Theoretical Issues

Positivism vs. Interpretivism

(to do with whether or not a sociologist is a positivist or an interpretivist). for majority of sociologists this overshadows all other PET points; positivists always use Quantitative methods as they are reliable (repeatable) and representative (allows generalisations to be made); whereas Interpretivists always use Qualitative methods that are valid (truthful) allowing them to gain Verstehen (empathy) and ASAPOASS (A Social Actors Perception Of A Social Situation).

Representative(ness)

refers to whether or not the sample studied are a typical cross-section of the group the researcher is interested in. if a selected sample is said to be representative, researchers can potentially use their findings to make generalizations about a whole population.

Reliablity

reliable research = how repeatable the method is. A reliable method is one that when repeated by another researcher, gives the same results. Quantitative methods e.g. Questionnaires, Statistics tend to produce more reliable results than Qualitative methods such as Observations.

Theoretical Perspective

sociologists will be influenced in topic choice by their theoretical position, e.g. a Marxist is more likely to conduct research into working class issues whereas a Feminist will research society from a gender point-of-view.

Validity

valid research = how true a piece of research is. A valid method is one that produces a genuine picture of what something is really like and allows the researcher to get close to the truth. Qualitative methods e.g. Interviews, Participant Observations generally provide more valid data or truthful findings than quantitative methods such as a questionnaire.

Society's Values

what research is carried out is influenced by how important the issue concerned is perceived to be at the time in Society. For example, there was a lot of research into gender inequalities in the 1970's, when feminism was powerful/influential; whereas in the 2000's governments are more focused on environmental issues/research.