Methods

Sociology – Lecture 2

Maham Hameed
 How do sociologists study society?
• Sociologists use a range
of different methods.
• The methods that they
end up using is
determined by the their
research
question/subject.
• Use of appropriate
methods and good
implementation leads to
a successful research.
Postivism
• Positivism:
• is an approach to sociology based on studying a society in a scientific
manner.
• is an approach that concentrates on producing quantitative data
• Positivism has its roots in the 19th and early 20th century when
sociologists like August Comte and Emile Durkheim tried to understand
and predict the workings of a society just as the natural scientists did for
the natural world.
• Scientists:
• Try to be objective. They do not let their personal biases or values get in
the way of their research enquiry. They try to be neutral.
• They seek the truths.
• Is objectivity a realistic goal?
Positivism (continued)
 Positivist Methods
• Positivists, just like natural
scientists favor experiments.
• However, experiments are
difficult/not always an
appropriate method in
sociology.
• Sociologists instead use
questionnaires and social
surveys to produce
quantitative data.
Explain why objectivity is difficult to
maintain when carrying out
sociological research.
 sociological research is not a pure science and so it is difficult to eradicate human
 factors from research – sociological research does not take place in a completely
controlled environment as in the science labs;
 with case studies the researcher can become too close to the subject
 matter and lose a sense of objectivity;
 questionnaires often suffer from the imposition problem – It is where respondents may not
be able to express their true feelings about the topic under investigation because the
questions (and the range of possible responses) which have been pre-chosen by the
researcher limits what they are able to say, and may not reflect the issues that respondents
themselves feel are important.
 observations may lead to the researcher ‘going native’ – hence the researcher becomes too
involved and loses objectivity;
 official statistics used as secondary data may have been recorded to support the
government’s position;
 interviewees may give socially desirable answers and hence the data gathered may be
biased;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=OSsPfbup0ac
Interpretivism
• Interpretivists argue that because • They argue that human beings are
individual actions make social active, conscious being (they make
actions, sociologists should first choice)
try to understand these actions in • Hence, the subject matter of
the way participants do. sociology is different from that of
• An event/action becomes a social natural sciences.
event/action if those involved • They argue that because the subject
give it broadly the same matter is so different, sociologists
meaning. need to use different methods.
• Interpretivists argue that
• Positivists may be able to describe
the social world, but interpretivists
sociologists need to understand
believe that is more important to
how people make sense of the
understand why people behave as
social reality around them before
they do.
they can understand their actions.
Interpretivism (continued)
• Interpretivists prefer
unstructured interviews
and participant
observation.
• They believe that these
methods are more
helpful in uncovering
why people behave as
they do.
Positivism vs. Interpretivism
Positivists Interpretivists
• Believe that sociologists can • Believe that because the subject matter
understand and predict the social of natural sciences and sociology is
world just like the natural different, sociologists need to use
different research methods.
scientists can understand and
• Believe that because humans are
predict the natural world.
active, conscious beings (beings that
• Believe that the laws of social make choices), sociology is different
behavior could be discovered by from natural sciences.
using scientific methods. • Attempt to understand why people
• Attempt to describe the social behave as they do.
world. • Rely on unstructured interviews and
participant observation.
• Use questionnaires and surveys.
Research strategy
1. Identification of a research problem
Factors determining a sociologist’s decision of what to
research:
• Their personal interests, experiences and observations
• Existing research on the topic
• Social changes and development
• Whether funding will be available on the topic chosen
• How practical it will be to do the research
• What ethical issues are raised by this topic.
Research strategy (continued)
2. Hypothesis setting and revision
I. Literature review: next stage is to review the available evidence. This stage
involves finding out what is already known. It involves reading books and
article journals. Literature review helps the sociologists clarify the issues and
make decisions about how to proceed.
II. Hypothesis: now the researcher turns the ideas into a clear hypothesis that can
be investigated.
 a hypothesis is a statement that the research will try to support or disprove.
 A hypothesis is a statement establishing relationship between two or more variables.
 The relationship might be correlation or causation.
 A positivist will have a clear hypothesis while an interpretivist will only have a loose/broad aim.
III. Now the sociologist decides research method and plans its implementation. The
sociologist will select from a range of different methods available based on
practical, ethical and theoretical considerations. The method that the sociologist
choses should produce data that will help support or disprove his hypothesis.
Research strategy (continued)
 3. Pilot Studies
• Before the sociologist begins his actual research, it is
important to test his method with a small number of
respondents or in a limited way to see if any changes
need to be made in the research design.
• For example, a pilot study will show whether the
respondents are able to understand the questions or if the
answers available cover the responses that they want to
give.
• Pilot studies save money, time and effort later.
Research strategy (continued)
 4. Sampling
• Sampling is the process of selecting people from a population of interest so that by
studying the sample we may fairly generalize our results back to the population from
which they were chosen.
• Samples make research more manageable by making it possible to do research with
smaller number of participants.
• In order to make sure that the sample is generalizable or representative, the sample
has to be cross-section of the population. For example, if there are equal number of
males and females in the population, there should be equal numbers of males and
females in the sample.
• The people that the research is about are called the survey population.
• A list of everyone in the population is called a sampling frame.
• Commonly used sampling frames include electoral roll, telephone directories, and school
registers.
• Sometimes samples are not necessary. For example, census collect information from the
whole population, not a sample.
 Types of samples

1. Random samples: when

each person in the sampling
frame has an equal chance
of being selected.
• Random samples are not
always representative for
example, by chance, a
sampling frame containing
equal numbers of boys
and girls might produce a
sample dominated by one
sex.
Types of samples
 2. Cluster Samples are used when the population is too large. So to avoid
time and expense involved in conducting research on the entire
population, the population is first divided into clusters, some clusters are
then randomly chosen, and finally, random samples are then selected
from within those clusters.
• Step 1: Clusters are formed from a population;
• Step 2: a sample of clusters is taken taken/certain areas are chosen for
the sampling frame
• Step 3: random samples are then taken within the selected clusters.

Activity:Imagine that you are a researcher and your research question is

“how often do Pakistanis go abroad for holidays?” How will you select your
respondents through cluster sampling?
Types of samples
 Quota samples: when involve in your
the researcher looking research.
for people with specific • Step 2: identify people
characteristics as his with those
survey population and characteristics
sample. For example a researcher
• Step 1: decide how might want to sample 20
many people with what girls between 11-13 years
characteristics to of age.
Types of samples
 Snowball samples: when one
respondent puts the researcher
in contact with other(s).
 Snowball sampling is often
used when other types of
sampling will not work or
when you don’t have a
sampling frame. For example,
when your population is
members of a cult society.
The uses of sampling/why is sampling
important

 practical issues – sampling makes the research more manageable by reducing the number of respondents
whilst maintaining the characteristics of the research population
 having a representative sample is important – because it enables researchers to make generalisations about
their research
 random sampling is useful – because ensures every person in the group has an equal chance of being
selected – this makes the sampling more objective and less biased so positivists would be in favour of this
technique
 systematic sampling is useful – because it is an effective way of creating a sample from a larger sample
frame – it is a quick and easy way to do one’s research and practicalities matter
 stratified samples tend to have smaller sampling errors – the sample is divided into several groups in
proportion to construct a sample that is representative of the whole population making generalisations
possible
 quota sampling might be useful – because it is a practical way of ensuring the correct amount of people
from each strata identified
 panel sampling involves questioning the same sample at regular intervals to observe trends of opinion –
this is particularly useful because many researchers like to do longitudinal research
 snowball sampling is used in the collection of in depth qualitative data – because often on sensitive topics,
where an sampling frame does not exist it is the only way to gain access to the group under investigation
e.g. when investigating criminal gangs.