AS Unit 2
Sociological Methods
Specification
You will study:
 the different quantitative and qualitative methods and
sources of data, including questionnaires, interviews,
observation techniques and experiments, and documents
and official statistics;
 the distinctions between primary and secondary data, and
between quantitative and qualitative data;
 the relationship between positivism, intepretivism and
sociological methods;
 the theoretical, practical and ethical considerations
influencing the choice of topic, choice of method(s) and
the conduct of research;
 the nature of social facts and the strengths and
limitations of different sources of data and methods of
research.
As questions on Methodology are of the stimulus type an
overview of the topic with a good knowledge and
understanding of selected studies and debates are the key to
success. Attention needs to be paid to the further two skills of
interpretation and application and evaluation.
Ensure you practice the past exam questions at the back of
this resource booklet before the exam.
Good luck!
Differing perspectives in Sociological Methods
Sociology
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Individual in society
(Macro)
Individual in society
(Micro)
Positivist
Interpretivist
Scientific
Anti-scientific
People = passive
Quantitative
RELIABILITY
People = active
Qualitative
VALIDITY
Sociological Methods – Terms and concepts
Keyword
Primary Data
Secondary Data
Meaning
Data that the sociologist creates/
produces themselves e.g.
questionnaire
Data that the sociologist uses that
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Quantitative research
Qualitative research
Bottom up theories
Top down theories
Ethical issues
Positivists
Interpretive Sociology
Validity
Reliability
Objective
has been created by someone else
e.g. official statistics and
government documents
Stresses the importance of
gathering statistical data that can
be checked and tested e.g.
Structured interview
Research that cannot be replicated
, it observes or describes what is
happening e.g. participant
observation
Called Micro or interpretive
approaches, sociological theories
that analyse society by studying
the ways in which individuals
interpret the world
Called Macro or structural
approaches, theories that believe it
is important to look at society as a
whole when studying it.
Refers to moral concerns about the
benefits and potential harm of
research to people being
researched, to the researcher and
society.
Those advocating an approach that
supports the belief that the way to
gain knowledge is by following the
conventional scientific model
An approach that stresses the role
of people in constructing the
society around them
The need to show that what
research sets out to measure really
is that which it measures. i.e.
getting at the truth
The need to show that each
repeated questionnaire or interview
is truly identical
Not allowing personal opinion/values
to influence research
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Subjective
Triangulation
Pilot study
Observer fatigue
Covert research
Overt research
Ethnography
Dependent variable
Independent variable
Comparative method
Hawthorne effect
Random sample
Systematic random sample
Quota sample
Allowing personal opinion/values to
influence research
Where more than one method of
research is used in order to provide
a balanced picture
A small exploratory study to throw
up any problems on issues before
the main study takes place
Tiredness resulting from pretence,
particular in covert observation
The subjects of the research are
unaware that research is being
conducted
The subjects know about the
research
Approach involving the researcher
immersing themselves in the lives
of the people under study
The change being acted upon.
By variables we mean any specified
social phenomena that changes in
relation to each other. This is the
variable that causes the change
A method that involves comparing
societies to find out key
differences that may explain social
phenomena.
Unreliability of data arising as a
result of people responding to what
they perceive to be the
expectations of the researchers.
A sample technique where
everybody has an equal chance of
selection
Any number is chosen at random
then every nth person in a sample
frame is selected
Respondents are chosen by a
fieldworker on the basis of
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Snowball sample
Non- representative sample
Stratified sample
Sample frame
gender,age,ethnicity
A sample that grows in number via
personal relationships
A sample that deliberately does not
select a representative group of
subjects for research
A sample that takes note of and
mirrors significant differences in
the sample population e.g. age,
ethnicity
A list of all those from among which
the sample will be selected
Positivism versus Interpretivism
Positivism
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Positivism is an early influential approach advocated by Auguste Comte
(1840s) and Emile Durkheim (1897) which suggests that Sociology can be
scientific. Positivism argues that:
1. There are objective social facts about the social world
2. These facts can be expressed in statistics
3. You can look for correlations (patterns in which two or more things
tend to occur together)
4. Correlations may represent causal relationships (one thing causing
another)
5. Multivariate analysis (analysing the importance of many different
possible causes) can help you to find what the true causes of things
are
6. It is possible to discover laws of human behaviour- causes of
behaviour which are true for all humans everywhere throughout
history
7. Human behaviour is shaped by external stimuli (things that happen
to us) rather than internal stimuli (what goes on in the human mind)
8. To be scientific you should only study what you can observe. It is
therefore unscientific to study people’s emotions, meanings or
motives, which are internal to the unobservable mind
Interpretivism
Interpretivists usually advocate the use of qualitative data to interpret
social action, with an emphasis on the meaning and motives of actors.
• Interpretivists often see Sociology as different from the natural
sciences in that it requires the understanding of meaningful
behaviour by humans
• From this viewpoint, people do not simply react to external stimuli
but interpret the meaning of stimuli before reacting. An
understanding is therefore required of people’s unobservable
subjective states, which cannot be reduced to statistical data.
There are several different interpretivist approaches:
1. Weber
• Weber (1948) sees Sociology as the study of social action (or
meaningful behaviour)
• This requires understanding or verstehen
• You need to understand why people behave in particular ways. For
example, in ‘The Protestant Ethic and the spirit of Capitalism’
(1958) Weber tries to understand why Calvinists reinvested their
money and became early capitalists
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•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
2. Symbolic interactionism
Symbolic interactionists see individuals as possessing a self
concept or image of themselves
This is largely shaped through the reactions of others to the
person
Herbert Blumer (1962) argues that sociologista need to understand
the viewpoint of the people whose behaviour they are trying to
understand. They cannot do this by using statistical data
Interactionists prefer methods such as in-depth interviews and
participant observation
Labelling theory is the best known version of interactionism
3. Phenomenology
Phenomenologists go further than other interpretivist approaches,
rejecting the idea that causal explanations are possible
To them the social world has to be classified before it can be
measured. Classification (e.g. whether an act is suicide, or whether
somebody is a criminal) depend upon the judgements of individuals
These judgements reflect the common sense and stereotypes of
individuals rather than some objective system
Since there is no way of choosing between classifications people
use to give order and meaning to the social world
Cicourel’s (1976) study of juvenile justice is an example
Quantitative and Qualitative methods
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Quantitative research- Stresses the importance of
gathering statistical information which can be checked and
tests
• Social survey/Questionnaires- large scale research aiming to
make general statements
• Comparative research- comparison across countries or
cultures
• Case studies- highly detailed study of one or two situations
• Structured interviews
• Functionalism and Marxism are associated with using this
methodology
Qualitative research- Believe it is not possible to
accurately measure and categorise the social world, all that
is possible is to observe or describe what is happening
•
•
•
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Observation
Participant, the researcher joins in
Non-participant, the researcher observes
Unstructured interviews
Interactionism and Ethno methodology are associated
with this method
Primary and Secondary sources
Primary data
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Information collected by the researchers themselves, the main ways in
which original research can be collected are as follows:
• Social surveys- Townsend sent out a 120 p-g questionnaire to 150
houses to investigate poverty
• Case studies- Laing, social causes of schizophrenia
• Unstructured interviews- Dobash and Dobash, explaining wife
battering
• Observation- Pryce, observed West Indian community to describe
their way of life
Secondary data
Useful information that is gathered by another researcher is
known as secondary data.
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Official statistics- Census for example
Historical- Laslett, for example, used parish records to investigate
houses before industrialisation
Expressive documents- Diaries
Mass Media- Content analysis of media documents and programmes
Advantages
Primary
• The researcher knows the exact methodology used to investigate
that social issue
Secondary
• It provides useful ideas about the subject you intend to research
• Existing data can be compared to primary data
• It may be more easily accessible and less time consuming than
conducting research from scratch
Disadvantages
Primary
• It has to be constructed from scratch and therefore the
researcher has to ensure that the methodology is appropriate and
effective, taking into consideration time and money
•
•
•
Secondary
Someone else has collected it and therefore the methodology may
not be accurate
The information may not be relevant to your research
Stages in a survey : The Model Approach
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 Choice of topic to be studied
 Forming of hunches and hypotheses
 Identification of population to be surveyed
 Carrying out preparatory investigations and interviews
 Drafting the questionnaire or interview schedule
 Conducting a pilot survey
 Finalising the questionnaire
 Selecting a sample of the population
 Selecting and training of interviewers if necessary
 Collecting the data
 Processing the data and analysing the results
 Writing the research report
 Publication of the report
(Taken from: Patrick McNeil “Research Methods” Tavistock
Society Today series 1986)
Sampling
A sample is a part of a larger population, often chosen as a cross-section
of the larger group
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Sampling is used in order to generalise about the larger population (to
make statements about a group bigger than the one you have actually
studied)

The population is the total group you are interested in

The sampling unit is the individual thing or person in that population

The sampling frame is a list of all those in the population (e.g. the
electoral register is a sampling frame of those eligible to
vote).There is no comprehensive sampling frame of everyone in
Britain, but the Postcode Address File is often used (e.g. it is used
by the British crime survey). There are a variety of ways to
produce a sample
More phenomenological researchers who are less concerned with
‘scientific’ status and principles are generally more likely to use a method
of judgement sampling
Types of sampling
1. Random Sampling
(sometimes known as probability sampling, scientific sampling)
Every person in the population has an equal chance of being chosen. They
are not selected for convenience or because they seem to be
representative. There is no human intervention in who is chosen. This is
the only way to get a statistically reliable sample
a) Simple random sampling
This is where a proportion of the population is to be interviewed and the
size of the sample is decided statistically. The numbers are generated
randomly and interviews carried out with the people corresponding to the
numbers chosen. Numbers are chosen from random number tables or
computer produced random numbers (equivalent to, but more accurate
than, drawing a specified number out of a hat, but the random principle
involved is the same.
The main advantage is that you are being very randomly scientific here
but the main disadvantage is that it may not be practical to track down
precise people that you have identified and even if you do they may not
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wish to participate in your research and this will reduce the reliability of
your sample. It may well be that particular types of people e.g. those who
live in blocks of flats with entry phones are difficult to get hold of and
this may bias your sample. It may well be a costly and time consuming
exercise, particularly if your respondents are geographically widespread
b) Systematic random sampling
(sometimes known as quasi random sampling)
This is where, for example, every 5th or 10th (nth) name is taken from a
list. The main advantage is that you are very close to being randomly
scientific here, but the names are easier to choose from your sampling
frame. However, you have all the problems of the simple random sample in
gaining access to specific respondents etc. with the added problem that
if your list is ordered in a particular way e.g. husband then wife and you
choose every 2nd name, for instance, this may introduce bias.
c) Stratified random sampling
This makes a sample more representative. The sociologist can be sure
that the proportions of groups under study reflect those of the
population as a whole in certain respects. The idea is that you stratify or
divide up your population e.g. by gender, age, class, rank etc. before you
randomly select your sample and you aim to ensure that the proportions
of each group you select reflect the proportions in the actual population
as a whole.
e.g. for a sample of nurses you may divide your population of nurses
initially into male and female and if you know that 20% of nurses are male
and 8% are female then you could select your sample using simple random
sampling or quasi random sampling so that 20% of your sample are male
and 80% are female.
You could even make this more complex and hopefully even more
representative by introducing more than one variable e.g. nurse gender
and nurse status e.g. student nurse, charge nurse etc. and have both
proportions of nurse statuses accurately reflected.
Another way this method can be used is to ensure a more complete
coverage of parts of the population which are small but interesting. For
example J.W.B Douglas in ‘The home and the School’ took a sample of
babies born in the 2nd week of March 1946 from the middle-class and the
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agricultural working class but only 25% of the babies born to the
industrial working-class.
The main advantage is that you gain a more representative sample but
obtaining an accurate sampling frame is clearly of great importance i.e.
ensuring that the proportions are correctly identified in the first place
before attempting to replicate them. Also, it can get quite complex trying
to identify the correct number of respondents in each category. Then,
you are going to have the problems of gaining participation and all the
consequences of non-participation that are applicable to random sampling
methods generally.
2. Judgement sampling
(sometimes called purposive sampling, non-random sampling, convenience
sampling, volunteer sampling)
This is where researchers choose a sample which in their opinion is
representative of the population as a whole. For example, Goldthorpe and
Lockwood in their ‘affluent worker’ studies decided that what an ‘affluent
worker’ actually was and also decided that car workers in Luton were
representative of that type of worker.
a) Cluster sample (in the same geographical area)
(sometimes called area sampling, multi-stage sampling)
Goldthorpe and Lockwood’s study is an example of this because a cluster
sample is confined to one particular geographical area perhaps because it
is cheap and convenient to confine research geographically by excluding
all possible samples in other parts of the country. Statistical reliability is
sacrificed. This may also be achieved by, for example, taking one sample
from another i.e. the multi-stage cluster sample. For example, if a
national sample of school children was required, a sample could be drawn
from education authorities. From these, a sample of schools could be
drawn and then a sample of children from these schools.
b) Snowball sample
This is where one contact introduces the sociologist to another. This is
the method often used by phenomenologists. It cannot claim to be
scientific but is a useful form of access to interesting subjects. For
example Whyte in ‘Street corner society’ explains how ‘Doc’ introduces
him to other members of the gang and through them he meets further
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members of the community. The main disadvantage is that you could end
up with a trail of very similar people- ‘birds of a feather stick together’people tend to have friends and acquaintances who share similar social
characteristics i.e. class, gender,etc. to themselves.
c) Quota sample
This method claims scientific status and although it is not statistically
reliable, statistical analysis is often based on this kind of sample. Much
market research and opinion poll research is carried out in this way.
Here the researcher generally decides that the sample must contain a
certain quota of people in certain categories- so many men, so many
women etc. and these are chosen in proportions in the population overall
but specific names of respondents required are neither identified nor
tracked down. The researcher simply stands in a busy city centre for
example and selects those who seem to fit the bill in terms of their
gender, age or whatever other criteria have been decided upon. The
interviewer will be given a certain quota of people in each category to
interview. It is likely that certain characteristics will make non- response
more probable and with quota sampling there is no way that this can be
taken into account. Some researchers have gone so far as to say that you
only get to interview friendly, co-operative people- the smilers!
Another problem is the way sampling takes place. Many take place in city
centres in the daytime when many of the target population are at work,
housebound or using local shopping centres. The sample may not be
representative. However, the method is quicker and cheaper than random
sampling and useful if no sampling frame exists for the target population.
Many researchers, especially those who carry out opinion poll type market
research would claim that quota sampling is scientific and can produce
reliable results. However, most sociologists would disagree and say it
lacks any true random element and is therefore a method of judgement
sampling i.e. human judgements are involved and therefore the
possibilities of human error, bias and distortion are increased.
Conclusion
Positivists would generally opt for a method of random sampling to try
and maintain high standards of scientificty, reliability, representative
ness, generalisability etc.
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Phenomenologists, in their quest for insightful, valid results attach far
less importance to selection of respondents via scientific principles and
would be more likely to see methods of judgement sampling as acceptable.
Pilot studies
Pilot studies are small scale preliminary studies carried out before a
bigger study to improve, help to design or test the feasibility of proposed
research.
They can be used:
 To test how useful and unambiguous interview questions are
 To develop ways to gain co-operation of respondents
 To develop research skills
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
To decide whether or not to proceed with research
Social surveys
Social surveys are large scale studies which collect standardised data
about large groups, often using questionnaires.
 Factual surveys collect descriptive information (e.g. Mack and
lansley on poverty)
 Attitude surveys examine subjective opinions (e.g. opinion polls)
 Explanatory surveys test theories or produce hypotheses (e.g.
marshall et al’s study of class)
Questionnaires
A questionnaire is a document which contains a number of pre set
questions to which respondents are asked to supply answers.
Questionnaires can be administered in two ways:
a. STRUCTURED INTERVIEWS – an interviewer presents the
questions verbally to a respondent and notes down their responses
b. POSTAL OR GROUP QUESTIONNAIRES – questionnaires are sent
by post or distributed by the interviewer direct to a selected
group of respondents are returned to the researcher by post or
collected by hand
Questions are presented in two main forms:
a. CLOSED QUESTIONS – the respondent is asked to select their
response from a range of given alternatives – e.g. which party do
you think will win the next General Election? A) Labour B)
Conservative C) other
b. OPEN QUESTIONS – the respondent is asked to make a ‘free’
response e.g. what changes would you like to see made at yoru work
place over the next five years?
Questionnaires can be a cheap, fast and efficient method of obtaining
large amounts of quantifiable data from a large number of respondents.
However, there are problems as well as advantages involved in the use of
questionnaires as a research tool.
Advantages
1) Costs are low – particularly if postal questionnaires or group
questionnaires are used
2) Respondents who are dispersed over a wide geographical area can
be included
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3) If a questionnaire with closed questions is used, questionnaires are
relatively simple to complete and answers can be organised
conveniently for statistical processing and correlation. For
example, numerical values can be assigned to each answer for
computer processing
Disadvantages
1) If a postal questionnaire is used only a small proportion are likely
to be returned. The return rate does not often exceed 50% of the
sample population and it is sometimes below 25%. Also, those who
do not return the questionnaire may have special reasons for doing
so. For example, concern about the topic of research in question
e.g. government cuts in the NHS may influence a person’s decision
to complete the questionnaire and ultimately respondents may not
be representative of the sample as a whole.
For example, in 1977, the Hite Report, a nationwide survey of the sexual
behaviour of American women was sent to 10,000 women but only 3000
were returned- 3% of the original sample.
2) When group questionnaires are used – e.g. in schools etc.
respondents may discuss their answers within the group and this
might affect their responses. Similarly, postal questionnaires may
be completed in inappropriate circumstances and discussion with
others may affect the results.
3) Questions need to be structured very carefully – particularly in the
case of postal questionnaires where no interviewer is present to
explain questions. Questions must be worded so as to avoid:
a) Loading – e.g. “Do you ever strike your child”?
b) Terminology difficulties – questions using vague words such
as ‘generally’, ‘sometimes’ or ‘seldom’ will be interpreted
differently by different respondents and the resulting
answers will not be strictly comparable- e.g. ‘how many hours
leisure did you have last week?’ ‘Leisure’ may well mean
different things to different people.
A Gallup poll survey in 1939 found that 88% of a sample of the U.S
population described themselves as middle-class, a result that surprised
the researchers. Members of the sample were offered a choice of three
alternatives- ‘upper’, ‘middle’ and ‘lower’. The survey was repeated shortly
afterwards and the term ‘lower class’ was replaced by ‘working class’. It
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was then found that 51% of the sample described themselves as working
class. Words may be interpreted differently by different respondents
and this may make findings inaccurate.
c) Doubles – To the question ‘Do you think that capital
punishment should be re-introduced and hanging reinstated?’
respondents may wish to make separate comments, and the
nature of the question may make a respondent simplify their
response.
d) Leading questions – e.g. ‘A lot of people now think that sex
before marriage is reasonable. What do you think?
e) Presuming questions – Where the respondent is assumed to
do or think something, e.g. how long is it since you last had a
cigarette? Presumes a ‘yes’ answer to an unasked question
‘Do you smoke’?
f) Causal and incidental links – e.g. ‘Do you think educational
standards have declined since the introduction of
comprehensive schools? – the respondent would find it
difficult to break away from the link which has been made by
the researcher
4) To off set many of these problems questionnaires generally need to
be used in pilot surveys prior to the commencement of main body
of research
Although closed questions make analysis of data more straightforward
respondents are restricted in their choices and may not agree with
any of the responses listed. Also, closed questions assume that the
sociologist knows all the alternatives (variables) or that some
alternatives are insignificant enough to be ignored or subsumed into
others. The respondent may feel they are selecting a response they do
not fully agree with in order to satisfy the interviewer’s desire for
information. Closed questions are best used as enquiries into simple
facts e.g. ‘How old were you when you left school?’ a) 14 b) 15 c) 16 etc
Questions inevitably reflect the researchers own interpretation of
the situation and this factor must be borne in mind when questions are
being formulated.
5) Open ended questions may lead to problems in categorising and
analysing responses
Writing a questionnaire
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1. If you need to know some personal details about respondents, leave
these questions till the end. By the end of the questionnaire you
are more likely to have gained the respondent’s confidence and
they will be more likely to divulge this information.
2. Presentation counts. A questionnaire which appears to be
professionally produced e.g. accurately typed and well laid out with
appropriate space for the recording of answers will obviously
receive more care and attention than one that looks amateurish.
3. Try and avoid a chaotic mix of open and closed questions. If both
types are necessary, and they will be in the majority of cases, try
producing two short questionnaires, one with each type of question
rather than one long one. It is also easier to assess the efficacy of
each method
4. Easy questions first
Conclusion


Questionnaires are valuable in investigations of simple facts or
activities
Questionnaires are problematic for investigating beliefs, attitudes
or opinions. Subjects may be unwilling or unable to declare these.
Having their responses directly put on paper may feel intimidating.
Generally, questionnaires are combined with other research
methods e.g. unstructured interviews, or replaced with more direct
methods e.g. participant observation
The use of interviews in social research
What is an interview?
An interview is a conversation between a researcher and one or more
people (interviewees) in which the researcher works through a series of
questions to find out what the interviewees think about something.
Main types of interview
The two main types of interview are structured and unstructured.
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Structured (or formal) interviews
Structured interviews involve the researcher working through a
standardised questions, that is, the wording of questions, and the order in
which they are put are predetermined and are the same for all
interviewees.
Unstructured (or focused) interviews
Unstructured interviews involve the researcher having a list (or schedule)
of topics that need to be covered but no predetermined questions that
have to be used. It is left up to the researcher to phrase questions as he
likes, to ‘probe’ particular responses and to ask for repetition.
In addition to the two main type of interview discussed above ‘discovery
interviews’ are also sometimes used by sociologists. These are completely
unstructured and are used when the researcher is not sure about which
topics he can investigate using a particular interviewee and are intended
to give ideas which can be followed up more carefully in later research.
When are interviews used?
Structured interviews (used by positivists)
Structured interviews are usually used in surveys where they are useful
in providing a large amount of straightforward factual information in a
short time and relatively cheaply. Questions are ‘close ended’ i.e. they
provide a limited range of alternatives for the interviewee to choose (e.g.
in the last week, have you seen your mother not at all/once/twice, more
than twice?) then the information produced is easily codified i.e.
translated into numerical form and results are easily quantified i.e.
presented in numerical form.
One example of the use of structured interviews is to be found in Young
and Wilmott’s ‘Family and kinship in East London’. (They also used
unstructured interviews). They write;
‘The interviews were formal and standardised, the questions precise and
factual, with a limited range of alternative answers on straightforward
topics like people’s age, job, religion, birthplace, and the whereabouts of
and last contact with parents, parents-in-law, brothers and sisters, and
married children. The interviewer’s task was to ring the appropriate code
number opposite the answer they received or, at a few points in the
interview, to write in a fairly short and simple reply. Each interview took
between about ten minutes and half an hour, depending mainly on the
numbers of relatives possessed by a particular informant.’
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From this sort of structured interview Young and Wilmott are able to
come up with findings in quantifiable form e.g. of the 155 women with
mothers alive in the sample 55% of them had seen their mothers in the
past twenty four hours.
Problems arise though when structured interviews are used to try to
assess things which are more complex than straightforward factual data.
For example, the investigations of social, political or religious beliefs and
attitudes. The danger here is that the questions selected by the
interviewer may not accurately assess people’s thinking on such issues,
and might impose the questioner’s way of thinking on the interviewee.
This is called ‘imposing observers categories’ on a respondent’s view of
reality.
For example, the question
‘Do you feel that God helps you in everyday life?’ assumes that the
interviewee believes in God, whereas the question,
‘What do you feel are the main sources of help in your life?’ allows the
interviewee to use his own ideas and ways of thinking to answer the
question.
These problems are made even worse if closed response questions are
used, when the interviewer decides what the answers are to be chosen
from in advance.
Unstructured interviews (used by interpretivists)
Unstructured interviews are usually used when more ‘in-depth’
information is needed, and they are often given to smaller samples than
used in large scale surveys with structured interviews. For example
although young and Wilmott investigated 933 people using structured
interviews, they only had 45 in the sub-sample that they investigated in
depth using unstructured interviews. Similarly Ann oakley’s ‘The Sociology
of Housework’ is based on intensive interviews with a sample of 40 middle
and working class women. They are more likely to use ‘open-ended’
questions which allow the interviewee to reply in any way he likes e.g. ‘Do
you think family life has changed much in the past twenty years?’
The interviewee is given no limited list of alternatives which he has to
choose from and is allowed to develop his answers freely, with ‘probing’
from the interviewer where appropriate. Young and Wilmott discuss their
use of unstructured interviews as follows:
‘By contrast the interviews with the marriage samples… and with the
grammar school samples… were relatively ‘intensive’. They varied in length
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from one to three hours and we called back for further interviews on a
number of informants… we used a schedule of questions, but the
interviews were much more informal and less standardised than those in
the general survey. Answers had to be obtained to all the set questions
listed (though not necessarily in the same order) but this did not exhaust
the interview. Each couple being in some way different from every other,
we endeavoured to find out as much as we could about the peculiarities of
each couple’s experiences and family relationships, using the set questions
as leads and following up anything of interest which emerged in the
answers to them as the basis for yet further questions. After each
interview, we wrote up, from our notes, a full interview report, including
where possible people’s verbatim remarks.’
Because of the wide range of responses to unstructured interviews it is
difficult to quantify the findings of such research, although this can be
done to some extent if the answers can be easily coded.
However, their main value is in providing qualitative information about
people’s views and attitudes. For example Paul Willis in ‘Learning to
Labour’ includes many verbatim reports of his interviews with the lads
which give great insight into their views on school, other pupils and work.
How are interviews carried out?
Once the interview sample has been selected and the interview is taking
place, most interviewers try to take the following into account;
Questions should be asked sensibly and flow naturally not making sudden
changes of direction. As respondents often need to be ‘warmed up’ and it
is important to establish ‘rapport’, do not start with awkward potentially
embarrassing questions but with straightforward questions about age,
length of residence, marital status e.t.c. Leave more difficult questions to
the end. Effort should be made to avoid loaded, leading and multiple
questions. Questions should be intelligible and unambiguous- this is often
checked first by a pilot survey e.g. Ann Oakley in her survey on what
women feel about housework writes that amongst others she decided to
use the question:
‘Do you like housework?’ This is clearly a focused question, but it was
employed for two reasons: firstly because the more neutral question
‘what do you feel about housework?’ was greeted with some confusion in
the pilot interviews. For working class housewives it appeared to lack
intelligibility, and middle class women tended to answer it by making
22
general statements about their domestic role-orientation. (e.g. ‘I don’t
mind being a housewife really’). The second reason for using this question
was that it proved immensely useful as a ‘way in’ to the whole area of
housework attitudes, its simplicity enabled some rapport to be
established between interviewer and respondent.
Examples of studies using interviews
Some studies use interviews only as their main research technique, for
example:
Hannah Gavron ‘The captive wife: Conflicts of housebound mother’
1966
Gavron’s work is based on a sample of 48 middle-class and 48 workingclass wives with at least one child under five. These were selected
randomly from doctor’s lists in middle and working class areas, and from a
voluntary association called the ‘Housebound Wives’ register. After
getting to know the women in the sample she used the technique of ‘nondirective’ interviewing to find out what factors influenced the women
giving up work (help available, husband’s attitude, views on leaving
children, e.t.c) and how they reacted to being housebound mothers.
Ann Oakley ‘The Sociology of Housework’ 1974
Oakley’s work is based on a sample of 40 middle class and working class
wives, again from the practice lists of two general practitioners in
London, one in a working class and one in a middle class area. She carried
out 10 pilot interviews some weeks before the main investigation and then
having refined her questions she interviewed the women in her sample.
The interviews were completed in one session using a tape recorder, and
lasted between one and a quarter and three and a half hours. Oakley was
investigating women’s ‘levels of satisfaction’ with housework, child-care,
marriage, employment, etc and trying to find connections between these
and such things as the extent to which women identified with the
housewife role and the type of marital relationship (joint/segregated).
She did not ask direct questions such as ‘Are you happy with your life?’
because people tend to give socially acceptable rather than true answers
to questions of this nature. Instead, she asked a number of questions
designed to get responses which could then be used to assess
satisfaction/dissatisfaction. She found that most of the respondents
were positively oriented to housework ‘in theory’ (this being especially
true of working class women) the majority found that, in practice, it was
monotonous, fragmentary and had to be done at an excessive pace.
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Oakley’s major finding was that feelings of ‘dissatisfaction with
housework’ were pre-dominate.
Interviews are also often combined with other research methods.
Examples of studies which do this are:
Michael Young and Paul Wilmott ‘Family and kinship in East London’
1957
Young and Wilmott wanted to investigate how relationships based on
extended families and kin living close together in the east end’s Bethnal
Green change when nuclear families move out to new housing estates such
as ‘Greenleigh’. They gave structured interviews to some of their four
different samples and unstructured interviews to the others. As well as
this, Young and Wilmott observed and participated in the life of the area
they were studying, one of them living with his family in Bethnal Green
during the period of the study. So the authors combine several methods
of social research which compliment each other. They get detailed
quantitative information from various sampling and statistical procedures
but also use more humanly sensitive methods in order to understand the
quality of feelings and relationships.
Paul Willis ‘Learning to Labour : How working class kids get working
class jobs’ 1977
Willis’s study is concerned with how social structural forces interact with
pupil’s own ways of thinking to confirm their class position. He focuses on
12 non-academic boys and he describes his method of study as follows:
‘The main group was studied intensively by means of observation and
participation observation in class, around the school and during leisure
activities, regular recorded group discussions, informal interviews and
diaries. I attended all of the different subject classes and options (not
as a teacher but as a member of the class) attended by the group at
various times, and the complete run of careers classes. I also taped long
conversations with all the parents of the main group, and with all senior
masters of the school, main junior teachers in contact with members of
the group and with the careers officers coming into the school.’
Interviews have a number of advantages and disadvantages for
sociologists both practical and theoretical, depending on the theoretical
preferences of each sociologist.
Advantages of interviews
24
1. Interviews are useful when studying areas which are not accessible
to study by other methods (e.g. Gavron and Oakley’s studies of
housewives) Also, whereas the participant observer is limited by
the fact that he can only be in one place at a time, interviewers can
help to fill in the picture by providing data on the respondents past
and on their activities in a range of contexts. For example, Gavron
was able to ask the housewives in her study about their previous
work, participant observation, even if possible would not
necessarily have provided this information.
2. Structured interviews can produce a lot of information from larger
samples relatively cheaply compared to other methods like
participant observation for example (e.g. Young and Wilmott got a
lot of straightforward statistical information about family life
using this method. On the other hand Liebow’s famous participant
observation study ‘Tally’s Corner’ is based on contact with only two
dozen people)
3. Structured interviews can produce a lot of quantified information
which can then be analysed statistically. (Sociologists who like to
support their findings with quantitative data like this aspect of
interviews. For example, Young and Wilmott are able to tell us that
the average number of contacts per week with own and spouse’s
parents and siblings changed for wives from 17.2 in Bethnal Green
to 2.4 in Greenleigh)
4. Unstructured interviews enable the researcher to explain
ambiguities in the questions and to ‘probe’ for deeper meanings
which may not be found by questionnaires or structured interviews
(Haralambos gives an example of this in research he carried out
into black music in America when he asks a Black musician about
the meaning of a song and is told initially that ‘Its just about the
meaning of a song and is told initially that ‘Its just about a guy and
a woman’, but after a probe the musician tells him it’s a song about
getting acceptance in white society.
5. Sociologists who take a positivist perspective (i.e. they think social
science should emulate natural science) like methods such as
structured interviews because the information they produce has a
high level of reliability, that is the degree to which other
researchers using the same method of investigation on the same
material produce the same results. Positivist sociologists believe
that if quantifiable research findings, collected by reliable
methods, can be added up to produce cumulative knowledge, it will
be possible to establish general ‘laws ‘ about human behaviour and
25
human society which will aid understanding. Positivists believe that
without quantification, sociology will remain on the level of
‘impressionable guesswork’ and ‘unsupported insight’.
6. Sociologists who do not follow the positivist perspective believe
that unstructured interviews are useful for examining the ways in
which people interpret the world. Unstructured interviews provide
an opportunity for respondents to say what they want rather than
what the interviewer might expect. They thus go some way to
avoiding the problem of imposing observers categories on the
research.
Disadvantages of interviews
1. Structured interviews may leave respondents feeling frustrated
because they can’t elaborate on or qualify their answers. They
might feel that their real feelings are not expressed at all and give
angry, silly or humorous answers and hence invalidate the research.
2. Interviews can only provide a ‘snapshot picture’ of social life at the
time the interviews took place. It is possible to have a series of
interviews but even these would not capture the flow of social life
in the way that say long-term, participant observation would. (for
example, interviews with gang members would be far less likely to
reveal the complex web of relationships which W.F. Whyte’s
participant observation revealed in ‘street corner society’.
3. Interviews do not allow the sociologist to directly observe people in
their normal everyday settings compared to other research
methods like observation. Without some other methods sociologists
are unable to adequately check the accuracy of interview data. This
inability to directly observe behaviour when interviewing may also
prevent the researcher from finding out about important aspects
of people’s behaviour. As W.F.Whyte observed in his participant
observation study, ‘Street Corner Society: The social structure of
an Italian slum’. “As I sat and listened, I learned the answers to
questions I would not have had the sense to ask if I had been
getting my information solely on an interviewing basis.”
4. A serious problem with interviews is that people do not always
behave in the way they say they do when asked. A.Piere when
studying racial discrimination in America in the 1930’s found a
discrepancy between what people said their attitudes towards
Chinese people were, and their behaviour itself. A related problem
for interviewers is the ‘social desirability effect’ (also called
‘evaluation apprehension’) this refers to the fact that respondents
26
tend to seek the approval of the sort of person they imagine the
investigator to be by answering in ways which may be far from the
truth. This has been found to be a special problem in questions
about whether people had voted, relied on social welfare, used
birth control techniques, etc. Dohrenwend’s research into attitudes
towards mental illness in the USA found that Puerto Ricans were
more willing to admit symptoms than other racial groups. Similarly,
a study by Phillips and Clancy found a greater willingness to admit
to symptoms of mental illness amongst lower social classes than
higher social classes. This could well affect interview data on this
topic.
5. Another related problem is that interviews may be ineffective
because for some areas of their lives people may not always be
fully aware of what they do, and thus be unable to answer interview
questions on these areas. Cicourel’s work ‘The social organisation of
juvenile justice’ demonstrates this with regard to American police
officers. Cicourel argues that their taken for granted assumptions
about how to categorise juvenile offenders from different social
class backgrounds are not made explicit they are an ‘unconsidered
part of everyday activity’. This means that, although Cicourel is
able to observe these taken for granted assumptions through
participant observation, they would not have been revealed through
interviews, since the officers are largely unaware of the
interpretive procedures they employ. This lack of awareness of
taken for granted assumptions may well apply to many areas of
social life and interviews, particularly structured ones may not
reveal what is taken for granted. Consider, as an example your
taken for granted assumptions about body space. A further of
people not being explicitly aware of things they take for granted is
provided by Whyte’s participant observation study ‘street corner
society’. In it the gang leader, Doc, is reported as saying, “You’ve
slowed me down plenty since you’ve been here. Now when I do
something, I have to think what Bill Whyte would want to know
about it and how I can explain it. Before I used to do things by
instinct.’
6. A further problem with the use of interviews is that interviews are
themselves always interaction situations and this may affect the
findings of interview based research.
a) This means that things like gestures, demeanours, tone of
voice, ‘props’ like briefcases, desks, type of clothes, etc all
influence how the respondent’s definition of the situation
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can have an effect on the willingness to ‘open up’ in an
interview. This is very clearly revealed in Labov’s comparison
of three interviews between a black boy Leon and a) a white
adult interviewer- formal setting, b) black adult interviewerformal setting, c) black adult interviewer- informal setting.
The data obtained from interview c) is very different from
that obtained from the other interviews showing that
interviews can have serious weaknesses as research tools if a
good ‘rapport’ is established between interviewer and
interviewee.
b) The fact that interviews are themselves always interaction
situations means that there is a danger that the interviewer
may unduly influence the respondent’s answers by leading the
respondent whose answers will then reflect something of the
interviewer’s attitudes and expectations. Stuart A.Rice’s
study in 1914 asked 2000 destitute men to explain their
situation, those influenced by a supporter of prohibition
tended to blame their demise on alcohol, but those
interviewed by a committed socialist tended to explain their
plight in terms of the industrial situation. The interviewers
had, perhaps unconsciously, communicated their own views to
the respondents.
c) Even where interviewers make every effort to avoid
influencing respondents, how the respondent perceives the
interviewer may influence his willingness to give accurate
answers to questions. J.Allan Williams organised a series of
interviews with 840 blacks in North Carolina during the early
1960’s. All the interviewers were female, 13 black, 9 white. A
significantly higher proportion of those interviewed by
blacks said they approved of civil rights demonstrations and
school desegregation and more respondents refused to give
any answers to these questions when faced with a white
interviewer. Williams’ findings suggest where there are
status differences between interviewer and respondent,
interview data should be regarded with caution.
7. Unstructured interviews do not produce data with high degree of
reliability, it is therefore difficult to compare the findings and
measure the responses of different people when using
unstructured interviews because they are, to some extent, unique
events since the question, their sequence and indeed everything
about the interview can very considerably from one occasion to the
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next. This is a criticism offered by positivist sociologists who
demand a high level of reliability from research because they tend
to believe that social reality is external to the actor and can be
‘discovered’ by appropriate methods. However interpretivist
sociologists reject this criticism from the positivist perspective,
they see reliability as less important than validity, i.e. the extent
to which data reflects reality. Interpretivist sociologists think
that feelings and subtle shades of opinion can’t adequately be
expressed in statistical form. They reject the positivist search for
causal explanation through establishing laws- the natural science
model- and instead try to observe accurately and record faithfully
what social actors themselves feel, and how they conceptualise the
world, rather than risk the danger of imposing observer’s
categories on responses.
Observation and Participant Observation
One way to find about social activity is to assume the role of observer.
This role can vary according to the degree of interaction and
participation. On the one hand, the observer might have no involvement
with those they are observing. They might for example, use one way
mirrors or closed circuit television in order to observe people without
their knowledge. On the other hand, the observer might come to
participate fully in the activity of the group they are studying by joining a
gang or subculture. Many who opt for Participant observation argue that
29
only by participating fully in the activities of the group they are studying
can they understand the subject’s point of view, their vision of the world
and the reasons for their actions.
Advantages
1. The researcher can uncover ‘taken for granted assumptions’. A.V
Cicourel in ‘The Social Organisation of Juvenile Justice’ assumed
that only by direct observation could he uncover the interpretive
procedures used by the police in defining a juvenile as delinquent.
Because the police are unaware of the values and procedures they
employ in deciding whether to stop or arrest an individual,
questionnaires or interviews would not uncover these taken for
granted assumptions. Only by directly observing their actions could
he uncover these values.
By observing the action of the police and other law enforcement
agents, Cicourel noted appearance, tone of voice, manner, home
background and school record of the juvenile were used to make
judgements concerning character and motive.
2. Observation does not impose the researcher’s definition of what is
important. When using questionnaires or structured interviews, the
sociologist has already decided what is important. By assuming that
certain questions are relevant, they have imposed their
framework/priorities on those they wish to study.
William F. Whyte in ‘Street corner society’, a study of a street
corner gang in a low income area of Boston, USA, argues that
Participant Observation is least likely to lead a sociologist to
impose their reality on the social world. Although Whyte admits
that he began his research with some preconceived ideas, by
directly observing and participating he gained new insights:
‘As I sat and listened, I learned answers to questions I would not
have had the sense to ask if I had been getting my information
solely on an interviewing basis’
3. Observation usually retains the ‘natural situation’. Taking part in an
experiment, or being asked to complete a questionnaire is not
something people do in their everyday lives and, as such, the very
act of being asked to participate in research may influence a
respondent’s replies or behaviour. Observation, on the other hand,
usually involves watching people in their everyday situations in a
context which is natural to them. As such, it is argued, the
research is less likely to influence behaviour.
30
Participant observation usually requires the observer to be a
member of the group for a considerable length of time, often a
mater of years. As such, they are able to become accepted
members of the group, building up trust and rapport with those
around them. Elliot Liebow in his study of black street corner men,
“Tally’s corner”, argued that his acceptance into the group meant
that those around him acted normally and rationally. Like Whyte,
he argues that he avoided the problem of significantly changing the
activities of those around him.
4. Observation results in more valid data. For a number of reasons,
people’s responses to questionnaires or interviews may not be an
accurate response. By developing trust and rapport, by observing
what people do rather than what they say they do, observation may
result in data which is more valid than other methods.
Lewis Yablonsky in “The violent gang” argues that : “their
characteristic response to questionnaires investigating the gang’s
organisation or personal activities is one of suspicion and distrust.
To the gang boy every researcher could be a ‘cop’.
As Howard Parker showed in his participant observation study of a
gang in Liverpool “view from the boys” by being accepted an
accepted member of the group and participating in their daily lives
he was able to understand their motives and behaviour. The
insights he gained concerning their criminal activity would probably
not have been obtained using other methods.
By involving himself in the lives of the people they are studying,
and by sharing their experiences, the researcher is better able to
understand the meanings they give to their behaviour and that of
others. They have a deeper insight into the behaviour of the people
they are studying.
5. Observation provides good preliminary work and enables the
researcher to develop hypotheses (ideas to be tested) can actually
be formulated during observation. Not only can the findings of this
intensive approach supplement and add significance to data
gathered by more quantitative techniques, they can generate
fruitful hypotheses which quantitative research can later refine
and test. Observation allows the researcher to begin to understand
what it means to face discrimination etc. While quantitative
methods may show us that a high percentage of women
experiencing poor working conditions etc. Observation enables the
sociologist to “get behind” statistics.
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6. Observation is frequently used with other research methods.
Quantitative is often used to supplement that gained through
observation. Laud Humphreys participant observation study of
homosexual activity in men’s public toilets for example, “Tea Room
Trade”, was reinforced by interviewing a sample of 100 of the
participants he had observed. He argues that: “What verbal
research is possible through outside interviews then becomes an
independent means of verifying the observations”.
Many other essentially participant observation studies have used a
wide variety of research methods to support their investigations.
Paul Willis’s study “Learning to Labour”, not only included
observation but recordings of discussions with groups of “lads”,
informal interviews and diaries, and taped conversations with the
lad’s parents, teachers, career officers etc.
7. The material is often very rich, many participant observation
studies contain “rich” material, often comprising lengthy extracts
from conversations. The reader is not only brought closer to the
social world under investigation, but to some extent can make their
own interpretation/ judgements concerning the material.
Despite the claims made by many who use observation, that it is
the most effective method of providing a full and complete picture
of the life of a social group, it has been subject to a number of
criticisms.
Criticisms
8. Is it possible to generalise from observation studies? The number
of people directly observed in any one study is likely to be small – a
researcher can only be in place at any one time and cannot watch
and listen to large numbers of people. Willis’s study, for example,
concentrated on a group of 12 non-academic working class lads.
From such as study, Willis would not be justified in making
generalisations concerning all school pupils, or even all male,
working class, non- academic school pupils. As Hughes puts it “ how
can the observer be sure that the case they have studied, whether
a military training programme, a street corner gang, a group of
32
workers in a factory or whatever are representative of the
population about which the inferences are made?”
9. There is a danger that the presence of an outsider will influence
and change the behaviour of those observed. One of the earliest
examples of the use of observation, Elton Mayo’s Hawthorne
Experiment of 1924 showed the effect researchers can have on
their subjects. Mayo and his team were examining how changes in
working conditions could affect productivity. They found that any
change in conditions (even those which made the working conditions
worse than they had been originally) resulted in increased
productivity. What had caused this was the presence of the
research team themselves- the workforce had been stimulated to
greater effort by the very fact that somebody was taking an
interest in them.
Whyte was also aware of the problem of influencing the actions of
those being observed. As Doc, the gang leader, told Whyte; “You’ve
slowed me down plenty since you’ve been here. Now when I do
something I have to think what Bill Whyte would want to know
about it and how I can explain it. Before I used to do things by
instinct”
Some sociologists have attempted to control the “Hawthorne
effect” by engaging in covert research (such as James Patrick’s
participant observation study “A Glasgow gang observed”) where
they aim to keep their identity a secret. But even by covert
research the observer cannot guarantee that the subjects are
behaving as they would if he had not been present.
10. Observation, especially participant observation, is difficult to
replicate. Many of those who argue that the research methods in
Sociology should be drawn from the natural sciences are critical of
participant observation. Data is generally seen as reliable if other
researchers, using the same methods on the same material achieve
the same results. Because observation is often unsystematic and
the results are rarely quantified, there is no way of replicating a
study and checking its reliability.
11. Observers are forced to be selective. An observer cannot possibly
record or present all the material they have observed. Although
many observers claim not to impose their definition of what is
important, they cannot avoid looking at the world selectively and to
some extent interpreting events based on preconceived ideas. In a
way, the observational study is dependent upon the researcher’s
33
observational and interpretive skills. The research is likely to be
unique.
12. Observation has been criticised over its validity. Although those
who support observation as a research strategy tend to argue that
what it lacks reliability is made up in terms of validity, others have
tended to be more sceptical. They point to the necessary
selectivity of any observation, bias due to over involvement and the
dangers of “going native”, representative ness of those under
investigation and the fact that any interpretation of the action of
those under investigation will be influenced by the researcher’s
prior experience and theoretical values. Willis, for example, was
interested in how the working class maintains itself and how labour
power is reproduced. His theoretical values influenced his research
and what he regarded as significant.
All these factors will influence the validity of the findings, i.e. the
extent to which the findings represent what they claim to. Is
Cicourel’s study, for example, valid, i.e. does he really show the
taken for granted assumptions of the police?
Not only has observation, and particularly participant observation,
been subjected to a number of criticisms, but a number of other
problems are associated with this sort of research:
a) Participant observation is very time consuming. Cicourel spent over
four years observing, while Whyte spent three and a half years.
b) The observer must find an appropriate role and this may be
influenced by the researchers age, sex e.t.c. Whyte claimed to be
writing a book on the area, while Parker had previously met the
boys when he was a community youth leader, and his research role
developed from his initial contact.
c) There may be occupational hazards. Parker, for example, found
that participating in the group’s activity resulted in frequent
drunkenness and bankruptcy
d) Practical problems include factors such as when and how to write
up notes. These problems were made worse in Parker’s case due to
frequent late nights with the boys and heavy drinking sessions
e) What should be published? Many observers feel that factors
which might harm those under investigation should not be written
up?
f) There is a danger that the researcher may become over involved in
the group and become biased. He may cease to become an observer
and become solely a participant. As Whyte noted “I began as a non-
34
participating observer. As I became accepted into the community I
found myself becoming almost a non-observing participant”
g) Moral questions. Should the observer be covert? Should they
participate in, or remain silent about, illegal activities? Parker, for
example, was prepared to receive stolen good, would keep lookout
while thefts occurred, but would not actually steal.
The Experiment and the Comparative method
Introduction
The Experiment
The experiment is a technique which is rarely used by sociologists who
prefer to study people in everyday settings rather than in controlled
laboratory situations. It is a favoured method of psychological research
and is perhaps more applicable as psychologists tend to focus on more
specific and limited aspects of behaviour.
An experiment is generally a situation which is designed in order to
examine the relationship between variables. In theory all variables can be
held constant except one. By changing this one variable the researcher
can test for cause and effect relationships and other variables. The
35
ultimate aim is often to establish universal law like statements about
behaviour.
Research often takes place in laboratories as controlled environments
where it is thought to be easier to control variables. When carrying out
laboratory research on human subjects, however, it is far more difficult
to detect and control all variables and, for this reason, a control group
which is as similar as possible to the experimental group is often used.
The control group is not subjected to the isolated variable the effects of
which are being examined.
The Comparative Method
This is a technique associated with the experiment in the sense that it
involves comparing what happens in one situation (the control group) with
what happens in another (the experimental group). However, research
takes place not in the laboratory but in society as a whole. The
comparative method developed as a response to some of the difficulties
experienced by sociologists in the use of the experiment – as far as
human behaviour is concerned it is very difficult to isolate variables
(prevent them influencing each other). It could even be argued that they
are impossible to separate. So sociologists have developed this method of
comparing societies in order to understand different societies and human
behaviour within those societies.
N.B. Important note
Clearly, positivist researchers would see the experiment and the
comparative method as ways of producing scientific findings i.e. those
which are reliable. However, anti-positivists have also used the
experiment and comparative method for social research although not in
quite the same way or with the same intentions.
The Use of the experiment and comparative method by positivist
researchers
The Experiment
Examples of research undertaken in a laboratory setting
Much experimental research has been carried out into the possible
effects of the media, especially media violence, on people’s behaviour.
Although such research has been carried out by psychologists it has
provided a starting point for much sociological research in this area and
provides a useful example for assessing the strengths and weaknesses of
the laboratory method of research.
36
For example, Schramm used a laboratory experiment in an attempt to
demonstrate that media violence only produces violent social behaviour in
children who are already disposed towards violent behaviour. His research
can be presented diagrammatically:
Experimental group
subjected to
annoyances, made bad
tempered
Control group not
interfered with
Both groups shown films containing
aggressive behaviour
Both groups given a series of competitive
games and tests involving toys which
would not work
Experimental group
were aggressive e.g.
smashed up toys
Control group no more
aggressive than
before- worked to
overcome difficulties
However, a number of criticisms can be made of this type of research:
1. The laboratory is an artificial environment, people do not generally
behave exactly as they would do in normal conditions- and
sociologists are interested in human behaviour in ordinary social
conditions.
2. The attempt to isolate variables under laboratory conditions does
not correspond to everyday social reality, in the above examples
the researcher chose which programmes to show whereas in reality
audiences select which programmes they want to see, in the case of
children the effects of such programmes (if any) would be
mediated by the presence of parents e.t.c
37
The Williams Report on violence and Film Censorship was critical of
evidence provided by laboratory experiments testing the relationships
between media sex and violent social behaviour, stating: “Since criminal
and anti-social behaviour cannot itself, for both practical and ethical
reasons, be experimentally produced or controlled, the observations must
be made on . . . behaviour, often expressed on a representational object,
in some fictional or “pretend” context.”
The reference to practical and ethical constraints is very important
3. Practical constraints: perhaps the most significant practical
constraint is time. This type of research only lends itself to the
study of short term cause and effect relationships in artificial
surroundings. Eysenck and Nias admit that “it is not … possible to
study the effects of years of exposure to television under
laboratory conditions”
Clearly, the type of information required by sociologists often involves a
time span which is too long to be artificially “set up” and measured in
laboratory conditions- for example, Douglas’s longitudinal study of the
relationship between family background and educational attainment
involved approximately 5000 children over a period of 16 years.
4. Ethical constraints: in the examples chosen, concerning the effects
of media violence, it could be argued that it is wrong to carry out
such research on children. There are more extreme examples such
as the range of studies carried out by Milgram who put people in
the position of administering what they thought were real electric
shocks to another person on the basis of the person’s ability to
remember a series of linked words. There is no doubt that many of
the people were put through a very stressful experience to enable
psychologists to further analyse conformity amongst human beings.
Zimbardo’s study of the establishment of a prison with randomly chosen
guards and prisoners was a potentially dangerous situation with long
lasting effects for participants as those who played the role of guards
soon developed the attitudes and behaviour of violent prison guards and
the experiment had to be terminated earlier than was anticipated for
this reason.
Any attempt by psychologists to “de-brief” participants or claims that
they only use volunteers could also be viewed sceptically as once events
have occurred they clearly can never be totally dismissed.
38
For the above reasons the laboratory experiment is rarely used by
sociologists. There is, however, another form of experiment more often
used by sociologists. These take place in the real world and those involved
do not generally know that an experiment is being conducted.
The Social Experiment or “field experiment”
An early example of this type of research were the experiments
conducted by Elton Mayo and his team of researchers at the Hawthorne
works of the Western Electricity Company in Chicago between 1927 and
1932 known as the Hawthorne Experiments.
The researchers were attempting to test the effects of variables such as
illumination, humidity, temperature, rest periods, bonus incentives etc, on
worker’s productivity. They constructed a series of “scientific”
experiments (e.g increasing and decreasing illumination whilst holding
other variables constant) in order to establish whether there was a
causal relationship between the variable and worker productivity (e.g do
better lighting conditions lead to increased productivity.
They found that productivity increased, for example, both when the level
of lighting was improved and when it was reduced. This led the
researchers to concentrate more on the importance of social and
psychological factors affecting productivity- the attitudes and feelings
of workers, their relationship with each other and with supervisors etc
and this gave rise to a new approach to the study of organisations- Human
Relations Theory.
The limitation of this type of research was noted by Mayo himself.
Because any change in working conditions- including adverse changes- led
to increased productivity the conclusion he was forced to draw was that
the “cause” of this was the presence of the research team itself. The
interest expressed in the workforce by the researchers stimulated them
to greater efforts. This shows that the social experiment is also a social
interaction: the presence of the researcher affects the performance of
the subject. In fact, this problem of research has become known as the
“Hawthorne effect”- i.e. the presence of the researcher affects the
behaviour of those being observed.
Further examples are the experiments conducted by Rosenhan and
Sissons. Rosenhan’s was a study of mental illness and how its symptoms
were recognised by medical specialists. Rosenhan and his colleagues
presented themselves as voluntary patients to mental hospitals,
39
complaining that they were hearing voices. Each was admitted as
suffering from schizophrenic symptoms. Once they had been admitted,
every volunteer behaved within the mental hospital as normally as they
could in the circumstances, and said no more about hearing voices. Their
initial interest was in how long it would take before they were caught out
or discharged as cured. Instead, after varying lengths of time they were
discharged as being “in remission”, i.e. their schizophrenia was thought to
be still present, but not actually revealing itself in behaviour. Rosenhan
concluded that the diagnosis of mental illness has less to do with
symptoms that are expressed by patients, and more to do with the way
that behaviour is interpreted by doctors who “know” that somebody is
mentally ill.
Sissons arranged for an actor to dress up in a suit and a bowler hat and
stand on Paddington station, periodically asking people the way to Hyde
Park. The same actor then changed into the clothes of a labourer and
asked people the same question with the same wording. Sissons studied
the different reactions of those questions. Any systematic variation must
have been the result of the reaction of passers-by to the apparent social
class of the person they were talking to, since all other variables were
held constant.
However due to problems of holding variables in the social world constant
and ethical issues of carrying out experiments without participants
knowledge sociologists have developed further methods of research.
The Comparative Method
Because the social world is not a laboratory in which sociologists can
control the variables in which they are interested, sociologists have
attempted to approximate experimental conditions by using comparative
methods. This method has been called the “quasi-experiment” (quasi
means “as if”). The sociologist collects information about different
societies or social contexts as they are found in the real world, and
identifies the similarities and differences between them. In other words,
instead of setting up situations either in the laboratory or in the field,
the researcher studies what is already going on. The method of argument
is based on the same underlying logic as the experiment, a logic first
spelled out by John Stuart Mill in the nineteenth century.
Many early sociologists such as Auguste Comte (1798-1857) compared
different societies with the intention of showing that all were evolving
along a similar path. Comte produced his “law of the three stages” of
40
societal development which maintained that all societies, past, present
and future, necessarily passed through the same three stages of
development. This conclusion was based on extensive, though rather
selective, studies of the history of a wide range of societies.
There are a number of different comparative methods: Positivists tend
to use the method of concomitant variations. This involves the researcher
comparing two or more situations to see whether two or more variables
vary in each situation, if so they may be causally linked. (For example, if in
one country the suicide rate is high and the population are mainly
Protestant and if in another the suicide rate is low and the population is
mainly Catholic there may be a causal link between religious belief and
suicide rates)
Indeed, Durkhiem’s study of suicide remains one of the best examples of
the use of the methods of concomitant variations by positivists. This
method involves the use of statistics on suicide. In “Le Suicide” Durkheim
has a quantifiable phenomenon – the suicide rate- which could be analysed
in relation to other measurable phenomena- proportions of populations
which were Protestant, Catholic, married, widowed, old, young. He
demonstrated with statistics that the suicide rate varied consistently
with some phenomena/variables e.g. religion, marital status, age but not
with other variables such as climate. He proved that there were
statistical correlations between the suicide rate and other variables.
Moreover, Durkheim attempted to establish a causal link between the
suicide rates and the degree to which individuals were integrated into
society through membership of various social groupings e.g. religion,
marriage etc. He showed, for example, that the suicide rate was higher
for single than married people, and then he looked at married couples and
found that the suicide rate was higher in families with fewer children.
Consequently he argues that he has demonstrated a causal relationship
between the suicide rate and the degree of integration, expressed
through group ties, of the individual.
More recently, writers interested in social mobility (the movement of
individuals up and down the social class structure) have studied rates of
social mobility in different societies in an attempt to discover its causes,
especially in relation to the process of industrialisation. Lipset and
Bendix, for example analysed the results of social mobility research that
has been carried out in nine different industrialised societies. In order to
41
explain these similarities, Lipset and Bendix had to find some factor or
factor, of which they felt the most important were the increase in the
number of high status jobs in industrial societies, and the increasing
importance attached to qualifications rather than family connections
when people were being promoted to higher levels. These factors,
together with others they identified, were part of the industrialisation
process and, they concluded, explained the similarities in rates of vertical
social mobility.
However, despite the fact that the experiment and comparative method
have been used by positivists they have also been used by anti-positivists
although not in precisely the same way, nor with the same desired end
products.
The use of the experiment and comparative method by non positivist
researchers
The distinction between positivism and anti-positivism is not simplistic.
The work of both Marx and Weber bridges this distinction; both look at
society on a large scale i.e. they are macro-sociological but they also take
into account the role of human actions in shaping it. However,
interactionists and ethnomethodologists are generally concerned (and this
is putting it very simply!) with human interaction on a small scale and
attach much importance to it. They therefore see the role of the
sociologist as that of producing a qualitative description of the processes
involved in human interaction (interactionists) and the way that people
make sense of situations (ethnomethodologists)
Such sociologists have found uses for the social experiment and the
comparative method but it is important to remember that it is not their
aim to produce law like statements about society and social behaviour but
to describe behaviour. Their aim is not to be scientific but to understand.
The social experiment
Rosenthal and Jacobson attempted to demonstrate the consequences of
teacher expectations on pupil performance. They used a social
experiment to test the validity of the self fulfilling prophecy (the idea
that teacher expectation shapes the self concept of the pupil who
eventually performs according to that expectation and thus fulfils the
prophecy of the teacher)
42
They selected a random sample of pupils in a Californian elementary
school and informed teachers that these pupils were expected to be highachievers. They tested the IQ of all the pupils at the beginning of the
experiment and again one year later. The chosen sample was found, in
general, to have made greater gains. Rosenthal and Jacobson argue,
therefore, that their experimental research does demonstrate that
teacher expectations can significantly affect pupil performance.
This experiment can again be criticised on practical and ethical grounds.
On a practical basis it can be argued that the researchers were unable to
control, or identify, all variables. Ethically, it can be said that
experiments like this are unfair to those pupils not included in the sample.
Ethnomethodologists are interested in how members of society employ
common-sense assumptions in making sense of the world around them.
Social experiments have consequently been used in an attempt to reveal
the taken for granted assumptions about social reality held by members
of society.
Garfinkel uses experiments as an attempt to create chaos in normal
situations. For example, he asked students to behave like lodgers in their
own homes. The consequences of this were very noticeable. Generally
families were very bewildered, anxious, embarrassed, angry etc, students
were accused of being ill, impolite, inconsiderate and mean. Garfinkel
argues that experiments like this demonstrate that members of society
are expected to understand and share the taken for granted assumptions
of social reality held by other members.
Garfinkel, in other research into the way people develop common-sense
explanations to understand the world set up a situation in which a
counsellor gave advice to students on the basis of saying a certain number
of “yes” and “no” answers in a set order and found that the majority of
the students felt that they had been helped by the counsellor. He views
this as evidence of his view that people are constantly trying to make
sense of no sense and in so doing they are creating reality and that the
only way to uncover this situation is to “unhinge” normality by the use of
some kind of social experiment.
It is difficult to criticise arguments like this on any practical level since
interactionists and ethnomethodologists are not generally concerned with
any concept of measured precision or with producing causal relationships.
43
However, it is again possible to argue that experiments which produce the
effects that the above did are unethical.
The Comparative Method
Weber makes use of the comparative method in his account of the
development of Capitalism. He uses the method of difference: that is, he
compares historical societies which are all similar in every respect but
one – this one different variable is therefore seen as the “cause” of
different forms of development.
He argues, for instance, that Western Europe, China and India were
basically similar insofar as each possessed finance capital, technology,
stability, population growth, developed trade etc. Capitalism, however,
developed only in Western Europe. The reason for this, argues Weber,
was the presence in Western Europe, and only in Western Europe of a
Salvationist religious ethic which influenced individuals to become “Gods
tool on earth”; to work hard and succeed in order to reveal themselves as
one of the chosen few who were predestined for salvation. Thus the
presence of the Protestant (Calvinist) work ethic led to the development
of Western Capitalism.
Eastern cultures without this ethic did not develop into Capitalist
societies.
It is important to note that:
a) This approach is qualitative : it does not attempt to measure
variables but merely to assess whether their presence or absence
is of any causal significance
b) This approach has both objective and subjective validity: it is
objective because it compares different societies in order to
demonstrate a causal link between one variable and social change
(Weber does not use this causal link in a deterministic law like way,
A causes B, but rather sees it as one contributory factor among
other important contributory factors); it is subjective because it
attempts to explain the meaning of social action, that it
incorporates the values and beliefs of social actors and seeks to
use these to explain society and how society changes. For Weber
sociological explanations have to include both causal relationships
and take into account the role of human perceptions.
44
The attempt to bridge the gap between positivist and anti-positivist
views is probably most clearly seen in the work of Weber. It is not an
altogether successful attempt. However, for Weber sociology is:
“a science which attempts the interpretive understanding of social
action in order thereby to arrive at a causal explanation of its course
and effects”
He is therefore a social action theorist who wishes to make use of
“scientific” research methods.
Conclusion
The experiment, the social experiment and the comparative method
have been used by both positivist and anti-positivist researchers
albeit for different reasons and with different intentions.
Other research methods
There are many other ways of carrying out research other than using
secondary data, structured and unstructured interviews and
observation. Methods such as longitudinal studies, mass observation,
time budgeting case and community studies.
Longitudinal studies
A longitudinal study is where a sample is selected and studied at
regular intervals over a period of years. It is different to observation
45
in the sense that the research is not a continuous process i.e. going on
all the time. It is carried out once every five years for example but on
the same sample of people.
The longitudinal study is sometimes known as a “panel study” and the
sample is referred to as the “panel”.
Examples of research which used this method
Maternity in Great Britain 1948- this was a study of every mother
who had a baby in the first week of March 1946. It was carried out
for the Population Investigation Committee.
It was not intended that the research would become a longitudinal
survey but it was so successful that the sample was followed up in
1950 (4688 parents of the original 5362 were traced and included)
These findings were published in 1958 as “Children under five” which
concentrated particularly on the health of the children.
A further study of the children and probably the best known “The
Home and the School” by J.W.B Douglas was published in 1964 (4195
of the children were traced and 3418 were tested for various aspects
of intelligence at the ages of 8 and 11 to assess the impact of social
class)
In 1962 when the children were 16 a study called “All Our Future”
looked at the children’s experience in secondary education.
11,000 seven year olds 1966- This was a study by the National Child
Development Study which followed the development of the health,
education and home environment of children born in Britain in the
week of 3-9 March 1958. A further study “From birth to seven” by
R.Davie et al which looked at health, education and home environment
was published in 1972.
Child Health and Education Survey- this was a study of children born
in the second week of April 1970. Over 16,000 were born and 13,135
were traced and studied in 1975. The study looked at the enormous
differences between the children in terms of social and economic
circumstances.
46
J and E Newson Infant Care in an Urban Community 1963- this was
a sample of 773 babies born in Nottingham in the early 1960s. The
mothers of 709 of these babies were interviewed within two weeks of
the baby’s first birthday. Due to the success of the first study the
Newson’s obtained enough funds to carry out a second study- “Four
years Old in an Urban Community (1968). However, they had lost
contact with many of their original sample and although they
interviewed 700 mothers only 275 of these were from the original
sample.
Advantages
 Longitudinal studies make it possible to study changes over
time, though as a series of snapshots rather than as a
continuous process.
Disadvantages
 It may be difficult to recruit a sample of people who know that
they are taking on a very long term commitment.
 People’s attitudes and activities may change because they know
they are part of an on-going research process
 There are also problems of keeping in touch with the samplepeople may die or move away or not want to continue being
involved in the research. In the long term this may mean that
the sample ceases to be representative
 Researchers may not be able to sustain their involvement in the
same project and this may lead to the termination of the
research- the presence of Douglas in all stages of the research
outlined earlier was no doubt a key factor in its continuance and
success
 Cost. Most funding agencies would be unwilling to fund a project
which might go on for 20 years. Many of these studies had to
struggle to remain afloat and relied heavily on charitable
donations from sources such as Ford and the Nuffield
Foundation as well as finance from government agencies often
via the health visitors and others as free interviewers.
Finally, the Census could be seen as an example of a longitudinal study.
Carried out every ten years since 1801, with the exception of 1941 it
differs from other longitudinal studies in the sense that it looks at the
whole population of England and Wales not just a sample. It is useful to
sociologists who want to study broad patterns of social change
47
Mass Observation
This is the name of an organisation founded in Britain in 1937. It was
influenced by the traditions of anthropology and Malinowski played an
important role in its early development. Its object was “observation by
everyone of everyone, including themselves”.
Mass Observation’s work was carried out through a combination of many
methods. Interviewing was done both directly and indirectly, via what
amounted to eavesdropping, there was observation and P.O,
autobiographical statements and life-histories were recorded, as were
notes, diaries and other documents.
Informants were a mixture of a national panel of part-time volunteers,
and a small team of full-time researchers who went to live in the areas
they studied such as Worktown, a Lancashire cotton town, and Metrop, a
London borough.
At one time over a thousand diaries were being kept but after the war
the methods became more survey based and Mass Observation Ltd
became a conventional market research company. The emphasis remained
always on the lives of “ordinary” people. The reports of Mass Observation
are full of down to earth quotations about ordinary matters of concern in
people’s everyday lives
Case studies
A case study involves the detailed investigation of a single example of
whatever it is that the sociologist wishes to investigate. It may prompt
further more wide-ranging research, providing ideas to be followed up
later or it may be that some broad generalisation is brought to life by a
case study.
There is no claim to representativeness and the essence of the technique
is that each subject studied, whether it be an individual, a group, an event
or an institution is treated as a unit on its own.
Examples of studies that used this method
Strike at Pilkingtons by Lane and Roberts in 1971 was an account of an
industrial dispute at one large firm in Britain. It tells the story of what
happened, “examining the strike from the points of vieew of each of its
major groups of participants”.
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Lane and Roberts conducted a survey of attitudes and opinions amongst
the strikers, observed the activities of the strike committee and had
lengthy interviews with management, shop stewards and strikers. One of
the authors lived in St Helens for the last three weeks of the strike,
becoming as immersed as possible in all aspects of the activities of the
strike committee, they collected documents and used press reports.
Lane and Roberts do not claim that the strike was typical of other
strikes. But what they do maintain is that an in-depth case study can be a
valuable asset in our understanding of the causes of strikes. A major
point they make is that the causes of strikes are not necessarily simpleat first the strike they studied seemed to be about pay but the more
they studied the situation the more complex the causes they uncovered.
Dual Career Families by Rapoport and Rapoport looked at married
couples who both had careers but only studied five couples.
In a sense any ethnographic study is a case study, since all the research
concentrates on one small group or a single institution. However, many
claim that they are typical of others, while a case study does not make
this claim. It is somewhere on the borders between social research and
journalism
Community Studies
The study of a whole community rather than one particular group within a
community has a history which can be traced back to the work of the
Chicago school which includes the classic studies of Muncie, Indiana,
USA, carried out by Lynds and published as Middletown and Middletown in
Transition (1937)
Such studies involve a researcher or a team of researchers in studying a
whole community of people, usually in a small town or village, or possibly
part of a larger town. The method is always for the researcher to go and
live in the community being studied, and to become involved with the
residents as a participant observer, but the community researcher will
also use a wide variety of other sources of data. For example, Gans in his
1962 study “The Urban Villagers”, used SIX major approaches:
1. Use of the West End’s facilities- living in the area, using its
stores, services, institutions etc. as much as possible to
49
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
observe his own and other people’s behaviour as residents of
the area
Attendance at meetings, gatherings and public places
Informal visiting with friends and neighbours
Formal and informal interviewing of community functionaries
Use of informants
Observation at all times
Similarly, Margaret Stacey in “Tradition and change : A study of Banbury”
(1962) describes how members of the research team involved used a
variety of methods to gather information:
“While the research was being done the members of the team made their
homes in or near Banbury. Participation in the life of the town was a main
method of the work. Each researcher took part in a different sphere…
the published records about Banbury were analysed. A pilot questionnaire
followed by a schedule enquiry into over 1000 households was used… a
study was made, by interview of a number of the leading members and
analysis of the records of all the formal organisations of Banbury. Kinship
was studied by interview of a number of selected families.. In (the) study
of neighbours, the focused interview was the main method used…
information was gained from key informants”
Problems



Gaining access to the community- should this be overt or covert as
in Gan’s study. In the case of Stacey’s research it was decided it
was decided to be overt but the researchers didn’t know whose
permission to ask- the mayor? The council? In the end they
decided to ask the general public and a meeting was held in 1948
before the work began which was presided over by the mayor. The
local press was used to keep people informed as the research
progressed.
How many researchers should be used? What ages, sexes, social
class and ethnic backgrounds should they be in order to gain access
to various aspects of the community? In Stacey’s study a team of
researchers with specially selected backgrounds was selected.
What roles should the researchers take on? Should they become
deeply involved in the community and risk losing their objectivity or
should they remain marginal figures, not really getting to know
anyone in depth? In a large community it might be possible for the
50


researcher to move from one group to another without getting
involved but in small community they would need a role.
Frankenberg in “village on the border” (1957), a study of a small
Welsh village, became secretary of the local football team. Other
researchers have found that the role of “author” is particularly
useful in itself.
Effects on those about whom information is published. Researchers
must be careful to try and maintain confidentiality although
especially with a small community this could be very difficult
Time. Communities are constantly changing and even a three year
long study like the one of Banbury cannot cover all aspects. Some
studies have done follow-up studies e.g. the Middletown studies.
There was also a follow up study of Banbury in 1975 and many
changes were identified.
N.B It is difficult sometimes to decide what is a community study and
what is not- as ever, the work of sociologists in the real world does not
neatly fall into little boxes. For example, Young and Willmott’s “Family
and kinship in East London” could be considered to be a community study
though it has a specific focus and data is collected mainly through social
survey techniques. Similarly Newby’s study of farmworkers in East Anglia
“The Deferential worker” (1977) is a community study which uses mainly
social survey techniques but observation as well to gather information.
Conclusion
Methods of collecting primary data are many and varied. In practice
sociologists tend to use a variety of techniques but it is important to
remember that there are techniques other than interviews, P.O etc.
Secondary Data
Secondary sources are data that have already been produced by, for
example, the government, companies or individuals (personal documents).
Existing sociological studies become secondary sources when used by
other sociologists.
 They can be quantitative (e.g government statistics) or
qualitative (e.g letters and diaries)
 They can be historical or contemporary.
Secondary sources are used for practical reasons. They save time and
money and may include data that are beyond the scope of sociologists to
51
collect (e.g census data). They allow the study of societies in the past for
which it is possible to produce primary sources.
Official statistics
Government statistics cover a wide range of topics including demography
(census statistics), crime, employment and unemployment, industrial
relations, educational achievement, family life (e.g divorce statistics),
household composition data, and so on. The government conducts
statistical surveys such as the ‘General Household Survey’ and the ‘British
Crime Survey, and since 1801 it has carried out a census every decade.
Such sources are invaluable because they are easily accessible and much
more thorough than any data sociologists could produce. The census is the
only survey that tries to include the whole of the population, and
participation is legally compulsory.
However there are different views on statistics. Some positivists such as
Durkheim (1970) have seen official statistics as both valid and reliable
(e.g. his study of suicide)
However, many official statistics are highly unreliable- for example, many
crimes are not reported to or recorded by the police.
Some sociologists believe that it is possible to produce valid and reliable
statistics. For example, they believe that reliable crime statistics can be
produced using surveys
 Self report studies are questionnaires which ask people if they
have committed crimes (e.g. West and Farrington’s study of
delinquency 1973)
 Victim studies ask people if they have been the victims of crime
(e.g the governments British Crime Survey)
However, such studies may not be entirely reliable, due to factors such as
non-response and the limitations of sampling.
Some argue that the results are invalid. Box (1981) argues that in selfreport studies people may lie, hide or exaggerate crimes. The total
number of crimes recorded in studies depends on the willingness and
ability of respondents to be honest and the interpretation of the
researcher as to whether a crime has taken place.
A phenomenological view
Phenomenologists regard all crime statistics as invalid. They are simply
the product of the categorisation procedures used to produce them. For
52
example Maxwell Atkinson (1978) sees suicide statistics as the product
of coroner’s taken for granted assumptions about the sort of people who
commit suicide. To Cicourel (1976), all statistics are based on subjective
classifications.
A Conflict view
Conflict theorists see statistics as the product of inequalities in power.
To Miles and Irvine (1979), government statistics are not lies, but the
collection procedures and definitions used are manipulated by
governments. Examples include frequent redefinitions of unemployment
which reduce official unemployment figures and the manipulation of dta
on NHS hospital waiting lists by removing people who have missed
appointments for an operation. Some poverty statistics are no longer
published.
Some conflict theorists question the categories used in statistics. For
example, the Marxist Theo Nichols (1996) argues that official definitions
of social class ignore the existence of wealth inequalities. From this point
of view, statistics reflect ideological frame works which in turn reflect
power inequalities rather then individual’s assumptions.
Historical sources
These are vital fro studying long-term social changes. Peter Laslett
(1972,1977) used parish records and Michael Anderson (1971) used census
data to show that industrialisation led to an increase in extended family
households in Britain.
Parliamentary investigations, diaries, letters, autobiographies, speeches
and mass media reports are all useful sources.
However, statistical sources suffer from the same possible problems of
reliability and validity as contemporary statistics. Qualitative sources
reflect the subjective views of those who produced them. Sometimes this
is nevertheless useful- for example, Weber (1958) used qualitative
documents to study the effects of religious beliefs on the development
of capitalism.
Life documents
These are documents created by individuals which record subjective
states. They include diaries, letters, photos, biographies, memoirs, suicide
notes, films, pictures, etc
Thomas and Znaniecki (1919) used letters and statements to study Polish
peasants who emigrated to the USA. However Plummer (1982) argues
53
that personal documents are rarely used by contemporary sociologists
because
 Surviving documents may not be representative
 They are open to differing interpretations
 They are highly subjective- the same events discussed in a
document such as a diary might be described very differently by
someone else involved
 The content may be influenced by the identity of the person or
people intended to read the document
 Private diaries, not intended to be read by others, overcome the
above problem, but few are available to researchers
However, Plummer believes that life documents are still very useful
because
 They allow insights into people’s subjective states
 Symbolic interactionists’ see them as revealing the personal
meanings and self concepts which they see as shaping behaviour
The Mass Media and content analysis
The Mass Media may be unreliable for providing factual information, but
they may be the objects of study. Some researchers see such studies as
useful for revealing the ideological frameworks of those who produce the
Mass Media. This is important because of the influence of the media.
Pawson (1995) describes different ways of analysing the content of the
Mass Media:
1. Formal content analysis involves classifying and counting content.
For example, Lobban (1974) and later Best (1993) counted the
appearances of girls and boys in different gender roles in children’s
books. This technique is reliable but it involves inferring the
meaning of the text from numbers alone.
2. Thematic analysis examines a topic and looks for the messages
that lie behind the coverage, for example, Soothill and Walby
(199) found that newspaper coverage of rape emphasised the
pathological nature of individual rapists and largely ignored rape by
partners and friends. However such studies rarely use
representative samples and don’t examine the impact of the
messages on the audience.
3. Textual analysis involves the detailed analysis of small pieces of
text. For example, the Glasgow Media Group looked at the words
used to describe managers and strikers. However, this relies
54
heavily on the researcher’s interpretation and may therefore be
unreliable
4. Audience analysis examines how the audience interprets the
messages of the media- e.g Morley’s (1980) study of responses to
Nationwide. However, the honesty and openness of respondents
may be questionable, and such studies cannot reveal long term
effects of media messages.
Assessing secondary sources
John Scott (1990a, 1990b argues that the following criteria can be
used to assess secondary sources;
Authenticity
 Soundness concerns whether the document is complete and reliable
 Authorship concerns whether it was written by the claimed author
Credibility
 Sincerity concerns whether the author intended to provide a true
account or was trying to mislead the readers
 Accuracy concerns whether the author is able to be truthful e.g.
whether faulty memory might affect accuracy
Representativeness
This concerns whether the documents are typical or representative of
what is being studied
 Survival, or lack of it, may mean that representative documents do
not exist
 Availability, or lack of it, may mean that researchers cannot gain
access to representative samples even where they have survived
Meaning
 Literal understanding involves being able o read, decipher or
translate the content
 Interpretative understanding involves interpreting what the
document signifies, and there may be very different possible
interpretations
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Triangulation
Bryman (1988) argues that most sociologists use a mixture of
quantitative and qualitative sources. Sociologists as far back as Weber
have combined methods.
Triangulation means looking at the subject from a variety of angles using
different methods. It can be useful according to Bryman, because:
1. Different types of data can be used to cross check each others
accuracy
2. Qualitative data can produce hypotheses which can then be
checked using quantitative data
3. Combining methods produces a more complete picture
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4. Qualitative research helps to explain statistical links. Examples
include:
 Eileen Barker’s (1984) study of the Moonies which used
observation, questionnaires and interviews
 The use of statistical computer programmes to analyse
ethnography
 Delamont’s (1976) use of interaction categories to quantify
classroom interaction
Bryman sees quantitative data as useful for finding overall patterns and
structures, and qualitative data as useful for studying processes.
AS Sociological Methods Revision notes
Positivism- Reliable, scientific, objective, quantitative
Interpretivism- Valid, anti-scientific, subjective, qualitative
Positivist
Interpretivist
 Social survey/Questionnaires
 Observation
 Comparative research
 Participant
comparison across countries
 Non- participant
or cultures
 Unstructured interviews
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 Case studies highly detailed
study of 1 or 2 situations
 Structured interviews
Reliability- Sociologists who are concerned that their data is objective
and quantifiable
Valid- Sociologists not concerned with objectivity but at getting at the
truth
Is Sociology a Science?
YES- Positivists argue that scientific methods are highly desirable.
Positivists claim that science uses established methods and procedures
and that these methods and procedures can be applied to the social
sciences.
They believe social facts can be observed objectively, measured and
quantified. Analysis of statistics can reveal correlations, causes and laws.
They are critical of those who use subjective methods
NO- Interpretivists reject the view that natural science methodology is
appropriate to Sociology. They argue that objective observation and
measurement of the social world is not possible. The social world is
classified by members of society in terms of their own stereotypes and
taken for granted assumptions. The best that Sociology can do is study
the way that members of society categorise the world around them.
Participant observation
Advantages
 Experience- allows the researcher to join the group and see things
through their eyes
 Generates new ideas and insights and new theoretical ideas, unlike
traditional research which explores existing ideas.
 Gets at the truth- one of the problems of questionnaires and
interviews is that respondents can lie. Observation prevents this
because the researcher can see the person/group in action
 Digging deep- close bond between researcher and group under
study
 Takes place over a period of time and allows an understanding of
how changes in attitude and behaviour take place
 Reaches difficult areas
Disadvantages
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 Bias- as the observer is drawn into the group, can start to see
things through their eyes
 Influence of the researcher- the presence of the researcher may
make the group act less ‘naturally’ as they are aware of being
studied
 Ethics- how far is it possible to be drawn into the activities of a
group particularly if they are immoral or illegal
 Proof- No possibility of replicating the research, no way of
knowing whether it is true or not
 Too specific- groups under study are often not typical of the
wider population. It would be difficult to claim that the findings
can be generalised across the population as a whole
 Studying the powerless does not help us to understand the more
important issues in society
Covert(secret) and overt(open) methods
Advantages – covert
 Forbidden fruit- the researcher can enter forbidden areas, be fully
accepted and trusted
 The group will continue to act naturally unaware they are being
studied
Disadvantages - covert
 Danger- if the researchers true role is uncovered the researcher
may place him/herself in danger
 Ethical dilemmas- if the group engages in illegal or immoral
activities then the researcher may have to engage in these activities
as well
Advantages- overt
 The confidante- as someone who has no role within the group, the
researcher may be in position of trusted outsider
 Honest- open clear role which minimises ethical dilemmas
Disadvantages- overt
 Outsider- there are many situations where only a trusted insider
will be let in on the secrets
Examples of studies using observation
James Patrick(Covert participant)- studied violent Glasgow gangs
Ken Pryce(Overt participant)- studied West Indian community in Bristol
William Whyte(Overt participant)- studied an Italian American slum he
hung around but they knew he was a researcher
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Laud Humphries(Covert non-participant) study of men’s sexual activities
in public toilets
Howard Parker(Overt non-participant) View from the boys, he studies
teenage car thieves in Liverpool
Experiments
Laboratories are controlled environments in which the researcher can
manipulate the various independent variables however they wish. They
can calculate the effects of a single independent variable while removing
the possibility that any other factors are affecting the dependent variable
they are studying.
Hawthorne effect
Elton Mayo conducted a series of experiments 1927-1932which became
known as the Hawthorne experiments
The researchers were attempting to test the effects of variables such as
illumination, humidity and rest periods. The problem they found was
when conducting research was the Hawthorne effect i.e. the presence of
the researcher affects the behaviour of those being observed. The interest
expressed in the workforce by the researchers stimulated them to greater
efforts.
There are some difficulties in experimenting on humans such as ethics
Examples
Stanley Milgram(1965)- He set up an experiment in laboratory conditions
where volunteers were asked to co-operate in a learning experiment.
Some volunteers were asked to be ‘teachers’ and the others ‘learners’.
The teacher was taken into another room and shown an apparatus that
could deliver electric shocks to the learners. The teacher was then
instructed to teach the learner a series of linked words and to punish the
learner with a shock if he gave a wrong answer. The experiment was
about how far people would obey orders.
Rosenthal and Jacobson(1968)- The aim of the experiment was to test the
hypothesis that poor children perform badly at school because of teacher
expectations and not because they are members of disadvantaged groups.
In a San Francisco school teachers were asked to administer IQ tests to
their pupils. The teachers who were unaware of the experiments were
informed that 20 % of the pupils were expected to show unusual
intellectual gains. In fact the 20% had been chosen by random selection
and the difference between them and the other children was in the minds
of the teachers. Results indicated that children from whom teachers
expected gains did in fact exhibit such gain. Was this experiment fair to
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those children who were not chosen, but who could have benefited
similarly from teacher expectations?
Sampling
Sampling frame- A list of all those from among which the sample will be
selected
Sample- Those actually selected for investigation
Representative- The basis for generalisation
Systematic random sample- Any number is chosen at random, then every
nth person in a sample frame is selected
Stratified sample- A sample that takes note of and mirrors significant
differences in the sample population, for example, gender, age, ethnicity
Quota sample- As above but with the respondents chosen by a
fieldworker
Snowball sample- A sample that grows in number via personal
relationships
Non- representative sample- A sample that deliberately does not select a
representative group of subjects for research
Questionnaires
Closed questions- The respondent is presented with a list of possible
answers selected by the researcher from which (s)he must choose
Advantages
 Relatively cheap
 Quick and easy to classify and quantify
Disadvantages
 They limit the freedom of response, as they do not allow
respondents to develop their answers
 They can lead to a false sense of precision when quantified, as
quantification only reflects the adequacy of the questions asked
and the respondents limited choices
Open questions- With these questions the respondents can come up with
their own answers in their own words. They do not have to choose
between answers
Advantages
 The answers obtained may prove more valid since the subjects can
say what they mean in their own words
 They provide a more complex view of social reality
Disadvantages
 Difficult to classify and quantify
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Problems of Questionnaires
 People cant be bothered to reply
 Low response rate, makes a survey useless, as you do not know if
the small number of replies is representative of all who were sent
questionnaire
 Difficult to go into depth, questions need to be clear and simple
 If a questionnaire is posted you can never be sure that the correct
person answers
 People interpret the questions in different ways
 People do not always tell the truth when completing questionnaires
Leading questions- Researchers write or ask questions that suggest what
the appropriate answer is e.g. ‘wouldn’t you agree that…’
Loaded words or phrases- Researchers use particular forms of language
that either indicate a viewpoint or will generate a positive or negative
response e.g. ‘termination of pregnancy’= positive, ‘abortion’ = negative.
Interviews
Structured Interviews-Involve the researcher working through a series
of standardised questions, the wording and order are the same for all
interviewees. They are used by positivists and questions are usually close
ended
Example of study- Young & Wilmott’s ‘Family and kinship’ in East
London. 155 of women with mothers alive in sample, 55% had seen their
mothers in the last 24 hrs.
Advantages
 Can produce a lot of information relatively cheap
 Can produce a lot of data that can be quantified e.g. Young &
Wilmott found that the average number of contacts per week with
own and spouses parents was 17.2 hrs in Bethnall green compared
to 2.4 hrs in Greenleigh
 Positivists believe that by using such reliable methods we will be
able to establish laws about human behaviour
Disadvantages
 Problems occur when structured interviews are used to assess
things more complex than straightforward facts e.g. the
investigations of social, political, religious beliefs and attitudes
Unstructured interviews- These are used when more in depth
information is needed. The questions are more likely to be open ended
which allow the interviewee to reply as (s)he chooses.
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Example of study- Ann Oakley, ‘Sociology of housework’ based on
intensive interviews with a sample of 40 middle and working class
women. Did not ask direct questions such as ‘are you happy with your
life?’ Instead asked a number of questions designed to get responses
which could be used to assess women’s satisfaction/dissatisfaction with
housework.
Hannah Gavron, ‘The captive wife’ Studied 48 Middle class and 48
Working class women with children under 5. She used techniques of nondirective interviewing to find out what factors influenced women giving
up work.
Advantages
 Provide qualitative information about people’s views and attitudes
 Enable the researcher to explain ambiguities in the questions and to
probe for deeper meanings
 Allow people to say what they want
Disadvantages
 It is difficult to quantify the responses
 It is therefore difficult to compare findings and measure the
response of different people
Problems of interviews-general
 Influencing the replies- The problem is to ensure that the
interviewer does not influence the replies provided by the
respondent in any way known as interviewer bias e.g. respondents
may want to please the interviewer and so give replies they think
the interviewer wants to hear.
 Lying- Of particular importance when a sensitive issue is being
researched. People may exaggerate when asked about sex in order
to impress the interviewer.
 Interview reliability- the aim of the process is to make
generalisations, however if all interviews are different from each
other it is difficult to make generalisations
 Recording the information- Unstructured interviews are generally
recorded and usually require transcribing (writing up) which is
time consuming. But writing down replies is slow and can disrupt
the flow of an interview
Secondary data
Types of Secondary data- Official statistics, official reports, mass
media, historical data, diaries, letters, novels and other researcher’s work.
Statistics
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Advantages
 Cheap, save time effort and money
 Comparisons can be made over a long period of time
 Future planning. E.g. statistics on birth allow predictions to be
made as to the amount of human resources needed to be allocated
Disadvantages
 Statistics are collected for admin reasons and so may omit crucial
information for sociologists
 Published statistics do not speak for themselves. They are
interpreted by sociologists who may bring their own bias and
prejudices to statistics
 Human beings make mistakes when producing statistics
Example of study- Laslett and Anderson used official statistics to
examine the relationship between family type and industrialisation
Durkheim- Suicide. He compared statistics from various countries and
identified a suicide rate for each country.
Mass Media
Advantages
 Huge amount of material is available from newspapers, TV,
magazines and the Internet
Disadvantages
 So much material is available. On what grounds are items included
or excluded? Researchers have to be careful to include all relevant
material and not be biased in their selection
Example of study- The Glasgow Media group ‘Bad news and good
news’ studied how TV news provides only one interpretation of political
events
Historical data- novels, oral histories
Advantages
 Novels give an insight into the attitudes and behaviour of particular
groups
 Oral histories provide live testimonies of dead people
Disadvantages
 Novels are fiction and may exaggerate actions and values. Book
writing is typically a upper or middle class activity and this may
restrict access to certain groups
 Oral events tend to be reinterpreted. People trying to remember
things that happened along time ago
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Example of study- Peter Laslett in his study of family life made use of
parish records in order to discover how common nuclear and extended
families were in pre-industrial England
Diaries or expressive documents
Advantages
 Help to provide an insight into how participants in the events felt
at the time- important to sociologists who believe it is important to
understand how people make sense of the world
 Used to examine how social attitudes and beliefs affect behaviour
 Can be used to provide information on the extent to which patterns
of behaviour persist or change over time
Disadvantages
 Documents originate for a non-sociological purpose and may not
include information vital to the sociologist
 Not produced as systematically as is contemporary sociological
research as there may be gaps and issues which remain unclear
Example of study- Banks in ‘Prosperity and Parenthood’ wished to
examine the relationship between family sizes. He examined a variety of
expressive documents, letters and diaries and was able to show Victorian
concern over standards of living and family size.
John Scott’s guidelines for evaluating secondary sources
 Authenticity- how genuine a document is. Researchers need to
consider carefully whether any omissions detract from its
reliability and validity
 Credibility- The amount a document is distorted
 Representative ness- How typical or untypical the document is.
Survival and availability. Many documents do not survive because
they are not stored properly or are deliberately withheld from the
public
 Meaning- The ability of the researcher to understand the document.
It may be in a foreign language or in old fashioned handwriting
Triangulation- This term is used to describe research that incorporates
both quantitative and qualitative methods, So that the respective strengths
of each might be reaped. For example Eileen Barker in her study of the
unification church used Participant observation, questionnaires and in
depth interviews.
Paul Corrigan in his study of secondary schooling used interviews,
observation and historical and contemporary documents.
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Factors that influence a researcher’s choice of method
 Theoretical perspective
 Practical constraints- time and money
 Age of respondents
 Nature of the subject matter- whether it is open to the use of
certain methods
 Ethics- whether research is morally right
 Access- can you talk to the people you want to
 Publishers- deadlines may effect what is feasible
 Methods used on that topic before
 Safety
Past Exam Questions AS Sociological Methods
2 marks
(A) Explain what is meant by an ‘interview schedule’ (June 2001)
(A) Explain what is meant by a ‘longitudinal study’ (Jan 2002)
(A) Explain what is meant by a ‘structured observational schedule’ (June 2002)
(A) Explain what is meant by ‘triangulation’ (Jan 2003)
(A) Explain what is meant by a ‘pilot study’ (June 2003)
(A) Explain what is meant by a ‘representative sample’ (Jan 2004)
(A) Explain what is meant by ‘secondary sources’ (June 2004)
(A) Explain what is meant by a ‘sampling frame’ (Jan 2005)
(A) Explain what is meant by a ‘leading question’ (June 2005)
(A) Explain what is meant by a ‘snowball’ sample (Jan 2006)
(A) Explain what is meant by a ‘pilot study’ (June 2006)
(A) Explain what is meant by a ‘longitudinal’ survey (Jan 2007)
(A) Explain what is meant by ‘operationalise’ (June 2007)
(A) Explain what is meant by the term ‘longitudinal’ study. (Jan 2009)
66
(A) Explain what is meant by the term ‘triangulation’. (June 2009)
4 marks
(B) Suggest two reasons why the researchers might find it difficult to create a sample
that is representative of all victims of domestic violence (June 2001)
(B) Identify two types of ‘sampling procedure’ used in sociological research (Jan
2002)
(B) Explain the difference between ‘overt and covert approaches to research’ (June
2002)
(B) Suggest two reasons why a researcher may decide to reject postal surveys as a
research technique (Jan 2003)
(B) Suggest two reasons why it might be difficult for researchers to persuade athletes
‘to be open about their drug use’ (June 2003)
(B) Identify two reasons why ‘the content of newspapers and television programmes
is generally treated with caution by researchers’ (Jan 2004)
(B) Suggest one advantage and one disadvantage of carrying out longitudinal research
(June 2004)
(B) Suggest two social factors apart from age or gender that could be used in the
creation of a stratified sample (Jan 2005)
(B) Suggest two types of ‘sampling procedure’ apart from those mentioned (June
2005)
(B) Suggest two problems that the researchers may have faced in using the ‘doorstep
survey’ (Jan 2006)
(B) Suggest two factors that may influence a sociologists ‘choice of topic to be
investigated’ (June 2006)
(B) Suggest two problems with ‘joining in the activities of the group under study’
when carrying out sociological research (Jan 2007)
(B) Suggest two disadvantages of ‘covert participant observation’ (June 2007)
(B) Identify two sampling techniques used in sociological research. (Jan 2009))
(B) Suggest two disadvantages of using media reports in sociological research. (Jan
2009)
(B) Suggest one advantage and one disadvantage of a longitudinal study. (June 2009)
(B) Suggest two disadvantages that sociologists may find when using unstructured
Interviews .(June 2009)
6 marks
(C) Suggest three difficulties Dobash and Dobash might have had in analysing data
from lengthy unstructured interviews that lasted “from two to twelve hours”
(June 2001)
(C) Suggest three problems sociologists may experience in trying to apply the
experimental technique to the study of social behaviour (Jan 2002)
(C) Suggest three reasons why sociological research is often carried out using only a
small sample of research subjects (June 2002)
(C) Suggest three practical problems and concerns that might occur when carrying out
research in prisons (Jan 2003)
(C) Suggest three factors that influence a researcher’s choice of method (June 2003)
(C) Suggest three reasons why sociologists might use ‘documents such as letters,
diaries or autobiographies produced by individuals in their research (Jan 2004)
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( C) Suggest three problems associated with using questionnaires distributed through
the post or over the internet(June 2004)
(C ) Suggest three disadvantages of using intensive interviews (Jan 2005)
(C ) Suggest three ways in which a researcher could increase the ‘response rate to a
questionnaire posted to potential respondents (June 2005)
(C ) Suggest three reasons ‘why some sociologists find official statistics useful’ in
their research (Jan 2006)
(C ) Suggest three problems sociologists may encounter when using ‘media reports’ in
their research (June 2006)
(C ) Suggest three disadvantages of ‘using questions with fixed response categories’
in sociological research (Jan 2007)
(C ) Suggest three factors that may influence a ‘sociologist’s selection of research
method’ (June 2007)
8 marks
(D) Identify and briefly explain two advantages of using open ended unstructured
interviews and discussions in sociological research (June 2001)
(D) Identify and briefly explain two advantages to sociologists in carrying out their
own primary research ‘rather than relying on secondary sources of evidence’ (Jan
2002)
(D) Identify and briefly explain two advantages some sociologists see in participating
in the situation they are researching (June 2002)
(D) Identify and briefly explain one advantage and one disadvantage in undertaking a
longitudinal study of female offenders (Jan 2003)
(D) Identify and briefly explain two problems with carrying out ‘covert observation of
group behaviour’ (June 2003)
(D) Identify and briefly explain two problems associated with the use of ‘quantitative
secondary data’ in sociological research (Jan 2004)
(D) Identify and briefly explain two reasons why experiments in a laboratory setting
are rarely used in social research (June 2004)
(D) Identify and briefly explain two advantages to sociologists of being able to
‘actively join in with the research subjects in their everyday life’ (Jan 2005)
(D) Identify and briefly explain two advantages of using postal questionnaires (June
2005)
(D) Identify and briefly explain two disadvantages of using interviews that are
‘informal and in-depth’ in sociological research (Jan 2006)
(D) Identify and briefly explain two reasons why some sociologists prefer to collect
and use primary data in their research (June 2006)
(D) Identify and briefly explain two advantages of carrying out overt rather than
covert observation in sociological research (Jan 2007)
(D) Identify and briefly explain two disadvantages of carrying out field experiments
(June 2007)
20 marks
(E) Examine the advantages and disadvantages of official statistics as a source of data
for the sociologist (June 2001)
(E) Examine the different factors that influence the sociologist’s choice of research
methods (Jan 2002)
(E) Examine the reasons why sociologists might use personal and historical
documents in their research (June 2002)
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(E) Examine the uses of different kinds of secondary data in sociological research
(Jan 2003)
(E) Examine some of the problems that sociologists may encounter when using
questionnaires in their research (June 2003)
(E) Examine the reasons why some sociologists might use participant observation in
their research (Jan 2004)
(E) Examine the reasons why some sociologists prefer to collect and use quantitative
data in their research (June 2004)
(E) Examine problems some sociologists might find in using secondary data in their
research (Jan 2005)
(E) Examine some of the practical, ethical and theoretical problems of using
experiments in sociological research (June 2005)
(E) Examine the problems that sociologists may encounter when using postal
questionnaires in their research (Jan 2006)
(E) Examine the problems that some sociologists may find when using participant
observation in their research (June 2006)
(E) Examine the factors that influence a sociologist’s choice of method (Jan 2007)
(E) Examine the reasons why some sociologists use secondary data in their research
(June 2007)
20 marks
(F) Using material from Item B and elsewhere, assess the usefulness of participant
observation in sociological research (June 2001)
(F) Using material from Item B and elsewhere, assess the usefulness of structured
interviews in sociological research (Jan 2002)
(F) Assess the usefulness of mailed questionnaires in sociological research (May
2002)
(F) Assess the usefulness of unstructured interviews to the sociologist (Jan 2003)
(F) Using material from the items and elsewhere, assess the usefulness of official
statistics in sociological research (June 2003)
(F) Using material from the items and elsewhere, assess the usefulness of different
kinds of interview in sociological research (Jan 2004)
(F) Using material from Item B and elsewhere, assess the usefulness of Participant
Observation (June 2004)
(F) Using material from Item B and elsewhere, assess the claim that a sociologists
choice of methods is based mainly on practical and ethical factors (Jan 2005)
(F) Using material from Item B and elsewhere, assess the usefulness of unstructured
interviews in sociological research (June 2005)
(F) Using material from Item B and elsewhere, assess the strengths and limitations of
different forms of observation in sociological research (Jan 2006)
(F) Using material from Item B and elsewhere, assess the usefulness of official
statistics in sociological research (June 2006)
(F) Using material from Item B and elsewhere, assess the usefulness of different
forms of secondary data in sociological research (Jan 2007)
(F) Using material from Item B and elsewhere, assess the usefulness of different types
of interview in sociological research (June 2007)
69