4.3 Research Methods
Kimberly Puttman
In the video you saw in Figure 4.1, Suzanne Simard describes the amazing science she does when she researches how trees talk to each other. The methods she uses, with the possible exception of bringing bear spray, don’t work very well when you study people. Instead, social scientists use a variety of methods that allow them to explain and predict the social world. These research methods define how we do social science.
In this section, we examine some of the most common research methods. Research methods are often grouped into two categories: quantitative research, data collected in numerical form that can be counted and analyzed using statistics, and qualitative research, non-numerical, descriptive data that is often subjective and based on what is experienced in a natural setting. These methods seem contradictory, but some of the strongest scientific studies combine both approaches. New research methods go beyond the two categories, exploring international and Indigenous knowledge or doing research for the purpose of taking action.
Surveys
Do you strongly agree? Agree? Neither agree or disagree? Disagree? Strongly disagree? If you’ve heard this before, you’ve probably completed your fair share of surveys. At some point, most people in the United States respond to some type of survey. The 2020 US Census is an excellent example of a large-scale survey intended to gather sociological data. Since 1790, the United States has conducted a survey of six questions to collect demographic data of the residents who live there.
As a research method, a survey collects data from subjects who respond to questions about behaviors and opinions, often in a questionnaire or an interview. Surveys are one of the most widely used scientific research methods. The standard survey format allows individuals a level of anonymity in which they can express personal ideas.
Not all surveys are considered sociological research. Many surveys people commonly encounter focus on identifying marketing needs and strategies rather than testing a hypothesis or contributing to social science knowledge. Questions such as, “How many hot dogs do you eat in a month?” or “Were the staff helpful?” are not usually designed as scientific research. Surveys gather different types of information from people. While surveys are not great at capturing the ways people really behave in social situations, they are a great method for discovering how people feel, think, and act—or at least how they say they feel, think, and act. Surveys can track preferences for presidential candidates or report individual behaviors (such as sleeping, driving, or texting habits) or information such as employment status, income, and education levels.
Experiments
One way researchers test social theories is by conducting an experiment, meaning the researcher investigates relationships to test a hypothesis. This approach closely resembles the scientific method. There are two main types o