SOCI 1001 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Qualitative Property, Participant Observation, Ethnography
11 Dec 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Research methods are used to design a study perhaps a positivist, quantitative method for conducting research and obtaining data, or perhaps an ethnographic study utilizing an interpretive framework. Planning of research design is a key step in any sociological study. Sometimes, sociologists do not inform the observables that they are being observed because their presence might influence the results. Hawthorne effect- people change their behaviours when they know they are being observed as a part of a study. This effect might be unavoidable in some research because sociologists might have to explain the purpose of study for ethical reasons. All studies shape the research design, while research design simultaneously shapes the study. Researchers choose methods that best suit their study topic and which helps achieve the overall goal of the research. Often surveys are done on small sector of population called sample- a manageable number of subjects who represent a larger population.
