Research method sociologists

Questionnaire example - strengths and weaknesses

Young and Wilmott

• Studied family life in Bethnal Green

• Used questionnaires and structured interviews with residents

• Collected quantitative data about marriage, kinship and gender roles

Strength:

• Produce quantitative data that is easy to compare and analyse

Weakness:

• Low validity because respondents may give socially desirable answers

Unstructured interviews

Ann Oakley

• Interviewed 40 housewives about domestic labour

• Allowed women to speak freely about their experiences

Strength:

• High validity due to in-depth, qualitative data

Weakness:

• Time-consuming, so samples are often small

Structured interviews - repeated

Young and Wilmott again

(covert) Participant observation

William Whyte

• Lived with an Italian-American community in Boston

• Became part of a gang

• Used participant observation to study social relationships

Strength:

• Very high validity as behaviour is observed in natural settings

Weakness:

• Ethical issues such as deception and lack of informed consent

Non-participant observation

Rosenthal and Jacobson

• teachers’ behavior in classrooms

• Researchers did not take part in the situation

• Studied the labelling effect in education

Strength:

• More objective as researchers remain detached

Weakness:

• Lacks insight into meanings and motivations of participants

Lab experiments

Milgram

• Studied obedience to authority

• Conducted in a controlled lab environment

• Showed people obey authority figures even when uncomfortable

Strength:

• High reliability because conditions can be replicated

Weakness:

• Low validity due to artificial settings

Field experiments

David Rosenhan

• Researchers posed as patients in mental hospitals

• Conducted in a real-life setting

• Studied labelling and power of institutions

Strength:

• Higher validity because behaviour occurs in real-life settings

Weakness:

• Less control over variables than lab experiments

Official statistics (secondary data)

Durkheim - suicide

• Used official suicide statistics from different countries

• Studied how social factors affect suicide rates

Strength:

• Large-scale data allows patterns and trends to be identified

Weakness:

• May lack validity due to different definitions or recording practices

Documents (secondary data)

Paul Willis - Learning to Labour

• Used school reports, essays and interviews

• Studied working-class boys and education

Strength:

• Cost-effective as data already exists

Weakness:

• Documents may be unrepresentative or biased

Group interviews

Paul Willis (1977) – Learning to Labour

• Conducted group interviews with the “lads”

• Group interaction encouraged participants to challenge and build on each other’s ideas

Strength

• Produces rich qualitative data as participants feel more confident speaking in a group

Weakness

• Peer pressure may lead to conformity or exaggerated answers, reducing validity