2 Methods of research

2.1 Types of data, methods and research design

• The differences between primary and secondary sources of data and between quantitative and qualitative data.
Primary data – data which is collected firsthand by the researcher.
Advantages:
Theoretical

 High in reliability – other researchers can replicate in the exact way the research was done
 More up to date – the data is collected in real time, so it is likely to answer the questions that need to be addressed.
 High in representativeness – it is directly taken from the population, so it accurately represents the characteristics
of the larger group
Disadvantages:
Practical
 Expensive - Researchers have to spend more to get the data. The amount depends on the preparation, or the
primary research method used. The number and geographic reach of respondents also affect costs. For example, in a
survey, the costs may be higher and include surveyor wages, data entry fees, and questionnaire printing costs.
 Time-consuming – may take a lot of time to design, construct, carry out and analyse, especially if it involves
personally interviewing large numbers of people. For example, Surveys and interviews may take several days,
depending on the number of respondents. After the data is obtained, the researcher must enter the data, clean it,
and put it in a database. They may also have to classify answers to some open-ended questions.
 Difficulty gaining access to the target group - Some people may refuse to participate, or, in the case of historical
research, potential respondents are no longer alive.
 Needs a large enough sample to make the sample credible and be able to generalize

Theoretical

 Lower variety - Primary data contains only the topics under study. In contrast, secondary data is more varied
because it comes from various sources.
 Subjective – researchers will be looking for data that 'fits' in with the hypothesis they are trying to test

Secondary data – data which already exists and has been previously collected by another person/ organization.
Advantages:
Theoretical
 Official statistics are useful for making comparisons over time. For example, the U.K. Census goes back to 1851.
 More varied because it comes from various sources.
Practical
 There is a lot of it - It is the richest vein of information available to researchers in many topic areas.
 Large data sets might not exist if it wasn’t for the government collecting data.
 It might be the only means of researching the past.
 Easy access - many public documents and official statistics are freely available to the researcher.
Disadvantages:
Theoretical

 Official statistics may reflect the biases of those in power - they may have been altered to make social institutions
e.g., govt, police to look good especially with unemployment, crime rates
 The way things are measured may change over time, making historical comparisons difficult e.g., with crime
statistics, the definition of crime keeps changing
 Documents may lack authenticity – parts of the document might be missing because of age, and we might not even
be to verify who actually wrote the document, meaning we cannot check whether its biased or not.
 Low representativeness – documents may not be representative of the wider population, especially with older
documents. Many documents do not survive because they are not stored, and others deteriorate with age and
become unusable. Other documents are deliberately withheld from researchers and the public gaze, and therefore
do not become available.

Quantitative data - information expressed numerically that captures the ‘who’ ‘what’ ‘when’ and ‘where’ of behavior
Secondary quantitative: official statistics e.g., government census, data on births, marriages, deaths and social services.
Primary quantitative research methods:

 Questionnaires - close ended

 Structured interviews
 Experiments – lab & comparative

 Content analysis
Quantitative data expresses information numerically, in 1 of 3 ways:

 a raw number, such as the total number of people who live in a society
 a % or the number of people per 100, in a population; for example, around 80% of Indians follow the Hindu religion
 a rate, or the number of people per 1,000 in a population; a birth rate of 1, for example, means that for every 1,000
people in a population, one baby is born each year.
Advantages:
 Large sample - high in representative and generalization e.g., govt census
 Cheap - doesn't cost much too able to gather more data
 Limited ethical issues - not invading anyone's ideas, not having to deal with sensitive issues as responses are limited
to numbers not words
 Avoids interviewer/ researcher bias and effect - able to do a topic that is tied up with stigma and stereotypes as
their interviewer can't impose their opinion
 Kruger (2003) - allows us to summarize vast sources of information and make comparisons across categories and
over time
 Statistics are useful if the researcher does not need to explore the reasons for people's behavior - if they simply
need to compare the number of murders committed each year in different societies.
 Statistical comparisons and correlations can test whether a hypothesis is true or false and can also track changes in
the behavior of the same group over time (a longitudinal study).
 Matveev (2002) - more reliable because it is easier to repeat and replicate the study.
 Objective – researcher does not need to have a close personal involvement with the subjects of the study, so their
personal biases are less likely to intrude into the data collection process.
 Preferred by positivists
Disadvantages:
 Low validity - findings don’t accurately portray a true picture of society
 Truthfulness of findings - don't know who is filling it in, don't know if someone is lying
 Operationalization of concepts - the concept may be vague which leads to people coming up with different
definitions for things
 Kruger - difficult to get the real meaning of an issue by looking at numbers.
 McCullough (1988) - issues are only measured if they are known before the research is started'. To quantify
behavior, the researcher must decide in advance what is and what is not significant in terms of the behavior being
studied.
 There is no opportunity to develop the research beyond its original boundaries as it has already been completed by
other people.
 Sorokin (1956) 'quantophrenia' - causes excessive reliance on quantification in situations where it is not needed
regardless of whether it tells us anything useful about the behavior being quantified.

Qualitative data - non – numeric in-depth information that describes that quality of a relationship
It involves questions about how people feel about their experiences and can be used to understand the meanings
applied to behavior. Examples:
- In the USA Venkatesh (2009) studied a juvenile gang from the viewpoint of its members
- Goffman (1961) examined the experiences of patients in a mental institution.
Both were trying to capture the quality of people's behavior: what the subjects understand, how they feel and, most
importantly, why they behave in particular ways in different situations.
Secondary qualitative: newspapers, radio and TV reports, websites, novels, literature, art, autobiographies, letters,
diaries, registers, historical documents, previous sociological studies
Primary qualitative research methods:
 Participant observation (overt & covert)
 Non - participant observation
 Semi structured and unstructured interviews
 Group interviews
 Open questionnaires
 Field experiments
Advantages:

Theoretical
 Participant observation allows more insight (verstehen) – understanding by experiencing
 More in-depth data
 More respondent-led, avoids the imposition problem.
 Preferred by Interpretivists
 High in validity - Participant observation allows researchers to have greater freedom to study people in their normal
settings leading to the results being more likely to show how people really behave and what they really believe.
 Matveev - allow the researcher to gain a 'more realistic feel of the world that cannot be experienced through
numerical data and statistical analysis'.
Practical
 A useful way of accessing groups who don’t like formal methods/ authority
Ethical

 Useful for sensitive topics

 Allows respondents to ‘speak for themselves’
 Treats respondents as equals
Disadvantages:
Theoretical
 Low representativeness - focuses on the intensive study of relatively small groups limits the opportunity for
applying the data more widely so other groups may not be represented
 Subjective bias of researcher may influence data
 Disliked by Positivists
 Difficult to compare qualitative data across time and location because no 2 groups will ever be qualitatively the
same (the research does not compare 'like with like').
 Lacks reliability - The depth and detail of the data makes the research difficult to replicate
Practical

 Time consuming
 Expensive per person researched compared to qualitative data
 Difficult to gain access with participant observation
 Analyzing data can be difficult
Ethical
 Close contact means more potential for harm
 In covert observation there is no anonymity and confidentiality
 Informed consent can be an issue with participant observation

Secondary sources of data

 Official statistics (quantitative)

 Personal documents (qualitative)
 Digital content & Media sources (qualitative & quantitative)

Official statistics
Numerical information collected and used by the government and its agencies to make decisions about society and the
economy.
Hard statistics - simple counts that register events such as births and deaths which are not easily manipulated
 For example, statistics about the number of divorces in a society can be viewed as 'hard' evidence. This is because a
divorce has to be legally registered and so clear and accurate records are available.
 Hard statistics are less socially constructed and more accurate.

Soft statistics – data that has been collected from qualitative observations and quantified.
 For example, official statistics about the unemployment rate may be 'soft' in, because there are different ways of
defining 'unemployment'; depending on which definition is used, the figures may vary greatly.
 Soft statistics are less reliable, and less valid, because they're more easily manipulated politically or are the outcome
of interactions and labelling.
Advantages:
Theoretical (positivism):
 High reliability - Data is usually collected in the same way from the same sources (iteration) which adds to its reliability
because research can be replicated and compared.
 High validity - For example, data about marriage, divorce, birth and death can record these events with a high degree
of accuracy.
 Objectivity - allows the research to remain detached from respondents so there is less room for the subjective bias
of the researcher to interfere with the research process.
 Some large data sets might not exist if they were not collected by the government – because individuals and
universities simply don’t have the funds to do such large-scale research as required by the Census, while large
private companies would only focus on data collection which is profitable.
 Favored by Positivists because they allow us to spot trends, find correlations and make generalizations - for
example, the British Crime Survey goes back to 1982 for example, League Tables go back until 1988 and the UK
Census goes back to 1841.
 Patterns of behavior may be picked up by statistical analysis - because they provide a broad overview of behavior
across local, national and international. For example, Durkheim (1897) identified distinct patterns to suicidal
behavior based on a comparative analysis of official suicide statistics across a range of different societies. He found
that there are external forces shaping whether someone commits suicide or not.
 Statistical data drawn from different years can be used to understand how something has changed. For example,
education statistics can track changes in levels of achievement.
 Statistics can be used to track changes in behavior, e.g., before and after the introduction of a new law
Practical:

 Generally easy to access and to navigate – they are more likely to be shared with the public because they are paid
for by taxes, so they are freely available to researchers and the general public.
 May be the only available source covering a particular area of study, such as suicide.
 Readily available - Data that would be costly, time-consuming and difficult to collect, such as statistics on marriage,
divorce or crime, especially since the development of the internet.
 Representativeness - Marshall (1998) notes, statistical 'data are nationally representative, because they are
obtained from complete censuses or very large-scale national sample surveys'.
Ethical

 Official Statistics are collected in the ‘national interest’ and so avoid the biases of private research, which would only
collect data which would be of interest to the particular researcher, or data which is profitable.
 Official Statistics enable us to check up on the performance of public bodies such as the police and schools, making
sure taxpayers’ money is spent efficiently.
Disadvantages:
Theoretical (interpretivism):
 The way that some social trends are measured changes over time making historical comparisons difficult. For
example, in 1988 the Conservative government brought in league tables in which all schools were judged on exam
performance which resulted in schools with middle class pupils being placed higher up. The Labour government then
introduced Contextual Value Added in 2006 to take into account the deprivation that pupils can suffer.
 Lacks validity – data is manipulated to make things look better than they actually are. For example, the British
government has changed the way unemployment is measured several times over the last decades– for example by
reclassifying anyone who is receiving unemployment benefit but on a work-related training course as not being
unemployed. As a result, the number of officially unemployed people down
 Low representation – not all crimes are reported/ recorded and research has shown that in many societies as much
as 75% of all crime 'is in the dark figure'.
 Marxist and Feminists argue that official statistics serve the interests of elite groups as data is only collected on
things which do not harm those in power. For example, Corporate Crime and Financial Crimes of elites are not
focused on by the government and domestic violence is not taken seriously by the state as more than 1/1000
women are victims of sexual offences annually
 Male Bias - Feminists argue official statistics are biased against women. Definitions of 'work don't include
housework.
 Reflect the biases and prejudices of those in power (gives a misleading impression of reality) - African-Caribbeans
and Muslims are overrepresented in prisons which suggests people from these groups have higher levels of
criminality. But according to Marxist criminologists this is not the case because the reason such groups are in jail is
because of racial profiling by the police. Meaning the police spend more time actively policing the black and Muslim
communities (with more stop and searches) which leads to the higher arrest and imprisonment rates.
 Lacks depth - does not reveal much about the reasons for people's behavior. For example, why people kill each
other
 Low reliability - Governments occasionally change the definition of key concepts and different governments may
also define a concept differently. Bakewell discovered governments define concepts differently in relation to official
definitions of 'a refugee' around the world. This reduces reliability because when making statistical comparisons the
researcher must ensure they are comparing like with like.
 Official Statistics are collected for administrative purposes rather than for research purposes so the data which
exists and the categories and indicators used might not fit a researcher’s specific research purposes.

Practical
 Statistics are expensive to collect - For example, the ONS employs 4000 people to collate the data and The Census
in 2011 cost hundreds of million pounds to produce.

Ethical

 The collection of some statistics can have harmful effects – for example, The introduction of school league tables
and the requirement that schools publish their results has led to more teaching to the test, a decline in creativity in
education, and education generally being much more stressful for both pupils and teachers.
- Teaching to the test means that teachers focus on specific items in order to ensure that their students achieve
higher scores during standardized tests. Which results in Students being more likely to cheat on tests and
students memorizing answers instead of learning information.
 The collection of statistics might really be about surveillance and control – for example, the collection of data on
school performance enables control of teachers while the collection of data on pupils allows ‘problem pupils’ to be
identified and managed by social services from a young age.

Personal documents/ life documents - first-hand accounts of social events and personal experiences, which include the
writer’s feelings and attitudes.
Examples:
 Letters (including suicide notes)
 Diaries, blogs and vlogs
 Individual social media profiles
 Graffiti
 Oral histories
 Photographs
 Autobiographies

Advantages:
Practical
 Public documents are easily accessible – for example government policies emphasize parent choice which makes a
large amount of information on schools available to the public that researchers can easily use.
 Saves sociologists time and money - the information has already been gathered

Theoretical
 Useful for historical and comparative purposes - for example, Aries (1962) used historical paintings and documents
to support his argument that childhood was a relatively recent invention.
 Historical documents reveal the diversity of people's behavior - things we now take for granted may have been
seen differently in the past, and vice versa.
 Provide high quality in depth qualitative data - For example, diaries such as Samuel Pepys - who recorded life in
England during the 1660s & Anne Frank - who recorded her life in hiding from the Nazis in Amsterdam during the
Second World War, provides extensive and valuable details about people and their daily lives.
 It is possible to compare accounts across time to test the validity of current accounts of social behavior -
Comparisons of past and present accounts of family and working lives can help researchers understand the
continuities and changes in individual and institutional behavior. For example, Pearson (1983) used media accounts
going back over 100 years to demonstrate that 'hooligan' or 'yobbish' behavior is not a recent phenomenon in the
UK.
 Can be used for semiological analysis – this compares their literal (what they actually say) and metaphorical (what
they tell us about the hopes, fears and beliefs of whoever produced them) meanings. For example, newspaper
articles may tell us more about their writers and how they see social problems than they do about the topic of the
article.
 Interpretivists favor documents because they are valid – they are not usually written with research in mind and can
be an authentic statement of their author’s views.
 May be the only source of information on an area of research – by providing secondary data in situations where it
is not possible to collect primary data. For example, historical documents are often the only way of investigating the
past and without them, it would be very difficult to find out about history.
 They are useful for interpretivists who wish to gain insights into the worldview of ideologies of those who produced
them. Like autobiographies and diaries
 May be useful for assessing people’s concerns of worries - For example, letters, advice columns of newspapers and
magazines may give valuable insights into the thinking of readers.
Disadvantages:

Practical
 Not easy to find/access - hard to find source of origin and some documents are deliberately withheld from
researchers and the public gaze and do not become available. For example, some educational documents are
confidential such as teachers’ personnel files and pupils’ disciplinary records which make them extremely difficult for
sociologists to access.

Theoretical
 Subjective - Analyzing documents involves imposing your own meaning on the data.
 John Scott (1990):
1. The document may lack authenticity – Parts of the document might be missing because of age,
2. The document may lack credibility – We may not be able to verify why somebody wrote the document, and
what their motive was. We need to know if the document has been distorted for political reasons, for example,
because this would mean they would put a spin on the content.
3. Meaning – It may be hard to interpret the meaning of the documents if they are written in an archaic language
and with older documents it is not possible to get the authors to clarify what they meant if they are dead.
4. Representativeness – Documents may not be representative of the wider population – especially a with older
documents.

Digital content & Media sources

Includes Newspapers, books, moving images
Disadvantages:
 We don’t always know why/ by whom a document was created which means we cannot always be sure if it is a
believable source
 Digital sources can be subject to change - old websites for example, become inaccessible while others may be
updated so that the original content is lost. Some sources may become harder to access as technologies become no
longer used e.., floppy disks

Primary quantitative research methods

 Questionnaires - close ended
 Structured interviews
 Experiments – lab & comparative

 Content analysis

Questionnaires

Questionnaire - a standardized list of written questions

Types of questionnaires:

1. Postal questionnaires – sent through the post and completed in private without the presence of/ guidance from the
researcher
2. Researcher-administered questionnaires - completed in the presence of the researcher, with the respondents
answering the questions verbally.
Advantages:

Practical

 Easy to replicate the research.

 Quick and cheap to gather large amounts of data from large numbers of people, from different geographical
locations
 There is no need to recruit and train interviewers/ observers to collect the data
Theoretical

 Highly reliable data - because everyone answers the same questions

 High validity - respondents often remain anonymous means, which is good especially when it involves questions
about potentially embarrassing or criminal behavior.
 Less risk that the respondent will give biased answers or try to anticipate what the researcher wants to hear if
there is no face-to-face interaction
 Postal or online questionnaires have no researcher present to influence the respondent’s answer
 The allow easy comparison over time and between different societies
 The respondents do the time-consuming work of completing the questionnaire.
 Positivists favor questionnaires because they are detached and objective (unbiased) method i.e., the sociologist’s
personal involvement is kept to a minimum
Disadvantages:
Practical

 Low response rate - not everyone will complete the questionnaire e.g., Shere Hite’s (1991) study of ‘love, passion
and emotional violence’ in America sent out 100,000 questionnaires but only received 4.5% of that number as a
reply
 Risk receiving responses from only a select group who have time to answer them e.g., the unemployed or socially
isolated, or only from people who have a particular interest in that topic. There is also nothing the researcher can do
if respondents ignore questions/ respond incorrectly, such as choosing two answers when only one was requested.
Theoretical

 Lack of validity - the lack of detailed information means that potentially significant data is not collected.
 The researcher has to decide at the start of the study what is and is not significant - there is no opportunity to
amend this later on.
 The researcher has no way of knowing whether a respondent has understood a question properly - the researcher has
to trust that the questions mean the same thing to all respondents.
 If someone other than the intended respondent completes the questionnaire, it will affect the validity and
representativeness of the research.
 Interpretivists such as Cicourel (1968) argue that the data from questionnaires lacks validity and that we can only
gain a valid picture by using methods that get us close to the subjects of the study and share their meanings.
 By choosing what questions to ask, the researcher has already decided what is important, not the respondent
 Parker (1974) argues that 'by cornering people in classrooms to answer questionnaires the sociologist misses
meeting them as people in their normal society'.
Ethical

 Researchers should gain respondent’s fully informed consent, guarantee their anonymity and make it clear that they
have the right not to answer any of the questions that they do not wish to.

Closed ended/ pre coded questionnaires

Respondents choose from a limited range of possible answers e.g., ‘yes’ or ‘no’.
Advantages:

 Pre-coded questions make it easier to quantify data, because the options are already known, they are limited in
number and easy to count.
 Quick and easy to code and interpret.
 Pre-coded questions are useful when the researcher needs to contact large numbers of people quickly and
efficiently.
 Easy to replicate - If repeated by another researcher, the questionnaire should give similar results because the
questions used will be the same
Disadvantages:

 They do not allow the respondent to develop an answer beyond the listed categories.
 The questionnaire format makes it difficult to examine complex issues and opinions.

Structured interviews

Set of standard questions asked by the researcher in person to the respondent

Advantages:
Practical

 Easily standardized and repeatable.

 Training interviewers is easy and cheap as they only need to follow instructions
 Surveys that use structured interviews can cover quite large numbers of people - Halsey, Heath and Ridge 1980:
Origins & Destinations
 This was an extensive piece of research on the educational chances of schoolboys from different social classes.
 Accessed a large sample of 8000 men, to look at the extent to which social class had impacted their experience
of education. He divided people up into three social classes.
 They found that the children born into the service class did much better at school than those from the
intermediate class, and both did better than the working class.
 Issues with the research:
 There had been significant changes in both the education system and society since many of the sample had
finished school.
 Suitable for gathering straightforward, factual information
 Training interviewees is relatively straightforward and inexpensive
Theoretical

 Respondents misunderstanding or not answering questions can be resolved by the researcher.

 High response rate – a lot of people can be interviewed because they are quick due to the standardized questions
 Easy to replicate - standardized questioning allows for another researcher to conduct the interview in exactly the
same way so when the following researcher conducts research in the same way, they should get similar results
 Easy to compare results and identify similarities and differences
 High generalizability as they use closed-ended questions with coded answers - Young and Willmott (1962):
Families in the East End
 Young and Willmott used structured interviews to research the nature, extent and importance of the extended
family in the area of London.
 Time restrictions had to be placed on the interviews and a structured approach was taken to ensure high
generalizability with a large sample size.
Disadvantages:

Theoretical

 The interview effect - occurs when a respondent tries to 'help' the researcher by providing answers designed to
please. This reduces validity because respondents simply provide answers, they think the researcher wants. This can
be caused by a 'halo effect', a situation Draper (2006) describes as occurring when the novelty of being interviewed
and a desire to reward the interviewer for giving the respondent the chance to experience it, results in
unintentionally dishonest answers.
 The researcher effect: (the interviewer effect) - refers to how the relationship between researcher and respondent
may bias responses and lead to invalid data.
- Aggressive interviewers, for example, the researcher may introduce bias by intimidating a respondent into
giving answers they do not really believe.
- Status considerations, based on factors such as gender, age, class and ethnicity, may also bias the data. A
female respondent may feel embarrassed about answering questions about her sexuality posed by a male
researcher.
 Prestige bias - occurs when a respondent gives an answer designed to not make themselves look bad. For
example, opinion polls sometimes show respondents saying they would willingly pay more taxes if it helped to
improve hospitals or care of the elderly, but in reality, they vote for political parties that promise to reduce taxes.
 The interpretivists argue structured interviews fail to reveal how the interviewee sees their situation.
 No opportunity to gain verstehen.
 Not suitable for highly sensitive topics as there is no opportunity to establish a rapport with the interviewee.
Rapport - a close and harmonious relationship between researcher and respondents, such that both parties understand
each other’s feelings and communicate well.

Experiments - Involves testing the relationship between different variables.

The researcher changes/ manipulates independent variables to see if they produce a change in dependent variables. Any
changes must be caused by a change in the independent variable.
Independent variable (manipulated)- what the researcher changes to see how it/ they affect the dependent variable
Dependent variable (measured) - the object under study in an experiment
Variables - factors that can be changed (manipulated) by the researcher to understand their effect on behavior
Experiments are based on changing an independent variable and measuring any subsequent change in a dependent
variable, the relationship can be 1 of 2 types:
1. Correlations occur when two or more things happen at roughly the same time. These only suggest a relationship,
however, because it is possible for them to occur by chance. For example, waking up in bed fully clothed may correlate
with feeling unwell - but that does not mean the former causes the latter. A third factor, such as drinking a lot of alcohol
the previous evening, might be a cause of both.
Former - refers to something that is first in the order of two or more things.
Latter - refers to something that is either second in a group of two things or last in a group of several.

2. Causation involves the idea that when one action occurs, another always follows. There is a causal relationship
between the 2 events which are are powerful because they allow a researcher to predict the future behavior of
something.
"Correlation is not causation" means that just because two things correlate does not necessarily mean that one causes
the other. As a seasonal example, just because people in the UK tend to spend more in the shops when it's cold and less
when it's hot doesn't mean cold weather causes frenzied high-street spending
It is not easy to distinguish between correlation and causation in sociological research, because things often happen at
the same time by chance or coincidence.
2 ways to separate correlation from causality:
1. Test and retest a relationship. The more times a test is replicated with the same result, the greater the chances that
the relationship is causal.
2. Use different groups with exactly the same characteristics:

 an experimental group whose behavior is manipulated

Experimental group - The group under study in the investigation who receive the treatment whose effect researchers
wish to study. This group is exposed to changes in the independent variable being tested. The values of the independent
variable and the impact on the dependent variable are recorded. An experiment may include multiple experimental
groups at one time.
 a control group whose behavior is not manipulated.
Control group - The group which is similar to the study group who are held constant. Following the experiment, the
experimental group can be compared to the control group to measure the extent of the impact (if any) of the
independent variables.
Lab experiments
Laboratory experiment: experiment that takes place in a closed environment where conditions can be precisely
monitored and controlled.
Laboratory experiments are rare in sociology, because they raise ethical issues and questions about validity.
Advantages:
Theoretical

 The controlled conditions of laboratory experiments allow researchers to isolate variables: you can precisely
measure the exact effect of one thing on another.
 You can establish cause and effect relationships.
 You can collect ‘objective’ knowledge – about how facts ‘out there’ affect individuals.
 (positivists) High reliability - can be repeated exactly the same way due to the standardized nature allowing
previous findings to be checked.

Practical
 It is easy to attract funding because of the prestige of science.
 Take place in one setting so researchers can conduct research like any other day job – no need to chase
respondents.

Ethical

 Most laboratory experiments seek to gain informed consent, often a requirement to get funding.
 Legality – lab experiments rarely ask participants to do anything illegal.
 Findings benefit society – both Milgram and Zimbardo would claim the shocking findings of their research outweigh
the harm done to respondents.
 Zimbardo – The Stanford Prison Experiment was a landmark psychological study of the human response to
captivity, in particular, to the real-world circumstances of prison life
 Milgram - The results indicated that people would show obedience towards an authority figure due to the
power they have over them and were repeated several times e.g., The BBC did a documentary in 2008 in which
12 people were subjected to what seems to be the same experiment, and similar results were found & Darren
Brown also did a more recent re-run of the Milgram obedience experiment in order to test people’s responses
to authority as part of his 2014 programme
Disadvantages:
Theoretical

 They are reductionist - human behavior cannot be explained through simple cause and effect relationships (people
are not ‘puppets’).
 Laboratory experiments lack external validity – the artificial environment is so far removed from real-life that the
results tell us very little about how respondents would actually act in real life as it Is impossible to capture people’s
normal behavior or collect real responses when the subjects are placed in such an artificial environment
 They are small scale - makes them unrepresentative.
 The Hawthorne Effect may further reduce validity respondents may act differently. The Hawthorne effect are the
changes in people's behavior directly resulting from their knowledge of being studied.
 Mayo (1933) study at the Hawthorne factory in Chicago where the working conditions at the factory were
manipulated in different ways, such as changing the brightness of the lighting and the temperature in the
factory. The results were always the same: the productivity of the workers increased. Draper argues that 'the
important effect here was the feeling of being studied'.
Practical
 It is impractical to observe large scale social processes in a laboratory – you cannot get whole towns, let alone
countries of people, into the small-scale setting of a laboratory.
 Time – Small samples mean you will need to conduct consecutive experiments on small groups if you want large
samples, which will take time
 It can be difficult to control all possible influences on behavior, even in a laboratory setting.
Ethical

 Interpretivists may be uncomfortable with the unequal relationships between researcher and respondent – the
researcher takes on the role of the expert, who decides what is worth knowing in advance of the experiment.
 Deception and lack of informed consent – it is often necessary to deceive subjects as to the true nature of the
experiment so that they do not act differently

Milgram (1963) was interested in researching how far people would go in obeying an instruction if it involved
harming another person.

 The results indicated that people would show obedience towards an authority figure due to the power they
have over them
 An experimenter would sit at a desk at the back of the room, the teacher would sit at a desk with a shock
generator on it, which he believed was connected to the learner who was situated in another room.
 Ethical issues with the study:
 Deception – the participants believed that they were shocking a real person and were unaware that the learner
was a confederate of Milgram's.
 Withdrawal Rights - Participants weren't allowed to withdraw/ discourage from withdrawing from the
experiment and were prodded to make sure they continued.
 Some specific lab experiments have resulted in harm to respondents: e.g., Bandura et al Bobo Doll experiment

Bandura et al (1963) - bobo doll experiment was designed to measure the relationship between media violence and
violent behavior in young people, used 4 groups:

 3 experimental groups were shown a film depicting different types of violence

 The control group was not shown violent behavior.
 Each group was observed to see whether those shown violent behavior then played violently with a specially
designed inflatable doll.
 The experimental groups demonstrated violent behavior, but the control group did not which suggested at
worst a correlation and, at best, a causal relationship between seeing violence and acting violently.
 A control group can be used to check that changes in the experimental groups' behavior were not the result of
chance. Without a control group, Bandura et al. could not have been sure that the violent behavior of the
groups shown violent films was not simply their normal behavior.

Ethical issues with the study:

 Harm and the wellbeing of participants - The children may have been distressed by the aggressive behavior
they witnessed and the aggressive behavior they learned from the study may have stayed with them, going on
to become a behavioral problem.
 Consent: the children cannot give informed consent and the parents weren't asked to give it on their behalf
 Deception: the children were not given any indication of what the study was about or debriefed
 Withdrawal from the investigation: there was a researcher at the door stopping the children from leaving at
each stage
  Confidentiality: some video footage of the experiment was released however this was with the consent from
the children's parents
 Protection of participants: the children were not followed up upon or offered counselling as they were likely to
have become more violent in the future after being exposed to these role models

The comparative method

The comparative method - where the researcher collects data about different societies/ social groups (e.g., working-
class; middle-class and upper-class) in the real world and then compares one group/ society with another to identify
what is evident in one group/ society but not another as a way to explain the causes of some social event
Advantages:
 Favored by positivists
 Discovers cause and effect relationships
 Poses no ethical issues
 Can be studied in the past
 It avoids artificiality
 Montesquieu and Auguste Comte used/ recommended ‘’comparison‟ to establish and explain both differences and
similarities between societies.
Disadvantages:
 No control over variables
 ‘Thought experiment’
 Radcliffe Brown observed that using this method alone gives a researcher nothing - “Nothing will grow out of the
ground unless you put seeds into it”
Example of comparative method:

Durkheim’s study on suicide - By comparing official statistics between various societies, he was able to identify what
was evident in one society and not in another which might cause suicide. He found that there are external forces
shaping whether someone commits suicide or not.

Content analysis
It is a way of analysing the content of documents and other qualitative material by quantifying it which is done by
sorting out categories and then analysing a document to record the number of times items in each category appear.
Produces primary quantitative data from the study of qualitative data in secondary sources.
Examples of sociological research using content analysis:
Harwood (1997) used content analysis to demonstrate that television viewers generally prefer to watch characters of
their own age.
Robert Hogenraad (2003) used computer-based analysis to search historical accounts of war in order to identify
recurring themes and words in the lead up to conflicts which suggests that quantitative analysis can have predictive
qualities
The Glasgow Uni Media Group (1976) used this method to study TV news reports on industrial action so they could
assess the content. Their study produced statistic evidence of television’s biases by portraying management in a positive
light as more rational individuals while the workers in a negative way and so less rational. This occurred through
managers being interviewed in calm surroundings while the workers were often reported in nosier environments.
Page (2005) tracked how media professionals portrayed global warming in order to show how far global warming was
reported in terms of ‘natural’ or ‘social’ causes.
Quantitative analysis of media texts for example, uses statistical techniques to categorize and count the frequency of
people's behavior using a content analysis grid
Advantages:

 It is relatively cheap
 Highly reliable - it produces quantitative statistical data that other researchers can easily check.
 Provides information about the content of media in statistical form which can reveal patterns/ trends which may not
have been obvious before the research
 Easy to gain access
 Not expensive to create a representative sample
 Easy to replicate and repeat
 Complex forms of social interactions can be quantified using a standardized framework e.g., a content analysis grid
that can be applied across a wide range of media.
 Can present an objective account of events, themes, issues etc.
 It is an unobtrusive method - there is no involvement with people whose presence may affect the results of
research.
Disadvantages:

 It cannot reveal the reasons for certain patterns of content/ the meanings placed on it, it just describes it
 Not objective – the researcher must select and record data accurately and, in some instances the researcher must
make choices about how to interpret particular forms of behavior e.g., when a character is acting aggressively. The
researcher decides things like what categories will be used which could make the research being conducted bias
 By attempting to quantify behavior (such as the relationship between people), this method may not tell us very
much about the quality of people’s relationships.
 May be time-consuming - for example analyzing a range of newspapers or TV shows in detail
 It provides us with a snapshot of people’s behavior at a single moment in their life which is small scale not large.
 It describes people’s behavior instead of explaining it - does not tell us what behavior means to those involved and
those watching.

Peter Townsend 1979: poverty and social exclusion

 Aimed to discover how many people were living in poverty in UK.

 He developed content analysis using a deprivation index to measure relative deprivation.
 Townsend found that almost 23% of the UK population were in poverty which was much higher than that based on
state standard of poverty (6.1%) and relative income standard of poverty (9%).
 Criticisms of Townsend's deprivation index:
 Critics question some items in townsend's index and how they were selected. For example, not eating meat regularly
is not necessarily linked to deprivation.
 If the index is inadequate, then statistics based on it will also be questioned.

Primary qualitative research methods

1. Participant observation (overt & covert)

2. Non - participant observation
3. Semi structured interviews (qualitative & quantitative)
4. Unstructured interviews
5. Group interviews
6. Open questionnaires

Participant observation
Participant observation - When the researcher takes an active part in the group they are studying.
Advantages:
Practical
 Researchers may use sponsorship to gain access to a particular group - This involves gaining the trust and co-
operation of an important group member making it easier to separate the roles of participant and observer and
reducing the chance of the researcher going native - becoming so involved in a group that they stop observing and
simply become a participant.
 Venkatesh's (2009) study of a black American gang was only possible because a middle-ranking gang member
called 'JT' 'sponsored' and protected Venkatesh while he observed the gang and eventually gained access to
some of its more powerful members.
 Whyte's (1943) entered an Italian street gang through the sponsorship of its leader, 'Doc'.

Theoretical
 Produces qualitative data (valid) - Full participation in a group, where the researcher lives, works and socializes with
the people they are studying allows the researchers to ask questions, observe individual behaviors and experience
the day-to-day life of respondents which helps the researcher to build up a highly detailed picture of the lives they
are describing.
 Verstehen – Weber described this as “understanding by experiencing”. It involves the researcher putting themselves
in the position of the person they want to research allowing the researcher to see/ experience things from the
viewpoint of the subjects of the research. Coupled with the sociological insights a researcher has, they can make
sense of behavior in situations where group members may not fully understand the reasons for that behavior which
will allow them to achieve verstehen (true empathy). Downes and Rock (2003) support this by arguing participant
observation reflects 'the claim that social behavior cannot be understood unless it is personally experienced'
Disadvantages:
Theoretical
 Low in reliability – research cannot be replicated so findings cannot be checked by another researcher as we have to
trust that the researcher saw/ experienced what they claim to have seen.
 Low validity - No researcher can accurately record behavior while they are in the middle of it and it is also
impossible to document everything that happens, which means this method will always involve the selection,
interpretation and reconstruction of ideas and events.
 Risk of going native - the researcher may become too involved with the group being studied and begin to see the
world as they do and develop loyalty to the group resulting in the researcher finding it difficult to stand back and
report findings in a neutral way which can lower the validity of the research. For example, Whyte became so
involved with the lives of Italian street gang members he came to see himself as 'one of the gang members' and not
as a researcher.
 Largely unrepresentative - only a small group is studied and so the data produced is not generalizable
Practical

 Requires substantial amounts of time, effort and money. For example, Venkatesh's (2009) study of a black American
gang was done around 7/8 years.
 Access:
  If the characteristics of the researcher (such as age, gender or ethnicity) don’t match those of the group the
researcher won’t be able to gain access. For example, a man could not covertly participate in a group of nuns.
 Some groups have entry requirements - entry to some closed groups (such as Freemasons) is by invite only -
unless the researcher is invited, they cannot join.

Overt participant observation - Where those being studied know they are being studied.
The researcher joins the group openly and conducts the research with the permission and co-operation of the group (or
significant members of the group).
Advantages:
Theoretical

 Recording data is easy – the group knows and understands the role of the researcher allowing the researcher to
take notes and observe behavior openly
Ethical
 There is no deception involved
Disadvantages:
Practical
 If a group refuses the researcher permission to observe them then the research cannot be carried out

Theoretical

 Observer/ Hawthorne effect - While people may be studied in their natural environment, an awareness of the
presence of the researcher becomes the focal point around which people orientate their behavior making them
behave unnaturally. For example, Venkatesh (2009) witnessed a staged punishment beating designed to
demonstrate the limits of his observational role; higher-level gang members were 'putting on a show' for his benefit.
Venkatesh (2009) was given 'special treatment'; he was invited to meetings and was introduced to people he would
not have met if he had not been known as a researcher sponsored by a powerful gang member.

Covert participant observation - Those being studied are unaware they are being studied.
The researcher secretly (covertly) joins the group with the main objective is to experience behavior in its 'natural setting'
& to watch people behave as they normally behave. The researcher must balance the roles of researcher and participant
without revealing their true role to other group members.
Advantages:
Practical:
 It may be the only way to study groups/ people who are hard to access normally, for example:
 Criminal or deviant groups: Ward (2008) was a member of the rave dance drugs culture when she began her 5-
year study 'in London nightclubs, dance parties, bars, pubs and people's houses'. Her knowledge of the 'dance
scene' together with her friendship with those involved meant she was able to gain easy access to this world.
 Closed groups: Lofland and Stark (1965) secretly studied the behavior of a religious sect because this was the
only way to gain access to the group. Sect - the name given to a group of people who break away from a larger,
established religious denomination because of a set of beliefs that differ in some keyways.
 Defensive groups: Ray (1987) covertly studied Australian environmental groups who would have been
suspicious of his motives if he had tried to study them openly.
Theoretical
 Avoids the Hawthorne effect - the subjects' behavior is largely unaffected by the researcher's presence because
they are unaware their being studied

Ethical
 Less risk of involvement in unethical, criminal, dangerous or destructive behaviors - where the observer's role is
clearly defined the researcher can withdraw from risky situations without necessarily losing the trust/ arousing the
suspicions of those being studied.
Disadvantages:

Practical
 Researcher requires a range of skills: the ability to mix easily with strangers, create and maintain a plausible and
convincing back story, to think on their feet when questioned or challenged. For example, Parker had to make
instant decisions about whether or not to participate in the criminal activities of the gang of youths
 If a researcher lacks the 'insider knowledge' they should have, they risk exposure. For example, Parke and Griffiths
had 'street knowledge about slot machine gamblers and their environments', such as the terminology, players use,
machine features and gambling etiquette which was an essential requirement for covert participation in the
gambling world.
 Time consuming and expensive e.g., Tearoom Trade by Laud Humphreys
 Study of men who engage in homosexual behavior in public facilities. Later on, he interviewed them in their
homes after recording their license plate numbers.
 He acted as a watch queen – a look out and sometimes told the men he preferred to watch
 One of the first major studies of more hidden forms of sexuality
 One of the first major studies of same-sex sexual behavior
Practical issues:

 cost/funding: illegal activity/taboo

 time consuming: 1 year
Theoretical

 Low validity – recording data is difficult because the researcher cannot take notes, ask too many questions or openly
record conversations without raising suspicion. Parke and Griffiths argue it's impossible to study everyone at all
times and locations, so it becomes a matter of personal choice as to what data is recorded, collected and observed
which affects validity.
Ethical

 Threats to personal safety by formerly studied subjects - There may be possible reprisals against the researcher if
criminal activities are involved including arrest by the police
 Raises ethical concerns – does the researcher have the right to pretend to be one of the group members or use its
members for the researchers' own purposes. For example, in the Tearoom Trade study, Humphreys degree was
revoked on the grounds that he broke the law by observing and facilitating oral sex.
 No consent – the researcher does not have consent of the participants to publish any of the information they
collect. For example, Laud Humphreys interviewed the gay men in disguise without revealing the true intent of his
studies (he claimed to be a health service interviewer) so if they were a subject to Humphreys project, they would
feel betrayed because he never told them what it was for. The research process was also unethical because it wasn't
based on sociology, and his research violated privacy for example, Humphreys used participants license plate
numbers to track them down
Non participant observation
Non-participant observation: When the researcher observes from a distance without taking an active part and the
research subject does not know they are being observed.
Advantages:

Theoretical

 It allows research on people who may not want to be studied - because their behaviour is illegal, secret or
personally embarrassing.
 The researcher does not become personally involved in the behaviour they are studying - so the researcher's
presence cannot influence the behavior of those being watched. For example, Parke and Griffiths (2002) noted in
their study of gambling: 'non-participant observation usually relies on the researcher being unknown to the group
under study ... [they] can study a situation in its natural setting without altering that setting.'
 When the researcher does not participate in the behaviour being observe, respondents can be objectively studied in
a natural setting.
 The researcher gets to see 'everyday behaviour' just as it would normally occur - a technique Yule (1986) used to
discover how mothers really treated their children in public places.
Disadvantages:
Practical
 Observational studies cannot be easily/ exactly replicated because the characteristics and composition of a group
may change over time.
 Parke and Griffiths argue that this method requires certain practical skills, such as 'the art of being inconspicuous'.
They found that 'if the researcher fails to blend in, then slot machine gamblers soon realise they are being watched
and are highly likely to change their behaviour'.
Theoretical

 Lacks depth - Observing people 'from a distance' may produce data that fails to capture the depth, richness and
intimate details of their behaviour.
Ethical

 Raises ethical questions, because people are being observed without their permission.

Unstructured interviews

Free-form interview method where the objective is to get the respondent to talk, without prompting or interruption,
about whatever they feel is important about a topic.
Respondents are encouraged to talk freely about the things they feel are important.
Kvale (1996) states that 'behaviour is understood from the perspective of those being studied; their perceptions,
attitudes and experiences are the focus'.
Advantages:

Practical
 If the research is relatively informal it can take place somewhere the respondent will feel at ease, such as in their
own home. For example, for Hamid et al. this helped 'overcome the barrier of talking about sensitive issues'.
Theoretical

 More likely to be an accurate and detailed expression of respondent beliefs - the researcher's limited input means
that data reflects the interests of the respondent.
- Hamid et al. (2010) used this method in their study of young Pakistani females because 'unstructured interviews
helped elaborate on the topics of participants' choice [marriage and sexuality] and probed further their
concerns'.
 Avoids the problem of the researcher prejudging what constitutes important or irrelevant data.
 The researcher must establish a strong rapport with respondents - If this rapport is achieved, people who may be
naturally wary of being studied can open up to the researcher, allowing sensitive issues to be explored in depth.
 Hamid et al. established a relationship with their respondents by meeting them a number of times before their
research started. This 'helped the participants to open up ... and discuss sensitive issues regarding sexuality and
growing up with reference to their marriage and other related topics of their choice'.
Disadvantages:
Practical

 Training – interviewers need to be trained and need to have a background in sociology so they can recognize when
the interviewee has made a sociologically important point and so they can probe further with an appropriate line of
questioning.
 Time consuming:
 They take a long time to conduct which limits the number of people who can be interviewed.
 Mainly open questions are used so it makes it difficult to quantify and count up responses, so the lack of
quantitative data makes it difficult to establish cause and effect relationships
 The researcher has little control over the direction of the interview and the conversation may stray into areas
that later prove irrelevant to the research.
Theoretical

 The smaller numbers mean it is more difficult to gain a representative sample, which makes it harder to make valid
generalizations based on the findings of the interviews
 Low reliability – unstandardized questions make it hard and virtually impossible to replicate and as a result, it's hard
to compare results
 All forms of interviewing are biased by interview effects - Cohen and Taylor (1977) argue that the most significant
of these effects is that through the act of questioning people, a series of status manipulations come into play. The
outcome of this is that respondents try to please the researcher by telling them what they believe they want to
hear.
Example of unstructured interviews:

Dobash and Dobash (1979)

 Dobash and Dobash used unstructured interviews along with police reports to gain insight into domestic violence.
 They gain strong verstehen and rapport with their participants. This helped participants open up and respond to
difficult conversations. They produced detailed and rich findings about the experiences of women who had suffered
repeated domestic violence and discovered things that were not mentioned in police reports.
 The findings show the full extent of domestic violence in some relationships.
Semi structured interviews (qualitative & quantitative)
Nichols (1991) defines this method as 'an informal interview, not structured by a standard list of questions. Researchers
are free to deal with the topics of interest in any order and to phrase their questions as they think best.'
Features of semi structured interviews:
 Allow respondents to talk at length and in depth about a particular subject
 The focus/ topic of the interview is decided by the researcher
 The interview has a structure/ interview schedule which has the areas the interviewer wants to focus on but there is
no list of specific questions.
 Different respondents are asked different questions on the same topic depending on how the interview develops.
 The objective is to understand things from the respondent's viewpoint, rather than to make generalizations about
behavior.
 Open-ended questions are used in semi structured interviews which can be created before the interview or arise
naturally from whatever the respondent wants to talk about. For example, if the interview is focused on
understanding family life, the interviewer might begin with a question like: 'Tell me about your family.' If the
respondent, then mentions their children the interviewer might decide to continue with a question such as: 'Tell me
about your relationship with your children.'
Advantages:

 Less risk of the researcher predetermining what will be discussed – there are no specific questions prepared
 Respondents can talk about things that interest them - It is possible to pick up ideas and information that may not
have occurred to the interviewer or of which they had no prior knowledge.
 New knowledge gained can be used to inform interviews with different respondents and to suggest further
questions
 Respondents are able to develop their ideas - the researcher is able to discover what someone really means thinks
or believes
 Greater depth of information due to the focus on issues that the respondent considers important
 High validity – more likely that the research will achieve its real aims
 Oatey (1999) suggests that 'freedom for the respondent to answer how they wish is important in giving them a
feeling of control in the interview situation'.
 High validity - Face to face interaction allows the researcher to help and guide respondents by explaining,
rephrasing/ clarifying a question/ answer
Disadvantages:

Practical

 Demands certain skills in the researcher – e.g., asking the right questions, establishing a good rapport and thinking
quickly about relevant question opportunities
 Requires skill from the respondent – an inarticulate respondent will probably be unable to talk openly and in detail
about the research topic
 Oatey argues that open-ended questions 'can cause confusion either because of the lack of understanding of the
question or by the lack of understanding of the respondent's answer'.
 Time-consuming - the large amounts of information they produce must be analyzed and interpreted.
Theoretical

 All interviews are reconstructions

 Respondents must remember and recount past events, which creates problems for both researcher and respondent.
 Imperfect recall - the researcher has no way of knowing if someone is telling the truth. It can not only be difficult to
remember things that may have happened months or years ago, but memories can also be selective - respondents
only recall those things that seem important to them.
 Lacks standardization - the same questions are not necessarily put to all respondents and similar questions may be
phrased differently which can reduce the reliability of the data and make it difficult to generalize the research.

Examples of sociological research using semi structured interviews:

Archer (2003)

 Archer researched Muslim boys and education in the content of race, masculinity and schooling.
 Archer conducted semi-structured group interviews with two Asian women.
 Findings: Her presence as a white woman made PPTs reluctant to speak about racism. (Interviewer effect).
Wright et al. (2005)

 Wright et al. used group interviews in their research into the reasons why African-Caribbean boys are 5 times more
likely to be excluded from school.
 Using group interviews where the students were with friends allowed the respondent to open up and give fuller,
more valid answers.
 The research revealed that the boys felt labelled and discriminated against in the education system.
Halsall and Hollingworth (2007)
Data was collected from 89 pupils aged 14 - 16 in 6 London comprehensive schools using semi-structured interviews.
The researchers found that most of the female pupils were keen to be seen as 'desirable' and 'glamorous'. They spent a
great deal of time and effort working on their hair, make-up and dress styles, in order to construct what the researchers
called a 'sexualised hyper-feminine identity', which is often in conflict with the values of the school
Anne Oakley (1974)
Oakley wanted to find out what women thought about housework.
She conducted 40 in-depth interviews with London housewives. The interviews took 2 hours and she tape recorded the
conversations. The sample came from 2 different areas of London, one predominantly working class and the other
predominantly middle class, further determined by the husband’s occupation.
The participants were selected from medical records from 2 general practices. The housewives were aged between 20
and 30 and all were mothers with at least 1 child under 5
Criticisms:
Negative:
 A sample of 40 is small and unrepresentative considering it was the first study of its kind in the field of housework in
sociology
 Lopata (1978) raised the issue that the phrasing of particular questions asked in the interviews may have prompted
negative responses
 Phillips (1976) states that the sample group is small and disagrees to the fact that its selection was careful
Positive:
 It was written from a feminist perspective, highlighting the issue of females being underrepresented in not only
society
 By conceptualising ‘housework’ as work and recognising it as an occupation, rather than a gender role, Oakley gave
rise to housework as a “legitimate topic of study” and provoked many other social theories of women in roles, family
and society.
 Oakley’s ‘ground-breaking’ work challenged the sexism in sociology and society, giving rise to different gendered
perspectives
 The questions created were made “as factual as possible” to reduce incorrect interpretation
 Was limited by many factors including time and money

Group interviews/ focus groups

Involve respondents gathering to discuss a topic decided in advance by the researcher.
These groups may be selected as representative samples - a cross-section of society, for example - or they may simply
represent a group the researcher wants to explore in detail.
Morgan (1997) says the effectiveness of group interviewing is based on:
■ an interview structure with clear guidelines for the participants, to avoid arguments within the group
■ predetermined questions through which the experiences of participants can be explored

■ interaction within the group, which Gibbs (1997) argues gives 'unique insights into people's shared understandings of
everyday life'.
Ways researchers can help group interviews:

■ control the pace and scope of the discussion

■ plan a schedule that allows them to focus and refocus the discussion
■ intervene to ask questions, stop or redirect aimless discussions
■ create a situation that reflects how people naturally share and discuss ideas.
Advantages:

Theoretical

 Gibbs argues that this method has the ability to 'draw on respondents' attitudes, feelings, beliefs, experiences and
reactions'.
 In a group, respondents are encouraged to elaborate and reflect on their beliefs.
 Kitzinger (1995) suggests that group interaction 'enables participants to ask questions of each other, as well as to re-
evaluate and reconsider their own understanding of their specific experiences'.
 Respondents can 'explore solutions to a particular problem as a group rather than as individuals'.
 Morley (1980) felt that individual interviews were 'abnormal situations' for most people, so group interviews
created an environment that encouraged people to talk at length.
 Pain et als (2000) study of the fear of crime used group interviews which generated large amounts of detailed
information quickly and efficiently uncover attitudes, beliefs and ideas that would not have been revealed by less
flexible methods.
Disadvantages:

Practical

 Takes time, money and effort - the more people there are to co-ordinate, the more likely it is that there will be
problems with resources
Theoretical
 Nichols suggests that focus groups may be same-sex and from similar backgrounds to prevent gender and class
variables which affects the reliability and validity of the data.
 Gibbs notes that 'good levels of group leadership and interpersonal skill are required' - The researcher must
control the behaviour of the group to allow people to speak freely and openly about an issue while maintaining the
focus of the research.
 Low representativeness - if in a carefully selected group of 10 and 1 person does not show up, the sample becomes
unrepresentative.
 Morgan argues that any failure to stop individuals and alliances taking control and 'setting their own agenda for
discussion' raises questions about reliability.
 Researchers have less control over the data because they have less control over the group and the direction of the
discussion which affects validity because the focus of the interview may end up moving away from the researcher's
intended focus.
 Janis (1982) 'Groupthink' - refers to the pressure people feel to arrive at 'desired outcomes', such as saying what
they believe the researcher wants to hear.
 Group interviews risk reflecting a 'group consensus' rather than revealing what individuals really believe.

Paul Willis 1977 – learning to labor

Learning to labour is an ethnographic study of 12 working class white boys who attended one boys only secondary
school which Willis called ‘Hammertown Boys’ in the Midlands in the early 1970s.
Willis used a mixture of overt participant observation and group interviews to describe and understand the counter-
school culture which the boys formed while at school.
Criticisms:
 Low reliability - Willis’ methodology is not that clear. It is unclear for much of the time the specific contexts Willis
was in, and the exact nature of the group interviews isn’t always specified.
 Teachers in other schools pointed out that there were no cultures of resistance in their schools, raising issues of
representativeness. However, Willis responded by saying such cultures may not be immediately obvious and that
there may be weaker individual manifestations of what he found.
 This is a difficult study to repeat and validate given the number of times it took, the depth of it and the special access
Willis had.

Open ended questionnaires

Respondents are free to give whatever answer they want and elaborate on their answers
Advantages:

 Produced in depth qualitative data - the participant isn’t limited by set answers and can respond how they want with
unlimited number of answers by expressing what they really mean and explaining why they think that.
 The interviewer can follow up with more questions
Disadvantages:
 Produces qualitative data, which is hard to quantify and makes it hard to compare one set of data with another
 The interviewer has to interpret the data, and they could interpret it differently to how the participant meant it.
 Unreliable - harder to generalize.
 Lower response rates, due to it being more time-consuming.
 Lower validity - Respondents may lie, not understand or forget to answer
Field/natural experiments

Field experiments: experiments that take place in the 'real world', beyond the closed, controlled environment of the
laboratory.
Researchers use dependent and independent variables to test a hypothesis or answer a research question
Advantages:
Theoretical
 Better external validity – because they take place in normally occurring, real-world social settings.
 Field experiments can be used to manipulate situations in the real world to understand the underlying reasons for
everyday behavior.
 Field experiments involve clear manipulation of an IV whilst measuring an effect on the DV - allows research to be
replicated for example, Rosenthal and Jacobson’s research has been replicated 242 times.
 Interpretivists favour field experiments because they are more realistic and therefore valid.
 A more common type of experiment
Practical
 Larger scale settings – you can do field experiments in schools or workplaces, so you can observe large scale social
processes, which isn’t possible with laboratory experiments.
 A researcher can ‘set up’ a field experiment and let it run for a year, and then come back later.
Disadvantages:
Theoretical
 It is not possible to control variables as closely because it’s impossible to observe respondents 100% of the time.
 Reliability is weaker – because it’s more difficult to replicate the exact context of the research again.
 The Hawthorne Effect (or Experimental Effect) may reduce the validity of results.
 Not representative of the target population - experiments are only ever carried out on a small selection of
participants; therefore, findings are often
 Positivists argue that the more realistic the situation, the less control we have over external variables that may be
affecting the experiment.
 Field/ natural experiments tend to establish correlations rather than causation because it is very difficult to control
all possible independent variables in a natural setting
Practical
 access is likely to be more of a problem with lab experiments. Schools and workplaces might be reluctant to allow
researchers in.
Ethical
Participants are often unaware they are taking part in a field experiment in order for them to act naturally, so the issues of
deception, harm and lack of informed consent apply. For example, The monster study
Johnson & Tudor (1939) - the monster study

 A stuttering experiment performed on 22 orphan children in Davenport, Iowa in 1939.

 The aim of the study was to find out if labelling influences the way people act
 Wendell Johnson got a group of 22 orphans and split them into 2 groups: One group was labelled as a stuttering
group and the other normal speakers.
 In the group that stuttered only half the group actually had a stutter.
 During the experiment the non-stuttering group were given positive feedback and encouragement whereas the
stuttering group were told repeatedly to only speak if they weren't going to repeat any words and were lectured
about the 'correct' way to speak

Ethical issues with the study:

 They were unable to reverse the effects they had caused and many of the children had to deal with speech problems
well into adulthood
 Deception - The other staff and teachers at the orphanage were unknowingly recruited to reinforce the labels
 Johnson hid results of the study because he was ashamed of it
 Unethical and potential to harm - telling children they stutter and asking caregivers to mislabel them as well
 A news article revealed personal information about the participants

Rosenthal and Jacobsen (1968) - low educational achievement in Mexican children

Conducted a study to test the hypothesis that teacher expectations had an important effect on pupil’s academic
performance.

DV - was their level of achievement

IV - was the expectations teachers had about the ability of their pupils.

They tested the pupils and then randomly classed some students as 'later developers'.

The researchers informed the teachers of their 'findings' then retested the pupils at a later date and discovered that the
IQ scores of those pupils whose teachers believed were 'late developing highflyers' had significantly improved. This
shows the self-fulfilling prophecy in action in Education.
Ethical issues:

 Rosenthal and Jacobson manipulated the IV by pretending to be psychologists who could, on the basis of a
sophisticated IQ test, identify children who would display 'dramatic intellectual growth'.
 There was attitude difference between to student whose IQ was high and student, which could make the students
sad, especially when they are only primary students.
 Parents and students did not know in which category they/their child was in and the intelligence test was not a test
that could predict academic blooming.
 Teachers were deceived with made up data which ended up influencing students' academic performance.

Garfinkel's (1967) breaching experiments

Shows how people 'construct reality' through everyday routines and assumptions.
The Purpose was to learn about social norms by breaking the rules, then observing what happened and how people
reacted
In one experiment, student researchers (IV) were sent home with instructions to behave as if their parents (DV) were
strangers and to observe and record how the parents' behaviour changed towards their 'oddly behaving' offspring.
He found that when norms were broken, people reacted emotionally
Positive criticism:
 By showing how people can give meaning to a meaningless situation, Garfinkel provided insight into the creation
and maintenance of reality in everyday life
• Stages of research design, including deciding on research strategy, formulating research questions and hypotheses,
sampling frames, sampling techniques, pilot studies, operationalization, conducting research and interpreting results.
Oberg (1999) suggests there are 4 interconnected stages of research design:
1 Planning - where the researcher decides on the strategy- such as what to research and how to research it- and
formulates research hypotheses or questions.
2 Information gathering - involves identifying a sample to study, conducting an initial pilot study and applying research
methods to collect data.
3 Information processing - the idea that once data has been gathered, its meaning must be analysed and interpreted.
4 Evaluation - involves both an internal analysis that asks questions about how the research was conducted (whether
the research method was appropriate, for example) and an external analysis, whereby conclusions are reported to a
wider public audience for their analysis and criticism.

The research problem

This is when the sociologist decides things such as the general topic to study and then develops more specific ideas
about what aspect to study
Factors which influence a sociologist’s choice of research topic:
 The personal interests and values of the researchers – a sociologist is going to be more motivated to study
something they are interested in. in particular personal experience motivates sociologists e.g., Tony Sewell and
Marc McCormack who studied groups with whom they shared personal characteristics with.
 Society – Current interests in the topic among sociologists or society in general change, and so new topics of study
will emerge. For example, sociologists have studied things such as rave culture, and virtual gaming communities as
these have emerged.
 Funding – Sociologists are professionals and need to get funding for their research.
 Opportunity – whether it will be possible to contact respondents easily. For example, Mac an Ghaill wanted to study
the experiences of Irish students,but he couldn’t study, so instead he focused on the black and Asian students in his
own college.

Research hypothesis or question

Hypothesis - testable statement of what the researchers predict will be outcome of the study.
The research hypothesis/ question sets the basic theme for a study:

1 Hypotheses are associated more with methods that produce quantitative data - For example, Ginn and Arber's
(2002) analysis of how motherhood affects the lives of graduate women was based on the hypothesis 'The effect of
motherhood on full-time employment is minimal for graduate women' - it must be tested ° and this means using
research methods suitable for this purpose.
2 Research questions are associated more with methods that produce qualitative data - Conway's (1997) examination
of parental choice in secondary education was based on the question 'Does parental choice help to strengthen the
advantage of the middle classes over the working class?'- the research method used must be capable of generating high
levels of descriptive data.
Collecting data
Before data can be collected, the researcher needs to identify the people - or respondents - who will be the subject of
the research. Although it would be ideal to select and study everyone in a particular group (the target population), this is
not always possible. For example, if the target population was 'doctors in India', the size and geographic distribution of
such a population would make it impossible to observe or question everyone personally. This is where sampling enters
the research process.
A sample is a relatively small proportion of people who belong to the target population. In the example above, the
researcher might choose 1,000 doctors and, by studying their behaviour draw certain conclusions about all doctors.
However, this only works if the sample is representative of the target population. Representativeness may be more
significant than sample size because it relates to whether the characteristics of the sample accurately reflect those of
the target population.
If:

 60% of the target population are male

 60% of the sample should be male.
If the sample is representative of anything discovered can be generalised to the target population. A researcher can
make statements about a group they have not studied (the target population) based on the behaviour of a group they
have studied (the sample).

Sampling frame
Constructing a representative sample often requires a sampling frame. This is a list of everyone in a target population,
such as an electoral or school register, and it is used for 2 main reasons:
1 Unless everyone in the target population can be identified, the sample drawn may not accurately reflect the
characteristics of the population.
2 For a researcher to contact people in their sample, to interview them for example, they must know who they are.
However, simply because a sampling frame exists does not mean a researcher will automatically have access to it. This
may be denied for reasons of:
 legality: names cannot be revealed by law
 confidentiality: a business may deny access to its payroll records, for example
 privacy: some groups do not want to be studied.
There are a number of representative forms of sampling technique.

Random sampling
This is based on the probability that the random selection of names from a sampling frame will produce a representative
sample. For the sample to be truly random, everyone in the target population must have an equal chance of being
chosen. A simple random sample, therefore, is similar to a lottery:
 Everyone in the target population is identified on a sampling frame.
 The sample is selected by randomly choosing people from the frame until the sample is complete.
A 30% sample of a target population of 100 people, for example, would involve a random selection of 30 people.

Systematic sampling
This is a variation on simple random sampling that is often used when the target population is very large. It involves
taking a sample directly from a sampling frame. For a 25% sample of a target population containing 100 names, every
fourth name would be chosen. This technique is not truly random - for example, the fifth name on the list could never be
included in the sample so not everyone has an equal chance of inclusion. However, it is random enough for most
samples.

Stratified random sampling

Although simple and stratified random samples can be used in many research situations, problems can occur when a
target population is made up of small groups, such as a population with numerous age groups. A biased sample can
easily occur by chance, with some groups overrepresented and others under-represented.
Stratified random sampling avoids these problems by dividing (stratifying) the target population into groups whose
characteristics are known to the researcher, such as different age groups. Each group is then treated as a separate
random sample in its own right. We can illustrate this by considering:
 a target population of 100 people (80 females and 20 males)
 a 10% sample.
To exactly represent the gender balance of the target population, the researcher needs a sample of eight females and
two males. To ensure its randomness this involves:
1 splitting the target population into 2 groups: 80 females and 20 males
2 selecting 10% of each:
 8 females from the 'female only' group
 2 males from the 'male only' group
When combined, the sample is representative of the target population.

Stratified quota sampling

This variation uses the same basic technique, with 2 main differences:
1 Although a sampling frame is always useful, it is not strictly necessary. It is enough just to know the characteristics of
the respondents in order to construct a sample. Using the previous example, the selection of females and males from
their respective groups is done on an opportunity basis. The researcher goes through the group of 20 males, asking each
in turn to be part of the sample. Once two males have agreed, the quota for the males-only sample is complete and no
further males can be selected.
2 This technique is not truly random because not everyone in the target population has an equal chance of being
selected. If the first two males agree to be part of the sample, the remaining 18 have no chance of being selected

Non representative sampling

Researchers generally find representative samples useful, but there are times when a non-representative sample serves
the purpose. For some types of research the sociologist might not want to make generalisations about a very large group
based only on a small sample. They might simply be interested in the behaviour of the group itself, rather than what it
represents. Case studies, for example, involve studying the behaviour of a particular group (or case) in great detail and
can be used to illustrate how a non-representative sample works: the 'sample' is the target population. In Ward's
research on rave participants and Venkatesh's gang study, the fact that each group was only representative of itself was
unimportant, since neither researcher wanted to generalise their findings; they simply wanted to understand a
particular group in depth.

Opportunity sampling
In some circumstances it may not be possible to create a representative sample. Here, the researcher may be forced to
settle for opportunity sampling, a general type of sampling - with 2 main sub-divisions:
1 Best opportunity sampling involves deliberately choosing a sample that gives the best possible opportunity to test a
hypothesis. If the hypothesis is false for this group, it will probably be false for other similar groups. Goldthorpe et al.
(1968), for example, wanted to test the claim that the working class in the UK was becoming indistinguishable from the
middle class. Their best opportunity sample consisted of highly paid car-assembly workers in Luton. This group was
chosen because if any working-class group was likely to show lifestyles similar to their middleclass peers, it would be
these 'affluent workers'.
2 Snowball samples work on the principle of 'rolling up' more and more people to include in the sample over time. The
researcher would identify someone in the target population who was willing to participate in their research. This person
then suggests more people who are also willing to participate. These then suggest further possible participants, until the
researcher has a usable sample. Although this technique is unrepresentative, it may be the only option in certain
situations:
 Wallis (1977) used snowball sampling to contact (ex-)members of the Church of Scientology when his request to
interview current members was rejected.
 In Sappleton et al.'s {2006) research into gender segregation, 'respondents were enlisted through personal referrals,
prior contacts and cold calls'.
Opportunity sampling can be a useful technique when no sampling frame is available, and the researcher knows little or
nothing about the characteristics of their target population.

Pilot studies
'Mini version' of a full-scale study designed to test its feasibility.
Before embarking on a full-scale study, many researchers choose to run a pilot study to test the various elements of
their research design. Pilot studies are a research tool normally used for one of two reasons:
1 As a 'mini version' of a full-scale study designed to test the feasibility of carrying out such a study. In other words,
before embarking on a study that may take up large amounts of time, money and effort, a researcher may conduct a
smaller study to identify any problems, such as access to respondents, that may occur in a larger study. A pilot study is
also helpful in determining the resources, such as staffing and finance, needed for a study. The results of a pilot study
can be used to demonstrate to funding bodies that a full study would be feasible and worthwhile.
2 To pre-test a research method, such as a questionnaire. This might involve testing different types of question,
examining and analysing the data it produces to ensure the questions will elicit the data required, and identifying and
eliminating possible sources of bias or unreliability, such as leading or ambiguous questions.

Operationalization
Converting a concept, such as social class or cultural capital, into something that can be researched and measured.
Sociological research often involves ideas and concepts that non-sociologists may find difficult or unclear. In carrying out
research and in asking questions, sociologists need to make decisions about how to put these ideas and concepts into
practice - that is, to operationalize them.
An example is the term 'social class'. Most people are familiar with the term, and with terms such as 'middle-class' and
'working-class' but they won't agree on exactly what they mean or how to measure then. If respondents were asked
which social class they belong to, they would give answers based on their different understandings of these terms.
The researcher will therefore operationalize the term by asking questions, the answers to which enable the researcher
to judge what class the respondent belongs to. For example, they might ask about occupation or income.

Interpreting results
Research findings do not simply 'speak for themselves"; the researcher needs to analyze them to work out what they
mean. The researcher will look for common themes and trends in the data and will reflect on the data, asking, for
example, whether the data supports the hypothesis or not.
Once the data has been analysed and interpreted, the data can be presented in terms of:
 findings
 conclusions about the hypothesis or research question
 limitations, which might include discussion of various research problems that may have affected the study, such as
sample, response rate or questions about validity
 suggestions for further research
 improvements to the research design.
2.2 Approaches to sociological research
• The use of approaches drawing on different research methods, including case studies, social surveys, ethnography
and longitudinal studies.

Case studies (based on qualitative methods)

A detailed in-depth study of the characteristics of a particular group/case. E.g., schools, family, workplace etc.
It is not really a research method, but a research technique, in which different methods can be used to generate data.
The research objective is normally to develop narrative data that 'tells a story about the people being studied, so
qualitative methods are usually most useful.
Type of case studies:

Life histories are case studies which usually focus on one individual or one small group. They are most commonly
obtained through unstructured interviews backed up with reference to personal documents such as diaries and letters.
Example of case studies:

Westwood's (1984) 12-month participant observation study of female workers in a 'Stitchco' factory.
Advantages:
Practical

 Large amounts of data can be collected in a relatively cost-effective way in cases where the sample is relatively small
and self-contained e.g., a factory (Westwood, 1984), a school (Lacey, 1970) or even a restaurant (Marshall, 1986)
Theoretical

 Provides great depth and detail of information because of the focus on a single group studied over time
 Greater validity than simple quantitative studies.
 Help to uncover the meanings people give to everyday behaviour.
 Allows an in-depth understanding of how people see and understand their particular world, using their own eyes,
words and experiences.
 People can 'speak for themselves' through the channel of sociological research.
 Small-scale case studies can be used as pilot studies to allow a researcher to develop hypotheses, test data-
collection methods and identify potential problems in preparation for a larger study.
 It is possible to draw comparisons between similar groups.
 It can be used to study exceptional and unique cases. E.g., faith schools, scientology
Disadvantages:

Practical

 Large-scale, in-depth studies can take a lot of time, effort and money.
 Regardless of their size, the intensive and detailed nature of case studies means that they make higher demands on
the skills of researchers, who may spend months or years living and working with their subjects, and respondents,
who may be subject to extensive and detailed questioning and observation throughout the study.
Theoretical

 Difficult to generalise from case studies because they tend to focus on small groups that may only be representative
of themselves.
 They may not be reliable or valid. Life histories raise questions about the accuracy of recall of facts and the benefit
of hindsight may generate a reinterpretation of the past.

Social surveys
Cross-sectional surveys
A type of research design in which you collect data from many different individuals at a single point in time. It is explicitly
designed to produce a 'snapshot' of behaviour at any given time.

Cross-sectional surveys tend to focus on identifying groups that share broad similarities, such as income, education and
gender. They measure differences using a single variable, such as death or suicide rates. By comparing standardised
groups, it is possible to explain differences in death or suicide rates using variations in standardised variables - whether,
for example, people with a high level of education have higher rates of suicide than those with a lower level of
education.
2 types of cross-sectional surveys:
Qualitative forms - generally descriptive, with the objective being to illustrate a particular type of behaviour. For
example, it may involve looking at a certain population characteristic, such as suicide, income or poverty, applied to a
single country, a large area within a country or a specific feature of different countries.
Quantitative forms - the most common type, are analytic: the objective is to analyse both correlations and causations
between different phenomena. For example, Durkheim's study of suicide used cross-sectional surveys taken from
different societies to build up a comparative analysis of variable suicide rates. He used these as the basis for a
theoretical explanation of different types of suicide and found that there are external forces shaping whether someone
commits suicide or not.
Both types of cross-sectional survey require representative samples because one of the main objectives is to make
generalizations about behavior.
Advantages:
Limitations:

Ethnography (fieldwork)

An in-depth study of a culture, a group or human behavior usually involves participant observation (overt or covert) but
a range of other methods such as unstructured interviews and qualitative documents.
Uses methods such as participant observation (covert or overt), unstructured interviews and qualitative documents. But
it can also involve some collection of quantitative data

Advantages:
Theoretical
 Verstehen – helps researchers really understand how their subjects view and understand their behaviour and
interactions.

Disadvantages:

Longitudinal studies
A form of comparative analysis that involves tracking changes among a representative sample over time, from a few
months to many years.
It involves the same group being analyzed at different stages in their lives, using methods ranging from questionnaires to
non-participant observation.
They are carried out at intervals (waves) over a significant period of time.
The researcher remains removed from the study group having contact with the research subjects only on a limited basis
at set intervals
Advantages:

Theoretical

 Allows the researcher to identify and track personal and social changes over long periods revealing trends that
would remain hidden
 They generate large reliable representative samples which can be used to suggest correlations and casual
relationships phenomena, such as income and life expectancy. For example, Power et al.’s 10-year study of 200
families raising children in highly disadvantaged neighbourhoods found a 'clear cause and effect between physical or
environmental improvements to an area and the well-being of its families'.
 Kruger argues they can be used 'to summarize vast sources of information and facilitate comparisons across
categories and over time' because they exploit the ability of quantitative methods to identify and track personal and
social changes.

For example:

 Hills et al. (2010) used data from the English Longitudinal Survey of Ageing to analyze the relationship between
mortality rates and levels of wealth. The study found a strong correlation between low wealth and premature
death.
 Criticism: the study showed the usefulness of longitudinal studies in revealing trends that would otherwise
remain hidden.
Disadvantages:

Practical

 Time consuming
Theoretical

 High levels of people withdrawing from the original sample over time reduces the representativeness of the sample
which decreases the longer the study lasts
 Lack depth and validity as they are only a glimpse of behavior over a time period

• The mixed methods approach to research, including triangulation and methodological pluralism.
Methodological pluralism

combining research methodologies, such as positivism and interpretivism, in ways that allow each to complement the
other to improve research reliability and validity.
Methodological pluralism represents the theoretical justification for using mixed methods,
The basic principles of methodologies are not set in stone, so it is more useful to see them as mental constructs created
for theoretical convenience.
Wood and Welch argue that 'there is now increasing awareness that both quantitative and qualitative styles of research
may have a contribution to make to a project, which leads to the idea of mixing methods which can be expressed as
methodological pluralism
Payne et al. (2004) define methodological pluralism as 'tolerance of a variety of methods'.
Methodological perspective

the idea that different research methods have different methodological strengths and weaknesses. For example,
questionnaires may produce reliable data, but this data has low validity, while the opposite is true for covert participant
observation.
The idea that 'positivists' do not use qualitative methods because they lack reliability, while interpretivists do not use
quantitative methods because they lack validity is overly simplified.
The argument says that rather than approaching research methodology from the perspective of a 'design problem' - how
to test a hypothesis (positivism) or answer a research question (interpretivism) - we can approach it from a
methodological perspective which involves considering how to collect data with the highest possible levels of reliability
and validity, regardless of the methods or data types used.

Triangulation

The use of a variety of research methods e.g., observation and interviews in one study
Triangulation is when methodological pluralism is put into practice - It refers to the various ways in which a researcher
can attempt to improve research reliability and validity.
Methodological triangulation - the use of 2 or more research methods. Denzin (1970) suggests that it allows the
researcher to reduce the weaknesses of one method with the strengths of another.
For example
 A general weakness of questionnaires is that the researcher must assume a respondent is telling the truth. A
researcher could offset this by using an observational method, such as participant observation, to check that
respondents are actually telling the truth
 The researcher could also compare the results from 2 different methods used on the same people (e.g., a semi-
structured interview and a focus group). If the conclusions drawn are broadly the same, this helps confirm the
reliability and validity of the data. For example, Hughes et al.'s (1997) examination of 'the appeal of designer drinks
to young people' used focus groups and structured interviews. The data from one was used to cross-check and
confirm data from the other (such as each showing a strong pattern of age-related differences in attitudes to
designer drinks).
According to Bryman methodological triangulation involves:

1. 'The use of varieties of the same method to investigate a research issue'. E.g., asking open and closed questions in
the same questionnaire
2. ‘The use of 'contrasting research methods, such as a questionnaire and observation'.
Harvey and MacDonald (1993) state that the use of researcher-focused methodological triangulation involves any
combination of:

 2 or more researchers using same research technique

 1 researcher using 2 or more research techniques
 2 or more researchers using 2 or more research techniques.
Different forms of methodological triangulation:
■ Researcher triangulation - used in studies that rely heavily on a researcher's interpretations to generate data. If
different researchers using the same research method arrive at the same results, this can confirm the reliability of the
data. Alternatively, using researchers from different ethnicities, age, gender and class groups can help check for factors
such as observer and interviewer bias that may lower reliability and validity.

■ Data triangulation - the gathering of information through different sampling strategies - such as collecting data at
different times, in different contexts and from different people. This can be extended to include gathering data from
both the individuals involved in a particular situation and the researcher's own experiences in that situation.
For example, Venkatesh was able to make sense of certain forms of behaviour, such as drug dealing, and experiences,
such as being black and poor, in ways that would not have been possible if he had not been intimately involved in the
world he was studying. He gathered data from both those involved and from his own experience of living in their world.

■ Theoretical triangulation - based on the idea that just as research methods are open to errors, so are theoretical
positions. There are strengths and weaknesses to different theoretical perspectives, and these can be used to the
researcher's advantage. By looking at the social world in realist terms, considering both structural and social action
theories, we can arrive at the best possible representation and explanation of social behaviour.

Examples of sociological research that has used methodological triangulation:

■ Barker (1984) used overt participant observation, questionnaires and semi-structured interviews in her research on
the Unification Church ('Moonies').

■ Hey (1997) studied girls' friendships in two London schools using a combination of participant observation and
personal documentation. Some of the girls allowed her to read their diaries and she was also given access to the notes
the girls passed between each other in the classroom.

■ MacKeogh (2001) studied the 'micro-politics of family viewing' in relation to how young people used television and
their parents' attempts to control how and what they watched. Her primary method was overt participant observation,
because she wanted to understand the critical awareness young people had about the media they consumed. Her
observation notes were complemented by those made by her respondents, as well as semi-structured interviews to
explore some of the issues raised in the observations.
■ Garforth and Kerr (2010) examined 'women's underrepresentation in science', using a mix of interviews, focus groups
and participant observation.
Advantages:
Theoretical
Improve research reliability and validity:

 Parke and Griffiths (2002) argue: using one method only e.g., non participant observation limits the data collected
because non participant observation relies only on observing behaviour meaning the researcher cannot interact in
the behavioural processes, so most data collected will be qualitative, interpretative, which is to some extent,
limited. But, by using another method e.g., structured interviews, suspicions, interpretations and hypotheses can be
confirmed.
 The researcher is more likely to get a complete, fully rounded (holistic) picture of the behaviour they are studying:
gathering different types of data and sources (such as respondents and participant observers)
 Data collected using higher reliability/validity methods, such as questionnaires, reduces the weaknesses in
observational methods - Finlay (1999) compared accounts of the same events given by different respondents in
semi-structured interviews and added a further check by comparing 'the oral record of those events with the
contemporary documentary record in local newspapers.
 Accuracy of their data can be increased - Bechhoffer and Paterson (2000) argue: 'If we are able to base part of an
explanation on unstructured interview material, on documentary evidence and on the results of a survey, the
accuracy of findings is likely to be greatly increased'.
Disadvantages:
Practical

 Time consuming (data triangulation) – takes time to analyse different data types created from use of different
methods
 Expensive (researcher triangulation) - need to employ more researchers and the general co-ordination of a much
larger research project.
Theoretical

 Bryman - sometimes seen as a way of getting at 'the truth' by throwing a vast array of resources, methods and data
at a problem, based on the (naive) idea that 'there can be a single definitive account of the social world'.
 Collecting and comparing different types of data can be complicated - Bryman argues: 'Triangulation assumes data
from different research methods can be unambiguously compared and regarded as equivalent in terms of their
capacity to address a research question’ but this assumption is incorrect.
 Low reliability and validity - Where a researcher gets contradicting data from two different sources, it can be
difficult to distinguish ‘true’ from ‘false’. If the researcher receives two opposing accounts of the same thing, which
account is true? And more importantly, how can the researcher tell?

• The positivist approach, with reference to scientific method, objectivity, reliability and value-freedom.
• The interpretivist approach, with reference to verstehen, meaning, subjectivity and validity

• The debates about whether sociology can/should be based on the methods and procedures of the natural sciences
and the role of values in sociological research.

Defining science

Procedural rules

Ethical rules (a scientific ethos)

2.3 Research issues

• The theoretical, practical and ethical considerations influencing the choice of topic, choice of method(s) and conduct
of research.

Theoretical research considerations

Topic choice

Choice of method

Practical research in considerations

Topic choice

Choice of method

Ethical research considerations

Legal considerations

Safety

Ethical practice

Factors influencing the choice of method

Practical Issues

Time and money

Different methods require different amounts of time and money and this may influence a sociologist's choice of research
method e.g., large-scale surveys may employ dozens of interviewers and data-inputting staff and cost a great deal of
money. By contrast, a small-scale project involving a lone researcher using participant observation may be cheaper to
carry out, but it can take several years to complete. The researcher’s access to resources can be a major factor in
determining which methods they employ. A well-known professor will probably have access to more research funds
than a young student for example.
Requirements of funding bodies

Research institutes, businesses and other organisations that provide the funding for research may require the results to
be in a particular form. For example, government department funding research into educational achievement may have
targets for pass rates and so require quantitative data to see whether these targets are being achieved.
Personal skills and characteristics

Participant observation usually requires the ability to mix easily with others as well as good powers of observation and
recall, while in-depth interviews call for an ability to establish a rapport with the interviewee. Not all sociologists have
these qualities and so some may have difficulty using these methods.
Subject matter

It may be much harder to study a particular group or subject by one method than another e.g., it might prove difficult
for a male sociologist to study an all-female group by means of participant observation, while written questionnaires
may be useless for studying those who cannot read or write.
Research opportunity

Sometimes the opportunity to carry out research happens quickly and unexpectedly, and so it may not be possible to
use structured methods that need to be prepared in advance such as questionnaires or structured interviews. For
example, a Glasgow gang leader offered the sociologist James Patrick (1973) the chance ‘out of the blue’ to spend time
with his gang. With little time to prepare, Patrick had no choice but to use participant observation. In other
circumstances the researcher may have been able to set up the research opportunity carefully beforehand and have
plenty of time to select their method.
Ethical Issues

Informed Consent

Research participants should be offered the right to refuse to be involved. The researcher should also tell them about all
of the relevant aspects of the research so that they can make a fully informed decision. Consent should be obtained
before research begins and, if the study is lengthy, again at intervals throughout the process.
Confidentiality and privacy

Identify of research participants should be kept entirely secret to prevent possible negative effects on them. Researchers
should also respect their privacy. Personal information concerning research participants should be kept confidential.
Harm to research participants

Researchers need to be aware of the potential effects of their work on those they study. These could include police
intervention, harm to employment prospects, social exclusion and psychological damage. Wherever possible,
researchers should anticipate and prevent such harm.
Vulnerable groups

Special care should be taken where research participants are particularly vulnerable because of their age, disability, or
physical or mental health. For example, when studying children in schools, researchers should have regard for issues of
child protection. They should obtain the consent of both the child and the parent, and they should provide information
in language that the child can understand.
Covert research

When conducting research ‘under cover’, it can create serious ethical issues such as deceiving or lying to people in order
to win their trust or obtain information. Clearly it is impossible to gain informed consent while at the same time keeping
the research or its purpose secret. However, some sociologists argue that the use of covert methods may be justified in
certain circumstances. These may include gaining access to secretive, dangerous or powerful groups.
Theoretical Issues

Validity

This means producing a true or genuine picture of what something is really like. It allows the researcher to get close to
the truth. Many sociologists argue that qualitative methods such as participant observation gives us a more valid or
truthful account of what it is like to be a member of a group than quantitative methods such as questionnaires. This is
because participant observation can give us deeper insight through first-hand experience.
Reliability
This means ‘replicability’. a reliable method is one that gives the same results when repeated by another researcher. For
example, in Physics or Chemistry, different researchers can repeat the same experiment and obtain the same results
every time. In sociology, quantitative methods such as written questionnaires tend to produce more reliable results than
qualitative methods such as unstructured interviews.
Representativeness

This refers to whether the people we study are a typical cross-section of the group we are interested in. Imagine, for
example that we want to know about the effects of divorce on children. It would take a great deal of time and money to
study every child of divorced parents, and we might only be able to afford to study a sample of 100 such children.
However, if we ensure our sample is representative or typical of wider population, we can use our findings to make
generalisations about all children of divorced parents, without actually having to study them all. Large-scale quantitative
surveys that use sophisticated sampling techniques to select their sample are more likely to produce representative
data.
Methodological perspective

Positivist prefer quantitative data, seeking to discover patterns of behaviour and see sociology as a science.
Interpretivists prefer qualitative data, seek to understand social actors’ meanings and reject the view that sociology can
model itself on the natural sciences. Functionalists and Marxists often take a positivist approach. They see society as a
large-scale (macro-level) structure that shapes our behaviour. By contrast, interactionists favour an interpretivist
approach. They take a micro-level view of society, focusing on small-scale, face-to-face interactions.

Examples of how your choice of research method/process can impact your findings:
Chloe Bird and Patricia Ricker: These sociologists caution against assuming that research findings that apply to one
gender apply to the other. Because women and men's lives differ significantly doing research on only one half of
humanity will lead to incomplete research.
Mario Brajuha: during an investigation into a restaurant fire, officials subpoenaed notes taken by this sociologist in
connection with his research on restaurant work. He was threatened with jail.
Laud Humphreys: this sociologist carried out doctoral research on homosexual activity but ran into problems when he
misrepresented himself to research subjects. Although he earned his doctorate degree, he was fired from his position
because of his questionable ethics
C Wright Mills: He argued that research without theory is of little value, simply a collection of unrelated "facts" and
theory that is unconnected to research is abstract and empty, unlikely to represent the way life really is
Peter Rossi: he produced a controversial piece of research related to counting of the homeless, which revealed the
average number of homeless on any given night was far less than homeless advocates been stating
Diana Scully and Joseph Marolla: these two sociologists interviewed convicted rapists in prison and found that rapists
are not sick or overwhelmed by incontrollable urges but rather men who have learned to view rape as appropriate in
various circumstances

• How research findings may be biased by the actions and values of the sociologist and by choices made in funding,
designing and conducting the research.

• Validity, reliability, objectivity, representativeness and ethics as important concepts in assessing the value of
different research methods.

Validity
Reliability

Objectivity

Representativeness