Notes: You may want to design your research around a carefully prepared survey so you can statistically analyze the responses. If so, you have chosen a quantitative design. One of your classmates might address the same issue and decide interviewing individuals will be a better option. This more subjective design will entail asking open-ended questions and recording the responses. This is referred to as a qualitative design and is just as valid and effectual as a survey.The quantitative methods use systematic and numerical measures to make generalizations across groups of people. Interactive Table 2.2.1 provides an overview of the types of quantitative methods.
ethnography, a descriptive account of social life and culture in a particular social system derived from the researcher being embedded over time within a group, organization, or community. Ethnographic work is a type of field research involving the researcher probing deeply into people’s everyday lives for an extended period to provide a complete picture of the lives of those in the group.
The quantitative approach seeks to quantify data and generalize results from a sample to the population of interest. Qualitative research aims to uncover the underlying reasons, motivations, opinions, and prevalent trends among individuals, groups, and artifacts.
Quantitative research outcomes allow for policy and decision-making recommendations, while qualitative research is exploratory and investigative (Snap Surveys 2022).
snowball sampling, a process in which people in the group being studied introduce the researcher to other people to study,
time diary method, a research method in which subjects track their actions at various points in time over several days. Hawthorne effect, the tendency of people to change their behavior when they know they are being watched.
The sociological imagination is about the relationship between the individual and society. In the research process, its role is to illuminate this relationship, but more specifically, to help us understand the impact of social forces on individuals’ lives.
verstehen (vûrst e hen), an empathetic approach to understanding human behavior (HP). Verstehen means that you take the time to understand the individuals’ experiences from their point of view
- Define the Question or Problem
- Review the Literature
- Develop Hypotheses
- Choose a Research Design and Methods (This requires choosing a quantitative or qualitative research design and one or more research methods.)
- Collect the Data
- Analyze the Data
- Develop Conclusions
- Report Results and Pose New Questions