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Have you ever wondered how sociologists collect their data? How do they find out what the latest trends, patterns and issues are?
If you read a statistic, for example, 70% of students claim they enjoy doing homework, you would (understandably) want to know how the researcher got to this conclusion. How many students did they ask? Did they interpret students' answers correctly?
Sociological research methods are integral to sociological research. This article introduces how sociologists use these methods to carry out sociological research.
Sociological research methods can be defined as a step-by-step process involving collecting, analyzing, and interpreting data to gain knowledge or a better understanding of the world we live in.
Sociological research focuses on various issues, including social groups, institutions, systems, developments, and changes in society. Sociologists draw upon the principles of social science and use a range of research methods in pursuit of patterns that would explain how society works. The choice of methods depends upon practical, philosophical, and ethical considerations, and the nature of the topic.
For example, in 1925 the famous researcher Margaret Mead went to the South Pacific territory of American Samoa to live with the local communities and study them. She observed their lives and conducted interviews and psychological tests to learn whether their experience of adolescence depended on their cultural upbringing. She then published a book interpreting her findings. Modern-day research methods can be a lot more sophisticated, but they are based on the same principles.
Society is in a process of constant evolution leaving gaps or inconsistencies in the existing literature. That provides fertile ground for asking more questions and searching for more answers.
There are a number of factors that form part of the context for sociological research and its methods.
Sociologists may have a specific view of the nature of social phenomena , which influences whether they adopt quantitative , qualitative or mixed methods of research.
You can measure the socioeconomic status of a school student by asking how much their parents earn, which provides quantitative data. On the other hand, you could ask them to describe their lifestyle, which provides qualitative data.
Existing literature forms a key part of the research background. Sociologists must familiarize themselves with existing research in order to build upon it instead of repeating it.
Suppose a researcher wants to investigate the association between gender and academic achievement. They would need to study the existing body of literature to see what other researchers have already found and use their research to fill in the gaps.
Researchers should consider whether they will adopt inductive or deductive reasoning in their investigations. The inductive approach seeks to develop new theories, whilst the deductive approach aims to test existing ones. Researchers adopting inductive methods tend to collect data first to see where it will lead them. While those using deductive methods test whether the data collected fits or reinforces an already existing theory.
Researchers must obey the rules of research quality and adopt appropriate values, including an excellent grasp of research integrity and ethics . There is a lot of debate about the extent to which research can and should be value-free .
The table below presents an example of a step-by-step research scenario outlining the research process and a general overview of the sociological method.
| Steps of the research process | Explanation |
| Social Phenomena | You observe that only a minority of the less affluent students in your group got offers from top universities. |
| Theory | You read existing literature and find out that Pierre Bourdieu suggested that every individual has social and cultural capital that they can use to exert influence in society. |
| Hypothesis | Your hypothesis: The more social and cultural capital a person has, the more likely they are to get an offer from a top university. |
| Research design | You want to find out if there is indeed a pattern that could describe students' achievement from various socioeconomic backgrounds - therefore, you need a quantitative element. You want to have detailed accounts of students' university application process - therefore, you need a qualitative element too. |
| Motto measures of concepts | You choose to send a questionnaire to all the students applying to university and ask them about their socioeconomic status and whether they got their offer. You will use this data to create charts and trace whether there is a cause-effect relationship between having social and cultural capital and getting an offer from a top university. You then choose two case studies: one person who did get an offer, and one who did not. You will conduct semi-structured interviews. |
| Select research subjects/participants | Since you observed this social phenomenon at your college, you will use an opportunity sample for your quantitative stage and a purposive sample for the qualitative one. |
| Administer research tools/collect data | Conduct the questionnaires and interviews. |
| Process/analyse/interpret data | Look at the data, search for patterns, put them in charts, examine the language students used in the interviews to investigate whether there is a pattern. |
| Report Findings/Conclusions | Write the report of your findings. |
The sociologist's opinion on the objective or subjective nature of social phenomena also influences the choice of methods.
Researchers must obey the rules of research quality and adopt appropriate values, including integrity and ethical standards.
Sociological research methods (or research methods in sociology) are a set of data collection, analysis and interpretation procedures based on the principles of social science. Researchers use these methods to study how society works.
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