Research Methods

RESEARCH
METHODS
Advantages and Disadvantages.

QUESTIONNAIRES
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are a set of written questions that are either given to respondents to complete or are posted to them.
Questions may be close ended or open ended. Close- ended are designed to give specific or definite answer.
Open- ended questions are designed to allow respondent to give their own answers. Questionnaires may be distributed by hand or by post.

ADVANTAGES OF
QUESTIONNAIRES.
They allow a large number of questions to be asked to a wide group in a short space of time.
Results are easily quantified and presented numerically. Data is reliable and generalisable.
Trends and relations can be identified.
Unlike structured interview they avoid the problem of interviewer bias where physical presence of the interviewer can discourage the respondent. its the only way of collecting large amount of data across a wide range of people.

DISADVANTAGES OF
QUESTIONNAIRES.
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Researchers unwilling to use this method given that it depend on the good will of respondent for their completion. no opportunity to clarify the questions they ask and expect a certain level of literacy and numeracy for their completion.
Delimit the range of responses.
Interactionist perspective believes this method lacks validity.
Answer may be the same but meaning vary from person to person. Little or no first hand experience of the world view of others is gained. INTERVIEWS
Structured
 Semi-structured
 Un-structured.
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STRUCTURED
INTERVIEW
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Pre-set questions asked in the same order every time.
Advantages
Questions can be clarified unlike questionnaires. Interview is guaranteed to be satisfactory,completed and returned.
Interviews conducted on telephones, a potentially wide-ranging sample can be reached. DISADVANTAGES OF
STRUCTURED INTERVIEWS.
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Respondent may feel more restricted.
More time consuming than questionnaires. SEMI-STRUCTURED
INTERVIEWS
Mixture of structured and unstructured interviewing methods.
 Number of questions may be pre determined but the interviewer may feel free to deviate from these questions to explore issues raised by the answers.
Advantages
More natural and will vary according to the purpose of the research.
Disadvantage
Can be lengthy and more time consuming. 

UNSTRUCTURED INTERVIEWS
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More resemble conversation than the tightly structured interview.
The purpose is to gain an in-depth understanding of an interviewee’s perception of particular subject or issue. They are designed to produce qualitative data and favoured by interactionist. Advantages
Flexible enough to explore issues at a range of levels.

DISADVANTAGES
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More time consuming
Difficult to filter the data
Can’t say whether the interviewees are telling the truth.
May be people don’t response the way they actually behave in real life.
They may yield qualitative data but not as valid as observing people.

OBSERVATION METHOD
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Aim is to observe the behaviour of a group usually for an extended period of time.It ranges from eavesdropping to participating in the activities of the people involved.
It includes
Covert participant observation
Overt participant observation
Covert non-participant observation
Overt non-participant observation.

COVERT PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION
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Researchers true identity is unknown to the group through the research period although researcher take full part in their lives.
Advantages.
As close to the natural behaviour of the group in their own environment.
Deviant groups are being observed.
Less likely to alter their behaviour.

OVERT PARTICIPANT
OBSERVATION
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Those being studied are aware of the true reason for the researcher’s presence.
Advantages
More ethically acceptable as there is no deception over the identity and purpose.
Less dangerous as no chance of hidden identity. Give them the freedom to ask questions.
Disadvantages
People will become conscious and will modify their behaviour.

COVERT NON
PARTICIPANT OBSEVATION
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Researcher secretly observes the group without taking part in any of its activities. Close to spying.

OVERT NON-PARTICIPANT
OBSERVARTION
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Researcher being known to the group without taking part in their activities.

ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES
OF OBSERVATION METHOD.
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Data is valid incase of qualitative methods as small groups or individuals are involved.
First hand data can be gained about a small number of people.
Disadvantages
More time consuming
Researcher can come too close to the group and cease to view their group objectively.
Can be dangerous for covert researcher if their deception is uncovered.
Many ethical questions to be asked concerning false identities.

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Incase of Quantitative method
Difficult to compare one piece of research with other.
Relies on the researchers record what they find and choose certain events.
Ultimate report may appear more in common with journalism than the scientific method,

EXPERIMENTS
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To test a hypothesis by controlling a variable in order to discover which factor is important.
The use of laboratory is immediately problematic for sociologist as it involves removing people from social environment and placing them in artificial environment.
They also field experiments taken places in smaller settings as streets,classrooms e.t.c.

ADVANTAGES OF
EXPERIMENTS
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Results are highly reliable
They are presented in numeric,quantifiable form.

DISADVANTAGES OF
OBSERVATION METHOD
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It involves removing people from their social environment and placing them in their artificial environment.
The validity of such research has been questioned as people will behave differently if they know they are been observed. They will also respond differently to different experiments depending on the factors such as class,gender,e.t.c.

LONGITUDINAL STUDIES
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Take place over time,often over intervals of many years with the purpose of exploring longterm trends.
Also used to monitor changing social attitude with the resulting data is taking quantatitave form.It can also yield qualitative data.
Advantages
Change over the time within the same group can be explore.
Allow a large number of variabless to be considered. They are valid as they overcome the need of the respondent. DISADVANTAGES
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Problematic as they demand the group researched to be available over long period of time.
Their attitude to research may change.

CASE STUDIES
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Examines one phenomenon only investigating in depth.This could be a locality an institution or a social group.
Aim is to gain detailed understanding of that single phenomenon.
Advantages
Findings can be used in number of ways.
Provides rich insight of the subject.
Disadvantages
Difficult to generalise from as they only concern one subject at one time.

CONTENT ANALYSIS
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Exclusively confined to the study of mass media and is the most successful method in use. This includes analyses and examine how a particular group such as women or ethnic minorities are represented. Advantages
Very simple method
Disadvantages
Can be subjective

SEMIOLOGY
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It is concerned with examining the science of signs, particularly those contained within language.
Any sign consists of two parts: the signified and the signifier.
The signified is the concept which is being indicated and signifier is the way the object is thought of when it is mentally recited.
More recently semiology has extended beyond languages to other areas such as clothing.

DOCUMENTS
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It includes all types of documents ranging from historical to diaries,letters and even suicide notes.
Advantages
It produce secondary data so not suitable for research purpose.
Disadvantages
May reveal more subjective data.

OFFICIAL STATISTICS
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Data gathered by government bodies for wide variety of purposes such as crime rate e.t.c.
Advantages
Imp source of quantitative data that is readily available
Covering very large samples
Detailing trends over many years.
Objective and neutral.
Disadvantages.