Research Methods (Pros and Cons)

Questionnaires

• Pros:
• Quick and cheap
• Can reach lots of respondents
• No Hawthorne effect
• Reliable because questions are standardized
• Easy to analyse with computer programs
• No social desirability effect
• Spot patterns and trends to make comparisons - positivism
• Cons:
• Respondents may not tell the truth - validity
• Questions may be misleading
• No interviewer to explain questions if not understood
• Postal questionnaires have a low response rate - not a representative sample
• Open-ended questions are hard to quantify

Structured Interviews

• Pros:
• Same questions asked each time - can be repeated
• Quantitative data - very reliable, positivism
• Interviewer can explain and clarify
• Much higher response rate than questionnaires
• Cons:
• More expensive than other methods such as questionnaires - have to pay the interviewers
• Interview schedule means no deviation from preset list - cannot find out any extra information other than originally intended to discover

Unstructured Interview

• Pros:
• Informal - good for sensitive issues - can build rapport
• Open-ended questions used - valid - interpretivism - meaning
• Detailed and meaningful answers can be obtained
• Cons:
• Used often with smaller samples - not representative
• Hawthorne and social desirability effects - interviewee may say what interviewer wants to hear
• Takes a long time to write up interview

Semi-structured Interview

• Pros:
• Both people can check for understanding and clarity
• Can be quantitative - results can be standardized
• Cons:
• It can be difficult to find a representative sample - like minded people
• Hawthorne and social desirability effects

Group Interviews

• Pros:
• They are very practical - "kill two birds with one stone"
• Open-ended questions used - valid - interpretivism - meaning
• Detailed answers as a result of discussion
• Cons:
• Certain people within the group can be dominant - some views may not be heard
• Social desirability effect - human nature to please others
• Small sample size = unrepresentative

Non-participant Observation

• Pros:
• Structural observation schedule = quantitative: reliable: generalizations - positivism
• Observing in the 'natural environment' improves validity
• Ethical (although potentially deceptive)
• Cons:
• Behaviour may change - Hawthorne effect
• Qualitative data possible, but cannot achieve Verstehen - interpretivism
• Practically impossible to be representative

Covert Participant Observation

• Pros:
• Observing in the 'natural environment' improves validity
• Qualitative data = Verstehen - interpretivism
• Cons:
• Risk of researcher going native (causes subjectivity)
• Difficulty of getting in, staying in and getting out
• Can be deceptive

Overt Participant Observation

• Pros:
• Observing in the natural environment improves validity
• Qualitative data = Verstehen - interpretivism
• Overt nature means people will open up
• Cons:
• Behaviour may change - Hawthrone effect
• Unreliable: no control, unique, not standardised, qualitative data not good for positivists
• Heavy focus on one group or issue - unrepresentative - positivists want to generalise: 'laws' for whole society

Lab Experiments

• Pros:
• Researcher has control over the experiment
• Quantitative data - positivism - trends and patterns - apply findings to whole of society
• Replicate the research - reliable
• Cons:
• They are artificial - not reflective of 'real' social situations
• Difficult to isolate single variables
• Often moral and ethical issues in lab experiments
• Researchers can measure things subjectively dependent on the outcome they are expecting

Field Experiments

• Pros:
• Conducted in natural social settings - more valid
• Can show hidden meanings of everyday social interaction - interpretivism
• Cons:
• Difficult to control variables (unlike lab experiments)
• Hawthrone effect if people know they're being studied
• Ethical issue if subjects aren't aware they are taking part

Comparative Method

• Pros:
• Uses quantitative data - can establish cause and effect relationships - apply to whole society - positivism
• Natural (avoids artificiality)
• Can be used to study past events
• No ethical problems - not deceptive or harmful
• Cons:
• Even less control on variables - too many different variables means impossible to draw definitive conclusions: makes method highly invalid