Methods of Social Research

179 Pages·1969·2.424 MB·English

by  Margaret Stacey (Auth.)

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Methods of
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BY
MARGARET STACEY
P E R G A M ON P R E SS
OXFORD · NEW YORK · TORONTO
SYDNEY · PARIS · FRANKFURT
U.K. Pergamon Press Ltd., Headington Hill Hall,
Oxford OX3 OBW, England
U.S.A. Pergamon Press Inc., Maxwell House, Fairview Park,
Elmsford, New York 10523, U.S.A.
CANADA Pergamon Press Canada Ltd., Suite 104,
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AUSTRALIA Pergamon Press (Aust.) Pty. Ltd., P.O. Box 544,
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FEDERAL REPUBLIC Pergamon Press GmbH, Hammerweg 6,
OF GERMANY D-6242 Kronberg-Taunus, Federal Republic of Germany
Copyright © 1969 Pergamon Press Ltd.
All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may he reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system or transmitted in any form or hy any means: electronic,
electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise,
without permission in writing from the publishers.
First edition 1969
Reprinted 1970, 1977, 1980, 1982, 1985
Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 69-12810
Printed in Great Britain by A. Wheaton & Co. Ltd., Exeter
ISBN 0-08 013355-X (Hardcover)
ISBN 0-08-013354-1 (Flexicovcr)
List of Figures
1. Observation Sheet facing p. 64
2. Bealey et aïs. modification of census classes 115
3. Cope-Chat card 120
4. I.B.M. card 122
5. Bales's system of categories 128
VI
List of Tables
1. Voting and income 110
2. Voting and occupational status 111
3. Percentage class and 1959 general election vote
(after Bealey) 117
4. Percentage class, self-assigned class, and 1959 general
election vote (after Bealey) 118
5. An illustration of coding for Cope-Chat 119
6. An illustration of coding for machine sorting 123
vii
Preface
THE object of this book is to provide an introduction to some of
the methods of social research for students who are approaching
the subject for the first time. These may be students of sociology
at university or technical college, or administrators who find them-
selves called upon to make or cooperate in some social investigation.
The book has been written with Commonwealth as well as British
students in mind.
There is some popular tendency to confuse social research with
the sample social survey. This book has therefore sought to show
that sample surveys are only one method among many of under-
taking social research.
It has been impossible to cover every technique and every method,
or to illustrate from every area of study. Some subjects, such as
socio-historical research, attitude testing, and sociometry, have been
ignored altogether. The aim, indeed, was not to be inclusive, but
rather to indicate the breadth of the subject, selecting particularly
those types of research where, through my own fieldwork or
through supervision of graduate students, I have a special interest
and knowledge.
This, like every other sociological work I have undertaken, owes
a very great deal to the early training given me in the theories and
methods of sociology by Professor M. Ginsberg at the London
School of Economics during the Second World War. I would also
like to acknowledge the daily help of colleagues, both staff and
students, who have helped me to see and to try to solve problems.
In particular I would like to thank Colin Bell for reading and
criticizing the typescript, Richard Startup for certain specific
statistical advice, June Pratten for typing the manuscript and
Sandra Johns the indices. I would also like to acknowledge
ix
X PREFACE
gratefully Professor A. Richmond's criticism of the original text
and his suggested improvements. Needless to say, no one but
myself is answerable for the facts reported and the views expressed
here.
Finally, my thanks go to Frank, my husband, and the children,
Pat, Richard, Kate, Peter, and Michael, for helping me to combine
the role of wife- mother with the gainful occupation of university
lecturer.
MARGARET STAGEY
School of Social Studies
University College
Swansea
July 1967
C H A P T ER 1
The Scientific Method
THERE are many techniques of social investigation, but those that
will be dealt with in this book have an important feature in common :
they all use the scientific method and are undertaken in a spirit of
free inquiry. This attitude underlying research into social matters
is at least as important as the detail of the methods used. A particular
technique can be turned to any end : it is a tool which can be used or
misused, either deliberately or from ignorance.
The types of social investigation with which this book will be
concerned are those which honestly set out to increase our knowledge
of the facts of social life or to further our understanding of social
relations. It is concerned with studies which aim to *'prove a theory' '
only so long as the investigator sets out in the spirit of one who says
"I have an idea, let's see if it is true" and is entirely willing to have
his hypotheses disproved. Indeed, more than this: he must try as
hard as he can to disprove the theory, to see if it will stand up to
destructive tests. Only when he has done this is he in a position to
say: "I think this theory is right, and so far neither I nor anybody
else has been able to disprove it."
The scientific method implies that there is no limit to human
knowledge, that it is most unlikely that anyone ever has the final
answer, that there is always more to learn, that it is hard to imagine
the day when the frontiers of knowledge have been pushed right
back. Indeed, it assumes that that place is at infinity and cannot be
reached. Nevertheless, the frontiers can be pushed back, the exer-
cise is worth doing, knowledge can be increased, and sometimes a
really exciting breakthrough is made.
1
2 METHODS OF SOCIAL RESEARCH
Humility, then, is an important presupposition for satisfactory
social research ; humility in the face of the contributions of others
and of the immensity of the subject. It is necessary for the researcher
to relate his work to that of others and build on what they have
done. This is why there are rules and conventions about making
proper acknowledgements to other workers and adequate references
to their work (although one sometimes suspects the convention is
misused to display erudition). In this way all the pieces of new
knowledge may be fitted together and one description checked
against another, or one interpretation tested against another. It is
also why it is most important that data should be collected in ways
comparable with other data.* Since the researcher must be willing to
be proved wrong he should always try and set out the evidence for
his conclusions or for the statements that he is making fully and
fairly. This means that he should set the evidence out in such a way
that someone else could possibly draw a different conclusion from
them, or use the evidence in a different way, or, if the conclusion
is apparently inescapable, that the reader should be able to work his
own way through the evidence to it.
This is much easier said than done. Distortion can creep in at
many points. Even if there is no deliberate intention to mislead, or
to twist the evidence, it is easy to do so quite unconsciously.
Human bias may enter any scientific work and social research is
particularly susceptible to this source of error. Since we are all
human we are all involved in what we are studying when we try
to study any aspect of social relations. It is part of us. This is true
whether we are studying social situations familiar or unfamiliar to
us. We may be shocked by behaviour which is different from that
which we are used to and have learned to think is right, or we may
be so overwhelmed by the differences that our observations are not
sufficiently discriminating. When looking at situations we already
know, we may fail to see important social features because they are
part of a landscape whose familiarity makes us uncritical even if
it makes us contemptuous. Our own interests and our own biases
may not only enter in the course of doing the research, but will
*Of this more will be said later. See pp. 9-10, 139-40.
THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD 3
have already entered in our choice of research. We chose it either
because we have a special interest in it, or because we want to
avoid some other aspect which we cannot face for some reason,
or because this is research which persons with power and authority
wish done and are willing to pay for. We all have a set of expec-
tations about what is the proper way to behave in social relations,
and judgements about the value we accord to ideas and to individ-
uals. We cannot get rid of our preferences, our prejudices, or of
our value judgements. Nor do I believe that it is possible to draw a
hard and fast line between X the research worker and X the citizen
with the rights and duties that go with citizenship. Adopting a
neutral political or social role is no answer to this problem, for
neutrality is a position with attached attitudes. What we can and
should do is to understand ourselves and our social positions, to be
aware of what our own interests and biases are, and, in so far as
this is possible, why we have them. Having made our positions
and biases clear to ourselves there is a case for making them overt
to others, but if we have been honest with ourselves this is far less
difficult. As Polonius said to Laertes: "To thine own self be true, . . .
thou canst not then be false to any man" (Hamlet). Nevertheless,
there are certain conventions which can be followed which will
assist us in applying these principles to any actual piece of research.
For example, it is probably wise not to be involved in public
controversy about a matter which is a current subject of research.
The danger of such controversy is twofold. One, that it may lead
others to distrust the rigour of the tests which one is applying to
the matter in hand. Two, and even more important, it may lead to
emotional involvement of a kind that tends to reduce clear thinking
by the research worker. It is much harder tö be prepared to have a
theory disproved if one has committed oneself to it publicly. On
the other hand, there may be situations in which such public
involvement is felt to be inescapable because of the importance of
the values involved. Where, in practice, the line should be drawn
between involvement and non-involvement must, of course, be
decided for himself by each research worker. The important point
is that he should be aware that he has a position, even if it is one of