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RESEARCH METHODS
Various Kinds
Training Handout
A variety of approaches
Usually we think of seven different
kinds of research methods in the social sciences:
documents;
experiments;
participant observation;
qualitative interviews;
secondary analysis;
surveys; and
unobtrusive measures.
Let us look at these
in turn:
Documents offer a wide
range of material.
A major difficulty is that the research
has already been done, and you can not go back in time and ask different
questions.
A telephone
book provides a small amount of material for a large number of
individuals.
A diary provides detailed material
for only one person and a few others observed by that person.
Newspapers provide good historical
data, although they are collected for what will sell the paper rather than
for their quality of observation and scientific interest.
Experiments are more
popular with micro sociologists and psychologists.
They tend to rely on setting up artificial
environments which in themselves may affect the responses.
Participant observation means living
with the observed people, learning how they see things and
experience things.
It requires much time and language
ability, and might not be suitable for researchers of every personality
type.
A 90 pound weakling
[sic] may find it difficult to run with the Hell’s Angels,
for example.
That was the main method I used when
I studied the Kwawu people of West Africa,
supplemented by most of the other methods.
Qualitative interviews, with open
ended questions, allow more subjects being observed but not as many as
in a survey, and allows more in-depth investigation than will a
wide survey.
One problem with them is that answers
from different respondent may not match up or cover the same
material.
The amount of material
from each respondent is quite unpredictable.
Secondary analysis, a favourite of
armchair sociologists, takes material collected by other observers, for
other purposes, and rearranges it and interprets it for new purposes and
new theses.
Like documents, it is difficult to
go back and ask different questions, and you must be satisfied with whatever
you get.
Surveys, one of the most popular
methods favoured by the numbers crunchers, allows a limited number of bits
of information for a potentially large number of respondents.
It requires determining methods of
sampling, and well designed, unambivalent questions, perhaps a pilot test,
and a list of questions that is short as possible to ensure respondent
consistency; that all questions are answered by every respondent. It is
not a good approach for in-depth questions.
Unobtrusive measures can apply to
most of the above except questionnaires, where the persons being observed
do not know that they are being observed.
Watching where people sit on getting
on a bus, or which urinal they choose in men’s rooms are classical studies
using unobtrusive measures.
Any study of documents can be done
without letting the observed know that they are being observed.
Good research applies
several of these methods on the same topic.
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2011.08.17
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