Investigational Techniques
Sociologists use many distinct methods to investigate society as well as social behavior. A number of sociological studies include ethnography designed to show the traits of a group of people as completely as feasible. The author describes case study and survey research as research methods used in sociological studies.
In the opinion of Neuman (2009), for a case study investigation, the researcher studies a small group of people or an individual having unusual situation or condition. Case studies are normally clinical in their scope. The researcher sometimes employs self-report measures in acquiring quantifiable data concerning a subject.
Survey Research
Survey research pertain administering questionnaires or interviewing, and/or written surveys, involving large number of individuals. The researcher analyzes the information acquired from surveys to understand the similarities, trends, and differences. The investigator then makes predictions concerning the population under study (Whiteley, 2011, p. 1).
As with any other research method or design, survey research has disadvantages and advantages. Advantages involve collecting data from a group of respondents, carrying out personal interviews when most convenient for study participants, and obtaining information as inexpensively as feasible (Neuman, 2009). Moreover, mail-in surveys always have the merit of ensuring anonymity, therefore, prompting study participants to give truthful answers to questions.
Survey research has also disadvantages, which include interviewer bias, distortion, and volunteer bias. Volunteer bias happens when the sampled volunteers do not represent the general population (Kozinets, 2010). Respondents who are willing to share concerning some topics can answer surveys in different ways unlike subjects who are unwilling to share or converse. Interviewer bias happens when the insignificant gestures or expectations of an interviewer inadvertently affect a respondent’s responses in any way. Distortion takes place when a respondent does not answer questions honestly (King & Horrocks, 2010).
Philosophical Rationalization for Adopting Case Study Research
Research Methods Utilized in Cultural Anthropology
These are methods of studying individuals from a perspective of anthropology. Numerous approaches exist for anthropologists to learn a particular culture or people, for instance, participant observation and secondary analysis.
Participation Observation
Participation observation refers to an anthropology research approach entailing one or more investigators staying among the people or culture under investigation for a long duration. Investigators carrying out participant observation always participate in the daily activities of the culture, attempting to exist within the culture or community as if they are born within it. This technique is likely the frequently included and heavily used approach. Anthropologists differ on thought concerning how an investigator should argue their participation within the final investigation report, are some view it as being significant to the understanding of readers of how the investigator interpreted what was witnessed (King & Horrocks, 2010).
Secondary Analysis
Sociologists carry out investigation by using data, which other sociologist have already gathered. The use of or adoption of publicly accessible data is referred as secondary analysis. More often than not, secondary analysis is commonly used in circumstances where collecting new information or data is unnecessary or impractical. Sociologists obtain statistical information for scrutiny from academic institutions, governmental agencies, and businesses, or can use library or historical information to generate hypotheses.
Besides, anthropologists may use cross-cultural technique within the related approaches of media analysis, historical analysis, and archival research. The documents may be directly obtained from the culture under the study, created, or developed in response to secondary/secondhand investigations of a culture. Currently, the terms go beyond the available written documents or records to encompass digital representations (Neuman, 2009).
Philosophical Rationalizations for Adopting Participant Observation
Observation approaches are significant in many ways. They offer investigators ways to check and verify nonverbal expressions, establish who interacts with what or whom, grasp the way participants communicate among each other, as well as check duration of time on different activities (Neuman, 2009). Participant observation enables investigators to confirm definition of terms, which participants employ in interviews and observe events, which informants cannot or unable to discuss because doing so is perceived impolitic, insensitive, or impolite, and observe circumstances informants have clarified in interviews, thus making them conscious of inaccuracies or distortions in descriptions offered by those informants (Whiteley, 2011, p. 5).
References
King, N., & Horrocks, C. (2010). Interviews in qualitative research. Los Angeles: SAGE.
Kozinets, R. V. (2010). Netnography: Ethnographic research in the age of the internet. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications Ltd.
Neuman, W. L. (2009). Understanding research. Boston, MA: Pearson/Allyn and Bacon.
Whiteley, A. (2011). Anthropology and International Business Research Methods in DBA Teaching. Journal of Teaching in International Business, 1(2), 1-5. doi:10.1300/J066v12n02_02
