Factors influencing Choice of Methods

When selecting the correct research methods, the sociologist must consider the following issues:

• Practical
• Ethical
• Theoretical

Practical Considerations; 

Nature of the Topic - it may be difficult to study certain issues with certain method. Despite personal preference there may be no choice. A violent street gang or organised criminals may be unwilling to be interviewed so participant observation may be the only option (Patrick - A Glasgow Gang Observed). Similarly poverty may be difficult to measure using observation, a large scale survey may be best (Townsend's Study on Poverty).

Time and Money - money available may influence the time you spend on research and thus the type of method that you use. Participant observation may take many years and consequently cost a lot. Similarly if you have to pay and train interviewers this may also be costly. Postal questionnaires and secondary data may be less costly but come with their own problems. 

Research Team - linked to the above point, the size of your research team may affect your choice of method. If you have a large research team available to conduct interviews and analyse data you would have more methodological options available to you. 

Funding - although more likely to affect your choice of topic rather than method. A certain funding body may tell you which method you have to use (again may be linked to money). Similarly your research department at university may influence you. 

The characteristics of the researcher - may also be important. This may include factors such as age, gender, race etc. An older researcher is less likely to be accepted by adolescents. Dobash and Dobash's study on violence against women necessitated that all the interviewers be female. Liebow's participant observation study of black street corner men has shown however that the characteristics of the researcher can be overcome as he was a white Jew. Liebow did admit that this made things harder for him at time. 

Ethical Considerations;

Ethical factors refer to whether or not the research is morally justifiable. The British Sociological Association offer guidance on conducting ethical research. 

Polsky - Hustlers, Beats and Others feels that any form of covert participant observation is ethically questionable. In effect you are using the people you are researching for your own gains and are deceiving them. The fact that you also open yourself up to ethically questionable choices i.e. Patrick - A Glasgow Gang Observed led to criminal behaviour from Patrick such as theft and drug taking, for some, is taking research too far. Covert participant observers such as Patrick and Humphries feel that there is no other way to access this sort of information and give an explanation for the behaviour of certain groups. It is also a way of giving the powerless a voice. 

The fact that covert participant observation may lead to the researcher being put in danger is also an ethical consideration. Patrick left his Glasgow gang suddenly when the violence became too much for him. Thompson in his study of Hells Angels suffered violence when he was uncovered as a researcher. 

Other methods that some would deem unethical include experiments. For many sociologists this is a method best left to psychologists as social behaviour is not something that can be studied in a laboratory. Many would feel that putting a human into a lab situation is unethical in itself and that this is too far in the pursuit of scientific study. Interpretivists in particular would see this method as lacking in validity. 

Perhaps the main area where ethics must be considered is in the area of the conduct of the researchers. As mentioned above certain research methods rely on a level of deception in the research. If you are deceiving the participants then you cannot be gaining their consent to be used as a tool for your research. Equally you are not giving them the right to withdraw from your study. Some sociologists may defend this decision saying that certain topics would never be studied otherwise and the knowledge gained outweighs any potential risk to the participants. 

Equally, ethical considerations may occur with data such as interviews and questionnaires. Leading questions and deliberate manipulation of answers to suit a particular purpose may occur As mentioned earlier, some sociologists may avoid research funded by powerful bodies for example governments that may be looking to justify their policies with research. For many sociologists, particularly positivists, the best way to conduct research is to stay value free. For others, such as interpretivists, value freedom will never provide you meaningful valid information. 

Theoretical Considerations;

Functionalism - is based historically in the tradition of Positivism and as such Functionalists tend to use methods producing quantitative data. They feel that this will allow them to look at society in a scientific manner. Social Surveys that collect structured data, experiments and official statistics (Durkheim's study on suicide) would be favoured. Data that was reliable would make research more scientific as it could be repeated. 

Marxists - would also be more likely to favour methods that produce quantitative data as this is more likely to allow them to influence social policy and be a force for social change. Again methods such as statistics (Black Report on Health), structured surveys (Townsend - Poverty in the UK) all tried to influence the government of the day.

Interactionists - are more likely to follow an interpretivist approach as they are interested in studying people's meanings and motives for their actions. Methods producing qualitative data would allow this such as participant observation, case studies, life histories, in-depth interviews. Studies you could use as an example are any of the participant observation studies or Dobash and Dobash's unstructured interviews. All these studies produce information that is high in validity. 

All sociologists may face the theoretical consideration of the current state of knowledge. For example studies of recent educational changes are more easily studies using quantitative data. 

In terms of evaluation, one can argue that many sociologists do not use methods typical of their theoretical standpoint. Examples include Willis' Learning to Labour which combined Marxist  theory with interpretivist methods (participant observation). Another point of evaluation is that many sociologists use triangulation in their research which avoids the problem of using only one type of research.