The Research Process - Part 1

What do the following questions mean:

- Descriptive Questions

- Explanatory Questions

- Evaluative Questions

- Predictive Questions

- Empathetic Questions

- Descriptive Questions i.e. describing something or looking at the extent/amount of something.

- Explanatory Questions i.e. looking at 'why' something happens.

- Evaluative Questions i.e. weighing up whether something has worked or not.

- Predictive Questions i.e. working out what might be the likely outcomes/effects of something.

- Empathetic Questions i.e. what it is like to experience something.

What is the Research Process?

- A research process is simply a planned, structured approach to inquiry that ensures that the investigation proceeds in a logical and coherent way.

What does Stage 1: Choosing a Research Topic?

- A great deal of sociological research is done by young sociologists carrying out their degree or Phd dissertations at university.

- Many of these sociologists go on to work within the world of academia, lecturing at a university and publishing further research.

- However, more often than not, sociologists are commissioned by pressure groups, charities or government departments to carry out some research for them.

- The starting point is for the sociologist to decide on a research question or hypothesis (i.e. a statement that they are intending to prove or disprove).

What does Stage 2: Background Research involve?

- In order to discover what research has been previously done on this topic, the sociologist will carry out a literature review.

- This will ensure that the sociologist does not copy anybody else's work, although some sociologists deliberately replicate classic pieces of research to see whether the finding apply to modern society.

- At this stage, the sociologist might want to refer to secondary data, such as official statistics or newspaper articles, etc.

What does Stage 3: Choosing a Research Method?

- Sociologists need to decide on a research method that they will use to discover what they are looking for. They might decide to use only secondary data that has been gathered by someone else, or they might carry out their research to gather primary data.

- There are a number of factors that will determine which method a sociologist is likely to use.

What are the Theoretical Considerations of choosing a research method?

- Sociologists will generally pick the method that will provide them with the right information to answer their questions. For example, if a sociologist wants to find out how many students in Y11 have experimented with drugs, they are likely to conduct a questionnaire that will provide them with a large quantity of numerical data that can be easily collated (i.e. counted and put into graphs/tables) and analysed - this is called quantitative data.

- On the other hand, if a sociologist wants to get a good understanding of why students have experimented with drugs, they are likely to carry out an informal interview with them that will provide them with in-depth data. This data is not so easy to collate, but it is rich in quality, hence it is referred to as qualitative data.

What is the Positivist tradition? (1)

- They want sociology to be taken as seriously as the natural sciences. It advocates that sociologists should carry out objective research in a highly scientific manner.

- They realise they can't study society in the same as way as the natural sciences. Sociologists should try and be impartial and keep as much social distance, as they can from those that they are studying in order to be as objective as possible.

- Sociologists may struggle to produce scientific empirical data, by using quantitative methods, sociologists can produce numerical data that can be statistically analysed.

What is the Positivist tradition? (2)

- The Comparative Method: Comparing data across different studies or groups to identify trends or patterns.

- Reliability: The ability for a study to be replicated by other researchers to see if they get the same results.

- Representativeness: Ensuring a sample accurately reflects the wider population (e.g. correct ratios of gender and ethnicity).

- Generalisation: Applying figures from a specific sample to the entire populations.

- Positivism: The belief that sociology should discover 'laws of society' using objective, scientific methods to find casual factors for human behaviour.

What was Durkheim's Study of Suicide (1897)?

- Context: Emile Durkheim (a Positivist) chose suicide to prove that even the most 'personal' act is influenced by social forces, not just individual psychology.

- Hypothesis: Suicide is a social fact - something tht occurs in society that individuals cannot change or control.

- Methodology: Used the comparative method.

+ Analysed quantitative secondary data (official statistics) from various countries.

+ Used multi-variate analysis to rule out other fators like climate or alcohol consumption.

What were Durkheim's Findings?

- Consistency: Suicide rates remained remarkably constant within the same country over many years.

- Religious Differences: Protestant countries had significantly higher suicide rates than Catholic ones.

- Social groups: Rates were higher for those who were unmarried, childless or elderly.

- Conclusion: Because patterns were so stable across groups, Durkheim argued the cause must lie in society itself, not the individual's mind.

What were the the Two Pillar of Social Control?

- Durkheim concluded that suicide rates are more determined by two social factors:

+ Integration: The extent to which individuals feel a sense of belonging to a group or society.

+ Regulation: The extent to which desires and aspirations are kept in check by social rules and moral values.

- The Goldilocks Rule: Durkheim argued that too little or too much of either integration or regulation leads to different types of suicide.

What is an Evaluation of Durkheim?

- Strengths: * Ground-breaking use of statistical data.

+ Shifted the focus of suicide from psychology to social factors.

- Weaknesses (Interpretivist view):

+ Interpretivists argue Durkheim overlooked the meaning behind suicidal behaviour.

+ Statistical Reliability: The argue official statistics are not 'facts', but social constructs based on how corners or police interpret a death.

What is the interpretivist tradition?

- Inspired by the work of Max Weber (1864-1920).

- Many sociologists feel that the methods and principles of the natural sciences in inappropriate for the study of human beings.

- Human behaviour & Social actions are so complex and varied, that it is impossible to generate a 'social law' that applies to everyone.

What do Interpretivists believe about the Social World?

- It is different from the natural world, both because the subject matter (i.e. people) is unpredictable (people do not always respond to stimuli in patterned ways) & because sociologists are themselves are part of the world they are studying and cannot be totally objective.

What did Weber believe about interpreting sociology?

- He believed that before understanding a person's behaviour, you must have to try and understand how they interpret how they interpret or view the world.

- To do so, you have to use more qualitative techniques (e.g. participant observation or informal interviews), since these allow the researcher to understand the meaning which people attach to their behaviour.

- These methods are likely to provide more valid data.