Research Methods

NOV Mock

Primary Data

Research conducted by the sociologist themselves for their own purpose

Examples of Primary Data

• Social surveys (questionnaires or interviews)

• Participant observation

• Experiments

Pros of Primary Data

• Can design the research to collect precisely the data they need to test their hypotheses

Cons of Primary Data

• Costly

• Time Consuming

Secondary Data

Information that has been collected by someone else for their own purpose

• which other sociologists can use

Examples of Secondary Data

Official statistics produced by the government on a wide range of issues

Statistics produce by charities, businesses, churches and other organisations

Documents such as letters, emails, diaries, photographs, official reports, novels, newspapers

Pros of Secondary Data

• Quick

• Cheap

• Larger Scale

Cons of Secondary Data

• Not Specific

• May not match breach

Quantitative Data

data that is represented as numbers and can be counted or measured

Examples of Quantitative Data

• Questionnaires

• Structured interviews

• Non-participant structured observation

• Statistics

Pros of Quantitative Data

• Objective

• Replicable

• Accurate

• Easy to collect

Cons of Quantitative Data

• Limited scope

• Researcher bias

• Practical Issues (cost and time)

• Oversimplification

Qualitative Data

non-numerical information that is gathered and analysed to understand people's beliefs, attitudes, and motivations

Examples of Qualitative Data

• Narrative research

• Open-ended surveys

• Diary accounts

• Documents

Pros of Qualitative Data

• Allows in-depth descriptions of complex issues and human behaviour

• Provides context

• Uncovers patterns

Cons of Qualitative Data

• Subjectivity

• Time consuming

• Difficulty comparing

• Ethical limitations

Positivists

People who believe that knowledge comes from objective observation and measurement

• Quantitative Data

• Data on a large scale

• Study the same way as we study the natural world

What research do Positivists like?

• Structed interviews (P)

• Official Statistics (S)

• Field Experiment (S)

Interpretivists

People who belief that analysed based on the beliefs, norms, and values of the culture of the society is more relevant

• Qualitative data

• Data on a small scale

• Study of society cannot be the same as science

• Researching individuals experiences

What research do Interpretivists like?

• Diaries (P)

• Letters - personal (P)

• Covert Participant Observation (P)

• Unstructured Interviews (P)

• Documents (S)

Primary Data

you have collected for the purposes of your own research

Secondary Data

someone else has collected, or sources that are pre-existing

Quantitative Data

measures of values or counts and are expressed as numbers

Qualitative Data

non-numeric information, such as in-depth interview transcripts, diaries, anthropological field notes, answers to open-ended survey questions, audio-visual recordings and images

Positivists

an approach to the study of society that relies specifically on scientific evidence, such as experiments and statistics, to reveal a true nature of how society operates

Interpretivists

an action or event is analysed based on the beliefs, norms, and values of the culture of the society in which it takes place

Objective

Not biased

• not inserting their own beliefs and values

Reliability

Repeatable

• e.g. questionnaires

Hawthorne Effect

If aware of study, may change their behaviour to appear ‘typical’

Triangulation

When a researcher uses more than one method to

• achieve qualitative and quantitative

• valid

Validity

Truthful

Convert

• Undercover

• Without consent (secret)

Verstehen

Empathetic Understanding

Overt

With consent

• aware

Representativeness

Reflects a wider audience

• sample reflects the population of the group studied

Going Native

When a researcher emerges themselves in a group of people

• loses the ability to be objective

Longitudinal

Studied over a long period of time

• e.g. Paul Willis

Flexibility

Method is open for sociologists to adapt

• e.g. unstructured interviews

Time & Money

Different methods use up various amounts of resources

Funding Bodies

Governments, Businesses, Universities etc may require different types of data & therefore the researcher has limited choices

e.g. Governments like to collect Statistical Data to inform Social Policy

Personal Skills & Characteristics

Each research is different & therefore may be limited in their choices of freedom

e.g. if they need to blend into a group/skills/patience/memory etc

Subject Matter

If the topic requires opinions, feelings, thoughts on just plain facts and figures will impact on choice of method.

Also whether or not the subject is sensitive or difficult to study needs considering

Consent

Participants should be able to refuse being researched

• should be open & honest about the research - allows informed consent

• should be able to opt out of the research if they so wish

Confidentiality & Privacy

All participants identities should kept confidential to prevent any negative effects

• Participants have the right to refuse information

Danger & Harm

No psychological or physical harm should come to the participants

• participants should not be placed in any illegal or immoral situations

Vulnerable Groups

Extra care & attention should be given to any group/participants that are deemed as vulnerable

• Age

• Gender

• Disability

• Ethnicity

• Physical/Mental Health

Covert Research

This is when the researcher goes ‘Under Cover’ & keeps their identity as a researcher hidden from the participants

• This creates many ethical problems as deceit, lying, lack of consent etc

Reliability

Replicability

A reliable method is one that, when repeated by another researcher, the same results will be obtained

Validity

Truthfulness

A valid method is one that produces a true, full picture of what is being studied.

It is not Repeatable as different results could occur every time the method is implemented.

Representativeness

Whether or not the participants are a good cross-section of the group the researcher is interested in

If the participant ‘sample’ is a good cross-section then the information obtained from them can be ‘generalised’ to a bigger group

• the bigger the sample = more representative

Methodological Perspective

There are 2 main groups of sociologists who have conflicting views on how society works

• Positivists

• Interpretivists

Violence against Wives

Dobash and Dobash

• Based on police and court records

• Interviews with women

Practical Issues

Violence against Wives - Dobash and Dobash

• Subject Matter

• Personal Skills & Characteristics

Ethical Issues

Violence against Wives - Dobash and Dobash

• Confidentiality & Privacy

• Vulnerable Groups

Theoretical Issues

Violence against Wives - Dobash and Dobash

• Validty

Centuries of Childhood

Aries

• Art from the 10th to the 13th centuries

• Idea of childhood did not exist

Practical Issues

Centuries of Childhood - Aries

• Personal Skills & Characteristics

• Research Opportunity

Ethical Issues

Centuries of Childhood - Aries

• Consent

Theoretical Issues

Centuries of Childhood - Aries

• Generalisability

Glasgow Gang Observed

James Patrick

• University holidays: full time member of staff

• Joined this particular juvenile gang

Practical Issues

Glasgow Gang Observed - James Patrick

• Personal Skills & Characteristics

• Research Opportunity

Ethical Issues

Glasgow Gang Observed - James Patrick

• Covert Research

• Consent

• Danger & Harm

Theoretical Issues

Glasgow Gang Observed - James Patrick

• Validity

What is Willmott and Young’s study?

Explored family life, kinship ties, and community relationships among working-class families families in East London

• received responses from over 100 families

Helped them to measure the division of labour and extent to which families were symmetrical

What was the Research Method used in Willmott and Young’s Study?

Structured Interviews

Which study is an example of a Structured Interview?

Willmott and Young

What is Durkheim’s study?

Used official statistics to study why different social groups have different suicide rates

• argued that suicide is influenced by levels of social integration and regulation, not just individual psychology

What was the Research Method used in Durkheim’s Study?

Official Statistic

Which study is an example of a Structured Interview?

Durkheim

What is Rosenthal and Jacobson’s study?

Used Field Experiments to investigate the effects of teacher labelling on pupil outcomes

• told teachers certain randomly selected students would be ‘late bloomers’

• method took part in a school, increasing the validity

What was the Research Method used in Rosenthal and Jacobson’s Study?

Field Experiment

Which study is an example of a Field Experiment?

Rosenthal and Jacobson

What is Bandura’s study?

Used Lab Experiment to study whether children learn aggressive behaviour by observing adult role models making it easier to establish cause and effect between watching aggression and imitating behaviour

• e.g. model behaviour, environment

What was the Research Method used in Bandura’s Study?

Lab Experiment

Which study is an example of a Lab Experiment?

Bandura

What is Dobash and Dobash’s study?

Used Unstructured Interviews to explore the causes, experiences, and patterns of domestic violence against women

• how patriarchy and male control contributed to abuse

Women were able to tell their stories in detail proving them with rich, qualitative data

What was the Research Method used in Dobash and Dobash’s Study?

Unstructured Interviews

Which study is an example of Unstructured Interviews?

Dobash and Dobash

What is Aries’ study?

Analysed historical paintings and portraits of children to explore how the concept of childhood has changed over time

• medieval society - no modern sense of childhood: “children were treated like ‘mini adults’”

What was the Research Method used in Aries’ Study?

Documents

Which study is an example of Documents?

Aries

What is Venkatesh’s study?

Studied gang life, poverty, and community dynamics in Chicago housing project

• observed how gangs operated, their role in the neighbourhood, and the relationship between residents and gang members

He did this for a period of around 7 years giving him a detailed insight

What was the Research Method used in Venkatesh’s Study?

Covert Participant Observation

Which study is an example of Covert Participant Observation?

Venkatesh

What is Willis’ study?

Spent long periods of time with 12 working-class boys in school and how their “lads’ culture” led them to reject school and end up in working-class jobs, reinforcing inequality

• looked at how culture affects educational achievement

What was the Research Method used in Willis’ Study?

Overt Participant Observation

• Ethnography (Group Interviews)

Which study is an example of Overt Participant Observation?

Willis

Which study is an example of a Questionnaire?

Census sent out to households every 10 years in the UK

• provides large-scale, generalisable data on topics such as people’s ethnicity, gender, religious beliefs, occupations and so on which helps policy makers

Structured Interviews

Formal or questionnaire interviews

What happens in Structured Interviews?

• Use an interview schedule (pre-set list of questions)

• Respondents choice from a limited list of possible answer

• Questions are pre-coded and can be converted to quantitative data

• They are usually relatively brief

• Favoured by Positivists

Structured Interviews - Positive

• Reliability

• Quick

• Replicability

• Cost

• High Response Rate

• Limited Interviewer Effect

Structured Interviews - Negative

• Validity

• Practical Issues

• Not useful for Sensitive topics (may trigger)

Unstructured Interviews

Informal or focused interviews

What happens in Unstructured Interviews?

• Mainly open questions

• No fixed set of questions to be asked of every respondent

• Provides Qualitative data

• Guided conversation

• Relationship

• Favoured by Interpretivists

Unstructured Interviews - Positive

• Validity

• Flexibility

• Opportunity for more in-depth responses

Unstructured Interviews - Negative

• Impression management (Researcher effect)

• Reliability

• Cost: interviewees need to be trained - irrelevant detail

What is a Questionnaire?

A way of gathering data about people by asking them questions

Questionnaires Positive - Practical Advantages

• Quick and cheap way to gather large amounts of data spread geographically

• No need to recruit and train interviews or observers to collect the data

• Data is usually easy to quantify (pre-code, close-ended): processed quick by computer to reveal relationships between the variables

Questionnaires Positive - Detachment

• Positivists prefer

• Sociologist’s personal involvement with their respondents is kept to a minimum

Questionnaires Positive - Representativeness

• Results stand a better chance of being truly representative of the wider population

• Researchers tend to pay more attention to the need to obtain a representative sample