Topic 2 of 6 · Form 5
Research methods
Positivism and interpretivism; realism; theoretical, practical and ethical influences on choice of method; values in research.
Notes for this topic 1 file, in order
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Methodology
Positivism and interpretivism; realism; theoretical, practical and ethical influences on choice of method; values in research.
Methods
Questionnaires, structured and unstructured interviews, participant and non-participant observation (covert and overt), experiments (laboratory and field), case studies, longitudinal studies, content analysis, official statistics, documents; mixed methods and triangulation.
Key concepts
Reliability, validity, representativeness, generalisability, objectivity, the Hawthorne effect, interviewer bias, social desirability.
Sampling
Random, systematic, stratified, quota, cluster, snowball, opportunity; sampling frames.
Ethics
Informed consent, confidentiality, deception, harm, vulnerable groups.
Worked example: A researcher wants to study why young people join informal street-vending networks. Suggest a suitable method and justify it.
Unstructured interviews with snowball sampling: gives rich, valid data on motives and reaches a hard-to-access group through contacts; limitations include small, unrepresentative samples.
Check yourself
- What is the Hawthorne effect?
- Why do interpretivists prefer qualitative methods?
- What is a longitudinal study?
Show answers
- People change their behaviour because they know they are being studied.
- They aim to understand meanings and experiences in depth (verstehen).
- A study that follows the same group over a long period.
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