The most basic reason for doing social research is to describe the social world around us: To find out what people think and feel about social issues and how these thoughts and feelings vary across social groups and regions. Research work provides legitimacy to the sociological work.
QUANTITATIVE METHODS
- Widely used by the early sociologists.
- Mostly used in Positivism and Non-Positivism.
- These methods use a systematic and scientific investigation of quantitative properties of a phenomenon.
- Data collection is the primary aim and they use an inductive approach.
- Quantitative data is easy to represent through tables, graphs, pie charts and other curves.
- Various types of quantitative methods are Statistics, Multivariate Analysis, Surveys, Structured Interviews, Sampling, etc
- Durkheim used this in his theory of Suicide.
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Advantages
- More objectivity
- Easy measurement
- No expertise required
- Easy to check validity and reliability
- Reproducibility is higher
Disadvantages
- Less useful if sample size is more
- Cannot be used for non-observable attributes
- Not descriptive
- Only little information available
QUALITATIVE METHODS
- It is the examination and interpretation of observations for the purpose of discovering underlying meaning and patterns.
- Help in discovering meanings, patterns, symbols, motives, etc.
- Deductivism is often used as the basic approach.
- Weber pioneered interpretivist approach and used Verstehen and Ideal Types.
- Types of qualitative methods are Observation method, Structured interviews, Focus group discussion, Case studies, etc
Advantages
- Gives the whole picture
- Data collection is flexible
- Widens the scope of sociology
- Thorough analysis
Disadvantages
- Requires expertise
- Trained investigator
- Checking validity and reliability is difficult
- Cumbersome if sample is large
CONCLUSION
- Methods are the ways of conducting research.
- Data collection and analysis are twin objectives of any methods.
- Broadly, there are quantitative and qualitative methods.
- Attempts were made to reconcile the differences between two broad methods.
- Eg : Hybrids like Socio Logic by Michel Mann in 1980s and Triangulation Method by Norman Denzin
