Examine the View That Theoretical Issues Are the Most Important Factor Influencing Sociologists’ Choice of Research Methods.

350 Words2 Pages
Theoretical issues are important factors for influencing sociologists’ choice of method when deciding how to research a topic. Although, there are other factors that also have to be considered such as practical and ethical issues. Positivists believe that the method should produce information that is objective as possible but also produce data is representative and reliable that can then be used in statistics for government research but is collected through questionnaires and other quantitative methods. On the other hand, Interpretivists like to look at the qualitative data that includes structured/unstructured interviews and participant observation. This means that the research is more detailed and in depth, but is also more valid. Theoretical issues include reliability, meaning can the researcher trust the information that they have collected. The validity means that it is correct and has no mistakes therefore it can be trusted to use in secondary research. Research bias is when the researcher has their own views on the topic therefore they could incorporate their own thoughts into the research. This could all affect the research as it means that it could affect the final result. Other issues that could occur in picking methods would be practical and would be things like time and money that it would take to carry out the research. Others would be the funding bodies that could effect what topic that has to be researched, therefore only certain methods can be used for certain topics. Also, there could be the issue of gaining access to the participants as they could be secretive in the information that they reveal. More issues that could occur would be ethical. This would include issues like covert participation which would be unethical because the participants would be unaware that they were being researched. Another ethical issue would be consent as
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