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Answer
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Hint
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Positivism
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The sociologists who follow this methodological perspective assume society has an objective factual reality - it exists 'out there', just like the physical world of nature (regard sociology as a science). Society exerts an influence over its members, systematically shaping their behaviour patterns. This type of methodological research uses quantitative data to uncover and measure these patterns of behaviour. By analysing quantitative data, they seek to discover the objective scientific laws of cause and effect that determine behaviour. They thus prefer questionnaires, structured interviews, experiments and official statistics. These produce data that is both reliable and representative. Functionalists and Marxists often take this approach. |
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The Sociologist's Perspective
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This is a factor influencing choice of topic. This is a major influence on the sociologist's choice of a research topic. For example, a New Right researcher may study the effects of welfare benefits on the growth of lone-parent families, since the idea of welfare dependency is central to their standpoint. By contrast, a feminist researcher is more likely to choose to study domestic violence, as opposition to gender oppression lies at the heart of the feminist perspective.
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Interpretivism
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The sociologists who follow this methodological perspective reject the idea of an objective social reality - we construct reality through the meanings we create in our interactions with others. Our actions are based on the meanings we give to situations; they are not the product of external forces. This type of methodological research uses qualitative data to uncover and describe the social actor's 'universe of meaning'. By interpreting qualitative data, they seek to gain a subjective understanding of actors' meanings and 'life worlds'. They thus prefer participant observation, unstructured interviews and personal documents. These produce data that is valid. Interactionists favour this approach. |
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Verstehen
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This is the German word for "to understand". In sociology, this has come to mean a form of deep, emphatic understanding. It refers to seeing the world as others see it, rather than imposing external categories or theories. Interpretivists prefer this.
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Macro
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This means to focus on a large scale, sees the individual as shaped by society, i.e. on social structure as a whole or the relationships between social institutions.
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Representativeness
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This is a theoretical issue. This refers to whether or not the people we study are a typical cross-section of the group we are interested in. Imagine for example that we want to know about the effects of divorce on children. It would take a great deal of time and money to study every child of divorced parents, and we might only be able to afford to study a sample of, say, 100 such children. However, if we ensure our sample is this or typical of the wider population, we can use our findings to make generalisations about all children of divorced parents, without actually having to study them at all. Large-scale quantitative surveys that use sophisticated sampling techniques to select their sample are more likely to produce representative data. |
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Practical Factors
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This is a factor influencing choice of topic. These things, such as the inaccessibility of certain situations to the researcher, may also restrict what topic they are able to study. For example, although sociologists may wish to study the ways in which global corporations make their decisions, this may not be possible because these are made in secret.
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Methodological Perspective
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Sociologists' choice of method is also influenced by this - their view of what society is like and how we should study it. There are two contrasting perspectives on the choice of methods: positivism and interpretivism.
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Reliability
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This is a theoretical issue. Another word for this is replicability. A replica is an exact copy of something, so this type of method is one which, when repeated by another researcher, gives the same results. For example, in physics or chemistry, different researchers can repeat the same experiment and obtain the same results every time. In sociology, quantitative methods such as written questionnaires tend to produce more reliable results than qualitative methods such as unstructured interviews. |
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Micro
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This means to focus on a small scale, face-to-face (individuals, small groups, and communities on a small scale) interactions. This level of analysis is focused on understanding the subjective meanings and interpretations of social actors and how these shape social behavior and outcomes.
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Funding Bodies
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This is a factor influencing choice of topic. Most research requires funding from an external body. These bodies include government agencies, the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), charities and businesses. As this is paying for the research, it will determine the topic to be investigated.
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Society's Values
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This is a factor influencing choice of topic. Sociologists themselves are part of the society they study and thus are influenced by this. As they change, so does the focus of research. The rise of feminism in the 1960s led to a focus on gender inequality and today's environmentalist concerns have generated interest in 'green crimes' such as toxic waste dumping.
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Triangulation
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This term refers to the practice of sociologists using a combination of methods. For example, they may begin with a limited number of in-depth, unstructured interviews to gain insights; these can then be used to develop questions for a questionnaire given to a larger sample. This is so sociologists can obtain a more rounded picture by studying the same thing from more than one viewpoint.
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Validity
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This is a theoretical issue. This type of method is one that produces a true or genuine picture of what something is really like. It allows the researcher to get closer to the truth. Many sociologists argue that qualitative methods such as participant observation give us a more valid or truthful account of what it is like to be a member of a group than quantitative methods such as questionnaires. This is because participant observation can give us a deeper insight through first hand experience. |
