Theory and Methods Aims and Objectives

Syllabus Area
“T he range of methods, techniques and strategies involved
in sociological research:
Surveys, experiments, ethnography, case-studies, content-
analysis. Multiple methods. The use of secondary data. The
role of values. Ethical issues”.

Learning Objectives

What? The keywords in this unit are:

• The Research Process

• Methodology
• The Hypothetico-Deductive Model of Scientific Research
• Common sense and sociological knowledge
• Operationalising Concepts

Why? You will be able to define:

• The concept of methodology.

• The difference between common sense and sociological
knowledge.
• The various steps involved in the Hypothetico-Deductive
Model.

How? You will be able to apply your knowledge to:

• An understanding of the various steps in the research

process and how they can be applied to your A-level
project.

Decision You will be able to evaluate:

• The basic reasons why sociological knowledge can be

considered superior to common sense knowledge.

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The Research Process

In the previous Unit we looked at a number of basic ideas relating to

sources of data and sampling and in the following Units we are going to
develop some of these ideas when we look more closely at methods of
research. In preparation for this, therefore, this Unit looks generally at the
idea of sociological research as a process.
What? The key ideas in this part of the course are:
• Common sense and sociological knowledge
• Methodology
• The Hypothetico-Deductive Model of Scientific Research
• Operationalising Concepts

Why? It is important that we view social research as something more

than simply asking people a few questions, getting their opinions
and then trying to make some sort of sense out of the whole
process. In this unit we are going to begin by looking at the idea that
social research is planned and organised to reflect the idea that it
involves such things as:
• Putting forward ideas that can be tested.
• Collecting data to test these ideas in a systematic way.
• Analysing the collected data.
• Drawing conclusions based on sociological evidence.
This idea, in basic terms,
This Unit, therefore, is mainly concerned with what are relates to the principles
usually called questions of methodology. we use as a means of
providing a framework
We will look at the concept of methodology in more for our research (in short
a “research process”).
detail in a moment, but we can begin to understand the
idea of a research process by thinking about the
difference between common sense and sociological
knowledge and, by extension, why this distinction should
be important.
Sociologically we usually
express this as “not
We can start, therefore, by noting that the objective of all false”. We’ll see why this
research is to produce knowledge and the point of “doing distinction is important
research” is to produce knowledge that is true. later

The key question, therefore, is why do we need to “do research” in

order to “produce knowledge”?

The basic answer to this question is that we don’t. People, in their daily
lives, produce and consume knowledge all the time without ever “doing
research” (sociological or otherwise). This everyday knowledge (or
common sense) has, however, at least one crucial difference from
sociological knowledge; it is, by and large, “taken for granted” (if
common sense knowledge is “what everyone knows”, then it follows that
it goes unquestioned).

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Examples of “taken for granted”

This is not to say that sociological knowledge is sociological knowledge from our
never “taken for granted” - it would, after all, be society might include the idea that
impossible to live in any society without taking some the powerful exploit the weak, that
things for granted. we live in a class-based society and
that gender inequalities exist
between men and women.
Rather, it is to say that sociological knowledge has
been tested in some way. It is, in short, knowledge
that is not simply assumed to be true.
This is not to say that common sense knowledge is In addition, one of the main
always wrong, nor that sociological knowledge is assumptions that sociologists take
always right (the relationship is much more complex for granted is that the social world
is characterised by certain patterns
than this). of behaviour (regularities) that
must have a social cause.
Additionally, sociological knowledge is not always
opposed to common sense knowledge -
sociologists, like any other social or natural
Just as social scientists
scientists may, after all, actively contribute to the
(Sociologists, Psychologists
store of human knowledge that appears “self- etc.) study the social world,
evidently true” (until, of course, someone else natural scientists (Physicists,
comes along and shows it to be false…). Chemists, Biologists, etc.)
study the natural world.
However, without overstating the case, the
distinction I’ve made between common sense
(untested) and sociological (tested) knowledge is a device that helps us
to think generally about the way knowledge can be produced and,
specifically, about how sociological knowledge can be produced. It
does, in short, lead us towards a consideration of sociological
methodology or, if you prefer, the process of sociological research.

Before we look at this question of methodology, there are two further

points we can note arising from the distinction between common sense
and sociological knowledge:

• Firstly, it suggests there are at least two ways of interpreting

“social reality”, since if it is possible for common sense and
sociological knowledge say different things about the same
phenomenon, it follows that they cannot both be right.

• Secondly, it suggests that sociological knowledge is superior to

common sense knowledge because it is based on evidence that
comes from the systematic testing of ideas through research.

If, as I’ve suggested, this difference is true (or valid), it points us towards
the need to develop a set of guidelines that tell sociologists how to go
about the task of testing ideas about the social world. This, in short,
involves the development of a systematic process of research and
leads us into a classic and widely-accepted model of research
methodology proposed by Karl Popper.

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Karl Popper: The Hypothetico-Deductive Model

“Hypothetico” means “based Deduction (or to give it its In sociological terms, a model
on hypotheses” (see below proper name, deductive logic) is is a small-scale
for a more-detailed a way of making authoritative representation of something
explanation of an hypothesis). statements (proofs)about what (such as, in this instance, a
For Popper, the research is not known by a thorough research process) that helps us
process revolves around the analysis of what is known. The to clarify the relationship
ability to develop and clearly ability to make deductive between the things involved by
state hypotheses that can be statements is a very powerful describing the relationship
tested in some way through tool since it is the basis for between them in simplified
social research. drawing logical conclusions terms. In this case, Popper’s
about specific events from model suggests the various
general events. steps that we need to follow in
order to “do research” and, as
such, helps us to organise the
research process.

To put this in simpler terms, you will probably be familiar with

fictional detectives such as Sherlock Holmes. He solved a crime by
systematically investigating a case, collecting and analysing
facts and, on the basis of these facts, naming the person who
committed the crime. This is an example of deduction because
Holmes was able to authoritatively state (or prove) something
specific (the identity of a murderer, for example) that was not
initially known on the basis of his general observations about
things that were initially known (the facts surrounding the case).

Exercise 1
1. Explain the difference between common sense and sociological
knowledge.

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How?
1. Phenomena

2. Observation and
Generation of Ideas

8. Reject and / or 3. Development of

Revise Hypothesis Testable Hypothesis

4. Systematic Observation
and Data Collection

5. Data Analysis
Prediction

7. Hypothesis
Falsified (Refuted) 6. Testing of Hypothesis

9. Hypothesis is Confirmed

10. Theory
(Consists of confirmed
hypotheses)
Why?

We can interpret each step in the above model in the following way.

1. Phenomena

This refers to anything in the world that catches our attention

and which we want to describe, analyse and / or explain. It is
the starting-point for all social research and, at its most basic, A desire to research the
this idea simply refers to the fact that we are going to choose area of “crime”, “family
something to research. This first stage of the research life” or “education” might
process, therefore, is its most general and in order to actually be examples here.
do social research we have to narrow this down into
something more specific.

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2. Observation and the generation of ideas

This refers to this process of narrowing our research topic into

something more specific and manageable. For example, as we
take a closer interest in the topic of “crime” we start to look at
things that do and don’t interest us in this area. As we consider
these things we start to generate possible ideas that we might
like to investigate further. These can take the form of a “research
question or problem”. For example, Why do
people steal? Does the
Although more specific than the first stage we need, according to availability of divorce
Popper, to be more specific still. This leads to the development of lead to family
an hypothesis. breakdown? etc.

3. Development of Testable Hypothesis

An hypothesis can be defined as a general

question or statement that suggests a
possible (and therefore testable) relationship
between two or more things.

For example, if we think about a research question such as

“Why do people steal?”

a major problem we have is how to answer such a question. It is

too general for research purposes because it doesn’t specify a
relationship between “people” and “stealing” that can be
tested. What we need to do, therefore, is to create an
hypothesis (or series of related hypotheses) that turn our
research problem into something we can test (by collecting and
analysing evidence). Thus, we could create a testable
hypothesis along the following lines:

“Poverty makes people steal”.

Although this is a very simple (and probably not very useful)

hypothesis, it does serve to illustrate the idea of the need to Thing 1 = Poverty
specify a testable relationship between two or more things. Thing 2 = People who steal.
Relationship is a casual one
(that is, poverty somehow
From the above, it should be clear that the idea of makes people steal). “People
who are poor will steal to feed
developing a testable hypothesis is a useful step in the
their family”.
research process, mainly because an hypothesis
provides both a focus for research and a clearly-defined
objective for the data collection step (the researcher is going to collect
data that will test the hypothesis).
Once a hypothesis has been developed, the researcher can move onto
the next step in the process - the collection of data to test the hypothesis.

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4. Systematic Observation and Data Collection.

The next step in the research process, therefore, is the collection of data
that allows the researcher to test their hypothesis. This is the stage at
which various methods of research are introduced and since there are a
wide variety of methods available we will need look at these separately -
and in some detail - in further Units in this Module. However, two points
can usefully be noted here:

Firstly, data collection must be

systematic (planned and
organised carefully to ensure that
relevant data is separated from
irrelevant data and so forth).

Secondly, we need to understand

that in order to test a hypothesis by Firstly, we need to define the elements in the
collecting and analysing data we hypothesis carefully and unambiguously.
have to do two things:

Secondly, we have to develop some way of

measuring each element in the hypothesis.

In research terms this is called the operationalisation of a concept.

In basic terms, we operationalise a concept by In sociology, many of the
developing indicators that we can measure. relationships you research involve
concepts (ideas like "society",
The idea of operationalizing a concept means the "norms" and "anomie") that can’t be
ability to transform a general, abstract, idea into easily defined and measured
something that can be defined and, most because they don’t physically exist.
We need, therefore, to develop
importantly, measured. indicators of their existence that can
be physically measured.
We can identify a number of basic steps involved
in the operationalisation of any concept:
1. Define the concept clearly.

2. Define various dimensions to the concept.

3. Define various possible indicators for each dimension.

4. Select indicators to test for each dimension.

5. Design ways of collecting data for each indicator.

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How? To make this a little more understandable, we can use the following
example:

• Suppose we wanted to understand the way "norms of behaviour" are

used by people to guide their behaviour in this classroom.

• The concept of "norms" is the general, abstract, idea we need to

operationalise and we might proceed in the following way (using the
steps I've just outlined above).
1. Definition A norm can be defined as "behaviour considered
appropriate for an individual's particular role and status”.

2. Define dimensions. 2. We could define dimensions like:

• Formal, written, norms (for example, School /

College rules).
• Informal, unwritten, norms.

3. Define indicators. 3. The dimension we might want to test is the idea of the
existence of the latter type of norm. Various indicators could
be used, such as:

• People behaving in similar ways.

• Observing what happens when people behave "oddly".

4. Select indicators to test. 4. We could select the first indicator noted

above to test the idea of norms of behaviour.

5. Design ways to collect data. 5. Our research method could consist of noting the
various ways that people “behave similarly” in the
classroom.

As the basis for the following exercises to test your understanding so far,
you might like to think back to the idea of the “poverty” hypothesis noted
earlier. In order to test this hypothesis we have to operationalise the
concept of poverty. In this respect, before we can collect data about
poverty (and then use it to test or our hypothesis) we need to:

• 1. Define poverty.

• 2. Develop indicators of poverty that can be used to test the

hypothesis.

This may not be as easy as it sounds…

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Exercise 2. Use your recommended textbook (Sociology In Focus (pages 171 - 173) or
Themes and Perspectives (page 124)) to identify two different definitions of
poverty. Briefly describe the main characteristics of each definition.

Exercise 3.
For each of the two definitions of poverty you’ve identified, complete the following:

Definition 1: “Using this definition, people are considered to be poor when…

Definition 2: “Using this definition, people are considered to be poor when…

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For example, in both

In the above exercise you will have identified a number of definitions it is likely that
possible indicators of poverty that could be “not having enough food
operationalised (measured) in order to identify people each day to sustain human
life” would be a clear
who are poor.
indication of poverty

You could go through the same process with the concept

of “theft” and, once you have operationalised these
concepts it will be possible to collect data to test the For example, you may
overall hypothesis. have decided to
operationalise the concept
of poverty in simple
In your data collection, therefore, you will need to find economic terms. For
people who match your definition of poverty and then example, any individual
find some way of measuring whether or not they are who earns less than £10
involved in crime. per day in our society is
considered to be poor.
If you need further help understanding these ideas, do the following exercise.
ExerciseFor
4. How could you operationalise the concept of education?

Hint: You cannot “see” education (it’s not a thing with physical substance), but you know it is
happening because you are sitting in a classroom experiencing it. What “indicators of education”
can you identify?

For example: If you decide that one indicator of education is that people learn things, what
indicator of learning could you use to measure this idea?

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5. Data Analysis.

Once data has been collected it has to be analysed (interpreted) in

relation to the original hypothesis. This will involve things like:

• Checking to ensure that sufficient data has been collected.

• Checking that the sample used has remained representative.
• Making decisions about whether or not to include or discard
data that appears irrelevant.

The outcome of this process is the next step.

6. Testing the Hypothesis.

Once the data has been analysed a decision can then be made about
whether or not the tested hypothesis has either been:

1. Shown to be untrue (falsified) or 2. Shown to be true (confirmed).

If the evidence collected suggests that If, on the other hand (stage 9), the
the hypothesis is false (stage 7), a hypothesis is not shown to be false (for
decision has to be made (stage 8) example, if all of the poor who were
about whether it should be totally sampled and researched we involved in
rejected or whether it can be revised theft), hypothesis can be considered as
and re-tested in a slightly different form confirmed and contributes to the final
(a return to stage 3). stage in the research process.

10. Theory Development.

In everyday usage, a theory is normally taken to mean something that

has not been tested. In sociological terms, however, this is considered to
be incorrect because it confuses the concepts of hypothesis and
theory.
An hypothesis is the idea
A theory consists of an hypothesis (or, that will be tested.
more usually, many related hypotheses)
that has already been tested against the
evidence and shown to be confirmed.

In scientific terms, therefore, a theory consists of tested and confirmed

hypotheses that can then be used to predict the behaviour that was
originally observed (step 1).

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How?
Applying The Hypothetico-Deductive Model of Research.

This model of research is a standard research methodology that can be

used to guide you in the research project you will construct as part of
your A-level course. This being the case, we can look briefly at an
example of how this research methodology can be applied.

1. Phenomena The first step is to decide on an area of the course you want to
study. In this example I’ve chosen to look at family life.

2. Observation and The next step is to think about a general research problem that
Generation of Ideas you want to study. In this area of the course there are numerous
possibilities, but I’ve chosen the area of domestic labour
(housework) and I’m generally interested in testing the idea that
men do as much housework as women.

3. Development of Having decided on my research problem, the hypothesis I’ve

Testable Hypothesis come up with is

“Men do not do as much housework as women”.

In technical terms, this is known as a null hypothesis because

rather than try to prove something is true it’s often much easier
to prove that it’s not true.

4. Systematic In order to test the hypothesis, decisions have to be made

Observation and Data about how to collect the necessary data. This could involve
doing things like:
Collection
• Giving each member of the family a questionnaire to
complete.
• Interviewing each member of the family in depth.
• Asking each family member to complete a “housework
diary”.
• Observing family members as they go about their household
work.
• Collecting published statistics on domestic labour, etc.

5. Data Analysis Once the data has been collected, it is necessary to analyse it
and interpret it in the light of sociological theories. In basic
terms, as part of the project exercise you have to say what the
data shows and what it means.

6. Testing of Finally, as far as the A-level project is concerned, some

Hypothesis conclusion has to be drawn about the hypothesis (was it
confirmed or falsified - and why have you concluded this?).

Steps 7 - 10 in the research methodology are not really applicable in a project of

the kind demanded at A-level.

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Note:

The InterBoard (IBS) and Associated Examining Board (AEB)

demand different types of project and the following outlines their
differing requirements:

IBS Project
This also includes brief discussion
1. Rationale Steps 1-3. of sociological theories you may be
testing and any relevant sociological
research already done by others.

2. Methodology How you went about step 4 and

your reasons for this.

3. Content Steps 5 and 6.

4. Evaluation A general category asking you to critically

reflect on the research process.

AEB Project

1. Rationale Steps 1-3.

Includes a detailed and wide-ranging

2. Context Step 4 discussion and analysis of sociological theories
you may be testing and any relevant sociological
research already done by others.

3. Methodology How you went about step 4 and

your reasons for this.

4. Content Steps 5 and 6.

5. Evaluation A general category asking you to critically

reflect on the research process.

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So far we’ve looked at a particular set of guidelines for doing social

research (Popper’s Hypothetico-Deductive Model) and outlined a
number of steps in this process.

Once a researcher has decided on a particular area of society to study

(step 1), a particular research question or problem (step 2) and a
hypothesis / hypotheses (step 3), the next step is to think about the
process of data collection (step 4).

What we will need to do next, therefore, is

to consider in more detail the process of
data collection.
Theoretical reasons relate to the
In particular, we need to consider two main basic way that the researcher sees
things: the nature of the social world (the
thing they are studying).
Firstly, the range of methods of research This is a significant point that
(quantitative and qualitative, primary and needs to be dealt with in some
secondary) available to the sociologist. depth in the next Unit.

Secondly, the reasons (both theoretical

and practical) for choosing or not choosing
to use a particular method. Practical reasons refers to the
various research considerations
These ideas are the theme of the next Unit, (time, money and the like) that
Sociological Methodologies. can affect our choice of methods.

These will be considered in some

detail in a later Unit.

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