Doing Research in the Social Sciences

Like all scientists, sociologists gain their knowledge by doing research. The goal of sociological research is to test common sense assumptions and replace false ideas with facts and evidence. Part of the sociological perspectiveis to ask “why” and “how” questions and then to form hypothesesto arrive at accurate understandings.Social scientists differ from other scientists, however, in how they conductmuch of their research. Unlike chemists, biologists, or physicists, sociologists (and often psychologists) are very limited in their ability to set up laboratory experiments to replicate real-life conditions. Even if they reproduce conditions as they are in the outside world, the ethical issues involved in manipulating people and controlling events would prevent most sociologists from pursuing this kind of research. For sociologists, the world is their laboratory.

How then do sociologists do research? The methods that sociologists rely on are described below. These methods are classified as either quantitative or qualitative. Quantitative research uses numerical data, while qualitative research rests on narrative and descriptive data. Quantitative research tools include surveys and precollected data. About 90 percent of the research published in major sociological journals is based on surveys, so this approach is discussed first.

How are effective surveys conducted? In survey research, care must be taken that surveys are sent to the right number and type of people (Black, 1998). Researchers describe the people surveyed in terms of populations and samples. A population is all those people with the characteristics a researcher wants to study. A population could be all high school seniors in the United States, all retired postal workers living in Connecticut, or the number of freshmen

who buy school yearbooks. Sociologists would like to collect information on all members of a population, but most populations are too large. Surveys including the entire population would cost too much and take too long for most research projects. Instead, a sample is drawn. A sample is a limited number of cases drawn from the larger population. A sample must be selected carefully if it is to have the same basic characteristics as the general population—that is, if it is to be a representative sample. If a sample is not representative of the population from which it is drawn, the survey findings cannot be used to make generalizations about the entire population.

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Field Research

Qualitative research uses narrative or descriptive data rather than quantitative, numerical data. Some aspects of society can best be revealed by qualitative methods. Most of these methods fall under the heading of field research. Field research looks closely at aspects of social life that cannot be measured quantitatively and that are best understood within a natural setting. High school cliques and “jock” culture are examples of topics best studied by field research. When do sociologists use case studies? The most often used approach to field research is the case study—a thorough investigation of a single group, incident, or community. This method assumes that the findings in one case can be generalized to similar situations. The conclusions of a study on drug use in Chicago, for example, should apply to other large cities as well. It is the researcher’s responsibility to point out the factors in the study that are unique and that would not apply to other situations.

When do case studies involve participant observation? In participant observation, a researcher becomes a member of the group being studied. A researcher may join a group with or without informing its members that he or she is a sociologist. A compelling account of undercover participant observation appears in Black Like Me, a book written by John Howard Griffin (1961). Griffin, a white journalist, dyed his skin to study the life of African Americans in the South. Although he had previously visited the South as a white man, his experiences while posing as an African American were quite different. Participant researchers sometimes do not keep their identities secret. Elliot Liebow studied disadvantaged African American males. Even though he was a white outsider, Liebow was allowed to participate in the daily activities of the men. He said, “The people I was observing knew that I was observing them, yet they allowed me to participate in their activities and take part in their lives to a degree that continues to surprise me” (Liebow, 1967:253).

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