discern whether there are relationships among the variables that you predicted
in your hypotheses and, if there are such relationships, how strong they are or
whether they might have been produced by chance. If you’ve used qualitative tech-
niques, interviews would need to be coded for their narrative content, and obser-
vational field notes would need to be organized and systematically examined.
Data analysis is often the most cumbersome and tedious element in the research
process, whether you are “crunching the numbers” or transcribing interviews.
Data analysis requires care and precision, as well as patience.8.Reporting the findings. No research project, no matter how small, is of much
use unless you share it with others. Typically, one seeks to publish the results of
research as an article in a peer-reviewed journal or in an academic book, which
also passes peer review. Peer review is a process by which others in the field are
asked to anonymously evaluate the article or book, to make sure the research
meets the standards of adequate research. Peer review is essential because it
ensures the acceptance of the research by one’s colleagues. More than simple gate-
keeping, peer review provides a valuable service to the author, enabling him or
her to see how others read the work and providing suggestions for revision.
Even a student research project needs to experience peer review (as well as
review by professors). You should plan to distribute your research projects to
other students in the class, to see how they reacted to it and to hear their advice
for revision.Sociological research is a statement in a conversation between the researcher and
the public. One needs to report one’s findings to a larger community to get their feed-
back as part of a dialogue. Sometimes, that community is your fellow students or other
sociologists. But sometimes, one also shares the findings with the larger public,
because the public at large might be interested in the results. Many sociologists also
make sure to share their findings with the people they studied, because the researcher
might feel that his or her research might actually be useful to the subjects of the study.
Types of Sociological
Research Methods
Sociologists typically use one of two basic types of research methods. One type of
method relies on observation of behavior, either in a controlled setting, like a lab, or
in its natural setting, where people usually do the behavior you’re studying (what we
call the “field”). Another type relies on analysis of accumulated data, either from sur-
veys or from data already collected by others. Each of these basic types is composed
of several subtypes.
Students often use the term experimentto refer to any kind of research, but in
fact experiments require a very specific procedure: You have to divide the research
subjects into two or more groups, make sure that they are similar for the purposes
of the experiment, and then change the conditions in some specified way for one group
and see if that results in a change. For instance, does heating coffee cause it to boil?
Get two pots of coffee, put one on the burner and the other in the freezer, and check
it out.
What social scientists call variables help us measure whether, how, and in
what ways, something changes (varies) as a result of the experiment. There are
different kinds of variables. The independent variable is the agent of change, the
TYPES OF SOCIOLOGICAL RESEARCH METHODS 111