Paper 1 and 3 Research methods and methods in context

Ethical issues in research methods

informed consent

Confidentiality

Types of interview

unstructured

structured

Strengths of observations

Limitations of questionaires

lack of subjectivity, limitation of questionnaires (imposition problem)

low return/response rate

Positivism and Interpretivism

Theoretical perspectives

positivism: sociology should be treated as a science, objectivity and value freedom ( no bias/prejudice from researchers in conduction of research)should be reinforced, reliability emphasis- replication and repetition- Popper falsification, representative sampling methods= generalization of results, data usually quantitative in nature, objective, structured scandalized procedures into research= repetition and reliability

Interpretivism: subjective in nature, value laden- researchers own ideas/meanings brought in to understand behaviours

value laden= verstehen=putting yourself in another persons shoes, empathy to learn behaviours, understanding individuals world view at a finite level

• qualitative data usually, emotions/thoughts/feelings of individual taken into account and recorded throughout

• everything unstructured in nature usually, to gain deeper insight into individuals

Structured interviews

• researcher will go in with pre-coded questions

• cant probe any deeper into response, easier reliability

  Lab experiments:

• all variables are controlled, standardised

  for reliability

Secondary methods- positivsm

• historical data- gives snapshot of data at the tipe

• formal content analysis- allows for quantities data to be generated, standardised, classification created, themes generated- trends recognised

Interpetivism

-hidden meanings in naturalistic settings

methological pluralism

the practice of using multiple, diverse research methods and perspectives to address a research question. It's about recognizing that no single method is inherently superior and that different methods offer unique insights and strengths.

multi-method approach

verhesden

Max Weber introduced Verstehen as a methodological approach to gain a deep understanding of social actions by interpreting the meanings individuals attach to their behaviors. This approach contrasts with purely objective or quantitative methods, highlighting the importance of empathy and perspective-taking in social research.

PET

Going native

criminal behaviour conundrum

Cheat sheet for the PET model

field experiments

Research methods

Preferred by positivists:

• social surveys

• structured interviews

• experiments

• official statistics

Preferred by interpretivists:

• unstructured interviews

• personal documents

• participant observations

Both

• non-participant observation

  ^ positivists see this as more favourable to participant observation, because non-participant observation aligns with positivist principles of objectivity, data collection, and scientific rigor. Positivists see it as a way to observe behaviour and collect structured data, which can then be turned into quantifiable information

• interpretivists see non-participant observation as a valuable tool for understanding social phenomena by observing behavior without direct interaction, potentially gaining insights into "actual behavior"

  Though acknowledge the limitations of this approach, including the researcher's inability to fully grasp the meanings and interpretations behind the observed behavior. 

criticism of volunteer sampling

Vanketesh Gang Leader for a Day 2009

Venkatesh spent around 7 years in his study, producing a vivid description of the lives and relationships of the black residents, gang members

• overt participant observation

• access; his South Asian ethnic background allowed him to pass amongst the African-American subjects of his study

• questions on data reliability and validity:

  • He was able to capture the spirit of various conversations, though issues with reliability

• Practical challenges: The long term immersion required significant personal and financial resources, highlighting the practical demands of ethnographic research

Positivism vs Interpretivism

Consensus, conflict and social action theories

Modernity and post modernity

Black eyed Blue eyed experiment

Is sociology a science

• Popper and Kuhn and postmodernists= lean towards no

• Realists= more towards yes

The relationship between theories and methods

Subjectivity and Objectivity

Subjectivity- usually associated with feminists and interpretivists

Can sociology be value free?

Sociology and social Policy

*1997 conservative government

Perspective on social policies

*Marxists dont like social policy:Marxists may agree with the goal of social policy to address inequalities, they generally critique the effectiveness of these policies within a capitalist system. They argue that social policies are ultimately used to maintain the capitalist system and may not address the root causes of inequality, which they see as inherent in the system itself. 

Official Statistics

Divorce Rate

Birth rate/death rate- hard statistic

Infant mortality rate

Marriage rate

GCSE/A level results

Crime Rate- soft statistic- more opt in not everything will be recorded, dark level of crime

• measuring trends and patterns, whether things are increasing or decreasing

Documents

Diaries- E.G Anne Franks letters

Letters- Thomas and Znaniecki, Polish Peasent in Europe and America

Paintings- Aries pictures of childhood

School documents- Gillborn- used school policy documents on racism, local authority guidelines into racism to get an official picture of what was happening in schools, he could then use them to compare to interviews and observations

Gerwirtz- Other school documents include marketization documents such as school prospectuses/websites, about how schools present themselves + positive thee documents all free

Observations

Covert

‘Black like me’ Griffin

• changed skin colour to experience racism in the deep south

Humphreys ‘Tea room trade’

• researched gay activity in men’s toilets

Overt

Observations- Lacey

Ofted- causes hawthorn effect

Semi-overt

Punch Amsterdam police- he was told that we only show you what we want you to see

• issue of ‘going native’, getting too involved

Questionnaires

Connor and Dewson- Decision of W/C students to go to university

• sent 4000 questionnaires to students in higher education institutions to uncover the factors that influenced the decisions of working class students to go to university (large sample size) its representative

• evaluation: however as found in Shere Hite’s piece of research on love, passion, and emotional violence, the response rate was pretty low 4.5 percent returned out of the 100,000 questionnaires that were sent out

  ^criticized for sampling methods as being non- random and biased

Interviews

Structured interviews

Willmott and Young- high response rate, out of 987 approached only 54 refused in their study into the extended families in East London and they were able to train interviewers as the interview was fixed and standardised

concern: however this will limit the data collected

Semi-structured

cicourel- used follow up questions eg: what do you mean?

unstructured

Oakley- method favoured by feminists such as Oakley into her study on motherhood

• unconventional method even included her being at the birth of some of the babies

Group

Willis- educational context

• used group interviews in his research of working class lads to uncover their experience of school and the transition into the workplace

Experiments

Field experiment

Rosenthal and Jacobson; Brown and Gay

• repeated over 250 times

• Used two actors one was black and one was white with exactly the same qualifications, age and gender, race the only difference

• approached job interviews to uncover racism

criticism: cant be sure all variables were accounted for, lab experiment may be more preferable

Lab experiment

Milgram- Obedience study 1963

• wanted to understand why ordinary people obey authority figures, even when it involved haring others- inspired by Nazi behaviour WW2

  Strengths:

• High control over variables = more reliable results.

• Can establish cause and effect (obedience caused by presence of authority figure).

• Replicable – other versions of the study confirmed findings.

Weaknesses:

• Low ecological validity – artificial situation.

• Ethical issues – deception, psychological harm, lack of informed consent.

• Sample bias – only American males = lacks generalizability.

Thought/comparative study of suicide

Durkheim- suicide research

Milgram experiment further details

• Participants thought they were in a memory/learning study.

• A confederate (the learner) was placed in another room.

• The real participant (the teacher) was instructed to give electric shocks (fake, but believed to be real) to the learner for wrong answers.

• Shocks increased by 15 volts up to 450 volts.

• An authority figure (experimenter) in a white lab coat gave prods like:

  • “Please continue.”

  • “The experiment requires you to continue.”

🧍‍♂ Sample:

• 40 male participants (aged 20–50), recruited via a newspaper ad.

• All from the New Haven area in the U.S.

---

📈 Findings:

• 65% of participants obeyed fully, administering the full 450 volts.

• All participants went to at least 300 volts.

• Many showed signs of distress (sweating, shaking, nervous laughter).

Whyte’s “Street Comer Society”

James Patrick’s “Glasgow Gang Observed

• Access: James Patrick was invited into the gang to observe by the leader, however for other researchers, this is often a limitation as they tend to have to earn their way in rather than it being given

• Cost; it was cheap as Patrick did all of the observation himself, he didn’t hire anyone

• Going Native an issue- he immersed himself in the lives of the gang

Practical limitations of covert participant observation:

• Time-consuming: Patrick spent 120 hours undercover to immerse himself in the gang

• Recording- as the majority of the gang didn’t know his true identity, Patrick couldn’t record his experiences, it had to be from memory could’ve been obscured from drugs, drink etc- affects validity

• Controlling variables- he couldn’t control the way people acted and couldn’t ask many specific questions as gang-members may have gotten suspicious

Ethical strengths

• Confidentiality- Patrick even published under a false name as well as giving all the gang members fake names to protect them

James Patrick’s “Glasgow Gang Observed pt 2

Ethical limitations;

• Informed consent- the gang members never gave permission to be watched as they didn’t know

• Vulnerability of respondent; Patrick cpuldn’t step in to help any of the gang members if they were in danger with fighting etc

• Danger: he had to carry weapons, take drugs, drink heavily

Issues with reliability

• The observation was low in reliability because it was not able to be repeated and therefore can’t be compared

Sampling

Evidence:

Wilmott and Young- in their Bethnal Green study, used every 36th name on the electoral register

Opportunity- Patrick ‘Glasgow gang’ James Patrick, sample the gang he had access to at the time, looked young so could fit in

^covert observation