aims/hypotheses sociology

how to operationalise concepts?

-before testing hypothesis need a working or operational definition of key ideas -convert the sociological concept into something we can measure= operationalisation -devise questions that measure the hypotheses, then gather info to prove or disprove hypothesis

problems of operationalising concepts?

-different sociologists may operationalise the same concept differently e.g we might disagree about whether a routine office worker is working class or middle class. this can make it hard to compare the findings of different pieces of research. -interpretivists put less emphasis on operationalising concepts as they are more interested in actors own definitions and understanding of ideas such as class/achievement etc than in imposing either own definitions of these concepts.

adv of hypotheses?

-gives direction to research. it will give a focus to our questions since their purpose is to gather info that will either confirm or disprove our hypothesis -positivists favour hypothesis as the starting point for research. this is because they seek to discover cause and effect relationships e.g that large family size causes underachievement. using quantitative methods such as questionnaires, they formulate questions designed to discover whether and why these factors are linked..

adv of aim?

-more open ended;not tied to proving a certain hypothesis;instead we can gather data on anything that appears interesting about a situation. this can be very useful at the start of our research,when we know very little about the topic-since by definition,in this situation we would have no real idea about what hypothesis we wanted to test -interpretivists favour a broad aim rather than a hypothesis since they are interested in understanding social actors meanings so the task is to find out what the actors themselves think is important,rather than to impose the researchers own possible explanations in the form of a hypothesis.

adv of operationalising concepts

-positivists are concerned to operationalise concepts as of the importance they place on creating and testing hypotheses

what may a pilot study reveal

-some questions are badly worded and hard to understand -answers difficult to analyse -after carrying out pilot study should be possible to finalise the questionnaire or interview schedule.

define hypothesis

a possible explanation that can be tested by collecting evidence to prove it true or false e.g differences in family size cause differences in achievement

what is an aim

it identifies what we intend to study and hope to achieve through the research.often it will simply be to collect data on a certain topic such as the way of life of a subculture

define pilot study

trying out a draft version of the investigation on a small sample to iron out problems/refine or clarify questions and wording and give interviewers practice so the actual survey goes as smooth as possible

difference between aim and hypothesis?

while a hypothesis is a statement about a specific relationship (A causes B) an aim is more general.

e.g of pilot study

young and willmott carried out just over 100 pilot interviews to help them decide on the design of their study,the questions to ask and how t word them