4/27/2023 0 Comments Alter hs moodle![]() ![]() In planning a study’s design, sociologists generally choose from four widely used methods of social investigation: survey, experiment, field research, and textual or secondary data analysis (or use of existing sources). Researchers choose methods that best suit their study topic and that fit with their overall goal for the research. All studies shape the research design, while research design simultaneously shapes the study. In situations like these, other methods are needed. Researchers cannot just stroll into prisons, kindergarten classrooms, or Ku Klux Klan meetings and unobtrusively observe behaviours. That option is not available to a researcher studying prison behaviours, early education, or the Ku Klux Klan. Making sociologists’ presence invisible is not always realistic for other reasons. Subjects must be aware that they are being observed, and a certain amount of artificiality may result (Sonnenfeld 1985). In many cases, sociologists have to make the purpose of the study known for ethical reasons. The Hawthorne effect is unavoidable in some research. Landsberger called the workers’ response the Hawthorne effect-people changing their behaviour because they know they are being watched as part of a study. From this, sociologists learned the importance of carefully planning their roles as part of their research design (Franke and Kaul 1978). Worker behaviours were altered not by the lighting but by the study itself. The sociologists’ presence influenced the study results. ![]() He realized that employees’ productivity increased because sociologists were paying attention to them. Landsberger analyzed the study results to answer this question. But when the study was over, productivity dropped again. In fact almost every change of independent variable-lighting, breaks, work hours-resulted in an improvement of productivity. They were even more surprised when productivity improved when the lighting of the workspace was dimmed. Sociologists were surprised when the productivity of a test group increased when the lighting of their workspace was improved. In the 1920s, leaders of a Chicago factory called Hawthorne Works commissioned a study to determine whether or not changing certain aspects of working conditions could increase or decrease worker productivity. A researcher would not stroll into a crime-ridden neighbourhood at midnight, calling out, “Any gang members around?” And if a researcher walked into a coffee shop and told the employees they would be observed as part of a study on work efficiency, the self-conscious, intimidated baristas might not behave naturally. Some participants need to be thoroughly informed others should not know they are being observed. There are times to conduct interviews and times to simply observe. There are times to remain anonymous and times to be overt. When entering a particular social environment, a researcher must be careful. Planning the research design is a key step in any sociological study. They use research methods to design a study-perhaps a positivist, quantitative method for conducting research and obtaining data, or perhaps an ethnographic study utilizing an interpretive framework. Sociologists examine the world, see a problem or interesting pattern, and set out to study it.
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