Chapter 2: Sociological Investigation/Research

• Simply, research means to search again and again

• We study the social phenomena again and again to know more and more information
about the phenomena.
• Research is an attempt to know new things, facts, information etc in a scientific manner.
• Research is a systematic and organized effort to investigate a specific problem that needs
a solution. It involves a series of well-thought –out activities of gathering, recording,
analyzing and interpreting the data. This entire process by which we attempt to solve
problems or search answers to question is called research.
Basics of Sociological Research:
i. Applying the sociological perspective
ii. Be curious and ask questions
Research orientations in sociology:
i. Positivist Sociology
ii. Interpretative Sociology
iii. Critical Sociology
Some important terms used in sociological research:
a. Concept
b. Variables and its types
c. Relationship among variables: cause and effect relationship
d. correlation
e. Measurement
f. Reliability and validity
g. The ideal of objectivity
a. Concept:
• A mental construct that represents some part of world in a simplified form.
• It is the gist expression of any event, structure, condition, process etc is called
concept.
• Each concept has its own meaning.
 • for eg. Family, class, gender, poverty, caste, globalization, urbanization etc.
b. Variables and its types:
• It can simply define as anything that it can take on differing or varying values.
• It is the characteristics of persons, things, groups or any social entity to which
numerical or values are assigned.
• For eg. Age, job satisfaction, distance etc.
Types:
i. Dependent variable
ii. Independent variable
i. Dependent Variable:
• A variable is called dependent variable if its values depend upon the other
variable.
ii. Independent variable:
• A variable is called independent variable if it is not influenced by any other
variable under study but influences the dependent variable.
For eg. Study hard – good grades
Training to workers– increase in the productivity
Advertisement– increase in sales
c. Relationship among the variables:
• There is cause and effect relationship among the variables.
• The change in one variable would be the cause to create effect on the variable.
d. Correlation:
• It is the relationship in which two variables changes together.
• Positive and negative correlation.
i. Positive correlation:
• It exists when an increase in one variable is accompanied by an increase in
another.
• For eg. Increase in benefits of workers increases productivity.
ii. Negative correlation:
 • It exists when two variables are inversely related.
• An increase in one variable would result in a decrease in another.
• For eg. An increase in absence rate of employees could result in decrease in
production.
Research Orientations in Sociology:
I. Positivist Sociology:
 It is the study of society based on systematic observation of social behavior.
 It assumes that an objective reality exist out there.
 The job of the scientist is to discover this reality by gathering empirical evidence, facts
we can verify with our senses say by seeing, hearing or touching.
 It concentrates on the collection of quantitative data.
II. Interpretive Sociology:
 It is the study of society that focuses on the meaning people attach to their social world.
 The main focus of the sociology is interpretation or understanding the meaning that
people create in their everyday lives.
 Social reality is subjective constructed by people in their everyday lives.
 It concentrates on the collection of qualitative data or researcher’s perception of how
people understand their world.
 Field work is necessary in interpretative sociology.
 The interpretative sociologists do not just observe what people do but also try to
understand why they do it. The thoughts and feelings of subjects, which scientists tend to
dismiss because they are difficult to measure, are the focus of the interpretative
sociologist’s attention.
III. Critical Sociologists:
 It is the study of the society that focuses on the need for social change.
 Karl Marx is the founder of critical orientation in sociology.
 He claims that point of sociology is not just to research the social world but to change it
in the direction of democracy and social justice.
 Critical sociology reject the positivist claim that researcher should try to be objective and
limit their work to studying status quo.
  The researcher’s task is not just to study society and document how society works but
also to advocate for the change of society.
 Sociologists have no choices about their work being political, but they can choose which
position to support.
 The researcher is an activist which advocate for change.

Methods of Sociological Research:

i. Experiment
ii. Survey
iii. Participant Observation
iv. Using available secondary sources
i. Experiment:
• It is the research method for investigating cause and effect under highly controlled
conditions.
• It closely follows the logic of science.
• It is explanatory in nature, asking not just what happens but also why.
• Here, the researcher performs an experiment to test hypothesis. The hypothesis may be
accepted or rejected.
The four steps involved in experiment are as follows:
i. State which variable is the independent variable (the cause of the change) and
which is the dependent variable (the effect, the thing that is changed).
ii. Measure the initial value of dependent variable.
iii. Expose the dependent variable to independent variable (the cause or the
treatment).
iv. Measure the dependent variable again to see what change, if any, took place. If
the expected change took place, the experiment supports the hypothesis otherwise
rejects it.
ii. Survey:
• It is a research method in which people under study respond to a series of statements or
questions in a questionnaire or interview.
• Generally, it yields descriptive findings such as people’s view on some issue.
• The researcher has to be clear about population and sample of the study. Population
means the total people under study and sample is the portion of the population that
presents the whole.
• Survey research is conducted through two research tools: a) questionnaire b) interview
a) Questionnaire:
• Questionnaire is a device for securing answer to questions using a form which
respondents fill in him/her.
• A set of questions, which the researcher seeks answers from respondents in order to gain
knowledge about certain specific matters.
• Schedule is a set of questions which are asked and filled in by the researcher in a face to
face situation with another person. In its form and content, a schedule is similar to the
questionnaire.
• The main difference between questionnaire and schedule is that- the questionnaire is
filled by the respondent on his own, whereas the schedule is filled in by the researcher.
Type of questionnaire:
i. Closed form questionnaire
ii. Open-ended questionnaire
i. Closed form questionnaire:
• When there is provision of choosing one of the alternatives, it is closed form
questionnaire.
ii. Open-ended questionnaire:
• When there is provision of writing free response of the respondents, it is
called open-ended questionnaire.
The main points to be noted in preparing and using the questionnaire:
• The physical format of a good questionnaire must be such that it must
evoke spontaneous interest from the respondents.
• Questions must be specific and unambiguous.
• The wording of the questions and the language must be simple, direct and
unambiguous.
• Questions in questionnaire must be ordered in a definite sequence.
• Any questionnaire must be limited in length and scope.
 • One must be familiar much about the subject matter before formulating
the questions.
• All the important and relevant questions must be included.
• There must be logical connection between the questions.
• Care must be taken to ask questions which include the entire possible
alternative on a particular issue at the study.
b) Interview:
• An interview is a face to face verbal interchange in which one person, i.e interviewer,
attempts to elicit some information or expressions of opinion from another person
regarding a particular issue.
• A two way purposeful conversation initiated by an interviewer to obtain information that
is relevant to research purpose.
• The gestures, glances, facial expressions, pauses, module of voice, intonation, speed of
speech etc are also a part of interview.
Steps while conducting interview:
i. Primary preparation:
• This step is undertaken to select the respondents, their address and so on.
• Proper person as per the need of the subject matter should be selected.
ii. First visit:
• It is better to contact the interviewee first and explain him/her about the
purpose of forth coming visit.
iii. Visit for the interview:
• The researcher should visit the respondent on date and time given to the
respondents.
iv. Beginning of the interview:
• The interviewer should begin asking questions in full seriousness.
• The researcher must patiently wait to listen for the answers.
• The interview should be conducted with limited subject matter and
without any biasness.
v. Encouragement:
 • The interviewer should encourage the interviewee to give more and more
information.
vi. Concluding the interview:
• The interviewee should ask the respondent at the end if he/she has
anything more to tell.
• The interviewee should give the firm assurance that the interview is
strictly confidential.
• The respondent should be thanked at the last.
iii. Participant Observation:
• A more direct way of gathering information is to observe events as they occur.
• “Observation is a systematic, direct, definite and deliberate examination of spontaneous
occurrence of events at the time of occurrence”.
• Here, the researcher actually witness social behavior in its natural setting.
• The researcher does not have any influence at the ongoing events but just have accurate
description of what takes place.
• This method allows researcher an inside look at social life in any natural setting from a
night club to religious ceremony.
• Generally, cultural anthropologists use this method, calling field work, to study different
ethnic groups and their research results as ethnography.
• In this method, the researcher has to be in the field not for few weeks but for months or
years.
• As its name suggests, participant observation has two sides.
• One is participating in the natural setting and the other is to observe and interpret the
ongoing phenomenon.
• The researcher needs to maintain good relationship with the group people under study.
• Sometimes the researcher must step back to make field notes and interpret them later.
• The researcher play both “play the participant” to win acceptance and gain access to
people’s lives and “play the observer” to maintain the distance for thoughtful analysis.
• Carrying out the twin role of insider participant and the outsider observer is the very
challenging tasks.
• So, there are no hard and fast rules in this method. The researcher can do his/her work in
a flexible way according to the situation he/she encounters.
iv. Using available secondary sources:
• Some researchers do not require collecting the fresh data.
• It can be done by analyzing the available or existing data collected by other.
• Here, the researcher use the data collected by government agencies, research
organizations or other researchers.
• This method is also called as library method.
• Such research is carried out in short time with limited budgets.
• But it has some limitations. The available data may not be in the exact form as required
and there are always questions about the accuracy of the work done by other.