sociology research methods

Practical issues, Ethical issues, Theoretical issues

Practical issues - 

• Time, money, sample size
• personal skills/characteristics (age, gender etc)
• subject of research
• research opportunity
• personal danger
• funding bodies
• personal concerns

Humphreys Tearoom trade - participant observation

Ethical issues -

• C-consent
• C-confidentiality 
• D-deception
• E-ethics
• P-privacy
• P-protection

Theoretical issues

R - Representativeness - is the group or situaltion being studied typical of others? 

R - Reliability - whether it is consistent and can be replicated to get the same results.

V - Validity - gives a true and genuine picture. 

interpretivists

• meanings motives
• Micro sociologists  qualitative data
• validity subjectivity

Positivists - functionalists, marxists

• scientific generalisations
• objectivity social facts
• cause and effect Macro sociologists
• quantitative data reliable, representativ

Self-completing written questionnaires- postal

Interviews- (structured) face to face, telephone, internet

• Gallup- church attendence
• Peter Townsend
• Wilmott
• s.hite
• literary digest

Closed ended questions 

Advantages 

• quick/cheap
• easy to quantify/classify
• lack of researcher bias (however questions come from researcher in first place)
• reliable data

Open questions

Advantages

• finds out what the respondent is thinking
• asks more complex questions
• respondents compose their own answers
• more valid data

 selecting a sample

• Target population- the group your'e interested in finding out about
• sampling frame- list of relevant members of of the population that the sample can be chosen from.
• Sample- smaller group elected from the larger survey population
• sampling unit- members of the group or individuals being studied within the relevant population. 

Access

Gatekeepers are people who the researcher has to go through in order to gain access to the participants.

The British Census - every 10 years since 1801. However the census has some problems as it doesn't go to the homeless, students, elderly homes, soldiers, prisoners, people working abroad.

Sampling techniques

• Random - selected purely by random chance. 
• systematic/quasi- equal probability of being chosen e.g every 10th name on a list.
• stratified random sample- designed to contain a % of certain groups e.g. ethnicity 
• quota sampling- looking for the right number of each person for the certain group
• snowball sampling- individuals suggest others to take part. someone is recommended.
• opportunity- choosing from those who are easiest to access e.g passers by in the street.

Response rates

The 'hite report on the family' only got a 3% response rate.

Oakley's study on housework got 100% response rate because her survey was face to face.

Reasons for non response include

• failure to make contact (people move, on holiday, in prison)
• contact is made but the interview cannot be conducted because of illness,deafness, English as a second language.
• refusal to participate.

Questionnaires

Problems such as leading questions, interviewer bias etc can be avoided using a pilot study.

e.g Willmott and Young carried out 100 pilot interviews before the finalized their survey.

Advantages of pilot studies

• avoids wasting time and money
• establish a rapport with people you are studying 
• may determine whether research goes ahead.
• used to convince funding bodies

Advantages of questionnaires

• quick and cheap no need to train researchers.
• easy to quantify reliable (consistent)
• testing a hypothesis (cause + effect) unbiased ( objectivity)
• representative

Disadvantages of questionnaires

• limited data low response (postal questionnaires)
• inflexible  snapshots
• lack validity lying, forgetting
• imposing the researchers meaning

Structured (W+Y) Unstructured (Dobash + Dobash)     group (Willis)   semi-structured (Gavron)

Advantages of structured interviews

• representative
• quantitative data
• scientific data
• reliable
• cheap/easy
• face to face = better response rate
• limited interviewer effect