Q. “The research on research procedures and methods of data collection is needed to reveal sources of error, bias and Invalidity.” — In light of above statement discuss the problem of methodology in social—science research. (20 Marks)
Q. “The research on research procedures and methods of data collection is needed to reveal sources of error, bias and Invalidity.” — In light of above statement discuss the problem of methodology in social—science research. (20 Marks)
Please Review sir.
The study of society requires a certain type of method for investigation. A method which is valid and reliable is most suitable for sociological research.
Mainly two type of research methodologies are used in research:
a) Qualitative methods which include participation methods, Interviews etc and
b) quantitative methods which include survey and questionaries.
The above mentioned methods posses errors and invalidy.
1) Participation observation: In this method researcher lives with the people whom he is studying. The success of this method depends on acceptance of researcher by the group. Sometimes it lead to over familirization and value biasnees..
– It is a subjective method. Reliability check is difficult.
2) Non-participation observation: In this method, research keeps a distance from the study group. If may lead to people giving the wrong information.
3) Interviews: In structured interviews, the researcher decides the questions and their order, so it involves the value of researcher.
– In face to face interview, the responded may hide information due to inferiority, eg: if a American white is taking interview of American black, then the latter may not give correct information.
4) Survey: It is not suitable for the study of an illiterate society .
– The response rate is very low.
– Determination of who filled the survey is not known.
– Responded may take help from others.
There it can be said that research on research method is needed to find out their shortcomings and positives. The mixture of two or more methods can be used for better validity and reliability.