Introduction
Research in sociology is based on using empirical data to provide evidence or support the truth of concepts and theories and to test hypothesis. The methods of gathering data include: surveys, in-depth interviews, field research, document study, experiments and many others. Sociological research is grouped in to two major methodologies: quantitative and qualitative. Quantitative methods look at social phenomena through evidence that can be measured and they often depend on the statistics of several cases to create claims that are valid and reliable. Qualitative design on the other hand looks at social phenomena through observing directly and communicating with the participants to establish claims.
According to Emile Durkheim, positivism can be divided into two: the society is a priority over the individual and society can be studied scientifically. The priority of the social over the individual refers to the social structures and norms and values of culture that are external and have a big influence over the individual. These social facts do not belong to particular individuals; neither can they be reduced to the consciousness of an individual. This qualifies social facts to be empirically studied. These social facts can be divided into two, material and immaterial (Haralambuos et al, 221) .Durkheim’s interest was in the immaterial more than the material. Emile Durkheim insisted that for sociology to have a place in science, it must have a clear object that is distinct from philosophy and psychology, and it has to have its own methodology. Durkheim looked at society to be like an organism. For him it was the total sum of the behaviors, actions and thoughts of individuals .so that the society has exists on its own, apart and away from the individuals
.Durkheim set sociology apart from psychology and philosophy by social facts are group features that cannot be looked at from the collective, neither can they be gotten from studying individuals. Examples of these social facts are religion, urban structures, legal systems, and values such as values of the family. The coercive factors such as beliefs and practices act on individuals so that they exert some influence on the social action of individuals. It is true that individuals act, but they do not act purely on individual basis. Rather they are strongly influenced by the social structures of which they are part of (Stephens and Leach, 123). In this way therefore sociology is set apart from psychology because sociologists study the structures that are responsible for influencing the action of an individual while psychologists look at the mental processes of an individual (Haralambuos et al, 224). This leads us to establishing that society is a thing o fits own kind especially because the social facts that we have looked at cannot be toned down to individual; acts.
Interpretivism according to Max Weber refers to the approaches that look at the important parts of the participation of people in both social and cultural life. It is therefore important to understand the behavior of people form the perspective the actions of the individuals themselves and the meanings that they confer to the actions of others. He also argued that interpretivism is the method that shows that the social sciences should be concerned not only with the quantifying of the happenings of the social phenomena but also provide explanations of events and phenomena in a way that the people involved will understand their own experience.
Primary vs. secondary data sources
Primary sources refer to those sources that have the original data about a topic of have first hand information. Secondary sources on the other hand refer to both published and unpublished data that has been removed from the primary source, so that the information is summarized, analyzed, evaluated. Examples of primary sources of data include interviews, articles, films, art, and photographs. Secondary sources include textbooks, review articles and analysis essays, biographies.
Primary data vary depending on the academic discipline that is involved as well as the context in which it is used. In the humanities for example, a primary source of data could be maps, artifacts, historical documents. In the sciences, numerical data would be included, for example, while in the natural sciences it would include reports, findings and ideas. Interviews refer to the one on one question and answer sessions. When a small number of people are involved, it is very useful especially when you want to get an expert and knowledgeable opinion on a subject (Gray, 67).
Surveys: surveys involve questioning and are stricter than interviews. They involve a relatively large number of people and are used when you want to learn something about a big population. Observations refer to looking and taking notes and are used to find some trend or pattern especially without the knowledge of the subject. Examples of secondary sources Books: published books on the topic of consideration, articles that have been reviewed, data for the databases of governments for example on census.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Primary and Secondary Sources of Data.
Primary sources can be collected using various ways like interviews and field research so that the data obtained can be compared and contrasted and come up with the best of information. It is also relatively cheap as it little prior arrangements. In addition, the data that is obtained from primary sources is that they data is current and gives a better and realistic view of the topic of consideration to the researcher. However, primary data has one major disadvantage in that the designing of the program is hard. For example in the case of questionnaires, the questions should be made simple enough so that even those who have minimal education can understand it. The other problem is that the respondents might delay giving the information, or they might give false information and this has the result of giving a negative impact on the data collection (Haralambuos et al, 254)
Secondary sources are cheaper and easier to obtain and help organizations or companies that are unable to collect the data on their own either because the information is not directly available or will cost much if they collect. However, the information that the company needs to obtain from these secondary sources may not be available because secondary sources are not very reliable sources of data (Browne, 123). Even if the data from the secondary source might be available it might not be very useful or relevant for the purposes for which they want.
Factors that determine the methods chosen for a research project
Social research seeks to establish whether the outcome of something is caused by something. An example is whether the introduction of a new program in school causes an improvement in the score of individuals. There are three major factors and they include:
Co variation- this refers to whether the changes that occur in the cause of the effect will result in changes in the effect that is expected. For example, does the introduction, removal or change in the treatment of prisoners result in a change in their behaviors?
Temporal precedence: the cause that is assumed must occur before the effect that is expected occurs.
No plausible alternative explanations: the cause that is presumed must be the only reason that is reasonable for the changes that occur in the measures of the outcome. if other factors are responsible for the changes that occur , then there is confidence in the cause –effect relationship that had been presumed.
Types of data produced by sociological research
Statistical data: they obtain such data form field surveys or from secondary sources like population, agriculture, economics, industry and trade. They use the data obtained to analyze the issues that affect the people of a country.
Survey data: they use surveys to explore issues such as motivation, attitudes, values, beliefs, social, political and economic values and practices of a people. They then look at the variations in the variables and document the conclusions that they draw from their findings.
Ethnographic data: ethnographic data is obtained from descriptive accounts of the situations in the field especially of the social life and culture of a society and is usually qualitative.
Conclusion
Both quantitative and qualitative sources of data can be used to collect information so that they can be cross checked. This is what triangulation or methodological pluralism refers to. The data that is collected using this method may be used to facilitate a research design and it also complements and supports the research that has been conducted.
Works Cited:
Browne, Ken. An introduction to sociology. Cambridge: polity, 2011.
Browne, Ken. Introducing sociology: for AS level. Malden: polity, 2006.
Haralambuos et al. Sociology- a New Approach 3rd edition. Longman: Melbourne, 1997.
Gray, Paul et al. The research imagination: an introduction to qualitative and
quantitative methods. New York: Cambridge university press, 2007
Stephens, Paul and Leach, Andrew. Think sociology. Cheltenham: Nelson Thornes, 1998.
