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Brymansrm5e ch02

This document discusses different approaches to social research, including quantitative and qualitative research strategies. It covers topics like deductive vs inductive theory, positivist vs interpretivist epistemologies, and objectivist vs constructionist ontologies. Key quantitative research aspects are measurement, surveys, experiments, and statistical analysis. Qualitative research focuses on understanding meanings, and uses interviews and ethnography. Mixed methods combine quantitative and qualitative approaches.

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Sanapala Mohan Vamsi
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433 views25 pages

Brymansrm5e ch02

This document discusses different approaches to social research, including quantitative and qualitative research strategies. It covers topics like deductive vs inductive theory, positivist vs interpretivist epistemologies, and objectivist vs constructionist ontologies. Key quantitative research aspects are measurement, surveys, experiments, and statistical analysis. Qualitative research focuses on understanding meanings, and uses interviews and ethnography. Mixed methods combine quantitative and qualitative approaches.

Uploaded by

Sanapala Mohan Vamsi
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 25

Alan Bryman

Social Research Methods


Chapter 2: Social research
strategies: quantitative research
and qualitative research

© Alan Bryman, 2016. All rights reserved.


Student experience

A valuable feature of the text is the ‘Student experience’


boxes with links to the Online Resource Centre

Page 17

Bryman: Social Research Methods, 5th edition


Theory and research

• What type of theory? page 18


- explanation of observed regularities
• Merton (1967)
– grand theories
• highly abstract
• Butler and Robinson (2001) – Bourdieu’s concept of social
capital – gentrification of areas of London
– middle range theories
• useful for empirical research - limited domain

Pages 18 and 19

Bryman: Social Research Methods, 5th edition


Theory and research

• Middle range theories


- unlike grand ones, operate in a limited domain;
whether it is juvenile delinquency, racial prejudice,
educational attainment or ethnic relations
• Conflict and contact theory: These theories are about the effects of
ethnic diversity on the quality of inter-group relations.
- they offer contrasting theories (see Hughes et al. 2011; Sturgis et al.
2014)
• Cohen(2010)
- postal questionnaire survey of hairstylist’s relationship with their
clients

Pages 19 and 20

Bryman: Social Research Methods, 5th edition


Empiricism

- Philosophical approach to theorising


- Only knowledge gained through sensory
experiences is acceptable
- Rigorous scientific testing of theories
- Positivist epistemology
- Accumulation of ‘facts’ as data
- Naïve empiricism?
Page 20

Bryman: Social Research Methods, 5th edition


Empiricism

• McKeganey and Barnard (1996)


- research on prostitutes and their clients

• Goffman (1963) - notion of ‘stigma’

• Hochschild (1983)
- concept of ‘emotional labour’
Pages 20 and 21

Bryman: Social Research Methods, 5th edition


Deductive and inductive theory

• Deductivism:
– theory --> data
– explicit hypothesis to be confirmed or rejected
– quantitative research

• Inductivism:
– data --> theory
– generalizable inferences from observations
– qualitative research /grounded theory

Pages 21
and 22

Bryman: Social Research Methods, 5th edition


Deductive and inductive theory

Fig.2.1 Page 21

Bryman: Social Research Methods, 5th edition


Deductive and inductive theory

Fig.2.2 Page 23

Bryman: Social Research Methods, 5th edition


Deductive and inductive theory

• Deductive: Roder and Muhlau (2014)


- When migrants move from a country in which
egalitarian attitudes are weak to one where they
are strong
• Inductive: O’Reilly et al. (2012)
- A study of interactions between customers
and front-line employees

Pages 22 and 23

Bryman: Social Research Methods, 5th edition


Epistemological considerations

• What is (or should be) considered acceptable


knowledge?
• Can the social world be studied ‘scientifically’?
• Is it appropriate to apply the methods of the natural
sciences to social science research?
• Positivist and interpretivist epistemologies

Page 24

Bryman: Social Research Methods, 5th edition


Positivist epistemology

• Application of natural science methods to


social science research
• Phenomenalism: knowledge via the senses
• Deductivism: theory testing
• Inductivism: theory building
• Objective, value-free researcher
• Distinction between scientific and normative
statements
Page 24

Bryman: Social Research Methods, 5th edition


Realist epistemology

• Similarities to positivism:
- natural science methods appropriate
- external reality exists independently of our perceptions

• Empirical (naïve?) realism


- close correspondence between reality and terms used
to describe it
- direct knowledge of the social world

• Critical realism
- theoretical terms mediate our knowledge of reality
- underlying structures generate observable events
Page 25

Bryman: Social Research Methods, 5th edition


Interpretivist epistemology

• Subject matter of the social sciences (people) demands non-


positivist methods
• Positivism vs hermeneutics (Von Wright 1971)
- concerned with the theory and method of the interpretation
of human action
• Hermeneutic-phenomenological tradition
• Verstehen: interpretative understanding of social action
(Weber 1947)
• Attempts to see world from the actor’s perspective: subjective
reality (Bogdan and Taylor 1975)
• Influenced by symbolic interactionism

Pages 26 to 28

Bryman: Social Research Methods, 5th edition


Ontological considerations

• Social ontology: the nature of social entities


• What kind of objects exist in the social world?
• Do social entities exist independently of our
perceptions of them?
• Is social reality external to social actors or
constructed by them?

Page 28

Bryman: Social Research Methods, 5th edition


Objectivist ontology

• Social phenomena confront us as external facts

• Individuals are born into a pre-existing social world

• Social forces and rules exert pressure on actors to


conform

• e.g. culture exists independently of social actors


who are socialized into its values

Page 29

Bryman: Social Research Methods, 5th edition


Constructionist ontology

• Social phenomena and their meanings are


constructed by social actors
• Continually accomplished and revised
• Researchers’ accounts of events are also
constructions - many alternative interpretations
• e.g. Strauss et al (1973) negotiated order in a
psychiatric hospital
• Language and representation shape our
perceptions of reality

Pages 29
and 30

Bryman: Social Research Methods, 5th edition


Research strategy:
quantitative and qualitative

• Useful way of classifying methods of social research

• Two distinctive clusters of research strategies: quantitative


and qualitative

• These strategies differ in terms of their:


– general orientation to social research
– epistemological foundations
– ontological basis

Page 31

Bryman: Social Research Methods, 5th edition


Quantitative research

• Measurement of social variables

• Common research designs: surveys and experiments

• Numerical and statistical data

• Deductive theory testing

• Positivist epistemology

• Objectivist view of reality as external to social actors

Page 32

Bryman: Social Research Methods, 5th edition


Quantitative research

Table 2.1 Page 32

Bryman: Social Research Methods, 5th edition


Qualitative research

• Understanding the subjective meanings held by actors


(interpretivist epistemology)

• Common methods: interviews, ethnography

• Data are words, texts and stories

• Inductive approach: theory emerges from data

• Social constructionist ontology

Page 33

Bryman: Social Research Methods, 5th edition


Mixed methods research

• Both quantitative and qualitative research

• Poortinga et al (2004)
- Foot and Mouth Disease – public trust of
government and perceived associated risks

• Beck (1992)
- Notion of the ‘risk society’

Page 32

Bryman: Social Research Methods, 5th edition


Influences on the conduct of social
research
• Values
– personal beliefs or the feelings of researcher
– all ‘preconceptions must be eradicated’ (Durkheim 1938)
– affect every stage of research process
– some advocate value-laden research:
• Becker (1967) sympathy with ‘underdog’ groups
• feminist research encourages reciprocity
(Oakley 1981) and
‘conscious partiality’ (Mies 1993)

Pages 34 to 36

Bryman: Social Research Methods, 5th edition


Influences on the conduct of social
research

Fig.2.3 Page 34

Bryman: Social Research Methods, 5th edition


Influences on the conduct of
research
• Practical considerations
– time
– cost/funding available
– how much prior literature exists (theory testing or
theory building?)
– topic (deviant activities/sensitive issues may be more
suited to qualitative research)
– all social research is a compromise between the ideal
and the feasible

Page 36

Bryman: Social Research Methods, 5th edition

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