SY101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Sampling Bias, Structured Interview, Participant Observation
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Sociological research: need to move beyond common sense and guessing, want to know why, testing vs assuming or guessing, need for specific research techniques. Choose a biased sample: 3 out of 4 doctors. Strategies for asking questions: questionnaires and interviews: Participating in the research setting: observation and recording. Highly descriptive analysis, but not always viewed as objective by more conventional researchers. Rich description often provides significant theoretical insight. Interviewer and interviewee involved in a conversation: often use tape recorder. Researchers personal characteristics very important in fieldwork. Distinctive feminist methodology: a conversation among equals. Excellent source of information, but one cannot be sure of how systematically the original data were gathered. Examine film, books, newspapers, diaries, bank records, police reports, household accents, immigration files, etc. Usually best to utilize multiple sources or types of sources. Access to source material can pose a problem.
