factors for choice of method

factors for choice of method

1. Practical

   • time & money
     • may influence as large scale interviews need more interviewee's to get paid and will take longer
     • one person may take longer to do a small research
   • funding
     • depends on who is funding research
       • e.g government may want results in quantative form
   • personal skill and characteristics
     • e.g Dobash and Dobash- studied domestic abuse, female dobash could gain trust of ladies to interview.
     • depends on skills and personality, if sociologist can build rappor
   • research opportunity
     • some sociologists may have contacts that help them get into schools or places to do certain reserch
     • Patrick - glasgow gangs- able to get in quick so used participant observation
   • subject matter
     • might be harder to study a certain group ( Dobbash) or children that cant read would different approach than questionaire

2. Ethical

   • informed consent
     • people should have the right to withdraw or not be studied in the first place
     • told why they are being studied to make informed decision
     • consent if study is lengthy and regularly studied
   • confidentiality
     • keep participants identity secret to prevent bias
     • should keep personal information secret
   • harm to research participants
     • careful of impact they may have on people- police may get involved
     • should anticipate and prevent harm
   • vulnerable groups
     • should be careful when studying vulnerable groups
     • e.g school children need child protection , should have consent of child and adult
   • covert research
     • people are deceved or lied to as they dont know theyre being studied
     • impossible to have consent and not know they're being studied
     • only useful when researching powerful groups or dangerous groups

3. Theoretical

   • validity
     • a method that produces a genuine picture of society
     • argue qualitative methods do this better , can give deeper answers
   • reliability
     • something that can be replicated and produce similar results
     • similar to science - quantitative methods are more likely to produce this
   • representiveness
     • usually would take a large sample to be representive but can use smaller groups that are close to normal families to study
     • large scale produces more representative data
   • sociological perspective
     • interpretavists
       • prefer qualitative data
     • posativists
       • prefer quantitative data
         • sociology can be a science - functionalists agree with this