observation.
Getting in
First, we must gain entry to the group. Some are easier to access (football club) & some are harder (criminal gang).
1. Making contact (depends on skills, connections, chance).
E.g. Patrick joined a Glasgow gang because he looked young & knew a member from having taught him in approved school.
2. Acceptance (must win trust & sometimes personal factors may be an obstacle).
E.g. Harvard Griffin used medication & sun lamp treatments go change his skin colour & pass as black & travelled to Deep South of USA to experience first hand racism.
3. Observers role (getting in poses question of what role observer would adopt.
Ideally one not disrupting patterns of group & offering vantage point from which to make observations.
E.g. Whyte refused all leadership roles except secretary of community club allowing him to take ample notes under guise of taking the minutes of meetings.
Staying in
Once accepted, researcher needs to stay in group to complete the study. A problem is they need to be involved to understand but detached.
A range of staying long is becoming overly involved which would make the research subjective & bias.
E.g. Punch fond that in striving t be accepted in tightly knit patrol group he studied, he over identified with them & acted like a police man (chasing suspects, searching houses, cars & those who abused police “colleagues”).
& the observer might get used to the behaviour.
Theoretical/ethical
Getting out
-worst comes to worst, researcher can call a halt & leave.
E.g. When Patrick studied Glasgow gang, he was sickened by the violence & abandoned the group.
-others can leave more gracefully esp if their observations were overt.
E.g. Whyte found that returning to Harvard after research, he was tongue tied & unable to communicate with fellow students.
Researcher might find loyalty prevents them from disclosing eveything they learn in case it harms members of the group.
E.g. criminal groups.
Reduces validity due to concealment of data.
Paul Willis
William Whyte
Sudhir Ventakesh
James Patrick
Advantages of Overt observation
-avoids ethical problem of gaining info through deceit.
-allows sociologist to ask important questions.
-observer can openly take notes.
-allows researcher to use interview methods to check insights from observations.
Disadvantages of Overt observation
-a group may refuse the researcher permission. Police officers in Punch study “we only let you see what we wanted you to see.”
-risks creating the Hawthorne effect & observed change their behaviour.
Reduces validity.
Advantages of Covert observation
-reduces risk of altering people’s behaviour & helps validity.
E.g. Humphrey’s (1970) study of gay men’s sexual encounters in public. Toilets notes “there’s only one way to watch highly discreditable behaviour & thats to pretend to be in the same boat as those engaging with it.”
If they knew they were being observed, they’d conceal behaviour.
Disadvantages of Covert observation
-requires researcher to keep up an act & risk of cover being blown.
E.g. Patrick was almost found out when he bought his suit with cash instead of card & fastened middle button of jacket rather than top (gang would never do that).
-sociologist must rely on memory to take notes. Festinger et al studying a religious sect predicting the imminent end of the world & Ditton studying theft among bread delivery men had to use toilets to record observations.
-researcher cant ask naive questions or combine research methods.
-addition of new member can still alter groups behaviour.
Ethical issues
-immoral to deceive people & should use informed consent which cannot be done with covert studies.
-have to lie about reasons of leaving group at the end of the research.
-may have to participate in immoral or illegal activities to keep up their cover.
-may have a moral or legal duty to intervene or report to police when witnessing activities.
Advantages of Participant observation: Validity
Can obtain rich, qualitative data providing an accurate picture of how they really live.
Advantages of Participant observation: Insight
Gain deeper verstehen & understanding through putting self in their place.
Allows researcher to gain empathy through personal experience.
Increases validity & authenticity.
Advantages of Participant observation: Flexibility
-Researcher already decided the questions they believe are important but a problem is that the questions that a researcher thinks are important might not be the same as the subject.
-Rather than starting with a fixed hypothesis, in ppt observation, sociologist enters situation with an open mind & new encounters create new explanations.
-Allows researcher to discover what other methods may miss.
E.g. Whyte noted “I learned answers to questions that I would not have had the sense to ask had I used interviews.”
E.g. Polsky “initially, keep your eyes and ears open, but keep your mouth shut.”
Advantages of Participant observation: Practical advantages
-might be the only viable way of studying (esp for deviant groups).
-Yablonsky points out that a tennesge gang is likely to see researchers who come armed with questionnaires as the unwelcome representatives of authority.
-allows rapport to be built.
-used in situations where questions are ineffective.
E.g. Cicourel’s study of how police & probation officers categorise juveniles by making unconscious assumptions about whether they are ‘criminal types’.
Due to unawareness of assumptions, questions are ineffective.
Disadvantages of Participant observation: Practical disadvantages
-time consuming (Wyte took 4 years).
-researcher must be trained so they account significant things.
-can be stressful & demanding.
-requires observational & interpersonal skills.
-personal characteristics like age, gender restricts the kinds of groups that can be studied.
-many groups do not wish to be studied & access is difficult.
Disadvantages of Participant observation: Ethical problems
Deception & participation in illegal or immoral activities.
Disadvantages of Participant observation: Representativeness
-group size is small & sample is often selected haphazardly (ie. a chance encounter with a key informant).
-not a sound basis to make generalisations.
E.g. Downes & Rock note that although ppt observation may provide valid insights, doubtful how far these ‘internally valid’ insights are ‘externally valid’.
Disadvantages of Participant observation: Reliability
-depends on personal skills & characteristics that other investigators wouldn’t be able to replicate.
-usually qualitative data is produced so comparisons are difficult & reliablility is hard to make.
-unsystematic method.
Disadvantages of Participant observation: Bias & lack of objectivity
-risk of becoming too involved & ‘going native’ means it’s difficult for sociologist to not be biased.
-loyalty to group leads to concealing sensitive data.
-attracts sociologists who sympathise with the underdog.
E.g. Willis was accused of presenting a romanticised account of ‘the lads’.
Disadvantages of Participant observation: Validity
Positivist reject claim that findings are valid.
-they say it’s subjective & based on observers perception.
-they say researcher selects facts they think are worth recording & that fit in with their existing viewpoints & prejudices.
-Hawthorne effect.
Disadvantages of Participant observation: Lack of a concept of structure
Interactionists like ppt observation as they see society as constructed through the small scale & meaning.
However, structural sociologists & functionalists see this as inadequate & argue it focusses on micro levels rather than wider structural forces that shape our behaviour such as class inequality or socialisation.
They think this will never give us a complete picture & only a partial view.
Primary data
Data collected by sociologist themselves through experiments, observations etc
Secondary data
Data used second hand: stats, research etc
2 main sources of secondary data
-official statistics
-documents
Official statistics
-quantitative data gathered by govt & official bodies.
E.g. births, deaths, marriage, exams, unemployment etc.
What is a census?
Happens every 10 years & is a questionnaire sent to the whole UK population with fines if not completed.
Goes on website of Office for National Stats.
Why do the govt collect OS?
To use in policy making.
E.g. stats on births help govt plan number of school places for the future.
Similarly, Ofsted & DfE uses stats on exam results to monitor effectiveness of schools & colleges.
2 ways of collecting stats
-registration (law says parents must register births).
-official surveys (census & general household surveys).
Quantitative secondary sources
-offical stats
-non official stats
-existing sociological research
Qualitative secondary data
-existing sociological research
-public documents
-personal documents
-historical documenta
Advantages of Official statistics: Practical advantages
-free source of huge amounts of data.
-time efficient.
-allows comparisons between groups (educational stats, crime etc).
-shows trends & patterns over time & helps develop cause & effect relationships.
E.g. measuring divorce rates before & after divorce law to measure effect of new legislation.
Disadvantages of Official statistics: Practical disadvantages
-govt collects for their own purpose so might not be on what the sociologists are interested in. (Durkheim found no stats on religion of suicidal people).
-definitions the state uses in collecting data might be different from the sociologists. (Diff perceptions).
-if definitions change overtime, comparison may be difficult.
E.g. official definition of unemployment changed over 30 times during 1980s & 1990s.
Official statistics: Representativeness
-whole OS usually cover large numbers, some stats are less representative than others.
-statistics produced from official surveys, such as the British Crime Survey or the General Household Survey, may be less representative because they are only based on a sample of the relevant population. Nonetheless, such official surveys are usually much bigger than most sociologists could carry out themselves.
For example, the Crime Survey for England and Wales in 2014 had a sample size of 50,000 people.
Official statistics: Reliability
-generally reliable
-standardised way by trained staff, following set procedures.
E.g, government statisticians compile death rates for different social classes following a standard procedure that uses the occupation recorded on each person’s death certificate to identify their class.
However, official statistics are not always wholly reliable.
E.g, census coders may make errors or omit information when recording data from census forms, or members of the public may fill in the form incorrectly.
Official statistics: Validity ‘the dark figure’
-Some ‘hard’ official statistics do succeed in doing this.
E.g. stats on births, deaths, marriages and divorces generally give an accurate picture (although a small number of births and deaths do go unrecorded).
-However, ‘soft’ statistics give a much less valid picture.
E.g. police statistics do not record all crimes. Similarly, educational statistics do not record all racist incidents occurring in schools.
Official statistics: Validity ‘the dark figure’ How to help?
Use of self reports give a more a irate picture.
E.g. Crime survey of England & Wales asks people crimes they fell victim of.
By comparing results with statistics we can see the underestimation.
E.g. 2011 British crime survey found that only 38% of crimes revealed by survey were made reports of.
Official stats: Facts, constructs or ideology? - Positivism
Durkheim see statistics as a valuable source as they are ‘social facts’.
Viewed as objective measures & see sociology as a science & devlip hypotheses to discover causes of behavioural patterns.
Durkheim used stats in suicide study.
Official stats: Facts, constructs or ideology? - Interpretivism
Atkinson regards these as lacking validity & they don’t represent real things & are socially constructed.
E.g. suicide stats don’t represent real rate, just the deaths labelled as suicide, not identifying causes.
Uses qualitative methods such as observing coroners’ courts proceedings.
Official stats: Facts, constructs or ideology? - Marxism
Irvine sees OS as serving capitalism.
Says the stats produced are part of the ruling class ideology & helps maintain capitalists in power.
E.g. unemployment stats reduces number disguise true levels.
Documents
Refers to any written text (diaries, reports, records, novels, newspapers, lists, drawings, paintings, film etc).
2 types:
-personal
-public
Public documents
-produced by govt, schools, welfare agencies, businesses.
-usually available for researchers to use & can include documents like Ofsted reports of school inspections.
-can include official reports of public inquiries like Black Report 1980 int inequalities in health.
Personal documents
-includes letters, diaries, autobiographies, photo albums etc.
-accounts for events, experiences, feelings & attitudes.
Personal documents: Thomas & Znaeiecki (1919)
Studied migration & social change.
-interactionists interested in personal experiences.
-used personal docs to reveal meanings to experiences of migration.
-docs included 764 letters & several autobiographies.
-used public docs to explore experience of social change of some of the thousands of people who migrated from rural Poland to the USA.
Historical documents
Simply a personal or public doc created in the past to study the past.
-Laslett used parish records in his study of family structure in pre industrial England.
-Anderson used parliamentary reports on child Labour & statistical material from the 1851 census to study changes in family structure.
-Ariès used child rearing manuals & paintings to study rise of modern notion of childhood.
Assessing documents - Scott (1990)
Argues that 4 criteria should be used t evaluate docs:
-authenticity
-credibility
-representativeness
-meaning
Assessing documents: Authenticity
Is the document what it claims to be?
Are there pages missing?
Who wrote it? (Hitler diaries proven to be fakes).
Assessing documents: Credibility
Is the document believable?
Politicians may write docs to inflate own importance.
Thomas & Znaniecki’s Polish immigrants might have lied in letters about how good life in the USA was to justify their emigrate decision.
Is the document accurate? Was it soon after or years after an event?
Stein (2003) notes docs on internet aren’t often checked for accuracy before publication.
Assessing documents: Representativeness
Is the evidence in the document typical?
-not all docs survive.
-not all surviving docs are available for researchers to use (30 year rule prevents access to some official docs for 30 years).
-private docs may never be available.
Assessing documents: Meaning
Researcher may need special skills to understand a document & may have to be translated from language (words change meaning over time).
May have to interpret meanings.
Advantages of Documents
-enables researcher to get close to reality of social actor creating detailed qualitative data.
-might be only source of info (past).
-extra check on results obtained by primary methods.
-cheap & time efficient.
Content analysis
Method used to turn qualitative data into quantitative data.
Content analysis - Gill (1998)
Imagine we measure particular aspects of a media message.
E.g. how many female characters are portrayed as being in paid employment:
-first decide categories used (housewife, employee)
-next, study source (television broadcast, magazine) & place characters into categories.
-then count up number in each category & compare how often women are portrayed as housewives than employees.
Maybe then compare with OS to see if media was stereotypical or accurate.
Content analysis - Lobban (1974) &Tuchman (1978)
Analysed gender roles in reading schemes.
Used to analyse televisions portrayal of women.
Found females were portrayed in range of roles stereotyped £ limited & generally domestic roles.
Advantages of Content analysis
-cheap.
-easy to find sources.
-positivists say it’s objective, scientific & quantitative.
What to interpretivists say about CA?
Argue simply counting a number of times something appears in a document tells us nothing about its meaning.
They use thematic analysis & look for themes in research & use quotes from docs to illustrate the themes.
