PRACTICAL ISSUES

Time and Money

different methods require different amounts of time and money and this may influence a sociolgists choice:

• some methods are more time efficeint

  • e.g. questionnaires compared to others

Funding Body

whoever is funding the research may be in a position to dictate how they want the research to be conducte, what form the resultds should be in and the duration of the research:

• the funding body is powerful and can decide on what methods that they see as desirable

  • .e.g. universities, gvt, private organisations, charities

Personal skills and Social status

the sociologists own personality and character, as well as their own may impact on their ability to use different methods:

• personal skills: a confident, sociable, extroverted sociologist may prefer interactive methods e.g. interviews, whereas a quieter, introverted sociologists may prefer more detatched methods .e.g. questionnaires

• social status: age, gender, ethnicity, religion, sexuality, class

  .e.g. if a sociologist is carrying out a study on racism, white reserachers may use questionnaires but a P.O.C sociologists may use interviews

Research oppurtinity

sometimes the researcher opportunity turns up unexpectedly whereas in others it is planned well in advance, this will impact on the suitability of certain methods:

• sometimes a research oppurtinty spontaneously appears therefore the researcher is unprepared and the sociologist must use random