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Sociology

BY

Ebrahim Bin Najam

Lecture No. 4

Research Methodology

Welcome back guys to yet another lecture of Sociology. So today we will move forward to Research methodology. There are two types of research, Primary and Secondary research.

Questionnaires Observation

Primary Research

Interviews

This type of research is done directly by sociologist for their own research purposes. Primary Research is expensive ad also takes up more time than secondary research. However, it is more relevant to the topic being researched and also more accurate.

Internet Libraries

Secondary Research

Public Archives Trade Organisations

This type of research is the data collected from other sources and that data which had been collected earlier for purposes other than those of the sociologists. It has the considerable advantage of being cheaply and readily available. But this does not make them accurate and sociologists have to be wary of their authenticity and unadulteration.

The data that is collected from both these methods is further divided into two categories

1. Qualitative data: This data deals directly with people’s experiences, as well as their feelings about, and interpretations of, the situations they find themselves in. This data is generated through in-depth contact with sociologists, whether by in-depth(or unstructured) interviews or through observation. This type of data, unlike, qualitative data that is presented through statistics, is written in the form of prose and passages. Due to its very nature it is preferred by interpretivists /interactionists.

2. Quantitative data: Quantitative data is that data which is presented in numeric form and just deals with the facts and figures rather than the reasons behind the phenomenon or peoples experiences. For instance, the quantitative data about crime rate in a locality will look something like this:

Research methods

Now we will take a look at the methods used to collect data. First of all we will take a look at the qualitative data methods.

Questionnaires:

This type of research method involves preparing several questions written on a sheet and distributing them among the sampling space( the people on whom research is done). This distribution is done either by hand, by newspaper or mail, and even on internet. The questions can either be open-ended or close-ended. Open-ended questions leave a blank space for the responder to respond in his/her own words, but in close-ended questions responders are only given choices to choose from. Open ended questions are preferred by interactionists and close-ended by positivists. Questionnaires are quicker to deal with than are interviews and they are also cost efficient especially if they are sent by internet or even post, apart from that their data is also generalisable which makes them ideal for positivists. But they have the huge disadvantage of possessing a very low response rate and the information is also not accurate due to misunderstandings of the questions.

Interviews:

There are three main types of interviews, Structured, semi-structured and unstructured. They can be performed face-to-face or on telephone. Now let’s come to the types of interviews.

Structured interviews are those interviews that contain a prepared set of questions, this means that specific questions are prepared before-hand by the researcher and he or she would ask those questions in the same order as they are listed. Digression from such questions is minimal, if at all. The advantages of such interviews are that they take somewhat lesser time than do unstructured interviews because the interviewer does not ask extra and unnecessary questions which would otherwise take time. However, during such interviews interviewee does not usually relax or get the chance to become intimate with the interviewer and this could lead to interviewer bias which affects the accuracy of interviews.

Unstructured interviews do not contain a specific quota of pre-set questions. It is more of a conversation and the interviewer thinks up questions as the interview progresses. This type of freelance interaction is ideal for interactionists as they consider human experiences more valuable. This does take more time and could very well end up being irrelevant, but it does give the interviewer valuable information.

Semi-structured interviews are somewhere in between and consist of some pre-set and some new questions which come to the interviewer’s mind during interview.

Observation:

This means to visually examine the activities of an individual or a group for an extended period. There are two ways of doing this

1. Covert observation: This type of observation involves the researcher keeping his or her identity secret while observing the individual or group, this could mean that he is either participating sand is part of the group that he is observing(participant observation) or that he is observing from a distance( Non-participant observation). This could yield accurate data as the group/person being observed would act naturally if he/she/they are unaware of the researcher’s actual intent, but it is dangerous and is unethical.

2. Overt observation: This type of observation means that the real identity of the observer is open to its subject/s. This would almost definitely lead to the affected behavior of the subject/s as he/she/they would try to act in an acceptable way if they know the researchers intentions, however, it does not put the researcher into ethical or legal issues and he or she is more careful in recording data.

Longitudinal studies:

These studies involve study of the same subject/sample over a long period of time. Due to their increased span they are mostly used to examine trends and changes over time.

Secondary research methods

Internet:

Using the internet is the most convenient form of secondary research as one can get whatever one wants by typing just a few phrases on he screen.

Content Analysis:

This is the study of mass media. For instance, if a researcher wants to know about the changing issues of racism and minority discrimination, then he or she will examine how the concerned were represented in the media like the times they were mentioned and or the judging of the tone of reports. This is especially useful to interpretivists.

Official statistics:

These are the documents released by the government. Official statistics are data gathered by government bodies for a wide variety of purposes, such as recording demographic details in censuses, unemployment and crime rates etc. This is a very convenient and cheap source, but it does have a chance of being biased in favor of the government officials and this would decrease its validity.

Well, guys these are all the research methods, and sources that we studied today, in the next lecture we would be completing this chapter, for now some FAQs

Q:1 Give comparison between quantitative and qualitative data.

Ans. Quantitative data and qualitative data have various differences that distinguish them. Quantitative data is represented in the form of statistics e.g graphs, charts whereas qualitative data is presented in the form of prose and passage. Additionally, quantitative data is preferred by the positivist tradition for its relevance and facts whereas qualitative data is preferred by interpretivists for its in-depth data that deals with human experiences and meanings of events in people’s lives. Finally, quantitative data is reliable this means that if the same study was repeated again the chances that the results will be the same stay increased, but this is not the case with qualitative dat.

Q:2 Define structured interviews.

Ans. Structured interviews are those interviews that contain a pre-set quota of questions that are asked in the same order every time by the interviewer.

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