Sociology research methods

What are some key concepts?

• Validity, how accurate a piece of research is

• Reliable, the research can be replicated and similar results can be obtained

• Representative, the extent to which a sample mirrors a target population

• Generalisable, the research can be applied to a wider population

• Quantitive data (numerical) and qualitative data (words, opinions)

What are questionaries? What are the three kinds of structure to conduct a questionnaire?

Questionnaires are how researches can collect data through questions about a topic.

• Structured questionaries, set of questions and list of responses to use

• Semi-structured questionnaires, mix of closed questions with yes/no answers and open questions where participants will write their answers

• Unstructured questionaries, list of questions that will have a written response

What are interviews? What are the four types of interviews?

Interviews are a face to face conversation with questions about a topic between the researcher and participants

• structured, set list of questions

• Semi-structured, set list of questions where you can have more detail and go off the point a little bit

• Unstructured, conversation about the topic

• Group, more than one person interviewed

What are the four types of observation?

• participant observation, immersing yourself as the researcher with the group

• Non-participant, watch the group

• Covert observation, undercover and no-one knows you are watching

• Overt observation, people know your watching them

What are documents? What kind of data is it?

Written information that another person has produced, it is an example of secondary data with studies, letters, diaries and letters

How can statistics be used for sociological research?

Official and unofficial, numerical data produced by others e.g crime statistics, exam results

What is a questionnaire?

A questionnaire is a set of questions usually completed independently by the participant

What are the strengths of questionnaires?

• High in reliability, they can be replicated with similar results found, this means they can be repeated from one year to another and there is a pattern in the results, researchers can test the effectiveness of something through questionnaires as a measure

• They can be representative, this is because you can ask a lot of people and get a cross section of gender, class and ethnicity

• You can generalise the findings, this means they can be applied to a wider social group

• There are few ethical issues, they can be anonymous, have consent, they give participants a right to withdraw

• There are few practical issues, they can be done online or on pen and paper (require little resources) researchers don’t have to be trained

Do positivists or interpretivists like questionnaires?

Positivists like them, they believe that society can be studied scientifically. They believe in cause + effect and collecting quantitive data

What are the weaknesses of questionnaires?

• They lack validity, people may lie to make themselves look good or lie unconsciously, there are limited options in questions so people cannot always explain, they lack qualitative detail

• Interpretivist sociologists don’t like them, they believe individuals cannot be studied in a scientific way and research needs in depth research on individuals

• They have low response rates, often people don’t bother to fill in questionnaires unless it really interests them

What was Laud Humphries tearoom trade study? What kind of participation did he use? What was his aim?

Humphries tried to investigate the act of cottaging which is having sex in public places, his research involved acting as a look out at toilets when people would have sex inside and warn participants of anyone approaching. His aim was to investigate whether it should be a criminal act which he used covert participant observation. This had ethical issues of consent, deception and harm.

He also interviewed the families about their lives and what they know about their partners cottaging

What are the practical issues with covert observation?

• the researcher may find it tricky to access a group based on certain characteristics e.g an adult cannot undergo covert observation in a school

• The researcher may find it tricky to build trust or rapport with participants

• If you get too close with a group and end up ‘going native’ this means the research loses objectivity (being too fond could create bias)

• They may feel loyalty to the group when publishing research and entering normal life

What are the theoretical issues with covert observation?

• Valid as people are in their natural settings and unaware that they are being observed, however, they cannot be reliable or representative

• Interpretivists like them as it is detailed and in-depth as you can get the meaning behind things

What was Ventakeshesh’s gang leader for a day study?

This is an example overt observation. Ventakesh tried to conduct research in gangs in a suburb that was deprived in Chicago. Because he had permission from the gang leader he was able to access information easily and record it. However, it is still likely that the gang altered their behaviours around him. Overall there are less practical and ethical issues but it may be less valid

What are the practical issues with overt observation?

• if they get too close they could end up ‘going native’ this loses objectivity

• They may feel loyalty to the group when publishing research and entering public life

What are the ethical issues of overt observation?

• anonymity could still be an issue

• Consent could be a problem especially if the study is a large scale and includes children

What are the pratical elements of non-participant observation?

• It may be easier to record information and easier to access, you may not worry about personal characteristics

• less likley to put yourself in danger

Is non-participant observation ethical?

• If it is covert you still don’t have consent

• anonymity may be an issue as well

What are the theoretical issues with non-participant observation?

Not as valid as you are not experiancing the group. Often, the researcher makes their own assumptions. However, if the research is overt it is possible the researcher can check their findings with the participants. This is called research validation and proves research more

What are sociological experiments?

• experiments that are scientific, follows a positivist approach to sociological research

• They allow the researcher to observe the effect of variables under controlled conditions

• they try to identify cause + effect relationships

What are three types of experiments?

• Laboratory experiments, created in a controlled enviroment.

• Field experiments, created in real life social situations

• The comparative method, thought experiments not created artifcially, using secondary data and comparing it

What is the 1974 experiment of obedience to authority? What kind of experiment is this an example of?

Milgrim’s experiement is an example of a laboratory experiment, he was inspired by the experiance of his parents during the holocaust. He sought to understand the extent to which people would follow authority when commiting violence on others

• He told participants the research was to find how people responded to pain when learning

• The participants believed they wee giving electric shocks to people and they were assessed on how they follow instructions

• It wasn’t the most practical research as it was time consuming and would cost lots, however the main issue was ethics, he would carry out deception and psychological harm as well as there being no informed consent for the actual research

What was mayo’s study of production in factories in the 1920’s

Mayo’s experiment was a laboratory experiment, it studied productivity in an electrical company in Chicago and found productivity increased even when conditions worsened

• The presense of the researchers themselves altered the behaviour and hense the outcome of this study

• this is called the Hawthorne effect

What are the strengths and weaknesses of laboratory experiments?

strengths

• they are very reliable, they can be replicated easily as conditions are controlled

• positivists like them, they explore cause + effect relationships

Weaknesses

• They are not representive, not enough people take part to understand a target population

• Not valid, they don’t show people in natural settings

• interpretivists dislike them

What are field experiments?

• take place inside society and examine natural behaviours

• many participants are not aware that they are taking part so removes the Hawthorne effect

What is Rosenhan’s 1973 experiment, how is it an example of a field experiment?

this study clearly shows natural behaviours of participants in society and institutions

• the study focussed on investigating labelling people with mental illness and in asylums

• It clearly shows the practical issues of field experiments, there are many variables that cannot be controlled meaning they cannot be reliable

• There were also ethical issues, no full consent of all participants, deception

What was Rosenthal and jacobson’s experiment of pygmallion in the classroom? how is it an example of a field experiment?

The study took place in a natural environment making it a field experiment, the researcher used one class in a US school when a teacher was told a random group of students had a higher IQ than the others, eventually those students did better in school compared to the others showing a self-fufiling prophecy

What are the strengths and weaknesses of field experiments?

strengths

• Much more valid, they show natural behaviours

• can show hidden meanings of everyday social interactions

weaknesses

• cannot control all variables and they aren’t as reliable

• lots of ethical issues

What is a structured interview?

structured interviews are interviews with a set round of questions which cannot be dievieated from or changed in any way

what are the strenghts of structured interviews?

• They are more reliable than most methods, this is because they can be easily repeated with a large sample population. They can also be repeated over years and researchers can identify pattterns in the answers to the questions.

• You don’t need a trained interviewer to hold structured interviews, this makes it practically cheaper and a more straightforward method.

What are the weaknesses of structured interviews?

• Not very valid, this is because they don’t allow participants to go into depth and explain their answers. most participants won’t be able to accurately share their views. They also may be intimdated by the formal setting so they changed their answers because of this

• Interviewer effects, like above, the particpant may change their answers if they feel intimidated. They may not say what they really think in fear of upsetting the interviewer

• Not very likley to be representitive of people

What is an example of a structured interview?

The British crime survey

what is an unstructured interview?

more like a normal conversation prompted by specific questions about the indivdual and their experiances/perspectives

What are the strengths of unstructured interviews?

• Higher in validity, the researcher can go into depth and deviate from the question.

• The interviewer can establish ‘verstehen’ having empathy for the participant

• They can build rapport

• Good for sensitive issues

• interpretivists and feminists like them as they can find the meaning behind actions/views

What are the weaknesses of unstructured interviews?

• Need a trained interviewer, to handle the sensitive subjects and have a built rapport with the participant

• Time consuming

• ethical issues, informed consent may not be fully given as they could go off topic easily and talk about something that the participant hasn’t consented over

• not reliable as there are no set questions

What is an example of an unstructured interview?

Dobash and Dobash - violence against wifes

What are the strengths of group interviews?

• One strength is that particpants may feel more comfortable being with others so they well open up

• people can throw ideas around the group to stimulate other ideas and experiances to be shared

• they can be a good start to research, having a focus group, can direct further research

• the researcher can combine questions with their own obsevance to see how the participants interact

These all increase validity!

what are the weaknesses of group interviews?

• Some indivduals may dominate a discussion

• you need a trained interviewer to conduct the reseach to ensure the focus is kept this increases the cost.

• peer group pressure creates a need for others to conform to their own beliefs

• difficult to record/process data

• ethics, confidentiality, the group may disclose information about someone else

What are official statistics? What are some examples of official statistics?

Official statistics are samples of quantitive data and statistics, examples include crime statistics, exam results and census data

The census is a survey that every household in the UK must take, it is online and is completed every 10 years, it finds out who is in the household and factors like age, ethnicity, qualifications, jobs and beliefs

What are the strengths of official statistics?

• They are easy to access, cheap for researchers to create and distribute, quick to use, large sample size

• there are few ethical issues, they are published online.

• can be reliable, representitive and positivists like them

What are the weaknesses of official statistics?

• Not valid, interpretivsts don’t like them, this is because they lack detail and meaning. Also, statistics don’t paint the full picture e.g exam results don’t reflect how well a school does

What are documents? where do sociologists retrieve documents for research?

• Documents are just pre-existing information published typically in a written format, used for sociological research

• Newspapers, magazines, journals and documentaries

• personal documents like letters or diaries = more ethical issues

• Historical documents, parish records, workhouse records

what are the strengths of using documents?

• Many documents are already online so are publically available which can limit the practical and ethical issues

• can be high in validity, as rich qualitive data is found

• verstehen may be possible because their is more detail, people can understand the writer and put themselves in their shoes

• Interpretivists like them

What are the weaknesses of using documents for research?

• sometimes documents are personal so they shouldn’t be used for research

• the documents may miss out information about the true events of something.

• May be difficult to access, some personal documents are tricky to access if people have died

• Not reliable, not representitive

• positivists dislike them

What was Jacobs, study of suicide?

Jacob’s study used personal suicide notes to investigate the meanings behind an action. This may of produced valid data and showing real time experiences but has massive ethical issues, the letters were written to loved ones and there was no possible way to gain consent other than through the family which could be distressing

What was aries, centuries of childhood?

This study looked at photos and paintings of children throughout different centuries. they aimed to find out how childhood had changed throughout the years. However, in later years, Aries realised that their study was flawed as it didn’t represent all children as in the past only wealthy people would’ve had paintings or photos

what was Hey’s - the company she keeps?

The research aimed to look at the relationships girls have with their friends, she did this by reviewing notes passed in class that had been taken off students, there are obviously problems with consent and her research probably isn’t representitive. The notes probably aren’t valid and they are biased and exagerated

What are the practical positives and negatives of using pupils in research?

Positives

• it is a captive sample, can access pupils easily in school

• Group interviews can be used to mitigate power imbalances

Weaknesses

• unequal power relationships between adults and pupils, building rapport can be hard

• pupils literacy/vocab and understanding of language may act as a barrier to understand questions or ideas

• Child protection concerns, gatekeepers are created which makes it’s difficult to access information

• The researcher must be DBS checked or supervised at all times

What are the ethical negatives of using pupils for research?

• Informed consent may be hard to obtain, not mature or informed enough to agree

• Children and more vulnerable from physical and psychological harm than adults

• Confidentiality can be kept, the data is protected

What are some examples of conflict theories?

• Marxism, focuses on the conflict between the lower and upper classes

• Feminism, focuses on the conflict based on the oppression of women from men

What are some examples of consensus theories?

• Functionalism, works on the organic analogy that all institutions work together to create a value consensus

• The New right, work on a similar basis of value consensus, however it has eroded now, sociologists like Murray argue that there is an underclass that don’t share the same values

What are some examples of structural theories, What are structural theories?

Structural theories work on the basis that human behaviour comes as a result of the system they are in, they are macro approaches. Examples include;

• Marxism

• Functionalism

What are social action theories? What are some of the theories behind social action theories?

Social action theories aren’t interested in large scale trends and patterns, they focus on interactions between people

• The looking glass self - Coley argues that a sense of self comes from how others see us e.g if people laugh at our jokes we will see ourselves as funny.

• Goffmans Dramataurgical model, believes people go through society with different roles e.g being a friend, family member, employee. They contain certain qualities that are expected from each of these roles and individuals alter their behaviour in accordance

• Becker labelling theory

How can we evaluate social action theories?

• Can be criticised as they only focussed on small interactions rather than a full explanation of society

What is modernity?

The period from 1950s onwards constructed around the nuclear family, there are debates surrounding modernity and if it has ended and replaced by postmodernism

What do postmodernists argue about meta-narratives?

The theory of postmodernism emerged in the 1980s/90s, postmodernists believe that we live in a period of rapid change and growing choice. They believe that traditional sociological theories are metanarratives or ‘big stories’ and no longer apply or are relevant to society today

What are 4 features of postmodernity?

• Plurality and diversity, society is now more diverse and changes across the world due to globalisation have led to different cultures within society. This means there is now no single value consensus

• Choice, we can now choose our own identities, in terms of religion, gender, relationships etc

• Relativsm, There is no absolute truth in society, science can be questioned and the internet for example led to people rejecting tradtional views on society, we find others who believe the same thing e.g flat earthers

• Globalisation, we live in a society that has a less strong sense of national identity, transport and technology have led to movement of people and goods globally and we are now bound economically and politically with other nations

Why are some changes from a postmodernist perspective not always a good thing?

Some postmodernists have identified negative changes, e.g Mac and Ghaill ‘crisis of masculinity’, they identified that globalisation has led to a decline in traditional jobs for men which has meant young boys struggle in education and employment due to a lack of positive male role models.

Another example is that globalisation has led to fundamentalism

How can we evaluate postmodernism?

• Sociologists explain that social change has always occurred and that the idea of postmodernism isn’t new, e.g marxism woud argue that globalisation still undermines society globally, many industrial workers now live in developing countries and are still oppressed in the same way

• Not everybody has choice, the ability of choosing how to live your life is limited by factors like income, social norms, and law.

• Postmodernism could also be described as a metanarritive as well

What is late modernity? What are three features included in late modernity?

• Constant change, Giddens says that one feature of late modernity is that society and people are in a period of constat change, people reflect on themselves and their behaviour and make adjustments in light of these behaviours. New media allows us to be embedded within a global community and seek to change to different behaviours

• Individualism, People now focus more on individual achievement and fufilment, There is a larger focus on self awareness rather than community needs

• Risk consciousness, Beck said we now live in a global risk society, there has been an increase in environmental issues due to globalisation

Is sociology a science? - yes

• Sociologists like Durkheim believed that sociology was a science and society could be explained through scientific research methods

• Positivists say that you can form a hypothesis and use reliable methods to produce quantative data, Durkheims study on suicide tested variables against suicide rates, this can be based on religion, family background as variables

• Kuhn says sociology is not a proper mainstream science but a young science as it doesn’t have a paradigm

Is sociology a science? - No

• Popper said that sociology isn’t a science because instead of using deductive reasoning (evidence to disprove stuff) they use inductive reasoning finding evidence to support the hypothesis e.g find a lot of white swans instead of black

• Interpretivists say treating sociology as a science misunderstands the nature of society and human nature, there are issues with operationalising Durkheims study of suicide

• Subject views, emotions, and values cant be quantified