Guide to undergraduate dissertations in the social sciences

Research methodologies

Methodologies1

Introduction

The way you approach your question will have a profound effect upon the way you construct
your dissertation, so this section discusses the types of research you might undertake for your
dissertation. The use of literature and case studies is considered and the merits of primary
research are debated and advice is given on the use of existing research data.
You may not be fond of statistics, but the potential relevance of a quantitative approach
should be considered and similarly, the idea of qualitative analysis and conducting your own
research may yield valuable data. The possibilities of using quantitative and qualitative data
are also discussed.

Watch video on approaching methodologies (.wmv)

What approach should I take - qualitative or quantitative?

This video clip contains comments from the following academics:

Dr Iain Garner - Psychology

Alan McGauley - Social Policy

Shawna McCoy - Criminology

Kevin Bonnett - Sociology

What approach should I take - qualitative or quantitative?

Your approach, research design, and research question are all connected. 'Approach' means
something more than the type of data you use - it refers to your overall orientation to research
and the type of claims you will make for your study. Dissertations can be based on either
quantitative or qualitative data, or on a combination of both. How you choose this may
depend on your preferences and abilities, and the suitability of particular approaches to your
topic. You need to be able to justify why you have chosen to use such data.
Quantitative data is particularly useful when you wish to discover how common
particularforms of behaviour such as illegal drug use are for a particular age group.
Qualitative data is particularly useful when you wish to find out why people engage in such
behaviour.
Think about the Research Methods modules you have taken so far. Think about the different
kinds of studies you have read for other modules. There is plenty of scope to use the
approaches and methods that you are most comfortable with. You need to justify your
approach and methods and to cite appropriate literature to help you do this.

What if I want to find out about social trends, or the measurable effects of particular
policies?

You will probably want to use large datasets and undertake quantitative data analysis, and
you will be adopting a realist approach to the topic studied. Quantitative dissertations are
likely to be nearer to the lower end of the range of approved lengths for the dissertation (e.g.
if the length is to be 5,000-8,000 words, dissertations based on quantitative analysis are likely
to be closer to 5,000 words in length). They will also include tables and figures giving
yourimportant findings. Remember that all tables must be carefully titled and labelled and
that sources of your data must be acknowledged.

What if I want to record people's views on an issue, and give them a 'voice'?

You will probably want to use in-depth qualitative data, and you may wish to adopt a realist,
a phenomenologist, or a constructionist approach to the topic. Qualitative dissertations will
include descriptive material, usually extracts from interviews, conversations, documents or
field notes, and are therefore likely to be nearer to the upper limit of your word range (e.g.
8,000 words). The types of method suitable for a dissertation could include content analysis,
a small scale ethnographic study, small scale in-depth qualitative interviewing.

Whether you choose qualitative or quantitative analysis will depend on several things:

Your preferred philosophical approach (realist, phenomenologist or constructionist).

 Your skills and abilities with methods of data collection (if needed) and analysis.

The topic or issue you are interested in.

How you frame your research question.

Can I combine qualitative and quantitative methods?

There are many ways in which qualitative and quantitative data and analysis can be
combined. Here are two examples.

You may be interested in doing an analysis that is primarily quantitative, looking at social
trends, or policy implications. However you also want to introduce a 'human touch' by
conducting one or several interviews asking what these trends mean to people or how
particular individuals experience events. After doing your quantitative analysis, you should
include a chapter or section on the qualitative data you have collected. In your discussion of
findings you can use the qualitative data to help you understand the patterns in the
quantitative analysis.

You may be interested in doing an evaluative case study of a process or policy. You will have
a particular focus - a 'case' that you are looking at. You will triangulate methods - i.e. collect
data in several different ways, and some of these data may be quantitative. You will analyse
each type of data and describe this, and then write a discussion that shows how each piece of
analysis contributes to the overall picture of what is going on.

Your supervisor or research methods tutor may be able to give you detailed examples of these
or other ways to combine methods.
my dissertation be entirely literature-based?

Yes. If you decide to do a primarily theoretical dissertation, it is almost certain that your
dissertation will be entirely literature-based. This is likely to be the methodology of
theoretical
analysis: selection and discussion of theoretical material and descriptive material, in context,
and detailed comparison of theories in terms of their applicability. You might ask how useful
certain concepts or theories are for understanding particular patterns of behaviour. How
useful is the concept of institutional racism? Is objectivity in the media possible? How useful
is subcultural theory for understanding virtual communities? Here, the focus of attention is
not so much to discover something about the social world, for example virtual communities,
as to reach a judgement about the value of key concepts or theories in understanding that
world. How the study is approached and how contrasting approaches are drawn upon needs to
be stated very clearly.
A library-based or theoretical study is not necessarily 'easier' than an empirical study, indeed,
it may well be harder. Remember that theoretical studies, like data-based studies, need to
have their research design spelled out from the start.
But even if your dissertation is more empirically focused, it could still be entirely literature-
based. You might choose to conduct a review of a field of work. What does the research
literature in this field tell us about x? While all dissertations will include a literature review, it
is possible to produce a dissertation that is entirely based on a review of the literature. If you
do this, it is important to review the literature from an explicit angle and identify some
themes to make the review distinctive. You might, for example, explore empirical debates in
your chosen field across different countries or time periods.

What is case study research?

Whilst it is possible for dissertations to be entirely literature-based, the most common form of
dissertation takes the form of a case study. Here the focus of attention is on a particular
nterested in a wider question but a case study enables you to focus on a specific example. A
major challenge in case study dissertations is connecting your own primary research or re-
analysis with the broader theoretical themes and empirical concerns of the existing literature.
What is an empirical study?
Most dissertations demand either primary or secondary research. In other words, you usually
have to analyse data that you have either collected yourself or data that is already available.
The reason for this is that the questions dissertations usually address take the following form:
Is x happening? Is x changing? Why is x happening? Why is x changing?
These questions demand primary or secondary analysis of data.
Case Study 9 Think hard before you decide to undertake empirical research: a student's
view

What is secondary analysis?

Secondary analysis is when you analyse data which was collected by another researcher. It
allows the researcher to explore areas of interest without having to go through the process of
collecting data themselves in the field. The problem with using fieldwork methods in
anundergraduate dissertation, however, is that they are costly in terms of time (which is
relatively scarce in your final year!) and possibly your own financial resources too. You may
choose, therefore, to undertake secondary research, analysing existing data.

Where do I find existing research data?

There are a range of documents that already contain research data that you can analyse. You
may, for example, be interested in exploring whether gender stereotypes in the media are
changing. This might entail content analysis of newspapers, magazines, video or other media
over different time periods. Here you would not be collecting your own data but instead
would be analysing existing documents.

Download Case Study 6 Media Research

you are interested, for example, in doing historical research, you may need to visit archives.
Government reports and autobiographies may also be used as data.
Other documents include official statistics, datasets (statistical data), and banks of interview
transcripts which are all freely available to the academic community.
Increasingly,documents, databases and archives are readily accessible online. Research
Methods tutors on your course will be able to advise on the availability and accessibility of
such data sets.
There are some advantages of doing secondary analysis, particularly if you are doing a
quantitative study. You will be able to work with much larger datasets than you could have
collected yourself. This has the following advantages:
They allow you to discuss trends and social changes.
The data are often collected through a random sample, which allows you to generalise to
the population under consideration.
They may also allow you to make comparisons over time, as some datasets are products
of longitudinal studies. Examples of large datasets include the British Crime
 Survey, and the Youth Cohort Study. Smaller, more targeted datasets may also be
available.
Secondary analysis has disadvantages also: the data were collected for a purpose
different from yours.
You have to find out something about that purpose, as well as the methods of collection,
in order to justify your use of a secondary dataset.

Collecting you own data - primary research

Quantitative data may also result from non-participant observations or other
measurements(e.g. in an experimental design). Also, sometimes data that are collected
through qualitative processes (participant observation, interviews) are coded and quantified.
Your research methods tutor can give you further information on these types of data, but here
are some common quantitative data collection methods and their definitions:
1. Self-completion questionnaires
A series of questions that the respondent answers on their own. Self-completion
questionnaires are good for collecting data on relatively simple topics, and for
gaining a general overview of an issue. Questionnaires need to have clear questions,
an easy to follow design, and not be too long.
2. Structured interviews

Similar to a self-completion questionnaire, except that the questions that are asked by
an interviewer to the interviewee. The same questions are read out in the same way to
all respondents. There will typically be a fixed choice of answers for the respondents.
3. Structured observation

Watching people and recording systematically their behaviour. Prior to the

observation, an observation schedule will be produced which details what exactly the
researcher should look for and how those observations should be recorded.
If you are conducting a qualitative analysis you are likely to wish to use at least some
original material. This may be collected through in-depth interviews, participant observation
recordings and fieldnotes, non-participant observation, or some combination of these. Below
are some data collection methods that you might want to use for your dissertation:
1. In depth interviews
A way of asking questions which allows the interviewee to have more control of the
interview. The interview could be semi-structured, which uses an interview schedule
 to keep some control of the interview, but also allows for some flexibility in terms of
the interviewee's responses. The interview could be unstructured, here the aim is to
explore the interviewee's feelings about the issue being explored and the style of
questioning is very informal. Or the interview could be a life history where the
interviewer tries to find out about the whole life, or a portion of the person's life.
2. Focus Group
A form of interviewing where there are several participants; there is an emphasis in
the questioning on a tightly defined topic; the accent is on interaction within the group
and the joint construction of meaning. The moderator tries to provide a relatively free
rein to the discussion.
3. Participants Observation
This involves studying people in naturally occurring settings. The researcher
participates directly in the setting and collects data in a systematic manner. The
researcher will observe behaviour, listen to conversations, and ask questions.

Spend some time looking at general books about research - they will give you an overview of
the data collection methods available and help you to make the best choice for your project.
Bryman (2004) would be a useful starting point.
For any piece of research you conduct, be it empirically based (quantitative or qualitative) or
library based, its methods must be justified. You need to show in the final dissertation how
you have given consideration to different methods, and why you have chosen and eliminated
these.
STUDENT VOICE: Findings from our research

In our study, supervisors saw part of their role as someone who draws out students' reasons
for choosing a particular research approach. Often in early supervision
meetings they ask students to justify their reasons for choosing a library-based or an
empirical study. (Todd, Smith and Bannister 2006, p167).
STUDENT VOICE
It's been a valuable experience for me it's so different from other stuff. With other essays you
can rush them if you have to ... but this is so much work, you can't rush it. It demands more.
(Todd, Bannister and Clegg, 2004, p340)
!.My reasons for data collection is literature based as my research question involved sensitive
subjects which would have been unsuitable for primary data collection. (Level 6 students at
Sheffield Hallam University)
I chose primary data because it would enable me to build skills that would be useful for
postgraduate study. (Level 6 students at Sheffield Hallam University)
It will involve primary data, secondary data, quantitative and qualitative research methods, lit
reviews, theory and policy studies and an exploration of alternatives.
My dissertation is to be based around the experience of 'poverty', as poverty is the experience.
Theories and policies are not. However, to do justice to the subject, theories and policies will
be included so Iam able to demonstrate where failures in the system may exist. (Level 6
students at Sheffield Hallam University)

NOTE : Research must be conducted in a sensible and ethical manner; data must be analysed
and presented in a rational manner. It is important that students do not expose themselves or
others to dangers or risks when conducting research. Students need the approval of their
dissertation supervisor before embarking on any type of fieldwork (see the section on
Research Ethics for more information).

Will my research be inductive or deductive?

In general, deductive research is theory-testing and inductive research is theory-generating.
Often people link deductive research with quantitative experiments or surveys, and inductive
research with qualitative interviews or ethnographic work. These links are not hard and fast -
for instance, experimental research, designed to test a particular theory through developing a
hypothesis and creating an experimental design, may use quantitative or qualitative data or a
combination. If your research starts with a theory and is driven by hypotheses that you are
testing (e.g. that social class background and social deprivation or privilege are likely to
affect educational attainment), it is, broadly speaking, deductive.
However much research combines deductive and inductive elements.

What's all this about research design?

Research design is vital to conducting a good piece of work. At the start of your research you
need to set down clearly:
Your research focus and research question.
 How you propose to examine the topic:
approach
methods of data collection
methods of data analysis

The types and sources of information you need.

How you will access these sources of information (be they people, existing datasets,
biographical accounts, media articles or websites, official records).
The proposed outcome of this research (in your case, a dissertation) and the form it will
take.
A time-frame for all this.
You and your supervisor will discuss your design and decide whether the research is 'do-
able'. Your university may require you to produce a report (e.g. an 'interim framework report'
or a short 'research proposal') that specifies your research design. Other people may have to
look at the design to ascertain whether there are ethical issues that affect your research.

Summary

Quantitative or qualitative? A quantitative approach will mean you will need

substantial datasets, as well as the inclusion of tables and statistics in your final submission.
This information could come from a variety of sources - remember to acknowledge
them! A qualitative approach will probably mean conducting interviews or focus groups or
observing behaviour. Ask yourself if you are prepared to do this, and think about the best way
of getting the answers you want from people. Will you stop people in the Street? Will you
conduct telephone interviews? Will you send out survey forms and hope that people return
them? Will you be a participant or non participant observer?

Deductive or inductive? Deductive research is theory-testing, which is often linked to

datasets, surveys or quantitative analysis. Inductive research is theory-generating, and is
often linked to qualitative interviews.

Empirical or theoretical? An empirical study could involve close analysis of statistics

or some form of qualitative research. However, a theoretical study brings its own challenges,
and you may be called upon to compare theories in terms of their applicability.
 Once you have decided upon your approach, you can write out a research design, i.e.
how you are going to approach the project.

Now look a little at the research methods that you have studied. Apart from matching
your research to your general sense of objective/subjective reality, it is important to ensure
that you match your methodology to the problem you are pursuing.

What kind of data do you need to answer your question/test your hypothesis? How
would you best be able to collect that data?

Again, consider time and feasibility of the exercise. The ability to manage your time will
be directly related to your ability to control the boundaries of the study - especially if it is
closely linked to your workplace.

Now that you have got so far, try to write up your research proposal as far as you can.
Make sure that you identify where your proposal needs further work and, at the same time,
where you will have to put your maximum effort. It may be helpful to draw a critical path so
that you are clear which actions you need to take and in what sequence. You will find it
helpful to plot your research questions on the chart on the next page and ensure that your
plans for collecting data really answer the question as well as avoiding ethical problems.

At this stage you must be really ruthless with yourself. How viable is it? What are the
threats to the study? Try some 'what if?' questions on yourself. It will be better to go back to
the drawing board now, than once the project is underway.

IMPORTANT: Whatever approach you settle on, you MUST be able to justify its
appropriateness to your topic and question.

Key Questions

Does the data required to answer your question already exist or will you have to generate
your own data?
 Can you combine quantitative with qualitative methods? e.g. a survey which includes
interviews or a case study that looks at a situation from numerous angles.
What factors may limit the scope of your research? (time, resources, etc.)
Which method(s) best suit the questions and time you have available to do this study?
Do you know the differences between types of data, and types of analysis?
Does your project have clear links between theory and practice?

FURTHER READING
BRYMAN, A. (2004). Social Research Method. 2nd ed., Oxford, Oxford
University Press
CRESWELL, J. (2002). Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed
Methods Approaches. 2nd ed., London, Sage
SEALE, C.(2006). Researching society and culture. London, Sage
Here are some references for specific methods:
ARKSEY, H and KNIGHT, P. (1999). Interviewing for social scientists: an
introductory resource. London, Sage
DALE, A.; ARBER, S.; AND PROCTOR, M.(1998). Doing Secondary
Analysis. London, Allen and Unwin
HAMMERSLEY, M. and ATKINSON, P. (1995). Ethnography: Principles in
Practice. London, Routledge
OPPENHEIM, A. N. (1992). Questionnaire Design, Interviewing and Attitude
Measurement. London, Pinter

Web Resources

Identifying a research topic:

A template for structured observation:
[Link]
A site devoted to survey design:
[Link]
A chapter on structured interviewing:
[Link]
A chapter on qualitative interviewing:
[Link]
An introduction to ethnographic research:
[Link]
Materials for focus group interviews:
[Link]
Footnote
1. © Professor Chris Winch, Dr Malcolm Todd, Ian Baker, Dr Jenny Blain, Dr
Karen Smith