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Methods revision At this point you have covered… • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Quantitative & qualitative Primary and secondary data Interviews – unstructured, semi structured, structured Interview effect Bias Objectivity Validity Representative Reliability P.E.T.S Official statistics Questionnaires Focus groups Opinion polls Closed questions Open questions Response rate Interviewer Interviewee Respondent Longitudinal study traingulation Primary data – data that has been collected, first-hand, by a sociologist for the particular purpose of investigation Secondary data – data that exists prior to and independent from the researcher’s own research. Secondary Data Advantages Time saving Low cost Easy to access Can answer targeted problems Provides base for comparison Eliminates duplication Disadvantages Incomplete information Outdated/no longer accurate Subjective Not specific to enquiry Secondary Sources Primary Sources This is information which was not present when the research began. It is the data actually generated during the research process e.g. interviews and questionnaires. Secondary Sources This is information that already exists. It includes government statistics, diaries and data already produced by sociologists from earlier research. If you have bought a textbook, the book is an example of secondary research. Secondary data Official statistics are numerical data produced by governmental departments. Official statistics may be politically biased. For example, between 1982 and 2002, the way unemployment is calculated has been changed 30 times. Other doubtful data includes the Census, crime figures and measures of social class. Secondary data “Life Documents” such as e-mails, postcards, diaries and letters may also yield information. Used by: Thomas & Znaniecki The Polish and Peasant in Europe and America Quantitative and qualitative Validity Validity refers to the accuracy of a description or measurement. Data is valid if it gives a true picture of a way of life or an accurate measurement of something. For example, official statistics on crime are valid if they provide an accurate measurement of the extent of crime. Reliability Research methods and data are reliable when different researchers using the same methods obtain similar results. For example, if the same questionnaire and the same sampling procedure produce similar results when used by different researchers, then the methods and the data are reliable. A reliable method allows studies to be replicated, ie repeated. Advantages - A quick way of collecting large amounts of data. - Quantitative data makes it easy to identify correlations. Disadvantages - Fixed questions limit the answers the respondent can give which could mean the researcher is deliberately shaping the answers. - Doesn’t explain the results, only shows correlations. E.g. Chubb and Moe: Did a survey on parental attitudes towards schooling. They used fixed questions. They chose this method to make generalisations on parents attitudes towards how a school should be run. Advantages - ‘To know, to predict, to control’ - Correlations can be easily spotted. E.g. Disadvantages Durkheim's study of suicide. He used statistics to find out what in society increased suicide rates. - Does not show the cause of something or explain the statistics. - Usually governments statistics, so they may be shaped to reflect positively on themselves rather then being truthful. Advantages - Gives a direct perspective for the researcher. - Can be done covertly or overtly to see variation in results. Disadvantages - Very time consuming. - Hawthorne effect. ‘What you observe you change’. E.g. Lacey used participant and non-participant observation. He immersed himself in school life, teaching and observing lessons. He gained insight into social relations within school, and how subcultures impacted their achievement. Advantages - A structured methodical way of testing a theory. - Can use either field or lab experiments which can allow a greater amount of control or variables. Disadvantages - Cannot always account for all variables so results can be distorted. - Outliers may effect results and give false ideas. E.g. Rosenthal and Jackson used the field experiment to label some students in a class as ‘spurters’ to see how it would effect their performance. OFFICAL STATISTICS • The government collects official statistics on education, so using them can save sociologists time and money. • Sociology use official statistics to establish correlations between social factors. For example, statistics on exam results of children eligible for free school meals show a correlation between material deprivation and achievement. • Statistics also save sociologists time and money, also patterns are to identify when using official statistics. • However, official statistics are not always true or relevant to what the sociologists need. Finally just having patterns does not explain why people’s exam results differ. EXPERIMENTS • Rosenthal and Jacobson used a method known as the field experiment. Sociologists occasionally use field experiments because they allow the researchers to manipulate a real, naturally occurring social situation to discover cause-and-effect relationships. • Rosenthal and Jacobson were able to manipulate classroom interaction by labelling some pupils as ‘spurters’ to see whether this would cause a self fulfilling prophecy. • However the researchers cannot control all the possible factors that might have led to the pupils ‘spurting’, so they cannot be certain that they have in fact discovered the real cause of their improved performance. DOCUMENTS • Gerwitz studied the ways in which school responded to being part of an ‘education market’. She collected a range of school documents including brochures, prospectuses and planning reports. These gave her an insight into the increasing amount of resources schools were now devoting to ‘selling’ themselves to potential ‘customers’, i.e. parents. • However, such documents need to be treated with caution. They are part of a school’s public relations effort and their content may give a selective and distorted picture. DOCUMENTS (2) • Sociologists have analysed the contents of educational documents such as reading schemes and textbooks for evidence of gender stereotyping. Glenys Lobban examined 179 stories in six reading schemes used in primary schools and found that females were nearly always presented in traditional domestic roles. • Quantitative content analysis of schoolbooks can reveal statistical patterns of gender images in learning materials. It is easily replicated to show trends over time in stereotyping. For example, Lesley Best’s analysis of reading schemes found little had changed. However, content analysis merely tells us how often an image appears in a document; it tells us nothing about its meaning to those who see it. DOCUMENTS (3) • Educational policies are usually set out in official documents such as Acts of Parliament or government regulations and guidance issued to schools. This makes such documents a useful source of information about policies. Other documents include parliamentary debates and speeches by politicians. These can give us insight into the reasons for educational policies as well as criticisms of them. • However, documents do not tell the whole story about educational policies. Politicians try to present their policies in as favourable way as possible, so documents need to be treated with care and not simply taken at face value. Furthermore, schools do not always carry out polices in the way the government expects them to. GROUP INTERVIEWS • Willis carried out unstructured group interviews to uncover the counterschool culture of the ‘lads’. These interviews allowed the lads to talk freely in their own words about the way they viewed school, teachers and work. The interviews gave Willis and insight to their world. • However, critics argue that unstructured group interviews are an unreliable method – they cannot be repeated in exactly the same way with other groups. Also, the meaning of what is said in a group interview is so open to the researcher’s own biased interpretation that the results may be of little value. Types of sampling Frame Stratified Sampling This is where the population under study is divided according to known criteria, such as sex and age, in order to make the sample more representative. Random Samples This is where people are selected at random. People may be chosen completely at random from a telephone directory or register of electors. Systematic Samples This is where people are selected systematically. For example, each tenth person is chosen from the telephone directory or register of electors. Quota Samples This is where a researcher aims to survey only a particular kind of person e.g. women between 21 and 35. However, this may not be objective. Stopping young women in the street during working hours is likely to exclude many of the working population. Self-Completed Questionnaires This is where respondents complete the questionnaire themselves. Advantages: No interviewer required, therefore, a cheap method of research No interviewer bias. Disadvantages: Self-completed questionnaires have a low response rate, especially for postal questionnaires. Closed questions may limit what respondents really want to say. Interviews Unstructured interviews are interviews which don’t have a fixed set of questions to be asked. The line of questioning may “evolve” during the interview. The Sociologist may ask 10 people very different questions depending on their age, sex, “race”, class or other factors. No two unstructured interviews are ever the same. Structured Interviews This is an interview with a fixed list of questions. The questions never change. Advantages of Structured Interviews Sociologists can explain difficult or ambiguous questions. Respondents who are illiterate are not excluded. Disadvantages of Structured Interviews Interviewing is time-consuming and expensive. Therefore, the number of people interviewed is sometimes quite small. Respondents may give a false answer. They may exaggerate or down play Sometimes, structured interviews run the risk of “leading” the respondent. This may make the results less accurate, objective and “value-free.” Official Statistics Official statistics are numerical data produced by governmental departments. Official statistics may be politically biased. For example, between 1982 and 2002, the way unemployment is calculated has been changed 30 times. Other doubtful data includes the Census, crime figures and measures of social class. Documents Documents can be analysed in terms of their contents and themes. Mc Robbie conducted “Contents’ Analysis” of “Jackie” magazine. “Life Documents” such as e-mails, postcards, diaries and letters may also yield information.