Research methods

Research methods

1. Types of data

   • Quantitative
     • Data in numerical form
   • Qualitative
     • Data in descriptive form
   • Primary
     • Data that the sociologist has collected themself
   • Secondary
     • Data that already exists and has been collected by someone else

2. Factors affecting choice of method

   • Practical
     • Research opportunity
       • Accessibility
     • Time and money
     • Subject matter
     • Personal skills, characteristics and appearance of sociologists
     • Requirements of funding body
   • Ethical
     • Informed consent
     • Vulnerable groups
       • Elderly
       • Under the influence of drugs/alcohol
       • Disability/mental health issues
       • Those with a language barrier
     • Right to withdraw
     • Confidentiality
     • Protection from psychological and physical for both participants and researcher

3. Experiments

   • Comparative
     • Example
       • Durkheim's research into suicide rates in different countries
     • Disadvantages
       • He hasn't collected his own results so he doesn't know how the researcher did the research so has to rely heavily on the reliability of their tesults
     • Type of data
       • Secondary
       • Quantitative
       • Positivists
     • Advantages
       • No ethical issues
   • Field
     • Type of data
       • Quantitative
       • Primary
       • Positivists
     • Disadvantages
       • Not fully valid because some variables are being manipulated
       • Less control over extraneous variables
     • Advantages
       • Higher validity than Lab experiments
     • Example
       • Rosenthal and Jacobson- Pygmalion in the classroom
   • Lab
     • Type of data
       • Quantitative
       • Positivists
       • Primary
     • Advantages
       • Highly reliable
       • Allows us to develop cause and effect relationships
       • Highly systematic
       • High levels of control
     • Examples
       • Zimbardo
       • Milgram
     • Disadvantages
       • Artificial setting/little relevance to the real world
       • Low validity- Hawthorn effect
       • Small scale
       • Can have huge ethical issues
       • Not representitive
       • Cannot control all variables- humans have free will

4. Questionnaires

   • Example
     • Sullivan's test of capital
   • Advantages
     • More representative data
     • Highly reliable
     • Can cover a large sample over a short period of time
     • Little influence from researcher
     • Produces solid quantitative data
     • Easiest method to use
   • Type of data
     • Primary
     • Quantitative
     • Positivists
   • Disadvantages
     • Response may be low
     • answers may be incomplete or illegible
     • Data might not be truthful
     • Low validity
     • Cannot be sure who completed the questionnaire
     • Limits possible answers that can be given

5. Interviews

   • Structured
   • Group
     • Type of data
       • Usually qualitative but depends if it is structured or unstructured
       • Usually preferred by interpretivists but if it in quantitative then it is preferred by positivists
       • Primary
     • Example
     • Disadvantages
       • Personal bias of interviewer
       • Lacks reliablility
       • Participants may not give truthful answers
         • Don't want to be judged
         • Pressure to conform to group
         • social desirability
       • more confident participants would dominate the group
       • Exaggeration of answers
     • Advantages
       • Can create rapport with participants
       • Can follow up responses in depth
       • Participants might feel more comfortable in a group situation and open-up more
       • More responses at one time
         • Less time consuming than interviewing people individually
   • Unstructured