Читать книгу Essential Concepts in Sociology - Anthony Giddens - Страница 56

Quantitative studies typically produce numerical information in the form of, say, numbers or percentages, in order to assess the size of a social problem or the percentage of a given population sharing similar attitudes. Descriptive statistical information is extremely useful in helping us to create an accurate picture of society. What proportion of the population is working class? What is the proportion of married women in paid employment? How many people believe that global warming is real? All these questions demand quantitative research, which is typically carried out by selecting a representative population sample from which general conclusions can be drawn. Quantitative samples tend to be much larger than those used in qualitative research in order to enable statistical testing.

Quantitative methods can be taken a stage further using inferential statistical analysis, which tries to arrive at general conclusions about data – for example, on the probability that an identified difference between groups within a sample is reliable and has not occurred simply by chance. Inferential statistics are widely used in variable analysis, when sociologists try to pick their way through several variables that are found to be correlated in order to establish relationships of cause and effect. This has been made somewhat easier over recent years with the advent of computer-based software programs such as the ubiquitous SPSS, which simplify the manipulation of raw data and enable automated calculations. Ironically, perhaps, this development has coincided with a turn towards qualitative methods in sociology.

Qualitative research includes all of the following methods: focus groups, ethnography, semi-structured or unstructured questionnaires, face-to-face interviews, participant observation, biographical research, oral histories, narrative studies, grounded theory and life histories. In all of these, sociologists try to understand how social life is lived and how people interpret and make sense of their social position. In short, the aim is to tap into the quality of people’s social lives, not to measure the shape and size of society as a whole. One area in which qualitative inquiry has had success is in giving a voice to under-represented or disadvantaged social groups. Studies of homelessness, self-harm, domestic violence, children’s experiences and many more have benefited enormously from qualitative research methods designed to allow marginalized groups to speak freely.

One further benefit of qualitative methods is the possibility of enhancing the validity of research conclusions. Within interviews or ethnographies, researchers can tell participants how they are interpreting their responses and ask if that understanding is correct. After interview, a debriefing session can be held which allows any possible misunderstandings to be ironed out. In the approach known as grounded theory, the traditional deductive method involving the construction of hypotheses which are then empirically tested is turned on its head, as researchers collect data in the form of interview transcripts before exploring these in systematic ways, using sorting, coding and categorizing, before moving on to the creation of concepts and theories which are said to ‘emerge’ from the data. All of these interactions mean the involvement of research participants in the research process rather than maintaining a strict division between researcher and subject.