Sociological Research Methods

When answering sociological questions one must always do some kind of research. Whether it may be documentary research, surveys, experimentation, or even ethnographic research. Of course there is no one best way of researching to find an answer. Each way of research has their own strengths and weaknesses. The one way of research that will be discussed in this essay is documentary research. Documentary research is the use of outside sources, documents, to support the viewpoint or argument of an academic work. When performing this research method there are obvious advantages and disadvantages that come with it. One such advantage is that when reviewing documents a sociologist is able to get both quantitative and qualitative data from what he/she is researching. Another advantage is that most documents are open to the public and can be

For instance while findings though ethnography can be used for only select groups or communities and cannot be generalized. Document research can be generalized and used for multiple groups and communities if the rights documents are at hand. Surveys are a great and easy way to get quantitative findings if a standard questionnaire is used and it is good for getting precise comparisons from different people when an open-ended survey is used, but the surveys could and can be superficial based on the way they are set up. In an standardized survey important opinions can be glossed over and in open-ended people can just say what they profess to believe rather than what they actually believe. In research documentary however what is in the document are cold hard facts and do not gloss over anything. Finally Experiments are good for some ways of trying to find out comes for sociological problems, but some aspects of life cannot be brought into a laboratory. While in documentary research case it is taken straight from the