SSC ANIMAL
The first file is a requirement，Samples and resource in the file
PAPER / RESEARCH PROPOSAL
For this paper you will propose a research project to study some aspect of human – animal interactions taking a perspective from one of the following disciplines: sociology, economics, political science, psychology, criminal justice, social work, or communications (the study must involve humans – it cannot be strictly on animal behavior).
NOTE: You are only writing a proposal – you do not have to conduct the actual study!
Your paper will be 10-15 double spaced numbered pages, Times-Roman 12 point font, one inch margins, and stapled together (no clips, folders, or plastic covers
Your paper should include the following six sections with BOLDED section headings:
1 page: Overview
o A research question that should be clearly stated (as a question!) and bolded.
o A brief discussion on why you think this is an important question
o What is the social science discipline you’re focusing on and why you think that is the best framework to consider your question
1-2 pages: Methods
o A discussion of which research methodology you would use to collect your data o Why you think that would be the best way to collect data to answer your research question.
o How you would recruit subjects. For example, if you were conducting a study on zoos (a topic you CANNOT use) you may say you would:
interview all of the directors of AZA accredited zoos in the U.S.
have the first 50 people, who were at least 13 years old, that were entering the Columbus Zoo on a given date complete your survey.
prepare an email letter, with a link to an online survey, that would be sent to all members of the Toledo Zoo
invite teachers K-12 to participate in focus groups on how they use the Cleveland Zoo, or resources from the zoo, in teaching their students
4-7 pages: Literature Review
o Should include 7-10 sources with a minimum of 6 peer reviewed journal articles. Please note: one of the most consistent reasons for points being deducted is for doing an Annotated Bibliography instead of a Lit Review. There are guides to Lit Reviews, as well as a sample Lit Review (though you can skip the running head!), on Isidore.
1-2 pages: Challenges
o What are potential problems or challenges you may run into if you were to conduct this research
o You can include ethical issues, subject recruitment, etc.
1 page: Role of Theory
o This will be a generic discussion of the role that theory plays in research (it will have nothing to do with your topic)
o In addition to class discussions, the role of theory in research is covered in the pdf of PowerPoints, and some of the readings, for exam #1
o You should think of this part of your proposal as addressing the 4th learning objectives on page one of the syllabus.
1-2 pages: Future Research
o Pick two of the following four categories: Race, Gender, Social Class, and Location (where you live – for example, suburban, urban, rural) and in 1-2 paragraphs for each category address the following
Identify a research question that connects how the category may influence your topic in general (you should also bold the text of the research question).
For example, if the overall topic is exotic pets and the category is Location, you could ask: Are people who live in countries where tigers are native less likely to keep them as pets?
In a paragraph explain what you think the answer may be and why.
You should also include
A title page with: you name, your research question, the disciple you are using, and the format/style you are using (APA, ASA, or MLA – if you want to use another style, check with me first)
A bibliography page at the end of the paper
· Stapled to the end of your paper, the outline for the proposal. The outline should include the following:
Your research questions
The field of study you will be focusing on (sociology, psychology, economics, etc.)
Your methodology
Citations for at least 2 peer-reviewed journal articles for you Lit Review
· The grading rubric for the proposal should be inserted loosely into the paper (you can print it back to back or staple together the 2 pages)
·
Page numbers, beginning with 1, after the title page
The Sociology of Animal Crime: An Examination of Incidents and
Arrests in Chicago
Keri B. Burchfield
Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, Illinois, USA
ABSTRACT
This study seeks to sociologically examine the patterns of animal crime in
one large American city. Using Chicago Police Department animal crimes
data, this research analyzes the types of crimes perpetrated, characteristics
related to animal crime, and patterns of arrest.
indicate that a
majority of animal crime was classified as abuse/neglect. High animal crime
areas had higher rates of crime, more socioeconomic hardship, and more
African-American residents. Compared to abuse/neglect, animal fighting
was more likely to occur in community areas with more socioeconomic
hardship, and animal crimes were more likely to result in arrest when they
occurred in areas with more hardship.
ARTICLE HISTORY
Received 17 September
2014
Accepted 1 February 2015
In the past 10–15 years, perhaps with the revelations of animal torture publicized from Michael
Vick’s Bad Newz kennels or the popularity of shows like “Animal Cops,” public attention, and in
turn criminology, have slowly turned toward the problem of animal crime. It is problematic for
many reasons, including disagreement about what forms of animal treatment constitute a crime and
the lack of a universal definition of animal crime. Perhaps most importantly, the problem of animal
crime suffers from limited theory, data, and research examining broad patterns of animal cruelty and
crime.
Animal crime, including neglect, cruelty, fighting, and other forms of abuse, is often
conceptualized as a form of psychopathology, and so offenders are classified as “sick” people,
relegated to the province of psychological study (Flynn 2012). Thus, although the connection
between animal crime and human violence has been theorized for hundreds of years and many
contemporary empirical studies document this link, especially within families, broader patterns
of animal crime and their relationship to a variety of structural variables have been
under-examined (Bierne 2002). However, in recent years, sociologists interested in this topic
have issued a call for more research that treats animal crime as a significant social problem
worthy of study in its own right. A sociological approach to the study of animal crime will reveal
broader patterns of animal abuse, demonstrate connections between animal abuse and other
crimes and structural correlates, and ultimately allow for a fuller understanding of crime and
violence in our society.
Recognizing the need for research that goes beyond individual-level explanations of animal
crime, the current study seeks to examine the patterns of animal crime in one large American
city, Chicago. Using Chicago Police Department data of all animal crimes in a ten-year period,
this research analyzes the types of animal crimes perpetrated, crime- and community-related
characteristics of animal crime, and patterns of arrest. Further, it offers the first test of the
utility of a general criminological theory, social disorganization theory, for the study of animal
crime.
CONTACT Keri B. Burchfield kburchfield@niu.edu 908 Zulauf Hall, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, Illinois 60015, USA.
© 2016 Taylor & Francis
DEVIANT BEHAVIOR
2016, VOL. 37, NO. 4, 368–384
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01639625.2015.1026769
The study of crime can be difficult for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is the problem of
obtaining valid and reliable data. However, that difficulty is enhanced when the criminal behavior
in question has not been fully examined from an academic perspective. Such has been the case
with animal crime. Although animal cruelty has long been recognized as a social and legal
problem, with laws in place as far back as the 1800s criminalizing animal neglect, abuse, and
fighting, and now with all 50 states having felony laws against animal cruelty, this concern has not
been reflected in the academic literature. Almost thirty years ago, Bryant (1979:399) castigated
criminologists and their brethren in sociology for ignoring the “zoological connection,” and for
tending to “ignore, or to neglect (some critics might say deservedly so) the influence of animals, or
their import for, our social behavior, our relationships with other humans, and the directions
which our social enterprise often takes.” In one of the few texts advocating for a sociological
understanding of animal crime, Flynn (2012) lays out several reasons why violence against animals
has been ignored, including that: other issues, particularly violence toward humans, is seen as
more important; few cases of animal abuse are ever reported; animals, as victims, cannot speak for
themselves; and crimes against animals are seen as isolated, individualistic incidents (see also
Arluke and Luke 1997). The following sections review the prior research conducted within the
psychologically informed “Link” framework, the need for a sociological understanding of animal
crime, and prior theory and research that examines sociological correlates of animal crime,
including social disorganization and other features of the community context.
Accordingly, what we do know about animals and crime has generally come from the field of
psychology. This research frames our understanding of animal crime within the putative link
between violence against animals and human violence (Bierne 1999, 2002; Flynn 2001). Thus, animal
cruelty is seen as significant only because it may be associated with later forms of violence against
people. This idea is not new, with philosophers and artists at least as far back as the eighteenth
century recognizing the impact that animal cruelty might have on one’s treatment of fellow humans
(Gullone 2012). Whether the connection between animal cruelty and human violence is causal or
indicative of some other underlying pathology, the research around this connection is commonly
referred to as “the link” and is arguably the most well-publicized topic in the field of animal cruelty
and crime (Flynn 2012). There are many important findings to come out of the Link research, and
they will be summarized below.
First, in general, there is a well-documented association between animal abuse and other forms of
violence (DeMello 2012; Flynn 2012). The first studies to examine this connection compared the
childhood histories of violent criminals, including murderers and sex offenders, to non-criminals,
and revealed that violent criminals often report more animal cruelty in their childhood. This finding
has been documented in numerous studies utilizing surveys of incarcerated offenders (Kellert and
Felthous 1985; Tallichet and Hensley 2004), reviews of clinical histories of school shooters
(Verlinden, Hersen, and Thomas 2000), as well as interviews and case studies of serial killers
(Ressler, Burgess, and Douglas 1988; Wright and Hensley 2003) dating back to the 1980s.
However, conclusions drawn from this early research are not simple, as they implicate a variety
of relationships, including but not limited to those between child abuse, animal abuse, and
domestic violence, as well as those between the perpetration and witnessing of animal abuse and
later forms of violence (DeGue and DeLillo 2009). More recent research has explored the nuances
of the connection between animal abuse and human violence by examining it within the context of
family violence. These studies reveal the complex interplay of exposure to animal cruelty and
spousal violence, childhood physical and sexual abuse victimization, and perpetration of childhood
animal cruelty (Ascione et al. 2003; Baldry 2003; DeGue and DiLillo 2009; Thompson and Gullone
DEVIANT BEHAVIOR 369
2006). In a study of boys in a residential treatment facility, those who had exhibited cruelty to
animals were twice as likely to have been physically or sexually abused as a child (Duncan,
Thomas, and Miller 2005). These findings are similar to those obtained by Ascione and his
colleagues (2003) in a study of maternal caregivers that found an association between childhood
animal cruelty and sexual abuse victimization in samples of sexually abused children and children
who were psychiatric outpatients. In another study involving a sample of college students who
completed a computer-assisted questionnaire, those who had either witnessed or perpetrated
childhood animal cruelty were also victims of abuse themselves (DeGue and DeLillo 2009).
Utilizing a community sample of Italian youth who completed a self-report questionnaire,
Baldry (2005) found that those children who had abused animals had witnessed more domestic
violence and animal abuse than those who had not abused animals. These results highlight an
important finding from this body of research: it appears that witnessing animal abuse can be an
important predictor of the future commission of it (Flynn 2012). This finding is also consistent
with theory and research involving violence in human families, in a phenomenon referred to as the
intergenerational transmission of violence (Widom 1989).
Additional research examines the relationship between domestic violence and pet abuse, with
studies demonstrating that female victims of domestic violence were more likely to report that their
pets had been threatened or abused than non-victims (Ascione et al. 2007). Moreover, batterers who
abuse pets tend to be more violent and controlling than those who do not abuse pets (Simmons and
Lehmann 2007). Batterers may use the animal as a tool to facilitate control over their partner, and as
a scapegoat for their own aggression (Carlisle-Frank, Frank, and Nielsen 2004). For example, in a
large survey of women at an urban domestic violence shelter, findings reveal that batterers who
abuse pets are generally more violent and controlling (Simmons and Lehmann 2007).
Finally, animal abuse has been associated with other forms of interpersonal violence, such as
bullying, and other types of antisocial behavior, like juvenile delinquency, and, as noted earlier,
adult criminality. Children who are both victims and perpetrators of bullying are more likely to
abuse animals, with the effect being particularly strong for males (Baldry 2005; Henry and Sanders
2007). The relationship between animal abuse and juvenile delinquency also reveals a gendered
pattern. Specifically, young men who witness and commit animal cruelty are also more likely to
engage in delinquency (Henry 2004a, 2004b). In perhaps the only study to use official police data
to examine precursors of animal crime, Degenhardt (2005) examined Chicago Police Department
arrest data of all individuals charged with animal-related crimes between July 2001 and July 2004.
He found that animal cruelty was related to a variety of offenses, both violent and nonviolent, with
a majority of these offenders having multiple felony arrests, narcotics charges, battery-related
violent offenses and self-reported gang involvement; it is important to note, however, that this
study was atheoretical.
From the preceding review, it is clear that a relationship between animal cruelty and other forms
of crime and violence is well-established. Criminal offenders often report a history of animal abuse.
Child abuse, domestic violence, and animal abuse often co-occur within the same family. Children
who abuse animals may also be both victims and offenders of other types of abuse and anti-social
behavior.
However, “the link” is not without its detractors. First, many critics point to the problem of
causality. An association between animal abuse and human violence tells us nothing about the
causal nature of the relationship. That is, does animal abuse cause later violence, or are they both
due to some other underling pathology? The “graduation hypothesis,” indicating that individuals
“graduate” from animal cruelty to human violence, has empirical as well as popular support, with
humane education programs and therapeutic early intervention strategies designed to target
children who abuse animals (Faver 2010; Haden and Scarpa 2005; Merz-Perez and Heide, 2004;
Merz-Perez, Heide and Silverman 2001; Overton, Hensley, and Tallichet 2012). The graduation
hypothesis suggests that animal abuse may inhibit empathy in children, who are then able to
manifest more generalized aggression toward people (Ascione 1993). However, support has also
370 K. B. BURCHFIELD
been found for the “generalized deviance hypothesis” in which animal cruelty is just one of many
anti-social behaviors committed by some individuals and is just as likely to follow other nonviolent
crimes as predict them; in a study using criminal records and official reports of animal cruelty,
Arluke and colleagues (1999:9) found that animal abusers were more deviant than non-abusers,
however, “animal cruelty may precede, coincide with, or follow a broad range of anti-social
behaviors.”
Studies of the link suffer from a variety of additional methodological limitations. First, most of
them are merely descriptive and cross-sectional, lacking specific testable hypotheses or the ability to
examine the direction of the relationship between animal abuse and human violence. Further, most
use official samples, whether they be incarcerated individuals or police reports. Also, these studies
often exhibit wide variability in terms of what is defined as “animal abuse.” Finally, as mentioned
previously, most of these studies are conducted at the individual-level, with limited consideration of
the influence of social variables, such as family, peers, or community.
These conflicting findings have engendered additional criticisms of the link, namely that it
ignores the multiple pathways that connect animal cruelty and human violence, and that it is too
psychological in nature, neglecting the role of social causes and correlates of animal cruelty (Flynn
2012). While that may be true, it is also true that the failure to unequivocally specify a causal link
between animal cruelty and later human crime and violence at the individual level does not mean
that the link has no sociological relevance. The link has something to contribute to the sociological
study of animal crime because animal abuse and crime and violence do co-occur (Flynn 2012).
Criminologists’ neglect of this topic overlooks not only animal crime, but a host of other antisocial
behaviors, as well.
Thus, although institutional responses to animal cruelty have been in place since the late 1800s and
psychologists have made great strides in understanding animal cruelty by focusing on individual-level
relationships via the link, the social context of animal abuse remains greatly unexamined (Arluke and
Sanders 2009). A fuller sociological understanding of animal crime is warranted, because animal abuse
is certainly a social phenomenon. Animal abuse almost always occurs in the context of human
relationships, whether in families, within peer groups, or among neighbors. Also, as revealed in the
link scholarship, animal abuse invariably distorts human empathy, making it easier to ignore the
feelings of others we interact with, both animal and human (Ascione 1993). And our attitudes about
violence, including animal violence, shape societal responses to such behavior and say much about the
value we place on the lives of others (Flynn 2001). To that end, some scholars have argued for a
“cultural spillover” phenomenon whereby some forms of socially acceptable violence contribute to
unacceptable violence (Straus 1991). However, definitions of what is “socially acceptable” or not are
subjective and will vary across communities. Thus, cultural norms that tolerate some forms of animal
abuse may then influence other forms of more serious animal cruelty and human-related crime within
a society.
Also, as Flynn (2001) points out, the prevalence of animal cruelty may have important
connections to broader dynamics of social power, inequality and exploitation. Although a
discussion of the ontological meaning of “animals” is beyond the scope of this study, the
recognition that certain creatures are relegated to the category of mere “animal” is significant
when examining the ways that we neglect, abuse, and exploit those creatures. Thus, it is
important to consider the often-subordinate roles that non-human animals play in our lives
and how those roles have influenced our conflicted relationships with them. First, socially
acceptable animal exploitation occurs on a grand scale in many realms of society, from
entertainment, to eating, to science and technology. Second, under the law, animals are
considered property with no legal standing; this may contribute to the view that it is socially
acceptable for “owners” to treat their animals as they see fit (Bierne 1995; Flynn 2012). In
DEVIANT BEHAVIOR 371
addition, legal professionals rarely enforce animal cruelty laws due to society’s ambivalence
about such crimes, the difficulties in defining and proving animal cruelty, and a lack of funding
and enforcement for such crimes (Arluke and Luke 1997; Flynn 2001). Further, as indicated
previously, when animal cruelty is considered in the study of crime and violence, it is often only
as an indicator of more serious forms of violence again humans, not at as a topic worthy of
study in its own right (Bierne 1995). Thus, generally, animals have been defined at best as
creatures vastly subordinate to human beings or at worst as mere objects in popular, legal and
scholarly depictions of them. Our understanding of the causes and correlates of animal crime
must be situated within this social structural context.
A sociology of animal crime would examine the causes and correlates of animal crime in
communities and larger aggregates (Flynn 2001). This might include empirical analysis of structural
variables like gender, age, race, socioeconomic status, as well as socialization processes within
families and peer groups, and societal norms about animals and animal abuse. Further, borrowing
from the link framework, it would be sensible to investigate how rates of animal crime correlate with
violent and other crime, as well as other social problems like poverty.
Agnew (1998) has integrated many of these ideas into perhaps the only complete theory of animal
abuse, drawing on leading criminological theories to explain why individuals abuse animals. This
social–psychological theory examines individual-level traits and beliefs, social factors related to
socialization, strain and social control, and structural variables related to one’s social position,
including gender, age, race, socioeconomic status, and geographic location. Agnew argues that
animal abuse is more likely when individuals are unaware of the consequences of their actions,
when they believe it is justified and when they perceive the benefits of the abuse to outweigh the
costs. However, these direct effects are influenced by the ways in which animal abuse is learned and
reinforced through socialization from family, school, peer groups, and the media. Animals may also
be a source of strain, causing personal injury, destroying our property or otherwise interfering with
valued goals (Bryant 1990; Kellert and Felthous 1985). And on a broader level, strain that is not
caused by animals may nonetheless lead to animal abuse. It is possible that negative community
characteristics, such as high crime or poverty, might provide a source of community-based strain,
which in turn generates a general propensity for frustration-based animal crime as a way of coping
with the strain. Finally, demographic variables related to one’s social position, primarily gender, age,
race, socioeconomic status and geographic location, may exert indirect effects on animal abuse by
influencing the ways in which these individuals are socialized into animal-related attitudes and
behaviors (Agnew 1998).
Given the range of theoretical and empirical concepts that supports a sociological understanding
of animal crime, what do we know about animal crime sociologically? Surprisingly little.
Unfortunately, Agnew’s theory is difficult to test given the limitations of available data and the
breadth of variables and relationships it specifies; further, it is designed to explain animal abuse at
the individual level. However, other studies reveal that broad trends in animal crime mirror those of
all crime in general.
First, almost all animal abusers are male. This is true in clinical samples, retrospective studies
and recent studies of college students (Flynn 2000a; Kellert and Felthous 1985; Rigdon and Tapia
1977). Animal abusers are also typically young, with most individuals prosecuted for these
crimes being young adults (Flynn 2012). In one of the few studies using official animal crime
data from one large American city, Arluke and Luke’s (1997) research examining trends in
Boston between 1975 and 1990 found that over 96% of animal crime offenders were male and
most were under the age of 30. Interestingly, young offenders are more likely to abuse animals in
the presence of others, while adults report being alone when committing the abuse (Arluke and
Luke 1997). Research examining the socioeconomic status of those who abuse animals is limited,
but suggests that animal-cruelty might be more common in lower-class families (Flynn 2012;
Munro 1999).
372 K. B. BURCHFIELD
To further demonstrate the sociological significance of animal crime, it is important to
examine the community context of this type of crime. Guided by theory and research about
the link and the dynamics of the witnessing and perpetration of animal cruelty within families,
it is reasonable to consider the replication of these patterns in communities, as well as to
consider the influence of structural variables, like crime and poverty, on animal crime. Social
disorganization theory, one of the most empirically supported theories of criminology, explains
crime rates as a consequence of community structural disadvantage that limits social ties,
lowers informal social control, and weakens cultural consensus against crime (Bursik and
Grasmick 1999; Warner 2003). Thus, in communities plagued by economic hardship and racial
segregation, as well as high rates of other types of crime, residents may be fearful and
distrusting of each other and the police. Conventional values may be irrelevant or invisible,
and thus oppositional values that support the use of crime and violence begin to emerge. As a
result, these communities have a difficult time marshaling resources to control and prevent
crime and local crime rates rise. A community analysis of animal crime is needed to examine
whether the same dynamics of social disorganization that predict violence against people also
predict violence against animals.
A community analysis of animal crime would not only contribute to a fuller understanding of
animal crime, but it also might provide an opportunity to test the generality of community-level
explanations of crime, like social disorganization theory. Studies have examined the effect of
social disorganization on both violent crime and property crime rates (Markowitz et al. 2001;
Sampson, Raudenbush, and Earls 1997). However, research has failed to directly address the
question of whether social disorganization theory is broad enough to apply across all crime
types. Thus, the current study offers an opportunity to test the generality of this theory by
examining the effects of elements of social disorganization, specifically community hardship, on
animal crimes and arrests.
In terms of community correlates of animal crime, only one study has sought to investigate
the link between animal crime and neighborhood structural characteristics (Levinthal 2010).
Using data from the Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, the relation-
ship of animal crime to variables like neighborhood racial composition, poverty level, and crime
rates was analyzed. This research revealed that neighborhood poverty and crime rates predict
animal abuse, though with very limited explanatory power. Neighborhood crime rates and
percent Hispanic predict animal neglect, while dog fighting is weakly explained by poverty,
crime rates and percent Hispanic. Due to the reluctance of citizens to report animal crime, as
well as the other weaknesses inherent in official data, these findings are limited, but they provide
an important first step in a sociological understanding of the community correlates of animal
crime (Arkow 2013).
Based on the review of existing literature about the problem of animal crime, its correlates,
causes and consequences, the current study provides an exploratory examination of animal
crime in Chicago. This work is important in contributing to the study of animal crime in
several ways. First, it advances a more complete understanding of the social context of animal
crime; to date, no study has analyzed community correlates of animal crime reports and arrests
using official crime data. Further, by examining the effects of some indicators of social
disorganization on animal crime, it provides a test of the generality of social disorganization
theory on a new type of crime. Finally, it contributes to a fuller picture of the nature of crime
in one of the most criminologically significant cities in America, Chicago. Using official crime
and census data, general characteristics and geographic patterns of animal crime, as well as
crime- and community-related factors that influence reports and arrests for animal crime are
presented.
DEVIANT BEHAVIOR 373
Data
The data for this study come from Chicago Police Department (CPD) data available publicly
through the City of Chicago Data Portal (https://data.cityofchicago.org/). These data encompass
all criminal incidents, including reports and arrests, between 2003 and 2013 in which an animal
crime was the primary offense recorded. Animal crimes are defined as those incidents reported
under Illinois Uniform Crime Reporting codes 501A, Animal Abuse/Neglect and 1682, Animal
Fighting. Animal Abuse/Neglect includes incidents that involve the beating, cruel treatment,
tormenting, starvation, overwork, abandonment or other abuse of an animal that may cause it
to suffer serious injury, hunger or exposure; the infliction of extreme abuse intended to increase
or prolong the pain, suffering or agony of an animal; or any act that causes a companion animal
to suffer serious injury or death (Chicago Police Department 2014). Animal Fighting includes the
unlawful fighting of dogs, roosters or other animals (Chicago Police Department 2014).
Additional crime data were collected to obtain index, violent and property crime rates for
Chicago community areas. Data regarding structural characteristics of these community areas
come from the 2010 Census of Population and Housing.
Measures
Variables were constructed at the crime and community area level. Crime-related variables
include the type of crime (animal abuse/neglect or fighting), location of crime (residence, street,
public housing, or other); year crime occurred, and arrest (whether an arrest was made for the
animal crime report). Community area–related variables include high animal crime community,
calculated as those community areas with a mean number of animal crimes .5 standard
deviations above the mean, racial composition of the community (percent white, percent
black and percent Latino), as well as a Hardship Index, calculated from six structural variables
including the percent of occupied housing units with more than one person per room (i.e.,
crowded housing); the percent of households living below the federal poverty level; the percent
of persons in the labor force over the age of 16 years that are unemployed; the percent of
persons over the age of 25 years without a high school diploma; the percent of the population
under 18 or over 64 years of age (i.e., dependency); and per capita income. Scores on this
index range from 1 to 100, with a higher number representing a greater level of hardship (for
further computational details, see Montiel, Nathan, and Wright 2004). Crime rates were also
calculated for the community areas by summing all crimes between 2003–2013 within
community areas, dividing that by the 2010 population of that community area, and
multiplying by 1,000, resulting in an index, violent, and property crime rate of crimes per
1,000 residents. Index crimes include the violent crimes of homicide, criminal sexual assault,
robbery, battery, and assault, as well as the property crimes of burglary, theft, motor vehicle
theft, and arson.
Analyses
Because this study is primarily intended to examine the nature of animal crime in Chicago, a
variety of analyses were performed. These included descriptives of relevant variables, a map
constructed in ArcGIS using geocoded addresses of the animal crimes showcasing incidents and
arrests by community area, as well as t-tests comparing community areas with high numbers of
animal crimes to all community areas. Finally, two logistic regression analyses were conducted,
one examining predictors of reports of animal fighting, the second examining predictors of animal
crime arrests.
374 K. B. BURCHFIELD
https://data.cityofchicago.org/
Findings
Descriptive Results
Table 1 contains descriptive statistics for the animal crime incidents and the community areas in
which they occur. First, the animal crimes were majority abuse/neglect (90%) rather than animal
fighting. These incidents tended to happen at residences (55%) rather than on the street, in public
housing, or other locations, such as abandoned buildings, cars, vacant lots or parking lots.
Further, generally, the number of both abuse/neglect and fighting incidents has declined over
time, though the proportion for which an arrest was made has remained relatively stable at about
29% (see Figure 1). Interestingly, arrest rates for all crimes in Chicago were very similar at
about 28%.
The bottom part of Table 1 presents community-related variables, structural characteristics of
the community areas in which animal crime occur. Racial composition of these communities was
overwhelmingly African American, with the mean value for percent black at 60%. These
communities exhibited fewer numbers of Latinos and whites, with average percent Latino at
23% and percent white at 14%. Twenty-nine percent of residents in these communities lived
below the poverty line, with an average per-capita income of $19,213, and 18% are unemployed.
The average hardship index was 67 (on a scale from 1–100). In terms of other crimes, the index
crime rate was 716 per 1,000 residents, the violent crime rate was 192 per 1,000 residents, and
Table 1. Crime-Related Variables (N = 2,650)
Number Percent
Type of Crime
Animal Abuse/Neglect (501A) 2372 89.51
Animal Fighting (1682) 278 10.49
Location of Crime
Residence 1450 54.72
Street 483 18.23
Public Housing 31 1.17
Other 686 25.89
Year Crime Occurred
2003 455 17.17
2004 362 13.66
2005 394 14.87
2006 315 11.89
2007 195 7.36
2008 193 7.28
2009 141 5.32
2010 116 4.38
2011 164 6.19
2012 144 5.43
2013 171 6.45
Arrested
Yes 855 32.26
No 1,795 67.74
TOTAL 2,650 100.0
0
Community-related variables Mean Std. deviation
Racial Composition of Community
Percent White 13.78 20.68
Percent Black 59.97 38.72
Percent Latino 23.42 27.
60
Hardship Index 66.6 25.41
Index Crime Rate 716.17 273.01
Violent Crime Rate 191.64 99.18
Property Crime Rate 524.53 196.94
High Animal-Crime Community 0.57 0.
50
DEVIANT BEHAVIOR 375
the property crime rate was 525 per 1,000 residents. These figures were slightly higher than
average crime rates across all community areas. As mentioned above, high-animal crime
communities were defined as those with values of animal crime .5 standard deviations above
the mean. Fifty-seven percent of community areas were classified as “high animal crime”
between 2003–2013.
Figure 2 presents a map showing general patterns of animal crime incidents and arrests across
Chicago community areas. The darkly shaded areas indicate community areas with higher
numbers of animal crime incidents and each dot indicates an arrest for such a crime. These
crimes tended to cluster along the south and west sides; this is also true of most crime, especially
violence, in Chicago (Davey 2013).
To further examine the types of neighborhoods in which these crimes occur, “high animal
crime” community areas were compared to all community areas. Consistent with the statistics
presented in Table 1 and patterns revealed in the map, T-tests demonstrate that these high animal
crime areas had significantly higher index, violent and property crime rates (see Figure 3).
Further, these areas exhibited significantly higher hardship indices, and a larger proportion of
African-American residents (see Figure 4). So, community areas with high rates of animal crime
were also more criminal in general, and characterized by socioeconomic hardship and racial
segregation.
Regression results
The first logistic regression model examined the relationship between community crime rates,
structural characteristics, and reports of animal fighting.1 The results are presented in Table 2.
In Model 1, the community violent crime rate (odds ratio = 1.01) predicts animal fighting,
although the effect size is very small. The odds ratio of 1.00 for property crime indicates no
effect. Street location (odds ratio = 1.73) and year of incident (odds ratio = 0.82) also predict
0
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2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
No Arrest Arrest
Figure 1. Type of animal crime by arrest by year.
1Because there are only two types of animal crimes in this dataset, and animal fighting is a dummy variable, values coded as “0”
represent the reference category of animal abuse/neglect; thus, all of the following regression results are the same, but with
inverse signs, for abuse/neglect).
376 K. B. BURCHFIELD
animal fighting. Thus, animal fighting incidents were more likely to be reported in areas with
higher violent crime rates, when they occurred on the street, and when they happened earlier
in time, compared to abuse/neglect incidents.
In Model 2, the structural variable representing community hardship was added. The hardship
index significantly predicts animal fighting (odds ratio = 1.01). The effects of street location and year
of incident are unchanged. However, the effects of property and violent crime rates were rendered
non-significant, indicating evidence of mediation; specifically, along with street location and year of
incident, community hardship is a key factor contributing to animal fighting in neighborhoods
characterized by high violent crime rates.
The final analysis was a logistic regression model predicting the likelihood of arrest for a
reported animal crime; thus, this model examines the characteristics of animal crime reports that
might be significant predictors of arrests. Due to the relatively small number of variables, the
analysis was comprised of two models; the first model included all theoretically relevant
independent variables (except for Percent White and Percent Latino, which were left out of
the model due to multicollinearity with other explanatory variables. Bivariate correlations are
provided in the Appendix), while the second model re-estimated the equation after removing all
non-significant variables.
Figure 2. Chicago community areas by animal crime incidents and arrests.
DEVIANT BEHAVIOR 377
The results from this logistic regression analysis are presented in Table 3. Findings revealed
significant positive effects of residence (odds ratio = 1.33), year of incident (odds ratio = 1.03)
and hardship index (odds ratio = 1.01). So, animal crimes were significantly more likely to
result in arrest when they occurred at a residence and when they were more recent incidents.
Further, arrest for animal crimes was more likely in community areas with higher hardship
indices.
0
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Index Crime Rate Violent Crime Rate Property Crime Rate
Mean for High-Animal Crime Community Areas (n=14)
Mean for All Community Areas (n=77)
NOTE: All one-sample T-tests signficant at p < .05.
Figure 3. T-tests of community-area crime rates.
0
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Hardship Index Percent White Percent Black Percent Latino
2003-2013 Mean for High-Animal Crime Community Areas (n=14)
2003-2013 Mean for All Community Areas (n=77)
NOTE: All one-sample T-tests signficant at p = .01 except for Percent Latino.
Figure 4. T-tests of community-area structural variables.
378 K. B. BURCHFIELD
This study examined descriptive, geographic, and arrest patterns of animal crime in Chicago.
Findings indicate that a majority of animal crime reports in Chicago was classified as abuse and
neglect, rather than fighting, and was most likely to occur in residences. Also, though the number of
reported animal crimes has gone down over time, arrests have been relatively stable. Animal crime
appeared to cluster in community areas that have a long history of socioeconomic disadvantage and
human crime. Accordingly, high animal crime areas had higher rates of index, violent and property
crime, more socioeconomic hardship and more African-American residents.
Although the community-area t-tests revealed some interesting patterns about high animal crime
areas, additional analyses through logistic regression revealed that street location, year of incident,
and community hardship were significantly associated with reports of animal fighting. In terms of
testing the generality of social disorganization theory on new types of crime, the positive effect of
community hardship on animal fighting offers some support for this test, although the effect is very
small.
The second set of logistic regression models found that residential location, year of crime, and
socioeconomic hardship were significant in predicting arrests for reported animal crime. There are
several reasons why we would expect more animal crime arrests to occur at residences. First, many of
these crimes involve neglect, or a failure to provide appropriate food, water, and shelter for an
animal. By their very nature, these crimes would occur at residential locations, and police would
likely seek evidence of such crimes at those homes. Also, violent animal crimes, like other forms of
violence, may be hidden, occurring in the privacy of one’s own home. Arrests may be more likely for
recent incidents because of the concerted efforts of the Chicago Police Department’s Animal Crimes
Team, in collaboration with the local organization Safe Humane Chicago, which increased efforts to
train police in how to respond to animal-related crimes (C. Bathurst, personal communication, July
Table 2. Logistic Regression Predicting Animal Fighting Offense
Model 1 Model 2
Odds ratio Standard error Odds ratio Standard error
Intercept 0.00 54.22 0.00 54.11
Violent Crime Rate 1.01 *** 0.00 1.00 0.00
Property Crime Rate 1.00 ** 0.00 1.00 0.00
Residence 0.80 0.16 0.81 0.16
Street 1.73 ** 0.18 1.75 ** 0.18
Public Housing 1.66 0.58 1.75 0.58
Year of Incident 0.82 *** 0.03 0.82 *** 0.03
Hardship Index 1.02 *** 0.01
**p < .01 ***p < .001
Table 3. Logistic Regression Predicting Arrest for Animal Crime
Full model Reduced model
Odds ratio Standard error Odds ratio Standard error
Intercept 0.00 27.33 0.00 26.71
Animal Fighting 1.26 0.14
Residence 1.39 ** 0.10 1.33 ** 0.09
Street 1.05 0.13
Public Housing 1.81 0.4
Year of Incident 1.03 * 0.01 1.03 * 0.01
High Animal Crime Area 1.03 0.12
Index Crime Rate 1.00 0
Hardship Index 1.01 ** 0 1.01 *** 0
Percent Black 1.00 0
*p < .05, **p < .01, ***p < .001
DEVIANT BEHAVIOR 379
27, 2013). In terms of the predictive effect of socioeconomic hardship, police officers are more likely
to target and make arrests in disadvantaged neighborhoods, because of the presence of other forms
of crime there (Kirk 2008).
Without data to further examine the causal relationships between the variables available here and
animal crime, it is only possible to speculate about the reasons for the community patterns observed,
though there are several findings from animal crime research, and criminology more broadly, that
can inform these speculations. As stated previously, given the vast body of theory and research
indicating social disorganization as a cause of community crime rates, it seems that this relationship
might also hold true for animal crime (Bursik and Grasmick 1999). It may be that areas character-
ized by social disorganization, as indicated by economic hardship and racial segregation, face
particular difficulties in achieving consensus about norms and values related to animal abuse. This
would not be surprising, given that these difficulties are apparent in the broader social context, as
well. Further, because several studies have documented how oppositional norms and values, such as
those favoring aggression and violence, emerge in areas of disorganization (Anderson 2000; Stewart
and Simons 2006; Warner 2003), it is reasonable to assume that those cultural notions also apply to
animals. Perhaps these communities, with limited social and economic resources, are also
particularly vulnerable to the kind of cultural spillover phenomenon described earlier whereby
socially acceptable animal cruelty, like factory farming, contributes to other forms of socially
unacceptable animal cruelty, like abuse and neglect. Thus residents of disadvantaged communities
contend with a range of cultural values, both from within the community and from wider society,
that supports beliefs and behaviors consistent with cruelty to animals. Finally, if the generalized
deviance hypothesis is true, then people who engage in animal crime are also engaging a wide variety
of other crimes, thus explaining the high rates of index, violent and property crime in high animal
crime communities.
Before considering some of the implications from these findings, the limitations of the data must
be discussed. First, they are official data. Thus, they are subject to the qualification that they only
represent crimes for which a report was filed or arrest made. It is likely that animal crime is even
more under-reported than other crime, so these findings must be interpreted with the understanding
that the data may represent only a small fraction of all animal crimes. Further, the publicly available
crime data only provide primary offenses. This is a significant limitation for two reasons. First,
because of the hierarchy rule in reporting criminal incidents involving multiple offenses, more
serious offenses are charged first. Thus, these data do not include more serious criminal incidents
that might also involve animals, because the animal charges would be reported as secondary, tertiary,
or lower charges. Second, and related to this point, because only primary offense was provided, it
was not possible to examine co-occurring crimes. Future research should consider the use of primary
data collection, specifically surveys to assess the scope of participation in, witnessing of, and attitudes
about animal crime, as well as correlates including other criminal and violent activity, and family
and community characteristics. Ideally, future survey research should be informed by the current
study, as well as Agnew’s theory of animal abuse, which has yet to be fully tested. Also, these surveys
should include enough respondents to form valid and reliable community-level measures of animal
crime and its correlates to advance our understanding of the sociology of animal crime.
There are several implications to come out of this research related to the impact of animal crime
in communities. First, given that other forms of crime and violence also plague high animal crime
areas, law enforcement officials would be wise to train police to investigate and enforce animal
crimes in those communities (Lockwood 2008). Applying what is known about the link, perhaps
targeting animal crimes could prevent or lead to the detection of more serious crimes. Although
there is little empirical research to support this assertion, in one innovative study of dog-fighting in
Chicago neighborhoods, interviews revealed that individuals who participated in dog-fighting were
likely to report early exposure to animal abuse and dog-fighting within their local neighborhood
(University of Chicago Survey Lab 2008). Vigorous enforcement of these crimes might prevent an
escalation to dog-fighting and the other more serious crimes it is associated with, like drug and
380 K. B. BURCHFIELD
weapon offenses, as well as gang activity (Gibson 2005). To achieve these ends, citizens must also be
encouraged to report animal crimes, although this may be difficult, given the range of conflicting
attitudes about animals in society. Here again, the link, with its emphasis on the connection between
animal crime and human violence, might be vital to enhance public interest in the topic of animal
cruelty.
While it is important to emphasize the negative consequences of animal cruelty, particularly as a
risk factor for other crime and violence, it is also worth presenting the other side of this argument,
that is, the protective effects of animals in a community. Several scholars have noted that companion
animals may serve as “social lubricants” in communities, facilitating social interaction and providing
a sense of social integration (Garrity and Stallones 1998; Messent 1983; McNicholas et al. 2005;
Serpell 2010). Recent research has taken this idea one step further to suggest that companion animals
are an important source of social capital, promoting neighborly interaction and trust, enhancing
civic engagement, and reducing fear of crime (Wood, Giles-Corti, and Bulsara 2005). Perhaps then,
efforts to combat animal cruelty in disadvantaged communities are useful not just from a law and
order perspective. Initiatives that strengthen the human-animal bond in these communities, thus
investing in the social capital inherent in that bond, might also act as an important protective factor
to reduce violence from within.
Clifton Flynn (2008) referred to three “a-words” when describing the difficulties in achieving a
serious study of human-animal interaction: anthropocentrism, anthropomorphism, and anecdotes.
He argues that scientists have been trained to assume the supremacy of humans, and to disregard
theory and research that suggests human qualities may be present in non-human animals, particu-
larly if the data are seen as isolated, subjective stories. In terms of the study of animal crime, it seems
prudent to add “arbitrary” and “apathy” in referring to the ways in which we define animals worthy
of our concern from a criminological standpoint and the lack of attention we as citizens and
scientists show them. Hopefully, this research sheds light on some of the significant sociological
dynamics of animal crime and asserts it as a subject worthy of our concern.
KERI B. BURCHFIELD is an Associate Professor of sociology and criminology at Northern Illinois University. Her
research investigates the effects of neighborhood structure and community organization on crime prevention and
control. Her recent research involves projects examining the link between animal violence and human crime in urban
communities, as well as the sociological experiences of released sex offenders.
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DEVIANT BEHAVIOR 383
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384 K. B. BURCHFIELD
Copyright of Deviant Behavior is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied
or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder’s express
written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.
- Abstract
Background
The psychology of animal crime: The “link” between animal abuse and human violence
The sociology of animal crime
Social disorganization and the community context of animal crime
Method
Data
Measures
Analyses
Findings
Descriptive Results
Regression results
Discussion
Conclusion
Notes on contributor
References
2/4/2015
A literature review compiles and evaluates the research available on a certain topic or issue that you are
researching and writing about. Because lit review formats vary greatly, be sure to read your professor’s
instructions first and defer to them. A typical writing process for a literature review follows these steps:
Use your research question as a guide for research. Once you have completed the bulk of your research,
compile the topic and the research results into one coherent thesis statement.
*
Refer to the Writing Center’s Argument, Research Tips & Resources, and Thesis Statements handouts for more information on these topics.
Define Topic
• What are you looking to explore?
• Example: The impact of service-
learning curricula on undergraduate
university students.
Research Question*
• Write a specific question to guide
your research.
• Example: How has service-learning
curricula impacted undergrads in
American Christian Universities since
2000?
Research*
• Find relevant sources.
• Read and take note of the main
points, conclusions, strengths, and
weaknesses of the
research.
Analyze and Evaluate
• Assess how each source relates to
other research within the field.
• Group sources by theme, topic, or
methodology.
• Critically evaluate research.
Thesis Statement*
• Your thesis statement should contain
the overarching focus for your
literature review as well as the main
supporting points you found in the
literature.
• See back for example.
Write Literature Review
• Use an introduction, body
paragraph(s), and a conclusion.
• Include summary, analysis, synthesis,
and evaluation (if appropriate).
• Lit review may be as short as a few
paragraphs or as long as a chapter.
Literature Review
● APU Writing Center ● (626)815-6000 ext.3141 ● apu.edu/writingcenter ● apu.mywconline.com ●
2/4/2015
Literature Review Strategies
The following are brief descriptions of techniques that you might use in your literature review. Choose the
approaches that are the most pertinent to your rhetorical situation. Defer to your professor’s instructions.
Summary
Briefly state the
argument and main
points of relevant
research.
Synthesis
Combine ideas in order to form
an integrated theory or system
through critical evaluation,
compare/contrast, etc.
Analysis
Closely examine the
elements or structure of the
research and interpret
through the lens of the field.
Evaluation
Assess the research based on
criteria you choose, state, and
explain. Support your
evaluation with research.
Sample Literature Review (Short Version)
Thesis Statement: Service-learning programs implemented in American undergraduate universities
since 2000 have not only proven beneficial for the individuals or organizations being served but also for
the participating students by offering opportunities for academic, emotional, and social growth.
Prior studies have identified many benefits for educational institutions from
service-learning programs. These benefits include positive perceptions of the university by
the community (Miron & Moely, 2006), enhanced student retention rates (Eyler et al.,
2001), positive teaching and learning outcomes such as greater student involvement and
participation in class (Caruso et al., 2007), and increased opportunities for meaningful
research and scholarly activities (Strand et al., 2003).
In this study and related research, the individuals serving are university students
who are collaborating with the community partner. The studied benefits to individuals
serving include cultural awareness sharing (Crabtree, 2008), as well as networking
opportunities and application of classroom learning to real-world issues (Bowen et al.,
2009). Ultimately, service-learning stimulates student learning and engages students in
their surrounding communities. Service learning creates new goals for students such as
personal development, career development, moral development, academic achievement,
and “reflective civic participation” (Lamb et al., 1998). These types of projects allow
students to utilize material learned in the classroom to improve societal conditions.
Integrating concepts and theories learned in the classroom with everyday life
makes students more capable of highlighting the importance of each course. Additionally,
material learned in business courses can be applied to benefit the community through a
variety of tangible services, such as business planning or marketing new programs.
Service learning is an excellent way for students to apply their course lessons to real-world
situations and concurrently benefit the community.
Summary of
key research
Analysis and
Synthesis
Evaluation and
application to
thesis/topic
SSC200 – Research Proposal Rubric
Your Name ____________________________
Below are the criteria that your paper will be based on. Not all of these
categories are given equal weight, but will be taken together to determine your
point total. A score of 73-80 will be only given for exceptional work – A good
paper will get you a 72 (A-) at best.
Directions Followed
1 page: Overview
– Topic must include human-animal interactions (can’t be strictly
on animal behavior)
– Appropriate social science discipline
– Quality of research question and it is clearly stated
1-2 pages: Methods / Data
– Appropriate methods selected for topic
– Why you choose that methodology
– How would subjects be recruited or sources of data identified
5-7 pages: Literature Review
– The quality of the essay / readability
– Material is integrated rather than summarizing each source
– Minimum number of academic sources from appropriate journals
1-2 pages: Challenges
1-2 pages: Role of Theory
1-2 pages: Future Research
1-2 pages: Bibliography
POINT TOTAL (OUT OF 80)
(see next page for deductions)
The following four problems will result
in significant point deductions (15-30 pts) for EACH one checked
____ Topic doesn’t connect enough to the Social Sciences
____ Not enough peer reviewed sources. You should not just list a database –
If I don’t see an academic journal listed in the bibliography citation, the
source will not be counted as an academic source
____ Your Lit Review is more of an annotated bibliography
____ No completing all six sections of the paper: Overview, Methods, Lit
Review, Challenges, Theory, Future
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
OTHER DEDUCTIONS
____ Topic doesn’t really connect to the discipline you’ve identified
____ You have not clearly stated your Research Question
____ You do not have enough sources for your Lit Review
Paper is too short
____ The methods you have chosen will not provide the data needed to
answer your research question
How to Read Empirical Articles
Reading empirical articles for the first time can be daunting. Technical jargon,
statistical analyses, and discussions of theories and findings you know little about
(at least initially) all contribute to feelings of paralysis when you begin reading an
article. However, it need not be this way! The following tips can help to get you
through an empirical article.
Before reading an article ask yourself “Why am I reading this and what do I want
to get out of it?” By first identifying why you are reading the article you can better
target how you read the article.
Remember that you are not reading a novel where you have to start at the first
word, end at the last and read every word in between. Based on your needs, focus
on the relevant sections.
• Are you looking for research ideas?
o Read the introduction to see what’s been done, the discussion to see what
questions remain and read the design/methods critically to look for flaws
in the logic or design or for alternative hypotheses. Recent topic
overviews (e.g., Current Opinion in Neurobiology) can be a great place to
start.
• Are you reading the article for crucial information you need to plan your own
experiment?
o Pay particular attention to the methods section. Take notes.
• Are you reading the article to advance your general knowledge.
o Think about how it fits into your existing understanding and whether there
is anything that changes “your view of the world.”
• If you are reading it for a course, what do you think the instructor wants
you to get out of it (e.g., general knowledge of the field, a critical
evaluation of an idea)? How much other reading has been assigned and
how much time can you devote to each paper? Don’t spend 3 hours
reading the first 2 papers and 10 minutes reading the last 8. Don’t assume
that short papers are easier to read than long ones
1. Understand the purpose of each section in an empirical article. This will
help you know what to expect in each section, and where to find specific
information you’re seeking. The major sections are as follows: abstract,
introduction, methods, results, and discussion. The APA manual describes theses
sections (pp. 10 – 29). Here are the basics:
Section Function Use this to:
Abstract Brief summary of study.
Includes hypotheses,
methods, results &
implications
Get a general sense of the
article. Is it what you’re
looking for?
Introduction Introduces phenomenon of
interest, provides background
research leading to
hypotheses
Identify the hypotheses,
source for related-research
upon which the
investigation builds upon
Methods Describes the mechanics of
the study, including
participants, measures used,
and procedure
Understand the design of
the experiment – how was
the hypothesis tested?
Results Describes what was found in
the study and whether the
hypotheses were
disconfirmed or confirmed.
Uses both numbers (statistics)
and should include
explanations in prose.
Know what they found.
Discussion Describes the implications
and weaknesses of the study.
Understand how the study
extends/changes our
understanding of
phenomenon X
2. Get the core ideas first. Read the abstract, and the first and last few
paragraphs of the introduction and discussion section. This will give you a good
idea of what to expect from the piece as a whole (phenomenon of interest;
hypotheses; main results; implications). Be especially attentive to the hypotheses
of the article. What are the authors trying to test? Identify the independent
variable (the “cause”) and the dependent variable (the “effect” of interest).
3. Read for detail. Once you feel you have a general sense of the article’s
direction, read the introduction and discussion more deeply. What led them to
their hypothesis? What did they find? How does this contribute to our
understanding of phenomenon X? Note any statements by the authors (or your
own thoughts) about how this article changes or augments the original theory.
3. Put yourself in the participants’ shoes. While reading the methods section,
try to imagine, as vividly as possible, being a participant in the experiment. This
will help to make more concrete the actual experiment. Understand how the
conceptual independent and dependent variables were actually manipulated and
measured in the study (i.e., operationalized).
4. Don’t get bogged down in the statistics, but do understand what was
found. If you feel comfortable with statistics, by all means puzzle through all the
analyses in the results section. For the less experienced/confident, know that most
good articles will 1) first present the numbers, then 2) talk about what the results
mean in regular prose. Focus on extracting the meaning of the results. Also, look
at any tables and graphs, and how they are described in the text.
5. At least one more read through. A little while after initially reading the
article, go back and skim through everything again. See if it all “fits together”
now that you’ve had time to reflect on the piece. Note anything new you
noticed or realized about the article.
Adapted from:
Culham, J. (2006). How to Read a Journal Article. Retrieved November 28, 2006 from
http://defiant.ssc.uwo.ca/Jody_web/Culham_Lab_Docs/Advice/how_to_read_a_jou
rnal_article.htm.
Jordan, C. H. & Zanna, M. P. (1999). How to read a journal article in social psychology. In
R. F. Baumeister (Ed.), The self in social psychology (pp. 461-469). Philadelphia,
PA: Psychology Press.
Oyamot, C. Reading Empirical Articles: Some Tips. Retrieved November 28, 2006 from
http://www.psych.sjsu.edu/~neldred/Dr.%20Oyamot’s%20How%20To%2
0Rea %20An%20Empirical%20Article.htm.
Writing a Literature Review in the Social Sciences
Dr. Christopher N. Lawrence
Visiting Assistant Professor of Political Science, Virginia Tech*
October
1
1, 2011
Writing a literature review is one of the more mysterious parts of writing in the social sciences. This brief
guide is designed to help explain the process of writing a literature review—and explain what a literature
review is, and what it isn’t.
What is a Literature Review?
A literature review is designed to demonstrate your familiarity with past research on the topic you are
studying and closely-related topics. It also helps show how your research improves our understanding of
the topic you are studying, and thus can indicate the importance of your topic—by showing that other
scholars have had an interest in researching the question you are studying, that helps show others that your
topic is worthwhile.
A literature review should not be confused with an annotated bibliography. Annotated bibliographies are
typically organized by presenting a single paragraph per “chunk” of knowledge1 that is being reviewed in
the bibliography, and each paragraph is treated as a single distinct unit from the next. A literature review, on
the other hand, is written in a more continuous style, with proper transitions between ideas and paragraphs.
How Should I Organize It?
A literature review is typically either organized thematically or chronologically. If you are reviewing the
literature on a single topic, you will find that current knowledge is a culmination of past knowledge, and
thus a chronological approach will tend to make the most sense.
On the other hand, if you are dealing with multiple topics or streams of research, a thematic discussion is
probably best. Within each theme, however, you will often find that using a chronological approach makes
the most sense.
It may at times make sense to revisit previously-discussed “chunks” when talking about new ones; e.g., one
might write the following to introduce a discussion of another work, several paragraphs after first
discussing The American Voter:
*I appreciate the helpful suggestions received on previous drafts of this document by Chris Chiego (U.C.S.D.). All errors and
omissions, alas, remain my own.
1Each “chunk” is typically an article, a book chapter, a whole book, or a research paper—in other words, a single work by an
author or set of authors that presents an argument.
1
mailto:cnlawren@vt.edu
In contrast to Campbell et al.’s (1960) finding of widespread political apathy among
citizens, Verba, Nie and Petrocik (1979) argue that voters have become increasingly interested
in politics since the 1950s.
As discussed above, the literature review should flow with transitions between the discussion of each
“chunk” of knowledge that is being reviewed, and there should also be transitions between each distinct
topic.
What Should I Include?
A common issue students have is that they cannot find very many “chunks” that do exactly what they are
doing in their papers. Overcoming this problem requires a bit of creativity: you should also locate
“chunks” that employ similar techniques to analyze related questions.
For example, if you are researching why women are more likely than men to vote for Democrats, you could
include articles and books in your literature review that look at other differences in voting, attitudes, and
opinions between men and women; you could also include books and articles that look at other reasons
why some people prefer the Democrats to the Republicans (and vice versa). Similarly, you are unlikely to
find much existing research on why students drop out of school in Laredo, but if you broaden your search
you’ll find ample research on factors that lead to dropping out of school in other settings.
Finding Good Sources
Many social science journals publish issues focused on a particular theme on a semi-regular basis; these
issues of the journal will have multiple articles on related topics, often with contributions from the leading
experts on those topics.
In addition, many books in the social sciences are known as “edited volumes” (you can usually identify
these because they will be listed in the library database, or in the book, as having “editors” rather than
authors). These are similar to theme issues of journals, but typically are larger and have more chapters.
Textbooks called “readers” can often be used as well, although you will usually find that the chapters in the
reader have been abridged (edited) to cut content; you may want to find the original source (usually listed
at the beginning) instead.
Google has a separate index of scholarly sources, called Google Scholar, at http://scholar.google.com/,
including full-text indexing of most recent social science journals of note, as well as direct links to the
articles in JSTOR and other databases that TAMIU subscribes to.
In political science, you may also find the Annual Review of Political Science to be a great help in locating
good sources; the same publisher also produces annual reviews in anthropology, economics, law and social
science, and sociology, that may be helpful for papers touching on those subjects.
Note: When citing chapters from an edited volume or articles from theme issue of a journal, make sure you
cite the authors of the chapters/articles, not the editors of the book or journal, and make sure each article or
chapter you cite is listed separately in your list of works cited.
Lawrence, “Writing a Literature Review,” October 11, 2011 2
http://scholar.google.com/
Where Can I Find Examples of a Literature Review?
The short answer to this question is that virtually all good research includes a literature review as part of
the book or article. It may not necessarily be labeled as a “literature review,” but by convention the
literature review is usually at the beginning of the piece, immediately after any introduction. In a book or
dissertation, the literature review may be an entire chapter (or more!); in an edited volume, you’ll typically
find a literature review in each chapter.
Books on writing in the social sciences, such as The Political Science Student Writer’s Manual (Scott and
Garrison 2008), will often include a sample literature review as well.
Works Cited
• Campbell, Angus, Philip E. Converse, Warren E. Miller, and Donald E. Stokes. 1960. The American
Voter. New York: Wiley.
• Nie, Norman H., Sidney Verba, and John R. Petrocik. 1979. The Changing American Voter, enlarged
edition. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
• Scott, Gregory M. and Steve M. Garrison. 2008. The Political Science Writer’s Manual, 6th edition.
New York: Longman.
Copyright and License
This document is Copyright © 2010 Christopher N. Lawrence. You may modify, reuse, and redistribute this document
under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, version 3.0 or later. The text of this
license is available at the Creative Commons website, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/, or by mail from
Creative Commons, 171 2nd Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA. If you do distribute a modified
version of this document, you should replace or supplement the authorship information at the beginning the document
with your own and include this copyright notice (including the original author’s name) in the modified document.
Lawrence, “Writing a Literature Review,” October 11, 2011 3
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
Writing A Literature Review and
Using a Synthesis Matrix
My professor says I have to write a literature review, what do I do?
Well, to begin, you have to know that when writing a literature review, the goal of the researcher is to determine the current
state of knowledge about a particular topic by asking, “What do we know or not know about this issue?” In conducting this type of
research, it is imperative to examine several different sources to determine where the knowledge overlaps and where it falls short.
A
literature review requires a synthesis of different subtopics to come to a greater understanding of the state of knowledge on a larger
issue. It works very much like a jigsaw puzzle. The individual pieces (arguments) must be put together in order to reveal the whole
(state of knowledge).
So basically I just read the articles and summarize each one separately?
No, a literature review is not a summary. Rather than merely presenting a summary of each source, a literature review should
be organized according to each subtopic discussed about the larger topic. For example, one section of a literature review might read
“Researcher A suggests that X is true. Researcher B also argues that X is true, but points out that the effects of X may be different
from those suggested by Researcher A.” It is clear that subtopic X is the main idea covered in these sentences. Researchers A and
B
agree that X is true, but they disagree on X’s effects. There is both agreement and disagreement, but what links the two arguments is
the fact that they both concern X.
This sounds like a lot of information, how can I keep it organized?
Because a literature review is NOT a summary of these different sources, it can be very difficult to keep your research
organized. It is especially difficult to organize the information in a way that makes the writing process simpler. One way that seems
particularly helpful in organizing literature reviews is the synthesis matrix. The synthesis matrix is a chart that allows a researcher to
sort and categorize the different arguments presented on an issue. Across the top of the chart are the spaces to record sources,
and
along the side of the chart are the spaces to record the main points of argument on the topic at hand. As you examine your first source,
you will work vertically in the column belonging to that source, recording as much information as possible about each significant idea
presented in the work. Follow a similar pattern for your following sources. As you find information that relates to your already
identified main points, put it in the pertaining row. In your new sources, you will also probably find new main ideas that you need to
add to your list at the left. You now have a completed matrix!
2
As you write your review, you will work horizontally in the row belonging to each point discussed. As you combine the
information presented in each row, you will begin to see each section of your paper taking shape. Remember, some of the sources
may not cover all of the main ideas listed on the left, but that can be useful also. The gaps on your chart could provide clues about the
gaps in the current state of knowledge on your topic.
CREATING YOUR SYNTHESIS MATRIX
It is probably best to begin your chart by labeling the columns both horizontally and vertically. The sample chart below
illustrates how to do this.
Topic: ______________________________________
Source #1 Source #2 Source #3 Source #4
Main Idea
A
Main Idea
B
Label the columns across the top of your chart with the author’s last name or with a few keywords from the title of the work. Then
label the sides of the chart with the main ideas that your sources discuss about your topic. As you read each source, make notes in the
appropriate column about the information discussed in the work, as shown in the following chart.
3
Topic: Women in
WWII
Cornelsen Stewart Bruley Scott
Alteration of
women’s
roles
because of
WWII
– Women accredited the
WASP program for opening
new doors, challenging
stereotypes, and proving that
women were as capable as
men (p. 113)
– Women could compete with
men as equals in the sky
because of their exemplary
performance (p. 116)
– WASP created opportunities
for women that had never
previously existed (p.
112)
– Women’s success at flying
aircrafts “marked a pivotal
step towards breaking the
existing gender barrier” (p.
112)
– WAAC (Women’s Army
Auxiliary Corp) was 1
st
chance for women to serve in
army, given full army status in
1943 as WAC (p. 28)
– Needs of the war were so
great that women’s traditional
social roles were ignored (p.
30)
– Military women paid well
for the time period and given
benefits if they became
pregnant (p. 32)
– The 1940’s brought more
opportunities to women than
ever before (p. 26)
-Women given equal
opportunities (p. 223)
– Women joined workforce as
a break from the ordinary to
help the war (p. 220)
– Unconscious decision to
cross into male-dominated
roles (p. 221)
– Seized these new
opportunities to bring about
change (p.
230)
– Women born in the 1920’s
found new doors open to them
where they once would have
encountered brick walls (p.
526)
-Even women not directly
involved in the war were
changing mentally by being
challenged to expand their
horizons because of the
changing world around them
(p. 562)
– War also brought intellectual
expansion to many people (p.
557)
Hardships
and
oppositions
women
faced
– “From the outset male pilots
resented women’s presence in
a traditionally male military
setting” (p. 1113-4)
– “The WASP were routinely
assigned inferior planes that
were later found to have been
improperly maintained” (p.
114)
– discrimination against
WASP at every level of
military service, women were
only paid 2/3 of what men
were for doing identical tasks
(p. 114)
– Women in the military given
extensive physical and mental
tests, but still discriminated
against, ridiculed, and
considered inferior to men (p.
29)
– Women given unskilled
labor positions by government
because only seen as
temporary workers, therefore
no reason to train them (p.
221-2)
– Women given less
significant work and viewed
as less intelligent and
physically able (p. 224)
-“The Church-Bliss diary
reveals how dilution
arrangements…ensured that
women working in male
preserves were prevented
4
Cornelsen Stewart Bruley Scott
– “In the belief that women
were emotionally and
physically fragile, the military
questioned women’s
capabilities to fly an aircraft”
(p. 114-5), regardless of their
training or aptitude
– WASP’s not granted veteran
status until 1979 (p. 115)
from achieving any sort of
equality” (p. 230)
– more traditionally male jobs
resisted the integration of
women workers, while other
industries were less
resistant… but in most all
cases women were considered
temporary workers (p. 221)
– Equal pay rarely given to
women, even though women
did the same work (p. 221)
– Women occasionally found
their way to positions of
importance, but were always
treated as inferior (p. 226-8)
– After the war, women were
the first to be let go because
of their temporary status (p.
230)
– Women in the workforce
also faced discrimination from
labor unions (p. 226)
Opposition:
WWII did
NOT effect
women
– Women put in untraditional
roles during/because of the
war, but back to previous
subservient roles after the war
(p. 35)
– Women were not affected
because they still remained in
subordinate positions after the
war (p. 217)
After your chart is complete, notice patterns of information. You may find that your sources, at times, discuss very similar
material, or that they sometimes deal with completely different aspects of your topic. These patterns can be useful in creating a thesis
statement that can guide your writing and keep you focused as you begin your draft.
5
WRITING YOUR REVIEW
Here is an example from the literature review: “World War Two and its Effect on Women.” This excerpt synthesizes
information without summarizing.
While the articles used in this research agree that women made many advances during the Word War II period, it is crucial to
realize that not all these changes were welcomed. In most cases women faced discrimination from just about everyone around
them. Women in the workplace were often placed in positions of inferiority or treated as being less physically able to do the
same work the men did. Many women were often not trained because they were viewed as temporary employees who were
only there for the duration of the war (Bruley, 2003, pp.221-222). Women were very rarely given equal pay as men, even
though some of them did the same work. Women in the military faced not only mental abuse but also physical harm from their
male counterparts. According to Cornelsen (2005), there were many instances where female aviators were injured or killed due
to being made to fly ill-maintained aircrafts or aircrafts that had been sabotaged. (p.114)
The sample above is an excellent example of how to synthesize information adequately. Notice how when transitioning from
Bruley to Cornelsen the writer notes not only that the two articles are similar, but also how they are similar. The writer goes into detail
about Bruley’s discussion of women in industry facing discrimination while noting that Stewart deals with prejudice in the military.
The author also transitions well between the Bruley article and the Cornelsen article; rather than summarizing, the author draws
comparisons between the two articles, giving relevant information and at the same time synthesizing the two works.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
This document was created by NC State University Writing and Speaking Tutorial Service Tutors during Fall 2006. Contributors were Laura
Ingram, James Hussey, Michelle Tigani, and Mary Hemmelgarn. Special thanks to Stephanie Huneycutt for providing the sample matrix and
paragraph. http://www.ncsu.edu/tutorial_center/writespeak
2
Natilene Bowker, Student Learning Centre, Massey University, Palmerston North © 200
6
Crafting the Literature Crafting the Literature
ReviewReview
This presentation overviews the basics of writing a literature review. This
presentation has been designed for those carrying out research where they are
required to write-up as part of their research a chapter, which reviews the
literature. It begins by focusing on the actual purpose for writing a literature
review, including an explicit definition of what the concept means. Three
examples are provided from different research projects demonstrating how to
organise the literature using different strategies. The talk then moves into specific
details to include in relation to a study. A final section focuses on ways of
critiquing research, which is an important component of writing a literature review.
3
Natilene Bowker, Student Learning Centre, Massey University, Palmerston North © 2006
Purpose of a literature reviewPurpose of a literature review
• Helps map and define your research topic
• Presents a balanced view
• Justifies your research question
• Provides literature for you to compare your
findings with at the end.
Literature reviews can be one of the most difficult writing tasks. There may be a sense of mystery
surrounding what exactly is a literature review. Hence, pinning down the purpose is key.
Four purposes of a literature review
1. Helps map and define research topic:
highlights scope & boundaries,
shows where the study fits into the broad picture,
shares with reader studies closely resembling proposed study,
provides evidence that your topic is building onto an established body of knowledge.
2. Presents a balanced view of the area you are interested in.
3. Justifies and makes a case for your research question, problem, issue:
provides a framework for establishing the importance of your study;
argues that not enough is yet known about the topic.
4. Provides literature for you to compare your findings with at the end
A literature review builds on, but is neither, an annotated bibliography nor an historical overview.
4
Natilene Bowker, Student Learning Centre, Massey University, Palmerston North © 2006
A common error made when writing A common error made when writing
a literature review is toa literature review is to
In fact this sums up what you should do when writing a literature reviewIn fact this sums up what you should do when writing a literature reviewYes you are correct. Often people only report on what has happened , which leaves out a critique
Yes you are correct. Often people only report on what has happened , which
leaves out a critique
This is the very activity that provides a solution to the common error made
when writing a literature review
This is the very activity that provides a solution to the common error made
when writing a literature review
So far this is not a common error, however you may feel like engaging in
this activity once your literature review is completed
So far this is not a common error, however you may feel like engaging in
this activity once your literature review is completed
Correct – Click anywhere to
continue
Correct Correct — Click anywhere to Click anywhere to
continuecontinue
Incorrect – Click anywhere to
continue
Incorrect Incorrect — Click anywhere to Click anywhere to
continuecontinue
You answered this correctly!You answered this correctly!You answered this correctly!
Your answer:Your answer:Your answer:
The correct answer is:The correct answer is:The correct answer is:
You did not answer this
question completely
You did not answer this You did not answer this
question completelyquestion completely
SubmitSubmit ClearClear
A) Provide a comprehensive description and evaluation of the
literature
B) Report on events that have happened in the past that lead up to
your research topic or question
C) Provide a critique of the literature to justify your research area.
D) Open a bottle of wine
5
Natilene Bowker, Student Learning Centre, Massey University, Palmerston North © 2006
Winston
2003
Nettle
2002c
Nettle
2002b
Nettle
2002a
Little &
Scott 2002
Engels
2001
Dickens
2000
Smart
199
9
Johansen
199
8
Frankens
1996
Solomon
1995
Bush &
Thomson
1995
Jones
1994
Smith &
Kettle
1992
Bleet
1992
Johnson
1991
McDonald
& Bundt
1990
Christians
1990
Fieldman
& Roberts
1989
Anders
1988
Jacqet
1988
Kevinstan
1985
Morgan &
Tuffin
1981
Billet &
Ouster
1980
Smith
1979
Walking your path – title
The purpose of this diagram is to highlight the importance of being selective in
your review. It is impossible to cover every study that has ever existed on your
topic. Moreover, it is impossible to cover every study in detail within your review.
Hence, one of the key characteristics of writing a review is to ensure that you
highlight ‘in bright lights’ (signalled metaphorically by the red line) the studies that
are most relevant in building towards your research rationale. Certainly, you can
mention the other studies, but in less detail, perhaps to indicate their distance
away from the core of the research topic.
6
Natilene Bowker, Student Learning Centre, Massey University, Palmerston North © 2006
Difference between a review and Difference between a review and
an essayan essay
Smyth (2004, pp. 113-114) defines a literature review:
Although conceptually similar to an essay, a literature
review differs in that it is written to address some
specific research problem or question. It does not
present a thesis. Rather, a literature review should
reach some conclusion on the current state of
knowledge in an area, and suggest the next step in the
investigation of the problem or question of interest.
The conclusion reached is not final in the same sense
as is a thesis. Moreover, because of its nature, a
literature review will be largely based on research
findings.
At a very basic, rudimentary level, it can be helpful to conceptualise a
literature review as a discussion of the research area on a particular topic
that is arranged by key themes or findings, which lead up to or link in with
your question.
7
Natilene Bowker, Student Learning Centre, Massey University, Palmerston North © 2006
Social science exampleSocial science example
Online Identity, Social
Experience Online
Online Access &
Disability Disability Identity
“Social psychological impact of the online medium on the lives of people
with disabilities”
Disability Studies
Social
PsychologyCMC
Social science example – title
The purpose of these concentric circles is to demonstrate diagramatically the
development of a literature review in conjunction with supporting a research area.
One of the difficulties with creating your review, as a task preceding the research,
is that there is no or very little research explicitly exploring your area of interest,
hence the reason for your research inquiry. Consequently, you are often left with
the studies around the periphery of your topic.
In the case of the topic in the diagram, it was interdisciplinary and so the studies
of interest were located at the margins of the disciplines and sub-disciplines. In
fact, there was not always research available within these margins and so there
was a need to find the next closest study of relevance to the research area. The
space where the three concentric circles all overlap was the location of the
research to be carried out. Any research remotely linked to this area, involving
connections across all three disciplines (CMC, social psychology, and disability
studies) became integral to the literature review.
8
Natilene Bowker, Student Learning Centre, Massey University, Palmerston North © 2006
ToingToing and and froingfroing
Potentially empowering outcomes for people with disabilities (pro)
Freedom and autonomy (pro)
Inequity and prejudice remain (anti)
Accentuating bodily forms (anti)
Maintaining the status quo (anti)
Reconstituting bodily constraints (anti)
Challenging oppressions (pro)
Unprecedented possibilities for reconstructing norms of identity (pro)
Ethical practices languish (anti)
Losing social contact (anti)
Creating further dependency for people with disabilities (anti)
Collective empowerment for disabled identities (pro)
Webs of power (anti)
The lit review provided the resources for critical reflection on whether there
were empowering and disempowering online experiences available to
people with disabilities. Justified exploring their online experiences.
Cont.
The list of headings formed the section titles within the literature review. One way
of creating a sense of comparison and evaluation of the ideas and findings within
the literature was to vary the order of arguments ‘for’ (pro) and ‘against’ (anti) the
topic, namely, the value of being online for people with disabilities. This leads to a
constant ‘toing’ and ‘froing’ between evidence.
9
Natilene Bowker, Student Learning Centre, Massey University, Palmerston North © 2006
Topic: Developing natural treatments to replace antiobiotic
use in pig farming
“Antibiotics are used to cure diseases in pigs and increase
performance. Their use, however, has come under attack by
consumers and political groups due to allergies and bacterial
resistance in pork consumers. Since antibiotics increase
performance, the ban [on antibiotics] would increase mortality and
reduce performance in pigs. To avoid a decrease in performance,
there is a need to develop natural treatments to replace antibiotic
use” (Nkamba, 2006).
1. Antibiotic use in curing pig diseases
• Studies supporting this
• Increases pig’s performance – growth rate
However, concerns raised by consumers and political groups have
drawn attention to the problems of antibiotic use.
Science exampleScience example
Science example – title
Here is another example of the development of a literature review. However, this
example is from the sciences, namely veterinary science and food, nutrition, and
human health. This example comes from a student, Richard Nkamba, whose
research focused on developing natural treatments to replace antibiotic use in pig
farming. The quoted paragraph from his draft literature review chapter
summarises the development and rationale for his research topic. Consequently,
it functions as a summary of the areas that need to be covered in the literature
review. These areas are numbered from 1-4.
10
Natilene Bowker, Student Learning Centre, Massey University, Palmerston North © 2006
2. Health problems with antibiotic use
• Health – allergies, bacterial resistance in pork consumers
• Political concerns
• Banning antibiotics
3. Consequences of banning antibiotics
• Mortality increase, reduced pig performance, growth rate
4. Developing natural treatments to replace antibiotics
• Different treatments
• Benefits
• Disadvantages
• End with closest resembling treatment to your study and / or technique
used in your study
All this justifies the validity & value of your research question.
Cont.
11
Natilene Bowker, Student Learning Centre, Massey University, Palmerston North © 2006
Business exampleBusiness example
Do Management Consultants Create Knowledge?
Research conducted by Elisa Peirano Vejo, Management department,
2005. Her topic occurred in opposition to criticism of consultants for not
creating substantive ideas, and their lack of measurement and
evaluation of management developments.
Vejo’s diagram of the literature review
Vejo used grounded theory methodology
Data collected from interviews with management consultants.
•Issues
– Academics vs practitioners
– Management consultants already part of media industry – distributing
knowledge business.
– What is knowledge? – Foucault
– How does knowledge become science?
Business Studies example
Interdisciplinary area spanning management theory, philosophy and science.
The hyperlink will take you to a mind map/flow chart representation of the
literature covered in the review and how sense was made out of different groups
of literature.
12
Managers
(Faust, 2002;
Kieser,
2002)
1., 2., 3.
(Kipping &
Engwall, 2002)
Difficulty
to measure
results
Politics
(Alvesson &
Johansson,
2002)
3. CONSULTING
PROJECT
Affected by National Context (Wood, 2002):
France (Henry, 2002*1)
Sweden (Engwall, Furusten & Wallersted, 2002*)
The Netherlands (Karsten & Van Keen, 2002*)
Finland (Ainamo & Tienari, 2002*)
Italy (Crucini, 2002), Australia (Wright, 2002)
Knowledge
(Faust, 2002;
Legge, 2002;
Armbruster &
Kipping, 2002)
‘Otherness
’ (Kipping &
Armbruster,
2002)
Application
(Gammelsaeter,
2002)
1. CONSULTING
INDUSTRY
2. CONSULTING
FIRM
Expansion &
Growth
(Ernst & Keiser,
2002)
Professionalism
(Ruef, 2002)
Interaction with
other Carriers of
Mgmt Knowledge
History &
Development
(*) (Kipping,
2002b)
Low
Barriers of
Entry
Media Press,
(Mazza & Alvarez, 2000,
Faust, 2002)
Academia,
(*1; Kieser, 2002b)
Management Gurus
(Clark & Greatbatch,
2002, 2002b; Jackson,
2002)
Experience
(Werr, 2002)
(Sahlin-Andersson &
Engwall, 2002)
Fashion
(Abrahamson,
1996; Kieser,
2002)
Rhetoric
(Case, 2002;
Fincham, 2002)
Technology
(Bloomfield et al., 2002)
13
Natilene Bowker, Student Learning Centre, Massey University, Palmerston North © 2006
Initial organisationInitial organisation
1. Use EndNote
2. After reading a handful of research papers, consider
keywords that may be used to categorise the work
under.
• Gender
• Ethnicity
• Social factors
• Biological factors
3. Use these as headings to group summaries of
research papers.
4. Try to suspend the need for absolute conclusion,
completeness, and finality.
14
Natilene Bowker, Student Learning Centre, Massey University, Palmerston North © 2006
Building your storyBuilding your story
• Identify areas of consensus: Hence, it seems that there is
agreement among researchers of the 80s regarding
Thomson’s theory.
• Identify areas of divergence: Much debate exists on the
issue of… Try to explain why.
• Consider the need for summary paragraphs dispersed
throughout the review.
In summary, the evidence laid out demonstrates that
operating online does not challenge the online medium’s
ability to… . Rather, this literature supports a continuation
of… . Consequently, people with disabilities may
experience social stigma online… . However, alternative
ideas and findings suggest… .
15
Natilene Bowker, Student Learning Centre, Massey University, Palmerston North © 2006
Referring to othersReferring to others’’ workwork
A study by Smith (1998) showed that gender differences exist
online.
How?
Why?
Smith (1998) investigated the existence of gender
differences in chatroom participation. By measuring the
proportion of responses made by male and female
participants, taking into account the amount of time spent
accessing the chatroom, findings showed that males were
more likely than females to post messages (67% and 33%
respectively). This evidence supports the view…
Try to explain the logic behind what the study found, rather than simply stating
what they found.
Try to be specific when explaining findings
16
Natilene Bowker, Student Learning Centre, Massey University, Palmerston North © 2006
Features to include
• Participants’ characteristics, criteria for inclusion
• Sample size
• Location of study
• Type of study – expt, interviews, survey
• Nature of task – what was done, details of tests used
• Findings – numerical, descriptive
• How the findings relate to your research question
Summarising
Based on the findings of Brown (1989) and Jones
(1997), Smith (1998) hypothesised that gender
differences are prevalent online.
Specific detailsSpecific details
Cont.
You need these details to convince the reader of the validity of the assertion that
the study has made an accurate conclusion or demonstration. Obviously, the
amount of detail included will depend on the importance of the work to your
research and whether it is likely to be accepted on face value as valid evidence.
At times, you will need to summarise outcomes/predictions, etc. It is reasonable
to need to rely on the findings of others to justify the predictions of other
investigations.
17
Natilene Bowker, Student Learning Centre, Massey University, Palmerston North © 2006
1. Cover seminal work, leading theories, concepts in the area
For theories, try to refer to the original research, rather than a textbook
reference. Einstein’s (1923) theory of relativity…
2. Multiple authors
Use when your assertion is particularly important, or may be
questioned.
A plethora of literature exists about men and women masquerading as the opposite
gender online (Curtis, 1997; Dickel, 1995; Kendall, 1996; McRae, 1996, 1997; Reid,
1995, 1996a, 1996b; Turkle, 1995; Van Gelder, 1991; Whitty, 2002).
3. Discernment in use of verbs
Just because an author suggests an idea, this does not
make it so.
Smith (1998) suggests that gender
differences exist online.
Suggest is not the same as demonstrate, conclude,
argue…
Being selectiveBeing selective
As long as you have mentioned Brown and Jones’ work to demonstrate the link in
reasoning.
Think about the verb forms you are using and their impact on your review of the
literature.
18
Natilene Bowker, Student Learning Centre, Massey University, Palmerston North © 2006
Smyth (2004) highlights the importance of referring
to authors in different ways: their ‘name’,
‘pronouns’, ‘investigators’, ‘researchers’…
Brown (1999) conducted a study on gender differences.
She demonstrated how… . Brown concluded that…/It
was concluded that…Similarly, another researcher
looked at…
Similarly, instead of relying on the word ‘research’,
also use ‘investigation’, ‘study’, ‘project’, ‘work’…
Avoiding repetitionAvoiding repetition
Use their ‘name’, ‘pronouns’, ‘investigators’, ‘researchers’…
19
Natilene Bowker, Student Learning Centre, Massey University, Palmerston North © 2006
Beginning your critiqueBeginning your critique
• Is the author knowledgeable in the area? • Objective and balanced discussion
• Recent publications are up-to-date, although may omit older
material which is still relevant.
• Journal articles typically have more up-to-date info because
less time taken to publish, compared to books published at
the same time.
• Not all conference proceedings exercise peer-review. If the
info is valuable, it may be published as a journal article.
Evaluating sources used in your review.
You can be critical at the very level of which works you choose to cover
Is the author knowledgeable in the area? – Have they published other articles on
the topic, are they cited frequently in the literature?
Objective and balanced discussion – govt reports may be influenced by political
agendas, favouring public attitudes.
20
Natilene Bowker, Student Learning Centre, Massey University, Palmerston North © 2006
• Be cautious of claims made based on cited sources or authors who
only mention others’ findings and suggestions.
Based on the findings of Brown (1989) and Jones (1997), Smith
(1998) concludes that gender differences are prevalent online.
The earth is the centre of the universe (Brown, 1974, as cited in
McDonald, 1975).
• Inconsistencies with a vast number of other sources.
• Broad, generalisable statements, which are unsubstantiated.
• Omission of counter evidence you are aware of through your review.
• Omission of alternative explanations for findings.
Being critical of outcomes, Being critical of outcomes,
explanationsexplanations……
Cont. – Title
To assess Brown (1989) and Jones’ (1997) claims accurately, you need to
evaluate Brown and Jones work.
21
Natilene Bowker, Student Learning Centre, Massey University, Palmerston North © 2006
Methodological critiqueMethodological critique
• Sample size
• Randomized trials
• Reliable control – confounding variables
• Validity
Lack of alternative methodologies used to
understand the issue.
22
Natilene Bowker, Student Learning Centre, Massey University, Palmerston North © 2006
Other strategiesOther strategies
• Identify gaps in knowledge that relate to your
research question.
– Lack of New Zealand context
• Identify strengths, advantages.
• Draw on others’ critiques of the literature.
23
Natilene Bowker, Student Learning Centre, Massey University, Palmerston North © 2006
Things I learnt along the wayThings I learnt along the way
• Don’t let the literature control you!
• Your story
• Ensure that the information you provide
backs up your research question (and
approach).
• Suspend the need for finality.
– it is impossible to cover the entirety of literature on your topic.
– you need to highlight the important steps that have led to the development of
your work (picture yourself as a tour guide).
Suspend the need for finality at each stage of developing your literature review.
24
Natilene Bowker, Student Learning Centre, Massey University, Palmerston North © 2006
ReferencesReferences
Smyth, T.R. (2004). The principles of writing
in psychology. New York: Palgrave
Macmillan
25
Natilene Bowker, Student Learning Centre, Massey University, Palmerston North © 2006
For more informationFor more information……
• Please email the Student Learning Centre,
Palmerston North campus.
Cayla Buttram, David MacMillan III, & Dr. R.T. Koch, Jr.
Updated November 2012
UNA Center for Writing Excellence
Comparing the Annotated Bibliography to the Literature Review
Annotated bibliographies and literature reviews are both comprehensive collections of relevant sources,
but that is where the similarity ends. Their purposes, structures, and components are very different.
Annotated Bibliography Literature Review
Purpose
Provides the reader with an
ordered list of sources for
additional reading. Usually also
provides brief explanations of
why each source is credible and
relevant to the topic.
Provides an overview of a
particular topic or problem by
summarizing and explaining the
most significant sources in the
field.
Structure
Sources are separated from each
other and are arranged
alphabetically, so they will be
easy to locate.
Sources are integrated into
paragraphs based on the
progression of the topical
overview, and they may be
mentioned more than once.
Components
Each item in the list uses the
formal citation style (usually APA,
MLA, or Chicago) to cite a single
source and includes a short
paragraph with a summary
explaining its credibility and
relevancy.
Uses an introduction to explain
the topic, synthesizes sources
progressively as the topic is
explained through the body, and
then concludes by summarizing
the overall background
presented.
Additional differences:
• In the case of an annotated bibliography, there is a separate paragraph for each source cited. In
a literature review, each body paragraph should include several sources, and sources may be
repeated as necessary.
• An annotated bibliography examines each source based on its relationship to the topic; a
literature review draws together multiple sources to examine where they agree or disagree.
• An annotated bibliography must organize sources alphabetically, but a literature review is likely to
use problem/solution, cause/effect, comparison/contrast, classification/division, or process to
organize sources.
• An annotated bibliography allows the reader to choose whether to explore the available sources
or not on their own while a literature review directs the reader to a particular understanding of
the available sources;
The following illustration provides an example of the differences in layout between an annotated
bibliography and a literature review. The sources that are arranged alphabetically in the annotated
bibliography are integrated throughout the paragraphs of the literature review. The order of sources
shown in the literature review is just an example; any appropriate sources can be used wherever they fit.
Cayla Buttram, David MacMillan III, & Dr. R.T. Koch, Jr.
Updated November 2012
UNA Center for Writing Excellence
Practical Research Methods
Practical books that inspire
Exams are Easy When You Know How
Change your attitude, thinking and technique and ne
v
er fail an
exam
Essay to Write?
Make it good, make it easy, make it fun!
Writing an Assignment
Effective ways to improve your research and presentation skills
Critical Thinking for Students
Learn the skills of critical assessment and effective argument
Writing Your Dissertation
How to plan, prepare and present successful work
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Practical Research Methods
A user-friendly guide to mastering
research techniques and projects
DR CATHERINE DAWSON
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For my Dad
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# 2002
Dr Catherine Dawson
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Contents
Preface
ix
1 How to Define Your Project
1
Asking questions 1
The five ‘Ws’
4
Summary 1
3
2 How to Decide Upon a Methodology
14
Understanding the difference between qualitative and
quantitative research 14
Summary 2
2
Further reading 23
3 How to Choose Your Research Methods
27
Interviewing 2
7
Focus groups 2
9
Questionnaires 30
Participant observation 32
Choosing your methods 33
Summary 37
Further reading 3
8
4 How to Conduct Background Research
40
Primary research and secondary research 40
Summary 4
5
Further reading 4
6
5 How to Choose Your Participants
47
Sampling 47
Sample size 49
Summary 53
Further reading 54
6 How to Prepare a Research Proposal
55
The contents of a proposal 56
v
What makes a good proposal? 60
Reasons why research proposals fail 61
Summary 62
Further reading 63
7 How to Conduct Interviews
64
Methods of recording 64
The interview schedule 67
Establishing rapport 70
Asking questions and probing for information 71
Summary 73
Further reading 75
8 How to Conduct Focus Groups
76
The role of the moderator 77
Recording equipment 80
Choosing a venue 81
Recruiting your participants 82
Summary 84
Further reading 85
9 How to Construct Questionnaires 87
Deciding which questionnaire to use 87
Wording and structure of questions 89
Length and ordering of questions 93
Piloting the questionnaire 95
Obtaining a high response 97
Summary 99
Further reading 100
10 How to Carry Out Participant Observation
101
Gaining access 102
Ethics 103
Collecting and analysing information 105
Withdrawal from the field 107
Summary 107
Further reading 108
11 How to Analyse Your Data 1
10
Deciding which approach to use
110
vi / P R A C T I C A L R E S E A R C H M E T H O D S
Qualitative data analysis 1
11
Quantitative data analysis
121
Measuring data 126
Summary 128
Further reading 129
12 How to Report Your Findings
131
Written reports 131
Written report format 134
Journal articles 140
Oral presentations 142
Summary 143
Further reading 144
13 How to be an Ethical Researcher
146
Treating participants with respect 146
Overt and covert research 147
Code of ethics 150
Summary
154
Further reading 155
Index
157
CON TENT S / vii
Listof Illustrations
Tables
1. The focus group method: advantages and
disadvantages 30
2. Sources of background information 45
3. Sampling techniques 50
4. Sampling dos and don’ts 52
5. Survey timetable 59
6. Research budget 60
7. Recording methods: advantages and disadvantages 66
8. Strategies for dealing with awkward situations 79
9. Open and closed questions: advantages and
disadvantages 88
10. Using computers for qualitative data analysis:
advantages and disadvantages 122
11. Age of respondents 124
12. Making presentations: dos and don’ts 142
Figures
1. Personal profile form 96
2. Interview summary form 1
13
3. Focus group summary form 114
4. Qualitative data analysis continuum 115
5. Example list of references 138
6. Code of ethics 153
viii
Preface
This book is a practical, down-to-earth guide for people
who wish to conduct research. It is aimed at those new
to research and assumes no prior knowledge of the issues
covered. It will also appeal to those people who have al-
ready conducted some research and who are interested in
finding out more about other research methods that are
available to them.
For the purpose of this book, research is defined as the
deliberate study of other people for the purposes of in-
creasing understanding and/or adding to knowledge. This
deliberate study could cover many different areas. As a re-
searcher, you might be interested in attitudes and beha-
viour – why do people think in a certain way and why
do they behave in a certain way? Or you might be inter-
ested in numbers – how many people use a service? Per-
haps you need to try to predict how this number of
people could be increased so that you can obtain funding
for your service. Or you might be fascinated by the perso-
nal history of a neighbour and have a burning desire to
record her history and pass it on to others.
We all have different reasons for conducting
re
search.
Some of us might have to undertake a project as part of
our course work. Others might have to conduct a study as
part of our employment. Some of us may be fascinated by
something we’ve observed and want to find out more. This
book offers advice on how to turn your ideas into a work-
ix
able project and how to keep motivation levels high, espe-
cially if you have no real inclination to become a research-
er. It discusses the issues involved in thinking about your
research and defining your project, before moving on to
the methods – how do you actually do your research, ana-
lyse your findings and report the results?
Over the decades there has been a great deal of discussion on
what constitutes research, how it should be conducted and
whether certain methods are ‘better’ than others. Although
I have touched upon some of these issues in the relevant
chapters, it is not possible or desirable to go into any greater
detail in this book. Therefore, I have included further read-
ing sections at the end of the relevant chapters for those of
you who wish to follow up these issues.
I have been a researcher since undertaking an MA in Social
Research in 1987. Working within both further and higher
education and as a freelance researcher, I have been involved
in avarietyof projects in the areas of education, housing and
community research. I have taught research methods to
adults returning to education and conducted in-house train-
ing for employees who need to carry out their own research.
Becoming a successful researcher is a continual learning
process in which we all make mistakes. So don’t worry if
your first project doesn’t run as smoothlyas you might wish.
Instead, remember that undertaking a research project can
be fascinating, rewarding and exciting – I hope that you en-
joy it as much as I have done and I wish you every success in
your project.
Dr Catherine Dawson
x / PRACT ICAL RESEARCH MET HODS
1
How to DefineYour Project
Before you start to think about your research, you need to
ask yourself a few
ques
tions.
ASKING QUESTIONS
Why have I decided to do some research?
If the answer to this question is because you have been told
to do so, either by your tutor or by your boss, you need to
think about how you’re to remain motivated throughout
your project. Research can be a long process and take up
much of your time. It is important to stay interested in
what you’re doing if you are to complete your project suc-
cessfully. However, if you want to conduct some research
because something has fascinated you, or you have identi-
fied a gap in the research literature, then you are lucky and
should not have a problem with motivation.
How can I remain interestedin my research?
The obvious answer to this is to choose a topic which in-
terests you. Most of you do have this choice within the
limitations of your subject – be creative and think about
something which will fascinate you. However, if you have
had the topic chosen for you, try instead choosing a re-
search method which interests you. As you go on to read
this book you will become more familiar with the different
methods and should be able to find something in which
1
you are interested. For example, mathematics might have
motivated you at school. If so, you may find it interesting
to delve deeper into statistical software. Or you might
have been invited to take part in a focus group for a mar-
ket research company and found it an interesting experi-
ence. Perhaps now you would find it enjoyable to try
running your own focus group? Or maybe you have been
fascinated by a particular group of people and you would
like to immerse yourself within that group, taking part in
their activities whilst studying their behaviour?
What personal characteristics do I have which might help me to
complete my research?
Think about your personal characteristics, likes and dis-
likes, strengths and weaknesses when you’re planning
your research. If you’re very good with people you might
like to think about a project which would involve you con-
ducting in-depth interviews with people who you find fas-
cinating. If you absolutely hate mathematics and
statistics, steer clear of large survey research. Are you
good at socialising? Do people feel at ease with you and
are they willing to confide in you? Or do you prefer to hide
yourself away and number crunch, or spend hours on the
internet? All of these personal characteristics suggest a
leaning towards certain types of research. As you read this
book you will find ideas forming – jot these down so that
you can refer to them later when you come to plan your
research.
What skills and experience do I have which might help in my
research?
If your research is to be employment based, the chances
are you will have work experience which you’ll find useful
2 / PR A C T I C A L R E S E A R C H M E T H O D S
HOW TO DEFINE YOUR PROJ ECT / 3
when conducting your research project. This is valid ex-
perience and you should make the most of it when plan-
ning your research. Even if your project is not
employment based, all of you will have other skills and
experience which will help. For example, if you have been
a student for three years, you will have developed good
literature search skills which will be very useful in the re-
search process. Some of you may have developed commit-
tee skills, organisation skills and time management
expertise. All of these will be extremely useful in your re-
search. Think about your existing skills in relation to your
proposed project as it will help you to think about
whether your knowledge, experience and skills will help
you to address the problem you have identified.
Many research projects fail because people don’t take en-
ough time to think about the issues involved before rush-
ing to start the work. It is extremely important to spend
time thinking about your project before you move on to
the planning stage. Through careful thought you should
stop yourself wasting time and energy on inappropriate
methods as your research progresses. Consider the follow-
ing example:
EXAMPLE 1: JAMES
James wanted to find out about students’ experiences of
housing in his university town. He designed and sent
out a questionnaire to 1,000 students. When the replies
started to come in, he realised that the questionnaires
weren’t generating the type of information in which
he was interested. When he talked through his concerns
with his tutor, it emerged that James was really inter-
ested in attitudes towards, and experiences of, rented
accommodation. His questionnaire had been poorly de-
signed and was not generating this type of information.
He had to scrap the questionnaire and construct an-
other which he combined with a number of one-to-
one interviews to get more in-depth information. He
had spent three months designing and administering a
questionnaire which had not produced the type of infor-
mation he required. If he had spent more time thinking
about the research, especially coming to terms with the
difference between qualitative and quantitative research,
he would have saved himself a lot of time and energy
(see Chapter 2).
THE FIVE‘WS’
When you start to think about your research project, a
useful way of remembering the important questions to
ask is to think of the five ‘Ws’:
What?
Why?
Who?
Where?
When?
Once you have thought about these five ‘Ws’ you can
move on to think about how you are going to collect your
data.
4 / PR A C T I C A L R E S E A R C H M E T H O D S
HOW TO DEFINE YOUR PROJ ECT / 5
What?
What is your research? This question needs to be an-
swered as specifically as possible. One of the hardest parts
in the early stages is to be able to define your project, so
much research fails because the researcher has been un-
able to do this. A useful tip is to sum up, in one sentence
only, your research. If you are unable to do this, the
chances are your research topic is too broad, ill thought
out or too
obscure.
Why?
Why do you want to do the research? What is its purpose?
Okay, you might have been told to do some research by
your tutor or by your boss, but there should be another
reason why you have chosen your particular
subject.
It
might be solely to do with the fact that you are interested
in the topic. This is a good start as you need to be inter-
ested in your research if you are to keep up your enthu-
siasm and remain motivated. Or you might have
identified a gap in the research literature – this is good
as it shows you have carried out careful background re-
search. Or perhaps you want to try to obtain funding
for a particular service or enterprise and you need to do
some research first to find out if there is demand for what
you are proposing.
Whatever your reason, think very carefully about why you
are doing the research as this will affect your topic, the
way you conduct the research and the way in which you
report the results. If you’re doing it for a university dis-
sertation or project, does your proposed research provide
the opportunity to reach the required intellectual stan-
dard? Will your research generate enough material to
write a dissertation of the required length? Or will your
research generate too much data that would be impossible
to summarise into a report of the required length? If
you’re conducting research for funding purposes, have
you found out whether your proposed funding body re-
quires the information to be presented in a specific for-
mat? If so, you need to plan your research in a way
which will meet that format.
Who?
Who will be your participants? (In this book, people who
take part in research will be called participants or respon-
dents, rather than ‘subjects’, which is a term that I have
never liked.) At this stage of the research process, you
needn’t worry too much about exactly how many partici-
pants will take part in your research as this will be covered
later (see Chapter 5). However, you should think about
the type of people with whom you will need to get in touch
with and whether it will be possible for you to contact
them. If you have to conduct your research within a par-
ticular time scale, there’s little point choosing a topic
which would include people who are difficult or expensive
to contact. Also, bear in mind that the Internet now pro-
vides opportunities for contacting people cheaply, espe-
cially if you’re a student with free internet access.
Where?
Where are you going to conduct your research? Thinking
about this question in geographical terms will help you to
narrow down your research topic. Also, you need to think
about the resources in terms of budget and time that are
6 / PR A C T I C A L R E S E A R C H M E T H O D S
HOW TO DEFINE YOUR PROJ ECT / 7
available to you. If you’re a student who will not receive
travel expenses or any other out of pocket expenses,
choose a location close to home, college or university. If
you’re a member of a community group on a limited bud-
get, only work in areas within walking distance which will
cut down on travel expenses.
Also, you need to think about where you’ll be carrying out
your research in terms of venue. If you’re going to con-
duct interviews or focus groups, where will you hold
them? Is there a room at your institution which would
be free of charge, or are you going to conduct them in par-
ticipants’ own homes? Would it be safe for you to do so?
Would you be comfortable doing so? If you’ve answered
‘no’ to either of these last two questions, maybe you need
to think again about your research topic. In 15 years I
have encountered only one uncomfortable situation in a
stranger’s home. It can happen and you must never put
yourself in a dangerous situation. Think very carefully
about whether your chosen topic and method might have
an influence on personal safety.
When?
When are you going to do your research? Thinking about
this question will help you to sort out whether the research
project you have proposed is possible within your time
scale. It will also help you to think more about your par-
ticipants, when you need to contact them and whether
they will be available at that time. For example, if you
want to go into schools and observe classroom practice,
you wouldn’t choose to do this research during the sum-
mer holiday. It might sound obvious, but I have found
some students present a well-written research proposal
which, in practical terms, will not work because the par-
ticipants will be unavailable during the proposed data
collection stage.
Once you have thought about these five ‘Ws’, try to sum
up your proposed project in one sentence. When you have
done this, take it to several people, including your boss
and/or tutor, and ask them if it makes sense. Do they un-
derstand what your research is about? If they don’t, ask
them to explain their confusion, revise your statement
and take it back to them.
I can’t overemphasise the importance of this stage of the re-
search process. If you get it right now, you will find that the
rest of your work should flow smoothly. However, if you get
it wrong, your problems could well escalate. The following
exercise will help you to think more about these issues.
EXERCISE 1
Have a look at the three projects below and see if you
can spot any potential problems. What questions would
you ask to make the researchers focus in on their pro-
posed project? Do you have any suggestions for the im-
provement of these statements?
Statement 1: This research aims to find out what people
think about television.
8 / PR A C T I C A L R E S E A R C H M E T H O D S
HOW TO DEFINE YOUR PROJ ECT / 9
Statement 2: My project is to do some research into Alz-
heimer’s disease, to find out what people do when their
relatives have it and what support they can get and how
nurses deal with it.
Statement 3: We want to find out how many of the local
residents are interested in a play scheme for children dur-
ing the summer holi
day.
Points to consider
Statement 1: This research aims to find out what people
think about television. This proposed project is both
broad and obscure. My first two questions would be:
what people and what television? Then I would ask:
what is the purpose of this research? Who would be in-
terested in the results? TV companies already employ
market researchers to conduct a great deal of research
into public viewing, and they have much larger budgets
available to them. There’s little point in repeating re-
search if it cannot be improved upon.
However, if the researcher has an interest in this parti-
cular issue, or is perhaps on a media studies course,
there are a number of ways in which this research could
become more manageable. The researcher could focus
in on a particular type of programme and/or a particu-
lar type of person. For example, she could decide to
show an Open University programme to potential OU
students and find out what they thought about the pro-
gramme in a series of focus groups. Or she could
choose children’s programming and find out what tea-
chers think about the educational value of these pro-
grammes. Or she could ask business people what they
think about a programme aimed specifically at the busi-
ness community. Finally, maybe she could ask fellow
students to keep a diary of their television viewing over
a week and then interview them about their viewing ha-
bits.
There are many different possibilities within this field.
The researcher needs to decide exactly where her inter-
ests lie and focus in on those interests.
Statement 2: My project is to do some research into Alz-
heimer’s disease, to find out what people do when their
relatives have it and what support they can get and how
nurses deal with it.
The main problem with this statement is the grammar.
The topic itself is more focused as the researcher has
mentioned, specifically, the areas he wishes to consider
– nurses’ attitudes, carers’ experiences and available
sup
port.
His topic is immediately more manageable be-
cause he is only considering nurses or carers who come
into contact with sufferers of Alzheimer’s disease. How-
ever, he needs to think about whether he is going to
consider hospitals, residential homes, or both, and in
what areas. Also, is he going to contact people who
look after their relatives at home?
10 / PRACT ICAL RE SEARCH MET HODS
H O W T O D E F I N E Y O U R P R O J E C T / 11
Although, on the surface, this project appears more
manageable, this researcher has a major point to con-
sider. In the UK all social research which is carried
out on health care premises comes under the jurisdic-
tion of Research Ethics Committees. These committees
were set up to ensure that research does not harm pa-
tients in any way and that it is done in their best inter-
ests. In the USA a similar function is carried out by
Institutional Review Boards. This means that the re-
searcher would have to get his project approved by
the appropriate committee before he could go ahead
with the research, and it is not guaranteed that his pro-
ject would be given approval. As he would have to sub-
mit a full and detailed proposal to the committee, he
could be conducting a lot of preliminary work, only
to be turned down. Researchers need to think carefully
whether this is a route they wish to take, and if so, ob-
tain the appropriate advice before committing them-
selves.
Statement 3: We want to find out how many of the local
residents are interested in a play scheme for children dur-
ing the summer holiday.
This project put forward by a tenants’ association ap-
pears to be straightforward and manageable, although
there are still several issues which need addressing. My
first question for this topic would be: do you really want
to find out how many of the local residents are inter-
ested, or do you want to find out the interests of resi-
dents with children of the appropriate age who would ac-
tually use the scheme? If the latter is the case, this
narrows down the research population and makes it
more manageable.
Finding out whether someone is interested in something
is not actually the same as finding out whether someone
would use the service. For example, I might think a play
scheme is a good idea for other children as it might keep
them off the streets, but not for my little darlings who
are too occupied with their computer. If I said ‘yes, I
am interested’, this could be misleading as I have no in-
tention of using the service. However, if the purpose of
the research is to obtain funding for the scheme, then
the more people who express an interest, the better,
although the tenants’ association would have to be
careful not to produce misleading information.
I would also find out whether the tenants’ association
was interested only in the issue of how many people
were interested in it and would use the play scheme. If
they were doing this research anyway, would it be a va-
luable addition to find out what sort of scheme resi-
dents would like, and what activities their children
would like? Would residents have any reservations
about sending their children? If they do have reserva-
tions, what are they? Who would residents want to
run the scheme? Would they be willing to provide help
and support themselves?
12 / PRACT ICAL RE SEARCH MET HODS
H O W T O D E F I N E Y O U R P R O J E C T / 13
SUMMARY
You must take time to think about your research as this
will save you problems later.
When you’re thinking about your research, ask your-
self the five ‘Ws’:
– What is my research?
– Why do I want to do the research?
– Who are my research participants?
– Where am I going to do the research?
– When am I going to do the research?
Sum up your research project in one sentence.
Discuss your sentence with your tutor or boss and re-
vise if there is any confusion.
2
How to Decide Upona
Methodology
Once you have answered the five ‘Ws’ you can go on to
think about how you’re going to do your research. The
first thing you need to do is to think about your research
methodology. This is the philosophy or the general princi-
ple which will guide your research. It is the overall ap-
proach to studying your topic and includes issues you
need to think about such as the constraints, dilemmas
and ethical choices within your research. Now that you
have read Chapter 1, some of these issues will be fresh
in your mind. Your research methodology is different to
your research methods – these are the tools you use to
gather data, such as questionnaires or interviews, and
these will be discussed in Chapter 3.
UNDERSTANDING THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN
QUALITATIVE AND QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH
When you start to think about your research methodol-
ogy, you need to think about the differences between qua-
litative and quanti
tative research.
Qualitative research explores attitudes, behaviour and ex-
periences through such methods as interviews or focus
groups. It attempts to get an in-depth opinion from par-
ticipants. As it is attitudes, behaviour and experiences
14
H O W T O DE C I D E U P O N A M E T H O D O L O GY / 15
which are important, fewer people take part in the re-
search, but the contact with these people tends to last a
lot longer. Under the umbrella of qualitative research
there are many different methodologies. Examples of
some of these methodologies are summarised below. If
you wish to pursue any of these in more depth, useful re-
ferences are included
at
the end of this chapter.
Quantitative research generates statistics through the use
of large-scale survey research, using methods such as
questionnaires or structured interviews. If a market re-
searcher has stopped you on the streets, or you have filled
in a questionnaire which has arrived through the post, this
falls under the umbrella of quantitative research. This
type of research reaches many more people, but the con-
tact with those people is much quicker than it is in quali-
tative research.
Qualitative versus quantitative inquiry
Over the years there has been a large amount of complex
discussion and argument surrounding the topic of re-
search methodology and the theory of how inquiry should
proceed. Much of this debate has centred on the issue of
qualitative versus quantitative inquiry – which might be
the best and which is more ‘scientific’. Different meth-
odologies become popular at different social, political,
historical and cultural times in our development, and, in
my opinion, all methodologies have their specific
strengths and weaknesses. These should be acknowledged
and addressed by the researcher. At the end of this chap-
ter references are given if you are interested in following
up any of these issues. Certainly, if you were to do so, it
would help you to think about your research methodology
in considerable depth.
Deciding which methodology is right for you
Don’t fall into the trap which many beginning (and ex-
perienced) researchers do in thinking that quantitative re-
search is ‘better’ than qualitative research. Neither is
better than the other – they are just different and both
have their strengths and weaknesses. What you will find,
however, is that your instincts probably lean you towards
one rather than the other. Listen to these instincts as you
will find it more productive to conduct the type of re-
search with which you will feel comfortable, especially if
you’re to keep your motivation levels high. Also, be aware
of the fact that your tutor or boss might prefer one type of
research over the other. If this is the case, you might have
a harder time justifying your chosen methodology, if it
goes against their preferences.
EXAMPLES OF QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
METHODOLGIES
Action research
Some researchers believe that action research is a re-
search method, but in my opinion it is better under-
stood as a methodology. In action research, the
researcher works in close collaboration with a group
of people to improve a situation in a particular setting.
The researcher does not ‘do’ research ‘on’ people, but
instead works with them, acting as a facilitator. There-
fore, good group management skills and an under-
standing of group dynamics are important skills for
16 / P R A C T I C A L R E S E A R C H M E T H O D S
HO W TO D E C I D E U P O N A M E T H O D O L O G Y / 17
the researcher to acquire. This type of research is pop-
ular in areas such as organisational management, com-
munity development, education and agricul
ture.
Action research begins with a process of communica-
tion and agreement between people who want to change
something together. Obviously, not all people within an
organisation will be willing to become co-researchers,
so action research tends to take place with a small
group of dedicated people who are open to new ideas
and willing to step back and reflect on these ideas.
The group then moves through four stages of planning,
acting, observing and reflecting. This process may hap-
pen several times before everyone is happy that the
changes have been implemented in the best possible
way. In action research various types of research meth-
od may be used, for example: the diagnosing and eval-
uating stage questionnaires, interviews and focus
groups may be used to gauge opinion on the proposed
changes.
Ethnography
Ethnography has its roots in anthropology and was a
popular form of inquiry at the turn of the century when
anthropologists travelled the world in search of remote
tribes. The emphasis in ethnography is on describing
and interpreting cultural behaviour. Ethnographers im-
merse themselves in the lives and culture of the group
being studied, often living with that group for months
on end. These researchers participate in a groups’ activ-
ities whilst observing its behaviour, taking notes, con-
ducting interviews, analysing, reflecting and writing
reports – this may be called fieldwork or participant ob-
servation. Ethnographers highlight the importance of
the written text because this is how they portray the cul-
ture they are studying.
Feminist research
There is some argument about whether feminist inquiry
should be considered a methodology or epistemology,
but in my opinion it can be both. (As we have seen,
methodology is the philosophy or the general principle
which will guide your research. Epistemology, on the
other hand, is the study of the nature of knowledge
and justification. It looks at from where knowledge
has come and how we know what we know.) Feminist
researchers argue that for too long the lives and experi-
ences of women have been ignored or misrepresented.
Often, in the past, research was conducted on male
‘subjects’ and the results generalised to the whole popu-
lation. Feminist researchers critique both the research
topics and the methods used; especially those which em-
phasise objective, scientific ‘truth’. With its emphasis on
participative, qualitative inquiry, feminist research has
provided a valuable alternative framework for research-
ers who have felt uncomfortable with treating people as
research ‘objects’. Under the umbrella of feminist re-
search are various different standpoints – these are dis-
cussed in considerable depth in some of the texts listed
at the end of this chapter.
Grounded theory
Grounded theory is a methodology which was first laid
out in 1967 by two researchers named Glaser and
18 / PRACT ICAL RE SEARCH MET HODS
H O W T O D E C I DE U P ON A M E T H OD O L O G Y / 19
Strauss. It tends to be a popular form of inquiry in the
areas of education and health research. The emphasis in
this methodology is on the generation of theory which
is grounded in the data – this means that it has emerged
from the data. This is different from other types of re-
search which might seek to test a hypothesis that has
been formulated by the researcher. In grounded theory,
methods such as focus groups and interviews tend to be
the preferred data collection method, along with a com-
prehensive literature review which takes place through-
out the data collection process. This literature review
helps to explain emerging results.
In grounded theory studies the number of people to be
interviewed is not specified at the beginning of the re-
search. This is because the researcher, at the outset, is
unsure of where the research will take her. Instead,
she continues with the data collection until ‘saturation’
point is reached, that is, no new information is being
provided. Grounded theory is therefore flexible and en-
ables new issues to emerge that the researcher may not
have thought about previously.
So, how do you decide which is the best methodology for
your research? Perhaps the easiest way to do this is to de-
cide first of all whether you should consider qualitative or
quantitative research. Have another look at the five ‘Ws’
discussed in Chapter 1. If you have not already done so,
go through each question in relation to your own research.
Once you have done this, clues will start to emerge about
what is the best form of inquiry for you.
First of all, have a look at the words you have used. Cer-
tain words help to suggest a leaning towards qualitative
research, others towards quantitative research. For exam-
ple, if you have written ‘how many’, ‘test’, ‘verify’, ‘how
often’ or ‘how satisfied’, this suggests a leaning towards
quantitative research. If you have written words such as
‘discover’, ‘motivation’, ‘experiences’, ‘think/thoughts’,
‘problems’, or ‘behave/behaviour’, this suggests a leaning
towards qualitative research. However, you may find that
you have written a combination of these words which
could mean two things. Firstly, you might want to think
about combining both qualitative and quantitative re-
search, which is called triangulation. Many researchers be-
lieve this is a good way of approaching research as it
enables you to counteract the weaknesses in both qualita-
tive and quantitative research. Secondly, it could mean
that your ideas are still unclear and that you need to focus
a little more.
To help you understand the thought processes involved in
these decisions, let’s return to the exercise given in the
previous chapter:
EXAMPLE 2: Revised statements
Original statement 1: This research aims to find out what
people think about television.
After having thought about how to focus her topic,
make the project more manageable and produce a
worthwhile piece of research, the researcher came up
with the following revised statement:
20 / PRACT ICAL R ESE ARCH MET HODS
H O W T O D E C I D E U P O N A ME T H O D OL O G Y / 21
Revised Statement 1: This research aims to find out what
primary school teachers think about the educational value
of ‘The Teletubbies’ television programme.
This research topic is now well-focused. When the stu-
dent suggested this research it was also very topical –
The Teletubbies had been released only four weeks prior
to the research and complaints about their language
were filling the national media. The main clue to the
methodology is the word ‘think’. The student wishes
to get an in-depth opinion, but is not concerned with
speaking to a large number of primary school teachers.
This suggests a qualitative form of
inquiry.
Original statement 2: My project is to do some research
into Alzheimer’s disease, to find out what people do when
their relatives have it and what support they can get and
how nurses deal with it.
This researcher decided to narrow down his topic. Also,
he found out some more information about whether his
research needed to go to a Research Ethics Committee
by checking out the website www.corec.org.uk. This site
gives details about the committees, a list of meeting
dates, guidance notes and application forms for those
researchers interested in putting forward a proposal.
Revised statement 2: The aim of this research is to
find out how many relatives of Alzheimer’s patients use
the Maple Day Centre, and to ascertain whether the ser-
vice is meeting their needs.
Again this topic is now much better focused. The
research population is limited to relatives of Alzhei-
mer’s patients who use the Maple Day Centre. One clue
to the methodology is in the words ‘how many’ which
suggests a quantitative study. However, he is also inter-
ested in finding out whether the service meets their
needs, which requires some more in-depth inquiry. This
suggests a combination of qualitative and quantitative
inquiry.
Original Statement 3: We want to find out how many of
the local residents are interested in a play scheme for chil-
dren during the summer holiday.
The tenants’ association thought carefully about the is-
sues in which they were interested, eventually coming
up with the following revised statement:
Revised Statement 3: This research aims to find out how
many people from our estate are interested in, and would
use, a children’s play scheme in the school summer holiday.
Again, the clue in this example is ‘how many’. The
tenants’ association wanted to obtain funding for their
play scheme and felt that it was important to gather sta-
tistics which they could take to possible funding organi-
sations. This suggests a quantitative
study.
SUMMARY
The research methodology is the philosophy or general
principle which guides the research.
Research methods are the tools you use to gather your
data.
Qualitative research explores attitudes, behaviour and
experiences.
22 / PRACT ICAL R ESE ARCH MET HODS
H O W T O D E C I DE U P ON A M E T H OD O L O G Y / 23
Examples of qualitative methodologies include action
research, ethnography, feminist research and grounded
theory.
Quantitative research generates statistics through the
use of large-scale survey research.
Neither qualitative nor quantitative research is better –
they are just different. Both have their strengths and
weaknesses.
Your own intuition and the words you use will give
pointers to whether qualitative or quantitative research
is more appropriate for your chosen project.
The term ‘triangulation’ is used when a combination of
qualitative and quantitative forms of inquiry are used.
FURTHER READING
The theoretical and philosophical issues raised in this
chapter are detailed and complex and cannot be discussed
in depth in this book. However, if you wish to pursue any
of these topics, some of the useful publications are listed
below under the relevant topics.
Qualitative research
Over recent years there has been a great deal of innova-
tion in the use of qualitative methodologies. Listed below
are some of the more traditional texts and a selection of
the newer, innovative texts.
Denzin, N.K. and Lincoln, Y.S. (eds.) (2000) Handbook of
Qualitative Re
search, 2
nd
edition, Thousand Oaks, CA:
Sage.
Higgs, J., Armstrong, H. and Horsfall, D. (2001) Critical
Moments in Qualitative Research, Oxford: Butterworth-
Heinemann.
Hollway, W. and Jefferson, T. (2000) Doing Qualitative Re-
search Differently: Free Association, Narrative and the
Interview Method,
London: Sage.
Schwandt, T. (1997) Qualitative Inquiry: A Dictionary of
Terms,
Thousand
Oaks,
CA: Sage.
Van Maanen, J. (ed.) (1983) Qualitative Methodology,
Beverly Hells, CA: Sage.
Quantitative research
De Vaus, D.A. (1991) Surveys in Social Research, 3rd
edi-
tion,
London: UCL
Press.
Fowler, F. (2001) Survey Research Methods, 3
rd
edition,
Thou
sand
Oaks, CA: Sage.
Marsh, C. (1982) The Survey Method: The Contribution of
Surveys to Sociological Explanation, London: George
Allen and Unwin.
Sapsford, R. (1999) Survey Research, London: Sage.
Action research
Alvesson, M. and Sköldberg, K. (2000) Reflexive Metho-
dology: New Vistas for Qualitative Research, Thousand
Oaks, CA: Sage.
Brooks, A. and Watkins, E. (eds.) (1994) The Emerging
Power of Action Inquiry Technologies, San Francisco:
Jossey-Bass.
Dadds, M. and Hart, S. (eds.) (2001) Doing Practitioner
Research Differently, London: Routledge Falmer.
McNiff, J. (2000) Action Research in Organisations, Lon-
don:
Routledge.
Reason, P. and Bradbury H. (eds.) (2000) Handbook of
24 / P R A C T I C A L R E S E AR C H M E T H O D S
H O W T O D E C I D E U P O N A ME T H O D O L O G Y / 25
Action Research: Participative Inquiry and Practice,
Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Ethnography
Atkinson, P. (1992) The Ethnographic Imagination, Lon-
don: Routledge.
Davies, C.A. (1999) Reflexive Ethnography: a guide to re-
searching selves and others, London: Routledge.
Hammersley, M. and Atkinson, P. (1995) Ethnography:
Principles in Practice, 2
nd
edition, London: Routledge.
Thomas, J. (1993) Doing Critical Ethnography, Newbury
Park, CA: Sage.
Van Maanen, J. (1988) Tales of the Field: On Writing Eth-
nography, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Wolcott, H.F. (1999) Ethnography: a way of seeing, Wal-
nut Creek, CA: Altamira.
Feminist research
Alcoff, L. and Potter, E. (eds.) (1993) Feminist Epistemol-
ogies, London: Routledge.
Fonow, M.M. and Cook, J.A. (eds.) (1991) Beyond Meth-
odology: Feminist Scholarship as Lived Research, Bloo-
mington: Indiana
University Press.
Harding, S. (ed.) (1987) Feminism and Methodology, Mil-
ton Keynes: Open University Press.
Harding, S. (1991) Whose Science? Whose Knowledge?
Thinking From Women’s Lives, Milton Keynes: Open
University Press.
Stanley, L. and Wise, S. (1983) Breaking Out: Feminist
Consciousness and Feminist Research, London: Routle-
dge and Kegan Paul.
Stanley, L. and Wise, S. (1993) Breaking Out Again: Fem-
inist Ontology and Epistemology, London: Routledge.
Grounded theory
Dey, I. (1998) Grounding Grounded Theory: Guidelines for
Qualitative Inquiry, San Diego: Academic Press.
Glaser, B. and Strauss, A. (1967) The Discovery of
Grounded Theory, Chicago: Aldine.
Strauss, A. and Corbin, J. (1990) Basics of Qualitative Re-
search: Grounded Theory Procedures and Techniques,
Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
26 / P R A C T I C A L R E S E A R C H M E T H O D S
3
How to ChooseYour
Research Methods
As we have seen in the previous chapter, research methods
are the tools you use to collect your data. Before you de-
cide which would be the most appropriate methods for
your research, you need to find out a little more about
these tools. This chapter gives a description of the meth-
ods of interviewing, focus groups, questionnaires and par-
ticipant observation. Chapters 7–10 will go on to describe
in detail how to use each of these
methods.
INTERVIEWING
In social research there are many types of interview. The
most common of these are unstructured, semi-structured
and structured interviews. If you want to find out about
other types of interview, relevant references are given at
the end of this chapter.
Unstructured interviews
Unstructured or in-depth interviews are sometimes called
life history interviews. This is because they are the fa-
voured approach for life history research. In this type of
interview, the researcher attempts to achieve a holistic un-
derstanding of the interviewees’ point of view or situation.
For example, if you want to find out about a Polish man’s
experiences of a concentration camp during the war,
27
you’re delving into his life history. Because you are unsure
of what has happened in his life, you want to enable him
to talk freely and ask as few questions as possible. It is for
this reason that this type of interview is called unstruc-
tured – the participant is free to talk about what he or
she deems important, with little directional influence from
the researcher. This type of interview can only be used for
qualitative research.
As the researcher tries to ask as few questions as possible,
people often assume that this type of interviewing is the
easiest. However, this is not necessarily the case. Re-
searchers have to be able to establish rapport with the par-
ticipant – they have to be trusted if someone is to reveal
intimate life information. This can be difficult and takes
tact, diplomacy and perseverance. Also, some people find
it very difficult to remain quiet while another person talks,
sometimes for hours on end. Researchers need to remain
alert, recognising important information and probing for
more detail. They need to know how to tactfully steer
someone back from totally irrelevant digressions. Also,
it is important to realise that unstructured interviewing
can produce a great deal of data which can be difficult
to analyse.
Semi-structured interviews
Semi-structured interviewing is perhaps the most com-
mon type of interview used in qualitative social research.
In this type of interview, the researcher wants to know
specific information which can be compared and con-
trasted with information gained in other interviews. To
do this, the same questions need to be asked in each inter-
28 / P R A C T I C A L R E S E A R C H M E T H O D S
H O W T O C H O O S E Y O U R R E S E A R C H M E T H O D S / 29
view. However, the researcher also wants the interview to
remain flexible so that other important information can
still arise.
For this type of interview, the researcher produces an in-
terview schedule (see Chapter 7). This may be a list of spe-
cific questions or a list of topics to be discussed. This is
taken to each interview to ensure continuity. In some re-
search, such as a grounded theory study, the schedule is
updated and revised after each interview to include more
topics which have arisen as a result of the previous inter-
view.
Structured interviews
Structured interviews are used frequently in market re-
search. Have you ever been stopped in the street and
asked about washing powder or which magazines you
read? Or have you been invited into a hall to taste cider
or smell washing-up liquid? The interviewer asks you a
series of questions and ticks boxes with your re
sponse.
This research method is highly structured – hence the
name. Structured interviews are used in quantitative re-
search and can be conducted face-to-face or over the tele-
phone, sometimes with the aid of lap-top computers.
FOCUS GROUPS
Focus groups may be called discussion groups or group in-
terviews. A number of people are asked to come together
in a group to discuss a certain issue. For example, in mar-
ket research this could be a discussion centred on new
packaging for a breakfast cereal, or in social research this
could be to discuss adults’ experiences of school.
ADVANTAGES
Can receive a wide range of
responses during one meeting.
Participants can ask questions of
each other, lessoning impact of
researcher
bias.
Helps people to remember issues
they might otherwise have
forgotten.
Helps participants to overcome
inhibitions, especially if they
know other people in the group.
The group effect is a useful
resource in data
analysis.
Participant interaction is useful
to analyse.
DISADVANTAGES
Some people may be
uncomfortable in a group setting
and nervous about speaking in
front of others.
Not everyone may contribute.
Other people may contaminate
an individual’s views.
Some researchers may find it
difficult or intimidating to
moderate a focus group.
Venues and equipment can be
expensive.
Difficult to extract individual
views during the analysis.
The discussion is led by a moderator or facilitator who in-
troduces the topic, asks specific questions, controls di-
gressions and stops break-away conversations. She
makes sure that no one person dominates the discussion
whilst trying to ensure that each of the participants makes
a contribution. Focus groups may be video-recorded or
tape-recorded.
TABLE 1. THE FOCUS GROUP METHOD:
ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES
QUESTIONNAIRES
There are three basic types of questionnaire – closed-
ended, open-ended or a
combination of both.
30 / PRACT ICAL R ESE ARCH MET HODS
H O W T O C H O O S E Y O U R R E S E A R C H M E T H O D S / 31
1. Closed-ended questionnaires
Closed-ended questionnaires are probably the type with
which you are most familiar. Most people have experience
of lengthy consumer surveys which ask about your shop-
ping habits and promise entry into a prize draw. This type
of questionnaire is used to generate statistics in quantita-
tive research. As these questionnaires follow a set format,
and as most can be scanned straight into a computer for
ease of analysis, greater numbers can be produced.
2. Open-ended questionnaires
Open-ended questionnaires are used in qualitative re-
search, although some researchers will quantify the an-
swers during the analysis stage. The questionnaire does
not contain boxes to tick, but instead leaves a blank sec-
tion for the respondent to write in an answer. Whereas
closed-ended questionnaires might be used to find out
how many people use a service, open-ended question-
naires might be used to find out what people think about
a service. As there are no standard answers to these ques-
tions, data analysis is more complex. Also, as it is opi-
nions which are sought rather than numbers, fewer
questionnaires need to be distributed.
3. Combination of both
Many researchers tend to use a combination of both open
and closed questions. That way, it is possible to find out
how many people use a service and what they think about
that service on the same form. Many questionnaires begin
with a series of closed questions, with boxes to tick or
scales to rank, and then finish with a section of open-
questions for more detailed response.
Recently, some market research companies have started
to distribute their questionnaires via the internet. This
suggests that soon there might be a new category of ques-
tionnaire – the interactive questionnaire, which allows re-
spondents to work with the researcher in both the
development and completion of the question
naire.
PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION
There are two main ways in which researchers observe –
direct observation and participant observation. Direct ob-
servation tends to be used in areas such as health and psy-
chology. It involves the observation of a ‘subject’ in a
certain situation and often uses technology such as video
cameras or one-way mirrors. For example, the interaction
of mother, father and child in a specially prepared play
room may be watched by psychologists through a one-
way mirror in an attempt to understand more about fa-
mily relationships. In participant observation, however,
the researcher becomes much more involved in the lives
of the people being observed.
Participant observation can be viewed as both a method
and a methodology (see Chapter 10). It is popular
amongst anthropologists and sociologists who wish to
study and understand another community, culture or con-
text. They do this by immersing themselves within that
culture. This may take months or years, as they need to
build up a lasting and trusting relationship with those
people being studied. Through participation within their
chosen culture and through careful observation, they
hope to gain a deeper understanding into the behaviour,
motivation and attitudes of the people under study.
32 / P R A C T I C A L R E S E A R C H M E T H O D S
H O W T O C H O O S E Y O U R R E S E A R C H M E T H O D S / 33
Participant observation, as a research method, received
bad press when a number of researchers became covert
participant observers; entering organisations and partici-
pating in their activities without anyone knowing that
they were conducting research (see Chapter 13). Overt
participant observation, where everyone knows who the
researcher is and what she is doing, however, can be a va-
luable and rewarding method for qualitative inquiry.
CHOOSING YOUR METHODS
By now you should have thought quite seriously about
your research methodology. This will help you to decide
upon the most appropriate methods for your research.
For example, if you’re leaning towards quantitative re-
search, survey work in the form of a questionnaire or
structured interviews may be appropriate. If you’re inter-
ested in action research, it might be useful to find out
more about semi-structured interviewing or focus groups.
In quantitative research you can define your research
methods early in the planning stage. You know what
you want to find out and you can decide upon the best
way to obtain the information. Also, you will be able to
decide early on how many people you need to contact
(see Chapter 5). However, in some types of qualitative re-
search it may be difficult to define your methods specifi-
cally. You may decide that semi-structured interviews
would be useful, although you’re not sure, in the planning
stages, how many you will need to conduct. You may find
also that you need to use other methods as the research
progresses. Maybe you want to run a focus group to see
what people think about the hypotheses you have gener-
ated from the interviews. Or perhaps you need to spend
some time in the field observing something which has aris-
en during the interview stage.
De¢ning needs and means
It is not necessary to use only one research method,
although many projects do this. A combination of meth-
ods can be desirable as it enables you to overcome the dif-
ferent weaknesses inherent in all methods. What you must
be aware of, however, when deciding upon your methods,
are the constraints under which you will have to
work.
What is your time scale? What is your budget? Are you
the only researcher, or will you have others to help you?
There’s no point deciding that a large scale, national post-
al survey is the best way to do your research if you only
have a budget of £50 and two months in which to com-
plete your work.
Also, you need to think about the purpose of your re-
search as this will help point to the most appropriate
methods to use. For example, if you want to describe in
detail the experiences of a group of women trying to set
up and run a charity, you wouldn’t send them a closed-
ended questionnaire. Instead, you might ask to become
involved and set up a piece of action research in which
you can decide to use interviews and focus groups. Or
you might decide to hold two semi-structured interviews
with each of the women involved, one at the beginning of
their project and one at the end. If your goal is detailed
description, you do not need to try to contact as many
people as
possible.
34 / P R A C T I C A L R E S E A R C H M E T H O D S
H O W T O C H OO S E Y OU R R E S E A R C H M E T H O D S / 35
Let us return to the three examples in the exercises given
in the previous two chapters to find out which would be
the most appropriate methods for the research.
EXAMPLE 3: APPROPRIATE METHODS
Revised Statement 1: This research aims to find out what
primary school teachers think about the educational value
of ‘The Teletubbies’ television programme.
This researcher is interested in attitude and opinion.
She thinks about running a series of semi-structured in-
terviews with a small sample of primary school tea-
chers. However, the researcher is concerned that some
of the teachers may not have seen the programme and
might be unable to comment, or might comment purely
on ‘hearsay’. So she decides to gather together a group
of teachers and show them one episode of The Teletub-
bies. Then she discusses the programme with the tea-
chers in a focus group setting. This method works
well and the researcher decides to hold five more focus
groups with other primary school teachers.
Revised Statement 2: The aim of this research is to
find out how many relatives of Alzheimer’s patients use
the Maple Day Centre, and to ascertain whether the ser-
vice is meeting their needs.
This researcher decides to produce a questionnaire
with a combination of closed and open-ended ques-
tions. The first part of the questionnaire is designed
to generate statistics and the second part asks people
for a more in-depth opinion. He has approached mem-
bers of staff at the Maple Day Centre who are happy to
distribute his questionnaire over a period of one month.
Revised Statement 3: This research aims to find out how
many people from our estate are interested in, and would
use, a children’s play scheme in the school summer holi-
day.
.Members of the tenants’ association approach the
local school and ask the head teacher if a questionnaire
could be distributed through the school. The head tea-
cher feels that it is not appropriate so the tenants’ asso-
ciation have to revise their plans. They’re worried that
if they distribute a questionnaire through the post they
won’t receive back many responses. Eventually, they de-
cide to knock on each door on the estate and ask some
simple, standard questions. They’re able to conduct this
type of door-to-door, structured interview as they are a
large group and are able to divide the work amongst
everybody on the committee.
If, at this stage, you are still unsure of the most appropri-
ate methods for your research, read the following chapters
as these explain in more detail how to go about using each
method. This will give you more of an insight into what
would be required of you if you were to choose that meth-
od. As I stressed earlier, you need to think about your own
personality, your strengths and weaknesses, your likes and
dislikes. If you’re a nervous person who finds it difficult to
talk to strangers, face-to-face interviewing might not be
the best method for you. If you love working with groups,
you might like to find out more about focus group re-
search. If a particular culture has fascinated you for years
and you know you could immerse yourself within that cul-
36 / PRACT ICAL R ESE ARCH MET HODS
HO W TO CH O O S E Y O U R R E S E A R C H M E T HO D S / 37
ture, perhaps participant observation would interest
you.
If you love number crunching or using statistical software,
a closed-ended questionnaire may be the best method for
you.
Remember to think about choosing a method or meth-
od(s) with which you are happy as this is important to
keep your motivation levels high.
SUMMARY
Research methods are the tools that are used to gather
data.
Three types of interview are used in social research:
– Unstructured or life history interviews.
– Semi-structured interviews.
– Structured interviews.
Interviews can be conducted face-to-face or over the
telephone.
Focus groups are held with a number of people to ob-
tain a group opinion.
Focus groups are run by a moderator who asks ques-
tions and makes sure the discussion does not digress.
Questionnaires can be closed-ended, open-ended or a
combination of both.
Participant observation is used when a researcher
wants to immerse herself in a specific culture to gain
a deeper un
derstanding.
The chosen research methodology should help to indi-
cate the most appropriate research tools.
Research methods must be chosen within budget and
time constraints.
The purpose of the research will provide an indicator
to the most appropriate methods.
You should think about your personality, strengths
and weakness, likes and dislikes when choosing re-
search methods.
FURTHER READING
Balnaves, M. and Caputi, P. (2001) Introduction to Quan-
titative Research Methods: An Investigative Approach,
London: Sage.
Bernard, H.R. (2000) Social Research Methods: Qualita-
tive and Quantitative Approaches, Thousand Oaks,
CA: Sage.
Bryman, A. (2001) Social Research Methods, Oxford: Ox-
ford University Press.
Burgess, R.G. (1985) Issues in Educational Research: Qua-
litative Methods, London: The Falmer Press.
Burns, R.B. (2000) Introduction to Research Methods, 4
th
edi
tion, London: Sage.
Denscombe, M. (1998) The Good Research Guide: for
small-scale social research projects, Buckingham: Open
University Press.
Eichler, M. (1988) Non-sexist Research Methods, Boston:
Allen & Unwin.
Fowler, F. (2001) Survey Research Methods, 3
rd
edition,
Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Mason, J (1996) Qualitative Researching, London: Sage.
McNeill, P. (1990) Research Methods, 2
nd
edition, Lon-
don: Routledge.
38 / PRACT ICAL R ESE ARCH MET HODS
H O W T O C H OO S E Y OU R R E S E A R C H M E T H O D S / 39
Nielson, J.M. (1990) Feminist Research Methods, Boulder:
Westview Press.
Robson, C. (1993) Real World Research, Oxford: Black-
well.
4
How to Conduct
Background Research
Once you have decided upon a research project and you’re
able to sum up your proposed research in one sentence,
it’s time to start planning your project. The first thing
you need to do is your background research. This will help
you to become more familiar with your topic and intro-
duce you to any other research which will be of benefit
to you when you begin your own project.
PRIMARY RESEARCH AND SECONDARY RESEARCH
There are two types of background research – primary re-
search and secondary research (see Table 2). Primary re-
search involves the study of a subject through firsthand
observation and investigation. This is what you will be
doing with your main project, but you may also need to
conduct primary research for your background work,
especially if you’re unable to find any previously pub-
lished material about your topic. Primary research may
come from your own observations or experience, or from
the information you gather personally from other people,
as the following example illustrates.
40
H O W T O C O N D U C T B A C K GR OU N D R E S E A R C H / 41
EXAMPLE 4: JENNY
I was interested in looking at truancy in schools. The
idea came about from my own personal experience as
a teacher. I had noticed how some children didn’t fit
the classic description of a truant and I wanted to find
out more as I thought it might help me to deal with
some of the problems children were experiencing. So I
guess you’d say my own experience provided me with
some initial data. Then I decided to go and have a dis-
cussion with some of my colleagues and see if they’d
noticed anything like me. It was really useful to do this
because they helped me to think about other things I
hadn’t even thought of. One of them told me about a
new report which had just come out and it was useful
for me to go and have a look at it as it raised some
of the issues I was already thinking about. Actually this
made me change the focus of my work a little because I
soon found out that there had been a lot of work on one
area of what I was doing, but not so much on another
area. It was really useful to have done this before I
rushed into my research as I think I might have wasted
quite a bit of time.
In the above example, Jenny mentions a recently pub-
lished report which she has read. This is secondary re-
search and it involves the collection of information from
studies that other researchers have made of a subject. The
two easiest and most accessible places to find this informa-
tion are libraries and the internet. However, you must re-
member that anybody can publish information over the
internet and you should be aware that some of this infor-
mation can be misleading or incorrect. Of course this is
the case for any published information and as you develop
your research skills so you should also develop your criti-
cal thinking and reasoning skills. Do not believe every-
thing you’re told. Think about the information you are
being given. How was it collected? Were the methods
sound? What motives did the publishers have for making
sure their information had reached the public domain?
Using web sites
By developing these skills early in your work, you will
start to think about your own research and any personal
bias in your methods and reporting which may be present.
The web sites of many universities now carry information
about how to use the web carefully and sensibly for your
research and it is worth accessing these before you begin
your background work.
When you’re surfing the net, there are some extra precau-
tions you can take to check the reliability and quality of
the information you have found:
Try to use websites run by organisations you know and
trust.
Check the About Us section on the web page for more
information about the creator and organisation.
Use another source, if possible, to check any informa-
tion of which you are unsure. For example, if you’re
interested in medical information you can check the
42 / PRACT ICAL R ESE ARCH MET HODS
H OW TO CO N D U C T B A C K G R O U N D R E S E AR CH / 43
credentials of UK doctors by phoning the General
Medical Council.
Look for a stamp of approval such as the Which? logo
which will appear on sites that have received the re-
quired level of approval from Which?
You should check the national source of the data as in-
formation may differ between countries.
For some topics specific websites have been set up that
contain details of questionable products, services and
theories. For example, in medical research you could
visit www.quackwatch.com, which contains non-recom-
mended sources of health advice, questionable theories
and details of money-making scams.
Interlibraryloans
If you are a student your institutional library will prob-
ably offer an interlibrary loan service which means that
you can access books from other university libraries if
they are not available in your library. A useful website
is www.copac.ac.uk which provides free access to the on-
line catalogues of 21 of the largest university research li-
braries in the UK and Ireland. This is a useful service if,
when referencing, you find that a small amount of infor-
mation is missing (see Example 5 below).
EXAMPLE 5: GILLIAN
Nobody told me the importance of keeping careful re-
cords of my background research. I just thought it was
something you did and then that was it, you got on with
your own research and forgot about what you’d done.
Of course then I had to write my report and in the
‘background’ section I wanted to include loads of things
I’d read when I first started the work. I found my notes,
but I didn’t know where they’d come from. It was so
frustrating. Basically I had to start all over again. Even
then I still forgot to write down the name and location
of the publisher, so I had to go back to them again. My
advice would be to look at how bibliographies are
structured and imprint that in your brain so you don’t
forget anything.
Keeping records
When you begin your background research, keep accurate
records of what data was gathered from which source as
this will save you plenty of time and frustration later,
especially when you come to write your research proposal,
or final report. A useful way to organise your background
research is to have two files – one for primary research
and one for secondary research. Each file can be divided
into topics with the relevant notes slotted into each.
Primary research
For the primary research file, notes from each contact can
be separated by a contact sheet which gives the name of
the person, the date and time you met and a contact num-
ber or address.
Secondary research
In the secondary research file, each page of notes can be
headed by details of the publication in the same format
that will be used in the bibliography – author and initials;
date of publication; title of publication; place of publica-
44 / PRACT ICAL RESEARCH MET HODS
HOW TO C ON D UC T BACKGROUND RE SEARCH / 45
tion and publisher. If it is a journal article, remember to
include the name of the journal; the page numbers of the
article and the volume and number of the journal. It is
also useful to include the location of this publication so
that it can be found easily if needed again (website or li-
brary shelf location).
TABLE 2: SOURCES OF BACKGROUND
INFORMATION
PRIMARY SECONDARY
Relevant people Research books
Researcher observation Research reports
Researcher experience Journal articles
Historical records/texts Articles reproduced online
Company/organisation records Scientific debates
Personal documents (diaries, etc) Critiques of literary works
Statistical data Critiques of art
Works of literature Analyses of historical events
Works of art
Film/video
Laboratory experiments
SUMMARY
There are two types of background research – primary
and secondary research.
Primary research involves the study of a subject
through firsthand observation and investigation.
Secondary research involves the collection of informa-
tion from studies that other researchers have made of a
subject.
For most research, the easiest and quickest way to ac-
cess secondary sources are libraries or the in
ternet.
Any information obtained from secondary sources
must be carefully assessed for its relevance and accu-
racy.
Notes from primary and secondary sources should be
carefully filed and labelled so that the source can be
found again, if required.
When noting details for books, reports or articles
which may appear in the final report, include all the
details which would be needed for the bibliography.
FURTHER READING
Gash, S. (1999) Effective Literature Searching for Re-
search, 2
nd
edition, Aldershot: Gower.
Hart, C. (2001) Doing a Literature Search, London: Sage.
Spence, G. (2001) A Simple Guide to Internet Research,
Harlow: Prentice Hall.
46 / PRACT ICAL RESEARCH MET HODS
5
How to ChooseYour
Participants
As you continue planning your research project you need
to think about how you’re going to choose your partici-
pants. By now you should have decided what type of peo-
ple you need to contact. For some research projects, there
will be only a small number of people within your research
population, in which case it might be possible to contact
everyone. This is called a census. However, for most pro-
jects, unless you have a huge budget, limitless timescale
and large team of interviewers, it will be difficult to speak
to every person within your research population.
SAMPLING
Researchers overcome this problem by choosing a smaller,
more manageable number of people to take part in their
research. This is called sampling. In quantitative research,
it is believed that if this sample is chosen carefully using the
correct procedure, it is then possible to generalise the re-
sults to the whole of the research population. For many
qualitative researchers however, the ability to generalise
their work to the whole research population is not the
goal.
Instead, they might seek to describe or explain what is hap-
pening within a smaller group of people. This, they believe,
might provide insights into the behaviour of the wider re-
search population, but they accept that everyone is different
47
and that if the research were to be conducted with another
group of people the results might not be the same.
Sampling procedures are used everyday. Market research-
ers use them to find out what the general population think
about a new product or new advertisement. When they re-
port that 87% of the population like the smell of a new
brand of washing powder, they haven’t spoken to the
whole population, but instead have contacted only a sam-
ple of people which they believe are able to represent the
whole population. When we hear that 42% of the popula-
tion intend to vote Labour at the next General Election,
only a sample of people have been asked about their voting
intentions. If the sample has not been chosen very care-
fully, the results of such surveys can be misleading. Imagine
how misleading the results of a ‘national’ survey on voting
habits would be if the interviews were conducted only in
the leafy suburbs of an English southern city.
Probabilitysamples and purposive samples
There are many different ways to choose a sample, and the
method used will depend upon the area of research, re-
search methodology and preference of the researcher. Ba-
sically there are two main types of sample:
probability samples
purposive samples.
In probability samples, all people within the research po-
pulation have a specifiable chance of being selected. These
types of sample are used if the researcher wishes to ex-
plain, predict or generalise to the whole research popula-
tion. On the other hand, purposive samples are used if
48 / PRACT ICAL RESEARCH MET HODS
H O W T O C H O O S E Y O U R P A R T I C I P A N T S / 49
description rather than generalisation is the goal. In this
type of sample it is not possible to specify the possibility
of one person being included in the sample. Within the
probability and purposive categories there are several dif-
ferent sampling methods.
The best way to illustrate these sampling methods is to
take one issue and show how the focus of the research
and the methodology leads to the use of different sam-
pling methods. The area of research is ‘school detention’
and in Table 3 you can see that the focus and sampling
techniques within this topic can be very different, depend-
ing on the preferences of the researcher, the purpose of
the research and the available resources.
SAMPLE SIZE
The first question new researchers tend to ask is ‘how
many people should I speak to?’ This obviously depends
on the type of research. For large scale, quantitative sur-
veys you will need to contact many more people than you
would for a small, qualitative piece of research. The sam-
ple size will also depend on what you want to do with your
results. If you intend to produce large amounts of cross
tabulations, the more people you contact the better.
It tends to be a general rule in quantitative research that
the larger the sample the more accurate your results.
However, you have to remember that you are probably re-
stricted by time and money – you have to make sure that
you construct a sample which will be manageable. Also,
you have to account for non-response and you may need
to choose a higher proportion of your research population
PROBABILITY SAMPLES
The researcher is interested in
finding out about national detention
rates. He wants to make sure that
every school in the country has an
equal chance of being chosen
because he hopes to be able to make
generalisations from his findings. He
decides to use a simple random
sample. Using this method the
researcher needs to obtain the name
of every school in the country.
Numbers are assigned to each name
and a random sample generated by
computer. He then sends a
questionnaire to each of the selected
schools. The researcher would have
to make sure that he obtained the
name of every school in the country
for this method to work properly.
The researcher wants to find out
about national detention rates, but is
interested also in finding out about
school policy concerning detention.
He decides that to do this he needs to
visit each selected school. To cut
down on travel costs, he decides to
use a cluster sample. Using this
method, geographical ‘clusters’ are
chosen and a random sample of
schools from each cluster is
generated using random number
tables found at the back of some
statistics books. Using this method
the researcher only needs to travel to
schools within the selected
geographical regions. The researcher
would have to make sure that he
chose his clusters very carefully,
especially as policy concerning
detention might vary between
regions.
PURPOSIVE SAMPLES
The researcher decides that he wants
to interview a sample of all pupils
within a school, regardless of whether
they have been on detention or not.
He decides to use a quota sample to
make sure that all groups within the
school are represented. He decides to
interview a specified number of
female and male school pupils, a
specified number of arts, sciences and
social science pupils and a specified
number within different age
categories. He continues approaching
students and interviewing them until
his quota is complete. By using this
method only those pupils present at
the same time and in the same place
as the researcher have a chance of
being selected.
The researcher is interested in
carrying out semi-structured
interviews with pupils who have been
on detention over the past year.
However, he finds that the school has
not kept accurate records of these
pupils. Also, he doesn’t want to
approach the school because he will
be seen by the pupils as an authority
figure attached to the school. He
decides that a snowball sample would
be the most appropriate method. He
happens to know a pupil who has
been on detention recently and so
speaks to her, asking for names of
other pupils who might be willing to
talk to him. The researcher should
obtain permission and have a
chaperone or guardian present at the
interviews. He needs to be aware also
that friends tend to recommend
friends, which could lead to sampling
bias.
TABLE 3: SAMPLING TECHNIQUES
50 / P R A C T I C A L R E S E A R C H M E T H O D S
PROBABILITY SAMPLES
The researcher has decided that he
wishes to conduct a structured
interview with all the children who
have been on detention within a year
at one school. With the head
teacher’s permission, he obtains a
list of all these pupils. He decides to
use a quasi-random sample or
systematic sample. Using this method
he chooses a random point on the
list and then every third pupil is
selected. The problem with this
method is that it depends upon how
the list has been organised. If, for
example, the list has been organised
alphabetically, the researcher needs
to be aware that some cultures and
nationalities may have family names
which start with the same letters.
This means that these children would
be grouped together in the list and
may, therefore, be underrepresented
in the sample.
The researcher has decided that he
wishes to concentrate on the
detention rates of pupils by GCSE
subject choice and so decides upon a
stratified random sample. Using this
method the researcher stratifies his
sample by subject area and then
chooses a random sample of pupils
from each subject area. However, if
he found that there were many more
pupils in the arts than the sciences,
he could decide to choose a
disproportionate stratified sample
and increase the sample size of the
science pupils to make sure that his
data are meaningful. The researcher
would have to plan this sample very
carefully and would need accurate
records of subjects and pupils.
PURPOSIVE SAMPLES
The researcher has heard of a local
school which has very few detentions,
despite that school having a
detention policy. He decides to find
out why and visits the school to speak
to the head teacher. Many interesting
points arise from the interview and
the researcher decides to use a
theoretical sampling technique. Using
this method the emerging theory
helps the researcher to choose the
sample. For example, he might decide
to visit a school that has a high
detention rate and a school that has
no detention policy, all of which will
help to explain differing detention
rates and attitudes towards them.
Within this sampling procedure, he
might choose to sample extreme cases
which help to explain something, or
he might choose heterogeneous
samples where there is a deliberate
strategy to select people who are alike
in some relevant detail. Again the
researcher has to be aware of
sampling bias.
The researcher is a teacher himself
and decides to interview colleagues,
as he has limited time and resources
available to him. This is a
convenience sample. Also, at a
conference he unexpectedly gets to
interview other teachers. This might
be termed haphazard or accidental
sampling. The ability to generalise
from this type of sample is not the
goal, and, as with other sampling
procedures, the researcher has to be
aware of bias which could enter the
process. However, the insider status
of the teacher may help him to
obtain information or access which
might not be available to other
researchers.
H O W T O C H O O S E Y O U R P A R T I C I P A N T S / 51
TABLE 4: SAMPLING DOS AND DON’TS
DO
Take time and effort to work
out your sample correctly if
you’re conducting a large
scale survey. Read the
relevant literature suggested
in this book. Time taken at
the beginning will save
much wasted time later.
Discuss your proposed
sampling procedure and size
with your tutor, boss or
other researchers.
Be realistic about the size of
sample possible on your
budget and within your time
scale.
Be open and up front about
your sample. What are your
concerns? Could anything
have been done differently?
How might you improve
upon your methods?
Use a combination of
sampling procedures if it is
appropriate for your work.
DON’T
Rush into your work
without thinking very
carefully about sampling
issues. If you get it wrong it
could invalidate your whole
research.
Ignore advice from those
who know what they’re
talking ab
out.
Take on more than you can
cope with. A badly worked
out, large sample may not
produce as much useful data
as a well-worked out, small
sample.
Make claims which cannot
be justified nor generalised
to the whole population.
Stick rigorously to a
sampling technique that is
not working. Admit your
mistakes, learn by them and
change to something more
appropriate
52 / P R A C T I C A L R E S E A R C H M E T H O D S
HO W TO CH O O S E Y O U R P A R T I C I P AN T S / 53
as your sample to overcome this problem. If you’re inter-
ested in large-scale quantitative research, statistical meth-
ods can be used to choose the size of sample required for
a given level of accuracy and the ability to make general-
isations. These methods and procedures are described in
the statistics books listed at the end of this chapter.
If your research requires the use of purposive sampling
techniques, it may be difficult to specify at the beginning
of your research how many people you intend to contact.
Instead you continue using your chosen procedure such as
snowballing or theoretical sampling until a ‘saturation
point’ is reached. This was a term used by Glaser and
Strauss (1967) to describe that time of your research when
you really do think that everything is complete and that
you’re not obtaining any new information by continuing.
In your written report you can then describe your sam-
pling procedure, including a description of how many
people were contacted.
SUMMARY
If it is not possible to contact everyone in the research
population, researchers select a number of people to
contact. This is called sampling.
There are two main types of sampling category – prob-
ability samples and purposive samples.
In probability samples, all people within the research
population have a specifiable chance of being selected.
Only within random samples do participants have an
equal chance of being selected.
Purposive samples are used if generalisation is not the
goal.
The size of sample will depend upon the type and pur-
pose of the research.
Sample sizes should take into account issues of non-re-
sponse.
Remember that with postal surveys it might be difficult
to control and know who has filled in a questionnaire.
Will this affect your sample?
In some purposive samples it is difficult to specify at
the beginning of the research how many people will
be contacted.
It is possible to use a mixture of sampling techniques
within one project which may help to overcome some
of the disadvantages found within different procedures.
FURTHER READING
Bryman, A. and Cramer, D. (1990) Quantitative Data
Analysis for Social Scientists, London: Routledge.
Clegg, F. (1989) Simple Statistics, Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
De Vaus, D. (1991) Surveys in Social Research, 3rd edition,
London: UCL Press.
Henry, G. (1990) Practical Sampling, Newbury Park, CA:
Sage.
Huff, D. (1994) How to Lie With Statistics, NY: Nor
ton.
Field, A. (2000) Discovering Statistics Using SPSS for
Win-
dows: Advanced Techniques for Beginners, London: Sage.
Owen, F. and Jones, R. (1994) Statistics, 4
th
edition, Lon-
don: Pitman.
54 / P R A C T I C A L R E S E A R C H M E T H O D S
6
How to Prepare a
Research Proposal
For most types of research you will need to produce a re-
search proposal. This is a document which sets out your
ideas in an easily accessible way. Even if you have not been
asked specifically to produce a research proposal by your
boss or tutor, it is a good idea to do so, as it helps you
to focus your ideas and provides a useful document for
you to reference, should your research wander off track a
little.
Before you start work on your research proposal, find out
whether you’re required to produce the document in a
specific format. For college and university students, you
might be given a general outline and a guide as to how
many pages to produce. For those of you who are produ-
cing a proposal to send to a funding organisation you
might have to produce something much more specific.
Many funding organisations provide their own forms for
you to complete. Some provide advice and guidance about
what they would like to see in your proposal. The larger
funding bodies produce their proposal forms on-line so
that they can be filled in and sent electronically, which
makes the process a lot quicker and easier.
55
THE CONTENTS OFA PROPOSAL
All research proposals should contain the following infor-
mation:
T|tle
This should be short and explanatory.
Background
This section should contain a rationale for your research.
Why are you undertaking the project? Why is the research
needed? This rationale should be placed within the con-
text of existing research or within your own experience
and/or observation. You need to demonstrate that you
know what you’re talking about and that you have knowl-
edge of the literature surrounding this topic. If you’re un-
able to find any other research which deals specifically
with your proposed project, you need to say so, illustrat-
ing how your proposed research will fill this gap. If there is
other work which has covered this area, you need to show
how your work will build on and add to the existing
knowledge. Basically, you have to convince people that
you know what you’re talking about and that the research
is important.
Aims and objectives
Many research proposal formats will ask for only one or
two aims and may not require objectives. However, for
some research these will need to be broken down in more
depth to also include the objectives (see Example 6). The
aim is the overall driving force of the research and the ob-
jectives are the means by which you intend to achieve the
aims. These must be clear and succinct.
56 / PRACT ICAL R ESE ARCH MET HODS
EXAMPLE 6: AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
Aim
To identify, describe and produce an analysis of the interact-
ing factors which influence the learning choices of adult re-
turners, and to develop associated theory.
Objectives
The research seeks to determine:
1. The nature, extent and effect of psychological influences on
choices, including a desire to achieve personal goals or meet
individual needs.
2. The nature, extent and effect of sociological influences on
choices, including background, personal and social expecta-
tions, previous educational experience and social role.
3. The nature and influence of individual perceptions of
courses, institutions and subject, and how these relate to
self-perception and concept of self.
4. The influence on choice of a number of variables such as
age, gender, ethnicity and social class.
5. The role and possible influence of significant others on
choice, such as advice and guidance workers, peers, relatives
and employers.
6. The nature and extent of possible influences on choice of
available provision, institutional advertising and marketing.
7. The nature and extent of possible influences on choice of
mode of study, teaching methods and type of course.
8. How and to what extent influencing factors change as
adults re-enter and progress through their chosen route.
H O W T O P R E P A R E A R E S E A R C H P R O P O S A L / 57
Methodology/methods
For research at postgraduate level you may need to split
the methodology and methods section into two. However,
for most projects they can be combined. In this section
you need to describe your proposed research methodology
and methods and justify their use. Why have you decided
upon your methodology? Why have you decided to use
those particular methods? Why are other methods not ap-
propriate? This section needs to include details about
samples, numbers of people to be contacted, method of
data collection, methods of data analysis and ethical con-
siderations. If you have chosen a less well known metho-
dology, you may need to spend more time justifying your
choice than you would need to if you had chosen a more
traditional methodology. This section should be quite de-
tailed – many funding organisations find that the most
common reason for proposal failure is the lack of metho-
dological detail.
T|metable
A detailed timetable scheduling all aspects of the research
should be produced. This will include time taken to con-
duct background research, questionnaire or interview
schedule development, data collection, data analysis and
report writing (see Table 5). Research almost always takes
longer than you anticipate. Allow for this and add a few
extra weeks on to each section of your timetable. If you
finish earlier than you anticipated, that’s fine as you have
more time to spend on your report. However, finishing
late can create problems especially if you have to meet
deadlines.
58 / PRACT ICAL R ESE ARCH MET HODS
TABLE 5: SURVEY TIMETABLE
DATE
5 January – 5 February
6 February – 7 March
8 March – 9 April
10 April – 21 April
21 April – 1 May
1 May – 1 July
2 July – 3 August
ACTION
Literature search
Primary research (talk to relevant
people)
Develop and pilot questionnaire
Continue literature search
Analyse pilot work and revise
questionnaire
Ask relevant people for comments
Send out questionnaire
Categorise returned questionnaires
Send out reminder letter for non-
responses. Continue to categorise
returned questionnaires.
Data input
Data analysis
Write report
Prepare oral presentation
Budget and resources
If you’re applying to a funding body you need to think
about what you will need for your research and how much
this is likely to cost (see Table 6). You need to do this so
that you apply for the right amount of money and are not
left out of pocket if you have under-budgeted. Funding
bodies also need to know that you have not over-budgeted
and expect more money than you’re going to use. If you
are a student you may not have to include this section in
your proposal, although some tutors will want to know
that you have thought carefully about what resources
are needed and from where you expect to obtain these.
Some types of research are more expensive than others
and if you’re on a limited budget you will have to think
about this when deciding upon your research method.
H O W T O P R E P AR E A R E S E A R C H P R O P O S A L / 59
TABLE 6: RESEARCH BUDGET
RESOURCE
1 good quality personal recorder
with battery indicator light, self-
turning mechanism and headphones
10 90-minute audio cassette tapes
20 long-life batteries
40 second class postage stamps
Stationery – paper, envelopes, paper
clips, ring binder, scissors
Travel expenses – petrol, overnight
stay at five locations
Advert in local paper
Leaflets (1000)
Total Expenditure
COST
£109.99
£6.99
£8.99
£7.60
£8.76
Petrol to be notified at
usual college mileage
allowance
Total accommodation
£199.95
£3.70
£21.90
£367.88 + petrol (to be
notified)
Dissemination
What do you expect to do with the results of your re-
search? How are you going to let people know about what
you have found out? For students it will suffice to say that
the results will be produced in an undergraduate disserta-
tion which will be made available in the institution li-
brary. For other researchers you may want to produce a
written report, make oral presentations to relevant
bodies, produce a web site or write a journal article.
WHAT MAKES AGOODPROPOSAL?
Relevance, either to the work of the funding body or to
the student’s course.
60 / PRACT ICAL R ESE ARCH MET HODS
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The research is unique, or offers new insight or devel-
opment.
The title, aims and objectives are all clear and succinct.
Comprehensive and thorough background research
and literature review has been undertaken.
There is a good match between the issues to be ad-
dressed and the approach being adopted.
The researcher demonstrates relevant background
knowledge and/or experience.
Timetable, resources and budget have all been worked
out thoroughly, with most eventualities covered.
Useful policy and practice implications.
REASONS WHY RESEARCHPROPOSALS FAIL
Aims and objectives are unclear or vague.
There is a mismatch between the approach being
adopted and the issues to be addressed.
The overall plan is too ambitious and difficult to
achieve in the timescale.
The researcher does not seem to have conducted en-
ough in-depth background research.
Problem is of insufficient importance.
Information about the data collection is insufficiently
detailed.
Information about the data analysis method is insuffi-
ciently detailed.
Timescale is inappropriate or unrealistic.
Resources and budget have not been carefully thought
out.
This topic has been done too many times before – in-
dicates a lack in background research.
SUMMARY
Most research projects will require the production of a
research proposal which sets out clearly and succinctly
your proposed project.
Before you write your proposal, check whether you
need to produce it in a specific format.
The standard research proposal should include the fol-
lowing:
– title
– background (including literature search)
– aims and objectives
– methodology/methods
– timetable
– budget and resources
– dissemination.
Research proposals stand a better chance of being ac-
cepted if you’re able to prove that you have the re-
quired knowledge and/or experience to carry out the
research effectively.
It is important to make sure that your proposed meth-
ods will address the problem you have identified and
that you are able to display an understanding of these
methods.
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FURTHER READING
Locke, L.F., Spirduso, W.W. and Silverman, S.J. (1999)
Proposals That Work: a guide for planning dissertations
and grant proposals, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Punch, K.F. (2000) Developing Effective Research Propo-
sals, London: Sage.
7
How to Conduct Interviews
As we have seen in Chapter 3, there are three main types of
interview which tend to be used in social research – un-
structured interviews, semi-structured interviews and
structured interviews. For each type you will need to think
about how you are going to record the interview, what type
of questions you need to ask, how you intend to establish
rapport and how you can probe for more information.
METHODS OFRECORDING
If you’ve decided that interviewing is the most appropriate
method for your research, you need to think about what
sort of recording equipment you’re going to use. You
should think about this early on in your research as you
need to become familiar with its use through practice.
Even if you decide not to use tape-recording equipment,
and instead use pen and paper, you should practice taking
notes in an interview situation, making sure that you can
maintain eye contact and write at the same time. If, how-
ever, you’re conducting a structured interview, you will
probably develop a questionnaire with boxes to tick as
your method of recording (see Chapter 9). This is perhaps
the simplest form of recording, although you will have to
be familiar with your questionnaire, to make sure you can
do it quickly and efficiently.
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HOW TO C ON D UC T I NTE RVIEWS / 65
Using atape recorder
A suitable tape recorder is one of personal stereo size
which uses normal size cassettes and has a built-in micro-
phone. A battery indicator light is crucial – it enables you
to check that the recording continues throughout the inter-
view without drawing attention to the machine. A recorder
which automatically turns at the end of the tape is useful as
you can have twice as long uninterrupted interviewing.
Tape-Recording Checklist
Are you familiar with your equipment? Do you know
how it works? Have you spent time practising?
Is your equipment working properly? Test it prior to
the interview.
Have you checked the batteries? They can run out very
quickly and this will have an influence on the quality of
recording.
Do you have two spare cassettes?
Do you have spare batteries?
Is the room free from background noise, such as traf-
fic, noisy central heating systems and drink machines?
If not, how will these noises affect the recording? Are
you prepared to take notes?
Is the recorder placed on a smooth, non-vibratory surface?
Is the recorder close enough to pick up both voices? It
is important to hear your own voice as well as that of
the interviewee so that you know what answers have
been given to which questions.
TABLE 7: RECORDING METHODS: ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES
RECORDING
METHOD
Tape recorder
Video recorder
Note-taking
Box-ticking
ADVANTAGES
Can concentrate on listening to what they
say.
Able to maintain eye contact.
Have a complete record of interview for
analysis, including what is said and
interaction between interviewer and
interviewee.
Have plenty of useful quotations for report.
Produces the most comprehensive recording
of an interview.
Gives a permanent record of what is said
and includes a record of body language,
facial expressions and interaction.
Don’t have to rely on recording equipment
which could fail.
Is the cheapest method if on a very limited
budget.
Interviewees may think they have something
important to say if they see you taking notes
– while you write they may add more
information.
Simple to use.
Easy to analyse.
Easy to compare information with that
obtained from other interviews.
DISADVANTAGES
Rely on equipment – if it fails you have no
record of interview.
Can become complacent – don’t listen as much
as you should because it’s being recorded.
Some interviewees may be nervous of tape-
recorders.
The more equipment you use the more chances
there are that something will go wrong.
This method can be expensive and the
equipment hard to transport.
Cannot maintain eye contact all the time.
Can be hard to concentrate on what they’re
saying and to probe for more information.
Can be tiring.
Will not have many verbatim quotations for
final report.
Inflexible – no scope for additional
information.
Forces interviewees to answer in a certain
way.
May leave interviewees feeling that they have
not answered in the way they would have liked
to have done.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Overcome equipment failure by practice
beforehand and checking throughout
interview, without drawing attention to
machine.
Could take a few notes as well – helps you
to write down important issues and you
will have some record if equipment fails.
If you want to use video equipment it is
preferable to obtain the help of someone
experienced in the use of the equipment.
That way you can concentrate on the
interview while someone else makes sure
that it is recorded correctly.
Need to make sure that you have a
suitable venue for this type of recording.
You will need to develop a type of
shorthand which you can understand and
you will need to learn to write very
quickly.
You have to make sure that the
questionnaire is very carefully designed so
that you cover as many types of answer as
possible.
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Does the recorder continue to run throughout the in-
terview? Try not to draw attention to the machine, but
check the battery indicator light every now and again.
Be aware of when the tape is about to finish.
It is useful to take a pen and notepad with you to the in-
terview, even if you intend to use a recorder. You might
find it useful to jot down pertinent points to which you
want to return later, or use it to remind yourself of what
you haven’t yet asked. Also, you might encounter some-
one who doesn’t want to be recorded. This could be be-
cause the research is on a sensitive issue, or it might be
that the interviewee has a fear of being recorded.
Taking notes
If you intend to take notes, buy yourself a shorthand no-
tepad and develop a shorthand style which you’ll be able
to understand later (see Chapter 10). It is advisable to
write up all notes into a longer report as soon as possible
after the interview while it’s still fresh in your mind. It can
be tiring taking notes in long interviews, so only arrange
one or two per day. You must learn to try and maintain
some eye contact while you’re writing, and make sure that
you nod every now and again to indicate that you’re still
listening. Try also to get one or two verbatim quotations
as these will be useful for
your final report.
THE INTERVIEW SCHEDULE
For most types of interview you need to construct an in-
terview schedule. For structured interviews you will need
to construct a list of questions which is asked in the same
order and format to each participant (see Chapter 9). For
semi-structured interviews the schedule may be in the
form of a list of questions or a list of topics. If you’re
new to research, you might prefer a list of questions that
you can ask in a standard way, thus ensuring that you do
not ask leading questions or struggle for something to
ask. However, a list of topics tends to offer more flexibil-
ity, especially in unstructured interviews where the inter-
viewee is left to discuss issues she deems to be important.
By ticking off each topic from your list as it is discussed,
you can ensure that all topics have been covered. Often
interviewees will raise issues without being asked and a
list of topics ensures that they do not have to repeat them-
selves. Also, it allows the interviewee to raise pertinent is-
sues which you may not have thought about. These can
then be added to the schedule for the next interview.
If you’re nervous about working with a list of topics rather
than a list of questions, a good way to overcome this is to
ask a few set questions first and then, once you and the
interviewee have both relaxed, move on to a set of topics.
With practice, you will feel comfortable interviewing and
will choose the method which suits you best.
If you take time to produce a detailed interview schedule,
it helps you to focus your mind on your research topic,
enabling you to think about all the areas which need to
be covered. It should also alert you to any sensitive or con-
troversial issues which could arise. When developing an
interview schedule for any type of interview, begin with
easy to answer, general questions which will help the in-
terviewee feel at ease. Don’t expect in-depth, personal dis-
closure immediately.
68 / P R A C T I C A L R E S E A R C H M E T H O D S
HOW TO DEVELOP AN INTERVIEW SCHEDULE
Brainstorm your research topic – write down every
area you can think of without analysis or judgement.
Work through your list carefully, discarding irrele-
vant topics and grouping similar suggestions.
Categorise each suggestion under a list of more gen-
eral topics.
Order these general topics into a logical sequence,
leaving sensitive or controversial issues until the
end – ask about experience and behaviour before
asking about opinion and feelings. Move from gen-
eral to specific.
Think of questions you will want to ask relating to
each of these areas. If you’re new to research you
might find it useful to include these questions on
your schedule. However, you do not have to adhere
rigidly to these during your interview.
When developing questions, make sure they are
open rather than closed. Keep them neutral, short
and to the point. Use language which will be under-
stood. Avoid jargon and double-barrelled questions
(see Chapter 9).
If you need to, revise your schedule after each inter-
view.
Become familiar with your schedule so that you do
not have to keep referring to it during the interview.
HOW TO C ON D UC T I NTE RVIEWS / 69
ESTABLISHINGRAPPORT
A researcher has to establish rapport before a participant
will share personal information. There are a number of
ways to do this.
Treat interviewees with respect. Make sure you arrive
on time. Don’t rush straight into the interview unless
the interviewee pushes to do so. Accept a cup of tea, if
offered, and make polite conversation to help put both
of you at ease.
Think about your appearance and the expectations of
the person you’re about to interview. If the interviewee
is a smartly turned out business person who expects to
be interviewed by a professional looking researcher,
make sure you try to fulfil those expectations with your
appearance and beha
viour.
Think about body language. Try not to come across as
nervous or shy. Maintain appropriate eye-contact and
smile in a natural, unforced manner. Remember that
the eyes and smile account for more than 50% of the
total communication in a greeting situation. If you es-
tablish rapid and clear eye-contact, you’ll be more ea-
sily trusted.
During the interview, firm eye contact with little move-
ment indicates that you’re interested in what is being
said. Also, it indicates honesty and high self-esteem.
On the other hand, if your eyes wander all over the
place and only briefly make contact with the eyes of
the interviewee, low self-esteem, deceit or boredom
70 / PRACT ICAL RE SEARCH MET HODS
H O W T O C O N D U C T I N T E R V I E W S / 71
can be indicated. Don’t rub your eyes as this could in-
dicate you’re tired or bored. Conversely, watch the eyes
of your interviewees which will tell you a lot about how
the interview is progressing.
Don’t invade their space. Try not to sit directly opposite
them – at an angle is better, but not by their side as you
will have to keep turning your heads which will be un-
comfortable in a long interview.
By watching the eye movements and body language of the
interviewees, and by listening to what they’re saying,
you’ll soon know when you’ve established rapport. This
is when you can move on to more personal or sensitive
issues. If, however, you notice the interviewees becoming
uncomfortable in any way, respect their feelings and move
on to a more general topic. Sometimes you might need to
offer to turn off the recorder or stop taking notes if you
touch upon a particularly sensitive issue.
Negotiate a length of time for the interviews and stick to
it, unless the interviewees are happy to continue. Make
sure you thank them for their help and leave a contact
number in case they wish to speak to you at a later date.
You might find it useful to send a transcript to the inter-
viewees – it is good for them to have a record of what has
been said and they might wish to add further information.
Do not disclose information to third parties unless you
have received permission to do so
(see Chapter 13).
ASKING QUESTIONS ANDPROBING FOR INFORMATION
As the interview progresses, ask questions, listen carefully
PROBING FOR MORE DETAIL
That’s interesting; can you explain that in more de-
tail?
I’m not quite sure I understand. You were saying?
Can you elaborate a little more?
Could you clarify that?
Could you expand upon that a little?
When you say ‘ . . . . . . ’, what do you mean?
to responses and probe for more information. You should
probe in a way which doesn’t influence the interviewee.
When you probe, you need to think about obtaining clar-
ification, elaboration, explanation and understanding.
There are several ways to probe for more detail, as the fol-
lowing list illustrates. It’s useful to learn a few of these
before you begin your interviews.
Pauses work well – don’t be afraid of silence. You’ll find
that most people are uncomfortable during silences and
will elaborate on what they’ve said rather than experience
discomfort. Also, you may find it helpful to summarise
what people have said as a way of finding out if you have
understood them and to determine whether they wish to
add any further information.
Another useful tactic is to repeat the last few words a per-
son has said, turning it into a question. The following
piece of dialogue from an interview illustrates how these
techniques can be used so that the researcher does not in-
fluence what is being said.
72 / P R A C T I C A L R E S E AR C H M E T H O D S
H O W T O C O N D U C T I N T E R V I E W S / 73
Janet: ‘Well, often I find it really difficult because I just
don’t think the information’s available.’
Interviewer ‘The information isn’t available?’
Janet: ‘No, well I suppose it is available, but I find it really
difficult to read so it makes me think it isn’t available.’
Interviewer ‘In what way do you find it difficult to read?’
Janet: ‘Well, the language is a bit beyond me, but also the
writing’s too small and it’s a funny colour.’
Interviewer: ‘You say the language is a bit beyond you?’
Janet ‘Yes, I suppose really that’s why I need to do this,
so that it won’t be beyond me anymore.’ [laughs]
Interviewer ‘Why do you laugh about that?’
Janet: ‘Well, I don’t know, I suppose maybe I’m embar-
rassed, you know, about not being able to read and write
so well, you know, I always blame my eyesight and things
being a funny colour and everything, but I suppose the
bottom line is I just can’t read proper. That’s why I’m
doing this, you know, going to college and all that. I wer-
en’t exactly naughty at school, I just didn’t really bother,
you know, I didn’t really like it that much, if I’m honest
with you.’
This piece of dialogue illustrates how, with careful prob-
ing, the researcher can discover a greater depth of infor-
mation which wasn’t initially offered by the interviewee.
SUMMARY
Practise with the recording equipment before the inter-
view takes place. It might be useful to conduct some
pilot interviews so that you can become familiar with
the recording equipment.
Develop an interview schedule, starting with general,
non-personal issues.
Check the recording equipment works and make sure
you have enough tapes, batteries, paper, pens, etc.
Check that you have a suitable venue in which to carry
out the interview, free from noise and interruptions.
Make sure you know how to get to the interview and
arrive in good time.
Dress and behave appropriately.
Establish rapport.
Negotiate a length of time for the interview and stick
to it, unless the interviewee is happy to continue.
Ask open questions, listen to responses and probe
where necessary.
Keep questions short and to the point.
Avoid jargon, double-barrelled questions and leading
questions.
Listen carefully and acknowledge that you are listen-
ing.
Check recording equipment is working without draw-
ing attention to it.
Repeat and summarise answers to aid clarity and un-
derstanding.
Achieve closure, thank them and leave a contact num-
ber in case they wish to get in touch with you about
anything that has arisen.
74 / PR A C T I C A L R E S E A R C H M E T H O D S
H O W T O C O N D U C T I N T E R V I E W S / 75
Respect their confidentiality – do not pass on what has
been said to third parties unless you have requested
permission to do so.
FURTHER READING
Arksey, H. and Knight, P. (1999) Interviewing for Social
Scientists: An Introductory Resource with Examples,
Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Keats, D. (2000) Interviewing: A Practical Guide for Stu-
dents and Professionals, Buckingham: Open University
Press.
Kvale, S. (1996) Interviews: An Introduction to Qualitative
Research Interviewing, London: Sage.
Minichello, V., Aroni, R., Timewell, E. and Alexander, L.
(1990) In-depth Interviewing: Researching People, Mel-
bourne: Longman Cheshire.
Mishler, E. (1986) Research Interviewing, Harvard: Har-
vard University Press.
Rubin, H.J. and Rubin, I.S. (1995) Qualitative Interview-
ing: The Art of Hearing Data, Thousand Oaks, C.A.:
Sage.
Wengraf, T. (2001) Qualitative Research Interviewing: Bio-
graphic Narrative and Semi-Structured Methods, Thou-
sand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Yow, V.R. (1994) Recording Oral History: A Practical
Guide for Social Scientists, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
8
How to Conduct Focus Groups
As we saw in Chapter 3, a focus group is where a number
of people are asked to come together in order to discuss a
certain issue for the purpose of research. They are popular
within the fields of market research, political research and
educational research. The focus group is facilitated by a
moderator who asks questions, probes for more detail,
makes sure the discussion does not digress and tries to
ensure that everyone has an input and that no one person
dominates the discussion.
If you are interested in running focus groups for your re-
search you will need to acquire a basic understanding of
how people interact in a group setting and learn how to deal
with awkward situations (see Table 8). However, the best
way to become a successful moderator is through experience
and practice. If possible, try to sit in on a focus group run
by an experienced moderator. Once you have done this,
hold your own pilot focus group, either with friends or ac-
tual research participants. You might find it useful to video
tape this focus group so that you can assess your body lan-
guage, see how you deal with awkward situations, analyse
how you ask questions, and so on. Don’t be disappointed
if your first few groups do not go according to plan. Even
the most experienced moderators have bad days.
76
H O W T O C ON D UC T F OC US G R O U P S / 77
THE ROLE OF THE MODERATOR
As moderator you must spend some time helping partici-
pants to relax. In all focus groups you need to explain the
purpose of the group, what is expected of participants
and what will happen to the results. Negotiate a length
for the discussion and ask that everyone respects this as
it can be very disruptive having people come in late, or
leave early. Usually one and a half hours is an ideal
length, although some focus groups may last a lot longer.
Assure the participants about anonymity and confidenti-
ality, asking also that they respect this and do not pass on
what has been said in the group to third parties. You may
find it useful to produce and distribute a Code of Ethics
(see Chapter 13).
Asking questions
General, easy to answer questions should be asked first.
Don’t expect any type of personal disclosure early in
the group. As moderator, listen carefully to everything
people say, acknowledging that you are listening by mak-
ing good eye contact and taking notes regarding issues to
which you may return later. Make sure that no one person
dominates the discussion as this will influence your data.
Some moderators prefer to use a list of questions as their
interview schedule, whereas others prefer to use a list of
topics (see Chapter 7 for more information on developing
an interview schedule). The overall aim is a free-flowing
discussion within the subject area, and once this happens
the input from the moderator may be considerably less
than it would be in a one-to-one interview.
Seeking responses
In focus groups you need to try to get as many opinions as
possible. You will find that in most focus groups, most
people will talk some of the time, although to varying de-
grees. In some groups, some people may need gentle per-
suasion to make a contribution. You have to use your
discretion about how much you do this as there might
be occasions when somebody is unwilling or too nervous
to contribute. You often find that, even though you have
negotiated a time, people enjoy the discussion and want to
continue, although at this stage you must make it clear
that people can leave, if they wish. Often, some of the
most useful and pertinent information is given once the
‘official’ time is over. Also, you will find that people talk
to you on an individual basis after the group has finished,
especially those who might have been nervous contribut-
ing in a group setting. It is useful to take a notepad and
jot down these conversations as soon as possible after the
contact as the information might be relevant to your re-
search.
Finishing the focus group
When you have finished your focus group, thank the par-
ticipants for taking part and leave a contact name and
number in case they wish to follow up any of the issues
that have been raised during the discussion. It’s good
practice to offer a copy of the report to anybody who
wants one. However, this might not be practical if the final
report is to be an undergraduate dissertation. You could
explain this to the participants and hope that they under-
stand, or you could offer to produce a summary report
which you can send to them.
78 / P R A C T I C A L R E S E AR C H M E T H O D S
TABLE 8: STRATEGIES FOR DEALING WITH
AWKWARD SITUATIONS
SITUATION
Break-away
conversations
Digressions
Silences
Dominance
Leadership
Disruption by
participants
Defensiveness
STRATEGY
Say: ‘I’m sorry, would you mind rejoining the group as this
is really interesting?’
Say: ‘That’s interesting, what do the rest of you think
about . . . ’ (back to the topic)
Remain silent. Someone will speak as they will begin to
feel uncomfortable. If no one does, ask the question again.
First of all stop making eye-contact and look at other
people expectantly. If this fails, say: ‘Thank you for your
contribution. Can we get some opinions from the rest of
you please?’ Or ‘What do the rest of you think about that?’
(This should counteract the one dominant argument by
receiving other views on the same issue.)
If it is obvious from the start that you have a clear leader
who will influence the rest of the group, try to give them
another role which takes them away from the discussion,
such as handing out refreshments or taking notes. If,
however, leadership tendencies aren’t immediately
obvious, but manifest themselves during the discussion, try
to deal with them as with ‘dominance’, above. If this still
fails, as a last resort you might have to be blunt: ‘Can you
let others express their opinions as I need to get as wide a
variety as possible?’ I’ve actually had to cut short one
group and rearrange it when that person wasn’t present.
The other members were happy to do this as they were free
to express themselves and their opinions were quite
different from those of their self-appointed ‘leader’.
On rare occasions I have come across individuals who want
to disrupt the discussion as much as possible. They will do
this in a number of ways, from laughing to getting up and
walking around. I try to overcome these from the start by
discussing and reaching an agreement on how participants
should behave. Usually I will find that if someone does
become disruptive, I can ask them to adhere to what we all
agreed at the beginning. Sometimes, the other participants
will ask them to behave which often has a greater
influence.
Make sure that nobody has been forced to attend and that
they have all come by their own free will. Be empathetic –
understand what questions or topics could upset people
and make them defensive. Try to avoid these if possible, or
leave them until the end of the discussion when people are
more relaxed.
H O W T O C O N D U C T F O C U S G R O UP S / 79
RECORDING EQUIPMENT
Some market research organisations have purpose built
viewing facilities with one-way mirrors and built in video
recorders. These facilities can be hired at a price which,
unfortunately, tends to be beyond the budgets of most stu-
dents and community groups.
Your local college or university might have a room which
can be set up with video recording equipment and the in-
stitution may provide an experienced person to operate
the machinery. If your institution doesn’t provide this fa-
cility, think about whether you actually need to video your
focus group as the more equipment you use, the more po-
tential there is for things to go wrong. Most social re-
searchers find that a tape recording of the discussion
supplemented by a few handwritten notes is adequate
(see Chapter 7 for further discussion on different methods
of recording).
Your tape recorder needs to be powerful enough to pick
up every voice. Ideally, it needs to be small and unobtru-
sive with an inbuilt microphone and a battery indicator
light so that you can check it is still working throughout
the discussion, without drawing attention to the machine.
A self-turning facility is useful as you get twice as much
recording without having to turn over the tape.
The recorder should be placed on a non-vibratory surface
at equal distance from each participant so that every voice
can be heard. Before the participants arrive, place it in the
80 / PRACT ICAL R ESE ARCH MET HODS
H O W T O C O N D U C T F O C U S G R O U P S / 81
centre of the room and test your voice from each seat,
varying your pitch and tone. Participants in focus groups
tend to speak quietly at the beginning, but once they be-
gin to relax, they tend to raise their voices. Be aware of
any noise which could disrupt the recorder, such as tick-
ing clocks or traffic outside.
CHOOSING A VENUE
It is extremely important to make sure you choose the
right venue for your focus group as this will affect parti-
cipation levels, the level of discussion and the standard of
recording. You should ask yourself the following ques-
tions when considering a venue:
Is the venue accessible in terms of physical access for
those with mobility difficulties?
Is it accessible in terms of ‘mental’ access, that is,
would the type of people you intend to recruit feel
comfortable entering that building?
Is the building easy to find and the room easy to locate?
Is free parking available close by?
Is it accessible by public transport?
Is the room big enough to accommodate the number of
people you intend to recruit?
Are there enough chairs and are they comfortable?
Is there anything which could distract the participants
(loud noises, telephones, doorbells, people entering the
room, people walking past windows, etc)?
Is there anything which could disrupt the recording
(ticking clocks, drink machines, traffic outside, etc)?
Once you have chosen your venue, you need to arrive early
to make sure that the seating is arranged in an appropri-
ate manner. There is no set rule for this – think about
your participants and arrange it accordingly. For exam-
ple, business people might prefer a boardroom style seat-
ing arrangement, whereas adult learners may prefer an
informal seminar style arrangement.
RECRUITING YOUR PARTICIPANTS
Without participants you have no focus group. It is essen-
tial, therefore, that you take time to ensure that you
achieve a high turn out for your focus group. Think about
the following points when recruiting your participants:
The ideal number of participants is nine or eleven. Odd
numbers work better than even numbers as it is harder
for people to pair up in breakaway conversations.
Over-recruit by between three and five people as some
participants, despite reassurances to the contrary, will
not attend.
Offer incentives. If you cannot afford to pay partici-
pants, offer refreshments such as wine, soft drinks
and nibbles. Do not provide too much wine as a drun-
ken discussion is not productive.
The goal is to achieve a free-flowing, useful and inter-
esting discussion. Think about whether the people you
are recruiting would be able to chat to each other in
everyday life. People must have some sort of common
82 / P R A C T I C A L R E S E A R C H M E T H O D S
H OW TO CO N D U C T F O C U S G R OU P S / 83
bond to be able to feel comfortable in a group and this
will probably be the focus of your research.
When someone has agreed to take part in a focus
group, contact them a week in advance to let them
know about the venue, date and time. Telephone them
the day before to make sure they have remembered
and are still able to attend.
Never force, bully or cajole someone into taking part.
If someone else is arranging the focus group for you,
make sure they do nor force or cajole people into par-
ticipating. Someone who does not want to attend
usually makes it clear during the discussion. This can
have a detrimental effect on the whole group.
If someone is in a position of power they should not be
included in the group as it may stop others airing their
opinions, although this is not always possible, as Ex-
ample 7 illustrates.
EXAMPLE 7: SIMON
I was conducting a focus group with workers in a toy
factory. Everyone in the group worked on a production
line, but unfortunately their supervisor, who’d arranged
for me to run the group, insisted on sitting in on the
group. I’d worked in that factory as a temp over the
summer holidays and I knew that the supervisor was
viewed as a bit of tyrant. I’d tried desperately to make
sure she didn’t come to the discussion, but there was
nothing I could do. Sure enough, throughout the discus-
sion if someone said something which was against com-
pany policy she would contradict them or say that it
simply wasn’t true. In the end people just stopped talk-
ing. I had to go and see each person after the group and
I got some really interesting information when the
supervisor wasn’t present. But of course it wasn’t re-
corded properly and I was unsure of how I could use
that information in my research. I wanted to arrange
another group, but I just knew it would be impossible
without the supervisor present. In the end I had to for-
get about that place and hold another focus group in
another factory.
SUMMARY
Find a suitable venue and check availability. Is it acces-
sible physically and mentally?
Visit the venue and check it is free from background
noises, distractions and interruptions.
Obtain appropriate recording equipment and practise.
Try your recording equipment in the venue to test suit-
ability.
Contact participants and check availability for time
and place.
Over-recruit to ensure enough participants.
Telephone participants the day before the focus group
to check they’re still intending to participate.
Arrive at the venue early and arrange the seating in a
way which will suit the group.
Test the recording equipment from each seat.
84 / P R A C T I C A L R E S E A R C H M E T H O D S
H OW TO CO N D U C T F O C U S G R OU P S / 85
Lay out refreshments away from the recorder.
Greet participants with drinks and nibbles.
Introduce yourself; explain what the group is about,
what is expected of the participants, who the research
is for and
what will happen to the results.
Negotiate a discussion length and ask that no one
leaves early.
Discuss issues of confidentiality, anonymity and perso-
nal disclosure.
Start recorder and begin with general, easy to answer
questions.
Watch for group dynamics and deal with them accord-
ingly.
Listen and take notes.
Ask questions and probe for more detail.
Wind up within negotiated time, unless participants
wish to continue.
Thank participants and give them your name and con-
tact number in case they wish to follow up any of the
issues with you.
Send a summary report to anyone interested.
FURTHER READING
Greenbaum, T.L. (2000) Moderating Focus Groups: A
Practical Guide for Group Facilitation, Thousand Oaks,
CA: Sage.
Krueger, R.A. (1994) Focus Groups: a Practical Guide for
Applied Research, (2nd edition) Thousand Oaks, CA:
Sage.
Krueger, R.A. (1998) Developing Questions for Focus
Groups, Focus Group Kit, volume 3, Thousand Oaks,
CA: Sage.
Krueger, R.A. (1998) Moderating Focus Groups, Focus
Group Kit, volume 4, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Krueger, R.A. and King, J.A. (1998) Involving Community
Members in Focus Groups, Focus Group Kit, volume 5,
Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Krueger, R.A. (1998) Analyzing and Reporting Focus
Group Results, Focus Group Kit, volume 6, Thousand
Oaks, CA: Sage.
Morgan, D.L. (ed.) (1993) Successful Focus Groups: Ad-
vancing the State of the Art, Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Morgan, D.L. (1997) Focus Groups as Qualitative Re-
search, (2nd edition) Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Morgan, D.L. (1998) The Focus Group Guidebook, Focus
Group Kit, volume 1, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
86 / PRACT ICAL R ESE ARCH MET HODS
9
How to Construct
Questionnaires
Once you have decided that a questionnaire is the most
appropriate data collection method for your research, be-
fore you go on to construct the questionnaire you need to
think about what, exactly, you want from your research.
Too often researchers rush into designing a questionnaire
only to find that it is not yielding the type of information
they require.
DECIDING WHICHQUESTIONNAIRE TOUSE
If you’re sure that a questionnaire is the most appropriate
method for your research, you need to decide whether you
intend to construct a closed-ended, open-ended or combi-
nation questionnaire. In open questions respondents use
their own words to answer a question, whereas in closed
questions prewritten response categories are provided (see
Table 9) Also, you need to think about whether your ques-
tionnaire is to be self-administered, that is, the respondent
fills it in on his own, away from the researcher, or whether
it is to be interviewer administered. Self-administered ques-
tionnaires could be sent through the post, delivered in per-
son or distributed via the internet. It is also important to
think about the analysis of your questionnaire at this stage
as this could influence its design (see Chapter 11).
87
TABLE 9: OPEN AND CLOSED QUESTIONS:
ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES
OPEN QUESTIONS
Tend to be slower to
administer.
Can be harder to record
responses.
May be difficult to code,
especially if multiple answers
are given.
Do not stifle response.
Enable respondents to raise
new issues.
Respondents tend to feel that
they have been able to speak
their mind.
In self-administered
questionnaires, respondents
might not be willing to write
a long answer and decide to
leave the question blank.
How do you know the
meaning of a blank answer
when you come to the
analysis?
Can use open questions to
find out all the possible
responses before designing a
closed-ended questionnaire.
CLOSED QUESTIONS
Tend to be quicker to
administer.
Often easier and quicker for
the researcher to record
responses.
Tend to be easy to code.
Respondents can only answer
in a predefined way.
New issues cannot be raised.
Respondents can only answer
in a way which may not
match their actual opinion
and may, therefore, become
frustrated.
Is quick and easy for
respondents to tick boxes –
might be more likely to
answer all the questions.
Can include a section at the
end of a closed-ended
questionnaire for people to
write in a longer response if
they wish.
88 / PRACT ICAL R ESE ARCH MET HODS
H O W T O C O N S T R U C T Q U E S T I O N N A I R E S / 89
WORDING AND STRUCTURE OF QUESTIONS
When constructing each question think about the words
you use. Avoid jargon and technical terms whenever possi-
ble. Try not to use words which may have a double mean-
ing or be misinterpreted, as some words have different
meanings for different groups of people. Don’t use emotive
words. Make sure the question is not ambiguous. And,
above all, avoid questions which will cause annoyance,
frustration, offence, embarrassment or sadness. You
should never make someone feel uncomfortable, for what-
ever reason, as a result of filling in your questionnaire.
Questions should be kept short and simple. This will
avoid many of the problems outlined above. Check that
a question is not double-barrelled, that is, two ques-
tions in one. If it is, ask two questions rather than
one. Also, avoid negative questions – the type which
have ‘not’ in them as this can be confusing, especially
when a respondent is asked to agree or disagree.
Make sure that your questions don’t contain some type
of prestige bias. This phrase refers to questions which
could embarrass or force respondents into giving a
false answer. They might do this if they do not want
to look ‘bad’ in front of the researcher, or they might
do it because it is expected behaviour. Questions about
income or educational qualifications might illicit this
type of response, so you need to be careful about
how you try to obtain this information.
Some issues may be very sensitive and you might be bet-
ter asking an indirect question rather than a direct ques-
tion. Promising confidentiality and anonymity may
help, but many respondents can, understandably, be
sceptical about these promises. If you ask an indirect
question in which respondents can relate their answer
to other people, they may be more willing to answer
the question.
Using closed-ended questions
If you are constructing a closed-ended question, try to
make sure that all possible answers are covered. This is
particularly important for time and frequency questions
such as ‘how often do you . . .’ You need to make sure that
all the frequencies are covered so that respondents aren’t
constrained in their answers and tick a box which isn’t
right for them. Also, you want to make sure that you
don’t artificially create opinions by asking someone a
question about which they don’t know, or don’t care.
You need to make sure that you include a ‘don’t know’
category in this case.
Avoiding leading questions
Don’t asking leading questions. The question ‘How often
do you wash your car?’ might seem innocuous enough.
However, it makes two assumptions. Firstly, it assumes
that the respondent has a car and secondly, it assumes
the respondent washes his car. It could be considered a
prestige bias question. Would a respondent feel bad if they
didn’t have a car and therefore would tick ‘four times a
week’ anyway? Would they feel bad if they don’t ever wash
their car but feel the researcher expects them to? If you
need to ask this question, you should ask a filter question
first to find out whether the respondent actually owned a
car. Then you would need to ask: ‘If you wash your car,
90 / P R A C T I C A L R E S E A R C H M E T H O D S
EXERCISE 2
Read the following questions and decide what is wrong
with them. Think about how you might overcome the
problems you have identified.
1. Do you go swimming?
Never &
Rarely &
Frequently &
Sometimes &
2. What do you think about the Green Peace attempt to
blackmail the Government?
3. What is wrong with the young people of today and
what can we do about it?
4. How many books have you read in the last year?
None &
1 – 10 &
10 – 20 &
20 – 30 &
Over 30 &
5. What is the profit of your company, to the nearest
one hundred pounds?
H OW TO CO N S T R UC T QU E S T I O N N AI R E S / 91
how many times a year?’ By wording the question in this
way and by being careful about the frequency list, you’re
not leading the respondent into answering in a certain
way.
Have a look at Exercise 2 which will help you to think
about some of the issues involved in the wording and
structuring of questions.
6. What do you think should be done about global
warming?
Points to Consider
1. The problem with this question is in the categories
supplied for the answer. Everybody has a different
idea as to what words such as ‘sometimes’ and ‘fre-
quently’ mean. Instead, give specific time frames
such as ‘twice a year’ or ‘once a month’. Also, the
order of answers should follow a logical sequence –
in the example above, they do not.
2. This is a very leading question which uses an emotive
word – blackmail. It assumes that Green Peace is
blackmailing the Government and assumes that
someone knows about the issues and would be able
to answer. A filter question would have to be used
in this case and the word ‘blackmail’ changed.
3. This question is double-barrelled, leading and am-
biguous. It asks two questions in one and so needs
to be split up. The word ‘wrong’ is emotive and sug-
gests there is something not normal about the young
people of today. It asks the respondent to distance
themselves and comment from the moral high
ground.
4. This question may contain prestige bias – would peo-
ple be more likely to say they have read plenty of
books when they might not have read any? Also,
the categories for the answers need modification –
which box would you tick for someone who answered
‘20’?
92 / PRACT ICAL RE SEARCH MET HODS
6. This question assumes knowledge and could only be
asked of someone who has the figures to hand. It also
asks for what could be confidential information
which a respondent might be reluctant to give. The
word ‘profit’ has different meanings for different
people, especially if the question is asked by an inter-
viewer, rather than read by the respondent. In an of-
ten quoted case, when this question was used, the
respondent took it to mean ‘prophet’ and as such
was unable to answer the question.
6. In this question it is assumed that the respondent
thinks something should be done about global warn-
ing and that they are able to comment on the issue.
Indeed, global warming in itself is a contested issue.
This question leads the respondent into having an
opinion about something on which they might not
otherwise have one.
HOW T O CONS TRUCT QUESTI ON NAIRES/ 93
LENGTH AND ORDERING OF QUESTIONS
When you’re constructing a questionnaire, keep it as
short as possible. If it has to be longer because of the nat-
ure of your research, think about whether your respon-
dents will actually take the time to fill it in. Some
people will do so if they feel there is some personal benefit
to be gained. This is why long consumer behaviour sur-
veys offer entry into large prize draws for completed ques-
tionnaires. If your budget is limited, you might be able to
offer a copy of the final report or other information which
may be of use to the respondent as an incentive.
Be realistic about how long a questionnaire will take to fill
in. Saying it will take a ‘moment’ is not helpful. Include
filter questions with answers such as ‘If no, go to question
28’. Psychologically it’s good for respondents to be able
to jump sections as it stops people becoming frustrated by
unnecessary or irrelevant questions.
As with interviewing or focus groups, when designing a
questionnaire start with easy questions which respondents
will enjoy answering, thus encouraging them to continue
filling in the questionnaire. If you begin with complex
questions which need long responses, your respondents
will be less likely to fill in the form. If you’re constructing
a combined questionnaire, keep your open-ended ques-
tions for the end as, once someone has spent time com-
pleting the rest of the questionnaire, they are more
likely to continue with those questions which take a little
more effort to complete.
When constructing a questionnaire, you need to make it
as interesting as possible and easy to follow. Try to vary
the type and length of questions as variety provides inter-
est. Group the questions into specific topics as this makes
it easier to understand and follow. Layout and spacing are
extremely important. If your questionnaire looks clut-
tered, respondents will be less likely to fill it in.
Collecting personalinformation
Opinion is divided about where personal information
should be included on a questionnaire. I tend to include
it at the end, as I believe people are more likely to fill in
this information when they have already invested time
94 / P R A C T I C A L R E S E A R C H M E T H O D S
H O W T O C O N S T R U C T Q U E S T I O N N A I R E S / 95
and energy in completing the rest of the form. As the re-
searcher, you need to think about collecting only that type
of personal information which is completely relevant to
your research. Be sensitive to the type of information peo-
ple will be reluctant to give. An example of a personal
profile section is provided in Fig.1. This form may seem
short, but it is important not to ask for too much personal
information as respondents will become suspicious and
want to know why you want the information. You also
need to assure them that you understand and will comply
with the Data Protection Act (see Chapter 13).
PILOTING THE QUESTIONNAIRE
Once you have constructed your questionnaire, you must
pilot it. This means that you must test it out to see if it is
obtaining the results you require. First of all, ask people
who have not been involved in its construction to read it
through and see if there are any ambiguities which you
have not noticed. Once this has been done, alter the ques-
tions accordingly, then send out a number of question-
naires to the type of people who will be taking part in
the main survey. Make sure they know it is a pilot test
and ask them to forward any comments they may have
about the length, structure and wording of the question-
naire. Go through each response very carefully, noting
comments and looking at the answers to the questions
as this will help you to discover whether there are still am-
biguities present. Alter the questionnaire again. If you
have had to undertake major alterations, you may need
to pilot the questionnaire again.
1. Are you: Female &
Male &
2. What is your age?
under 26 & 56 – 55 &
26 – 35 & 56 – 65 &
36 – 45 & Over 65 &
3. What do you consider to be your ethnic origin?
(These categories were used in the 1991 Census and
have been reproduced here for ease of comparison.)
White & Pakistani &
Black – Caribbean & Bangladeshi &
Black – African & Chinese &
Black – Other & Other Ethnic Group &
Indian &
4. Which of the following categories apply to you?
(Tick all those which apply)
Housewife/husband &
Full-time student &
Self-employed &
In part-time, paid employment &
In full-time, paid employment &
Other (please specify) _________ &
Fig. 1. Personal profile form
96 / P R A C T I C A L R E S E A R C H M E T H O D S
H O W T O C O N S T R U C T Q U E S T I O N N A I R E S / 97
This may seem a rather long and laborious process, but it
is incredibly important, especially if you’re intending to
send out a large number of questionnaires.
OBTAINING A HIGHRESPONSE
Questionnaires are big business and as more and more
fall through our letterboxes we become less willing to
spend the time completing them. You need to make yours
stand out so that all your careful planning and construc-
tion is not wasted. There are many simple measures you
can take to try to ensure a high response rate.
Is the questionnaire relevant to the lives, attitudes and
beliefs of the respondents?
Can the respondents read if they are to be given a self-
administered questionnaire?
Are there any language issues? Do you need to trans-
late the questionnaire into another language?
Are your intended respondents likely to co-operate?
For example, illegal immigrants may be less likely to
fill in a questionnaire than legal immigrants.
Is the questionnaire well constructed and well laid out?
Is it clear, concise and uncluttered?
Are the instructions straightforward and realistic
about how long it will take to complete?
Has the respondent been told who the research is for
and what will happen to the results?
Has the respondent been reassured that you under-
stand and will comply with the Data Protection Act?
Has the questionnaire been piloted to iron out any pro-
blems?
Can your respondents see some personal benefit to be
QUESTIONNAIRE DESIGN CHECKLIST
Make your questionnaire as short as possible.
Make sure people will be able to answer your ques-
tions.
Don’t assume knowledge or make it seem that you
expect a certain level of knowledge by the way your
questions are worded.
Start with easy to answer questions. Keep complex
questions for the end.
Ask for personal information at the end.
Use a mix of question formats.
Don’t cause offence, frustration, sadness or anger.
Avoid double-barrelled questions.
Avoid words with emotional connotations.
Avoid negative questions.
Avoid jargon and technical words.
Avoid words with multiple meanings.
Avoid leading questions.
Avoid vague words such as ‘often’ and ‘sometimes’.
Provide all possible responses in a closed question.
Consider as many alternatives as possible.
Use specific time frames when asking about beha-
viour.
Use specific place frames, e.g. ‘In which country
were you born?’
gained by completing the questionnaire?
Is return postage included?
Has a follow-up letter and duplicate questionnaire
been sent in cases of none response?
98 / PRACT ICAL R ESE ARCH MET HODS
H O W T O C O N S T R U C T Q U E S T I O N N A I R E S / 99
SUMMARY
Think about how you’re going to analyse your survey
prior to constructing your questionnaire.
Decide whether you’re interested in behaviour, beliefs,
attitudes or characteristics or a combination of the
above.
Make sure you have made the right decisions concern-
ing open-ended questions, closed-ended questions or a
combination of both.
Decide whether your questionnaire is to be self-admi-
nistered or interviewer administered.
Think about how you intend to distribute your ques-
tionnaire, e.g. by hand, through the post or via the in-
ternet.
Construct the questionnaire adhering to the checklist
produced above.
Include a covering letter with information about who
the research is for and what will happen to the results.
Include instructions on how to complete the question-
naire.
Include details about how the questionnaire is to be re-
turned (making sure you enclose a pre-paid envelope if
you need the respondent to return the form to you).
Make sure you include a date by which time you would
like the questionnaire returned.
Pilot the questionnaire and instructions to check that
all can be understood.
Amend accordingly and re-pilot.
Send out/administer questionnaire.
Send out follow-up letters and questionnaires to non-
responders.
FURTHER READING
Hague, P.N. (1993) Questionnaire Design, London: Ko-
gan Page.
Nesbary, D. (1999) Survey Research World Wide Web,
Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
Oppenheim, A.N. (1992) Questionnaire Design, Interview-
ing and Attitude Measurement, London: Pinter.
Salant, P. and Dillman, D.A. (1995) How to Conduct Your
Own Survey, New York: Wiley.
Tourangeau, R., Rips, L.J. and Rasinski, K. (2000) The
Psychology of Survey Response, Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
100 / P R A C T I C A L R E S E AR C H M E T H O D S
10
How to Carry Out
Participant Observation
Participant observation can be viewed as a methodology,
rather than a method, as it took shape within particular
historical and social circumstances within anthropology
and sociology. It is a procedure for generating under-
standing about the way of life of others. However, as there
are many practical ‘how to’ issues involved in the use of
participant observation, I am going to discuss it as a re-
search method. But as you will see, there are several meth-
odological issues which are raised in the following
discussion, especially concerning ethics and the personal
role of the researcher.
Participant observation can be carried out within any
community, culture or context which is different to the
usual community and/or culture of the researcher. It
may be carried out within a remote African tribe or in
hospitals, factories, schools, prisons and so on, within
your own country. The researcher immerses herself into
the community – the action is deliberate and intended
to add to knowledge.
The researcher participates in the community while obser-
ving others within that community, and as such she must
101
be a researcher 24 hours a day. In practice most research-
ers find that they play more of a role as observer, than
they do as a participant.
GAINING ACCESS
Participant observation, as a research method, cannot
work unless you’re able to gain access to the community
that you wish to study. Before you spend a lot of time plan-
ning your project you need to find out whether you can ob-
tain this access. The level of negotiation required will
depend upon the community, culture or context. If it is a
culture with which you already have a certain amount of
familiarity, and vice versa, you should find it easier to gain
access. However, if it is a secret or suspicious community,
you may find it much harder to gain access.
If you do expect to encounter difficulties, one way to over-
come this problem is to befriend a member of that com-
munity who could act as a gatekeeper and help you to get
to know other people. Obviously, it is important to spend
time building up the required level of trust before you can
expect someone to introduce you into their community. If
it is not possible to befriend a member of the community,
you may have to approach the person or committee in
charge, firstly by letter and then in person. You have to
be persuasive. First impressions are important and you
need to make sure that you dress and act appropriately
within the community. You must not appear threatening
in any way. Some people will be suspicious of the motives
of a researcher, especially if they’re not familiar with the
research process. In the early stages it is better to answer
any questions or suspicions directly and honestly rather
102 / PRACTICAL RES EARCH METHODS
HOW TO CARRY OUT PARTIC IPANT OBSER V AT IO N/ 103
than try to avoid them or shrug them off.
ETHICS
Because of the nature of participant observation, there
tends to be more issues involving ethics and morals to
consider. As you intend to become part of a specific
group, will you be expected to undertake anything illegal?
This could happen with research into drug use or crime
syndicates where people may not trust you until you be-
come one of them and join in their activities. Would you
be prepared to do this and put up with any consequences
which could arise as a result of your activities?
If the group is suspicious, do you intend to be completely
honest about who you are and what you’re doing? Are you
prepared to lie if it means you can gain access? How would
you deal with any problems which may arise as a conse-
quence of your deception?
What if your participation within a group causes pro-
blems, anxiety or argument amongst other members?
Would you know how to deal with the situation? Would
you be prepared to withdraw and ruin all your hard work
for the sake of your informants? These issues and others
are covered in more depth in Chapter 13. Also, there are
many personal considerations and dilemmas which you
need to think about before undertaking participant obser-
vation, as illustrated below:
PERSONAL CONSIDERATIONS WHEN
ENTERING THE FIELD
Some people will not accept you. Are you prepared for
rejection and can you handle it when it happens? Are
you able to banish rejection anxieties from the outset?
Are you prepared to spend many months studying
others and not indulging in talk about yourself? Some
researchers overcome this problem by making sure that
they have someone outside the community who they
can talk to if they need to.
Will your contact be traumatic or upsetting? If so,
can you handle this?
If you’re going to come across people with very different
social and political beliefs, can you remain neutral and
keep your opinions to yourself? Some researchers may
try arguing their point in the hope that they will get
more information and it will deepen their understand-
ing. However, you must be careful not to compromise
your position.
Are you prepared for the emergence of as yet uncon-
scious emotional factors? You may find out things
about yourself which you do not like, especially in terms
of your own prejudices.
Are you prepared to be used as a scapegoat if things go
wrong within the community under study? Often it is
easier for the community to blame an outsider and
104 / PR A C T I C AL R E S E A R C H M E T H O D S
HOW TO CARRY OUT PARTIC IPANT OBSER V AT IO N/ 105
many researchers are happy to go along with this be-
cause they know they will be leaving the community
at some point.
Can you handle the feelings of guilt which may arise as
a result of the roles you’ve got to play?
Are you prepared to pretend to have feelings which may
not be real? Some researchers would argue that you
should not do this because it is being dishonest. The le-
vel to which you are prepared to do this has to be your
own choice.
Are you aware of your own likes and dislikes? Can you
put stereotypes and prejudices aside?
COLLECTING AND ANALYSING INFORMATION
At the beginning of a participant observation study it is
hard to understand what everything means. At first some-
thing may appear very significant, but later it might be-
come a minor detail. However, you will not know this
until you have started to analyse what is going on. So it
is important from the outset to start taking copious notes.
You need to have a good memory as in many situations it
is not possible to take notes at the time. You need to have
a notepad with you at all times so that you can write down
your thoughts as soon as possible after the encounter.
All researchers ask questions. However, in the beginning
stages of a participant observation study, it is better to
seek information by not asking questions. This is because
it is hard for you to know what to ask at this stage. In-
stead, you will find that people come to you and ask ques-
tions. This in itself is valuable information and can tell
you a lot about those people, so all questions should be
noted and analysed.
Field notes
Field notes are your main way of recording data. These
might be practical details about events, times, dates and
places. Or they might be methodological notes concerning
your role, your influence on the encounter, your relation-
ship with the informants, sampling procedures and so on.
As time moves on your notes will be to do with a prelimin-
ary analysis and the forming of hypotheses which you can
go on to check out with your informants. They may be
observations on what a specific encounter might mean.
Also, as your research progresses you will start to code
and classify your notes (see Chapter 11).
Taking notes is a very personal process and you need to
find a method which will suit you. Many researchers de-
velop their own form of shorthand, but if you do this keep
it simple because, if your contact is over a long period of
time, you may not understand the shorthand you used at
the beginning. Most researchers keep a day-to-day diary
in addition to all the other field notes. You will also need
to keep all transcripts of interviews, photographs, maps,
tapes, video recordings, diagrams and plans. Everything
needs to be recorded and stored systematically so good or-
ganisational skills are important if you wish to undertake
participant observation.
106 / P R A C T I C A L R E S E AR C H M E T H O D S
HOW T O CARRY OUT PART ICIPANT OBSE RVA TI ON / 107
Most of your analysis takes place in the field so that you
can cross check and verify your hypotheses. At this stage
you will find that you will have a number of key infor-
mants who will be able to help you with this process. This
is very useful as they will tell you if you’re on the wrong
track.
WITHDRAWAL FROM THE FIELD
When you have been immersed in a particular culture for
a long period of time, it can be hard to break away. In-
deed, some researchers have found that they do not want
to break away, although this only happens rarely. If, how-
ever, you have remained connected to your role as re-
searcher, you will know when it is time to break away,
write up your results and pass on what you have learnt.
It is important to leave your community on good terms.
Many researchers find that it is helpful to stay in touch
with their contacts – these people will want to see what
is written about them. They will be interested and may
still have comments to make. You may also wish to return
to your community several years later and conduct a fol-
low-up study.
Finally, you must make sure that you try not to do any-
thing which will give researchers a bad name and cause
problems for other researchers who may wish to follow
in your footsteps (see Chapter 13).
SUMMARY
In participant observation, the researcher immerses
herself into a community, culture or context. The ac-
tion is deliberate and intended to add to knowledge.
A participant observer is a researcher 24 hours a day.
To gain access a researcher must be non-threatening,
displaying appropriate behaviour and body language
and wearing appropriate dress.
A useful way of gaining access is to find a gatekeeper
who can introduce you to other members of the com-
munity.
A researcher needs to do much soul-searching before
going into the field as the experience can raise many
ethical, moral and personal dilemmas.
It is sometimes quicker and more economical to wait
for questions to come to the researcher, rather than
ask questions of informants in the early stages of a
study.
Field notes may record practical details, methodologi-
cal issues, personal thoughts, preliminary analyses and
working hypotheses.
Data analysis takes place in the field so that hypotheses
can be discussed with key informants.
The community should be left on good terms and any
written reports should be given back to the people for
their interest and personal comments.
FURTHER READING
Bulmer, M. (ed.) (1982) Social Research Ethics, London:
Macmillan.
Burgess, R.G. (ed.) (1986) Field Research: A Sourcebook
108 / PR A C T I C AL R E S E A R C H M E T H O D S
HOW TO CARRY OUT PARTIC IPANT OBSER V AT IO N/ 109
and Field Manual, London: Allen and Unwin.
Crabtree, B.F. and Miller, W.L. (eds.) (1992) Doing Qua-
litative Research, Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Golde, P. (ed.) (1970) Women in the Field: Anthropological
Experiences, Chicago: Aldine.
Jorgenson, D. (1989) Participant Observation: A Metho-
dology for Human Studies, Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
Whyte, W.F. (1997) Creative Problem-Solving in the Field:
Reflections on a Career, Walnut Creek: Alta Mira.
11
How toAnalyseYour Data
The methods you use to analyse your data will depend on
whether you have chosen to conduct qualitative or quanti-
tative research, and this choice will be influenced by per-
sonal and methodological preference and educational
background. It could be influenced also by the methodo-
logical standpoint of the person who teaches on your re-
search methods course.
DECIDING WHICH APPROACH TOUSE
For quantitative data analysis, issues of validity and relia-
bility are important. Quantitative researchers endeavour
to show that their chosen methods succeed in measuring
what they purport to measure. They want to make sure
that their measurements are stable and consistent and that
there are no errors or bias present, either from the respon-
dents or from the researcher.
Qualitative researchers, on the other hand, might ac-
knowledge that participants are influenced by taking part
in the research process. They might also acknowledge that
researchers bring their own preferences and experience to
the project. Qualitative data analysis is a very personal
process. Ask two researchers to analyse a transcript and
they
will probably come up with very different results.
This may be because they have studied different subjects,
110
H O W T O A N A L Y S E Y O U R D A T A / 111
or because they come from different political or methodo-
logical standpoints. It is for this reason that some re-
searchers criticise qualitative methods as ‘unscientific’ or
‘unreliable’. This is often because people who come from
quantitative backgrounds try to ascribe their methods and
processes to qualitative research. This is a fruitless exer-
cise. The two approaches are very different and should
be treated as such.
Analysing data
Also, the two are analysed in quite different ways. For
qualitative data, the researcher might analyse as the re-
search progresses, continually refining and reorganising
in light of the emerging results. For quantitative data,
the analysis can be left until the end of the data collection
process, and if it is a large survey, statistical software is the
easiest and most efficient method to use. For this type of
analysis time has to be put aside for the data input process
which can be long and laborious. However, once this has
been done the analysis is quick and efficient, with most
software packages producing well presented graphs, pie
charts and tables which can be used for the final report.
QUALITATIVE DATA ANALYSIS
To help you with the analysis of qualitative data, it is use-
ful to produce an interview summary form or a focus group
summary form which you complete as soon as possible
after each interview or focus group has taken place. This
includes practical details about the time and place, the
participants, the duration of the interview or focus group,
and details about the content and emerging themes (see
Figures 2 and 3). It is useful to complete these forms as
soon as possible after the interview and attach them to
your transcripts. The forms help to remind you about
the contact and are useful when you come to analyse
the data.
There are many different types of qualitative data analysis.
The method you use will depend on your research topic,
your personal preferences and the time, equipment and fi-
nances available to you. Also, qualitative data analysis is a
very personal process, with few rigid rules and procedures.
It is for this reason that each type of analysis is best illu-
strated through examples (see Examples 8–11 below).
Formats for analysis
However, to be able to analyse your data you must first of
all produce it in a format that can be easily analysed. This
might be a transcript from an interview or focus group, a
series of written answers on an open-ended questionnaire,
or field notes or memos written by the researcher. It is
useful to write memos and notes as soon as you begin
to collect data as these help to focus your mind and alert
you to significant points which may be coming from the
data. These memos and notes can be analysed along with
your transcripts or questionnaires.
You can think of the different types of qualitative data
analysis as positioned on a continuum (see Fig.4) At the
one end are the highly qualitative, reflective types of ana-
lysis, whereas on the other end are those which treat the
qualitative data in a quantitative way, by counting and
coding data.
112 / PRACT ICAL RE SEARCH MET HODS
Interviewee: ________________ Date of Interview:________________
Place: ________________________ Time of Interview:________________
Duration of Interview: __________
Where did the interview take place? Was the venue sui-
table? Does anything need to be changed for future in-
terviews?
How easy was it to establish rapport? Were there any
problems and how can this be improved for next time?
Did the interview schedule work well? Does it need to
be altered or improved?
What were the main themes which arose in the inter-
view? Did any issues arise which need to be added to
the interview schedule for next time?
Is the interviewee willing to be contaced again? Have I
promised to send any information or supply them with
the results or a copy of the transcript?
Fig. 2. Interview summary form
H O W T O A N A L Y S E Y O U R D A T A / 113
Date: ________________________ Time:_________________________________
Venue: ______________________ Duration: ___________________________
Group: ______________________
Diagram of seating plan with participant codes:
Where did the focus group take place? Was the venue
suitable? Does anything need to be changed for future
focus groups?
How many people took part and who were they? Did
they work well as a group or were there any adverse
group dynamics? What can I learn from this for the
next group?
Did the interview schedule work well? Does it need to
be altered or improved?
What were the main themes which arose during the fo-
cus group? Does anything need to be added to the in-
terview schedule for the next focus group?
Are any of the participants willing to be contacted
again? Have I promised to send any further informa-
tion or the final report to anyone?
Fig. 3: Focus group summary form
114 / PRACT ICAL R ESEARCH MET HODS
Highly Almost
Qualitative Quantitative
eg thematic and eg discourse and eg content analysis
comparative conversational
analysis analysis
reflexive uses a combination code and count
intuitive of reflexivity and mechanical
takes place counting can be left until
throughout end of data
data collection collection
Fig. 4. Qualititative data analysis continuum
H O W T O A N A L Y S E YO UR D A T A / 115
For those at the highly qualitative end of the continuum,
data analysis tends to be an on-going process, taking place
throughout the data collection process. The researcher
thinks about and reflects upon the emerging themes, adapt-
ing and changing the methods if required. For example, a
researcher might conduct three interviews using an inter-
view schedule she has developed beforehand. However,
during the three interviews she finds that the participants
are raising issues that she has not thought about pre-
viously. So she refines her interview schedule to include
these issues for the next few interviews. This is data analy-
sis. She has thought about what has been said, analysed the
words and refined her schedule
accordingly.
Thematic analysis
When data is analysed by theme, it is called thematic ana-
lysis. This type of analysis is highly inductive, that is, the
themes emerge from the data and are not imposed upon it
by the researcher. In this type of analysis, the data collec-
tion and analysis take place simultaneously. Even back-
ground reading can form part of the analysis process,
especially if it can help to explain an emerging theme.
This process is illustrated in Example 8.
EXAMPLE 8: RICHARD
Richard was interested in finding out what members of
the public thought about higher education. During a fo-
cus group with some library workers, he noticed that
some people had very clear ideas about higher educa-
tion, whereas others had very little idea. This was im-
mediate, on the spot analysis. He asked the group
why they thought this was the case and it emerged that
the people who had clear ideas about higher education
had either been to college or university themselves, or
knew someone close to them who had been through
higher education. This theme had emerged from one
group. Richard decided to follow it up by interviewing
people who had never been to college or university to
see how different their perceptions might be.
Closely connected to thematic analysis is comparative ana-
lysis. Using this method, data from different people is com-
pared and contrasted and the process continues until the
researcher is satisfied that no new issues are arising. Com-
parative and thematic analyses are often used in the same
project, with the researcher moving backwards and for-
wards between transcripts, memos, notes and the research
literature. This process is illustrated in Example 9.
116 / PRACTICAL RES EARCH METHODS
H O W T O AN A L Y S E Y O U R D A T A/ 117
EXAMPLE 9: RICHARD
Once Richard had discovered that members of the pub-
lic who had close contact with higher educational insti-
tutions had clearer perceptions than those who had no
contact, he felt two issues were important. First, he
wanted to find out how close the contact had to be
for people to have very clear perceptions of university,
and second, he wanted to find out where perceptions
came from for those people who had no contact with
higher education. Through careful choice of intervie-
wee, and through comparing and contrasting the data
from each transcript, he was able to develop a sliding
scale of contact with higher education. This ranged
from no contact, ever, for any member of the family
or friends, through to personal contact by the intervie-
wee attending higher education.
Having placed each interviewee somewhere on the scale,
he then went back to the transcripts to look for hints
about how their perceptions had been formed. At the
same time he consulted existing research literature
which addressed the issue of influences on personal per-
ception to see if this would give him further insight into
what was arising from his data. After this process, if
data was missing or he was unable to understand some-
thing which had been said, he would conduct another
interview until he felt that his analysis, and his under-
standing, were complete.
Content analysis
For those types of analyses at the other end of the quali-
tative data continuum, the process is much more mechan-
ical with the analysis being left until the data has been
collected. Perhaps the most common method of doing this
is to code by content. This is called content analysis. Using
this method the researcher systematically works through
each transcript assigning codes, which may be numbers
or words, to specific characteristics within the text. The
researcher may already have a list of categories or she
may read through each transcript and let the categories
emerge from the data. Some researchers may adopt both
approaches, as Example 10 illustrates. This type of analy-
sis can be used for open-ended questions which have been
added to questionnaires in large quantitative surveys, thus
enabling the researcher to quantify the answers.
EXAMPLE 10: TINA
In her research on students’ attitudes towards alcohol,
Tina, from her own experience, felt that money, social
life, halls of residence and campus bars would all be sig-
nificant. She assigned code numbers to these issues and
then went through each transcript, writing the code
number above the relevant section when any of these is-
sues were mentioned. Sure enough, they did appear to
be important and were discussed in every interview, even
with non-students. However, she also found that many
other issues were being discussed which she had not
thought about previously, such as peer pressure and dis-
tance from home. As each new issue was mentioned, she
ascribed another code and went back to previous tran-
118 / PRACT ICAL R ESEARCH MET HODS
H OW TO A N A L Y S E Y O U R D A T A / 119
scripts to see if it had arisen but had been missed during
the initial analysis. Although she had to return to the
transcripts many times, this meant that by the end of
the process Tina had completed a thorough analysis of
her data.
Discourse analysis
Falling in the middle of the qualitative analysis continuum
is discourse analysis, which some researchers have named
conversational analysis, although others would argue that
the two are quite different. These methods look at patterns
of speech, such as how people talk about a particular sub-
ject, what metaphors they use, how they take turns in con-
versation, and so on. These analysts see speech as a
performance; it performs an action rather than describes
a specific state of affairs or specific state of mind. Much
of this analysis is intuitive and reflective, but it may also
involve some form of counting, such as counting instances
of turn-taking and their influence on the conversation and
the way in which people speak to others.
EXAMPLE 11: JULIE
Julie wanted to find out about women’s experiences of
premenstrual tension (PMT). As PMT is a relatively
new phrase to describe this condition, Julie was inter-
ested in finding out how women spoke about the pro-
blems they were experiencing, both in the present day
and in the past. She wanted to look closely at what wo-
men from different generations said about themselves
and how they talked to each other about their problems.
She decided to conduct five interviews and one focus
group, and then analyse them using discourse analysis,
which meant that she would break down each transcript
into tiny parts. In the interview transcripts she looked
for cultural, social and historical clues. In the focus
group transcript she was interested in looking at how
the women took turns to talk about the subject, espe-
cially amongst the different age groups. She thought
about her own position as a female researcher and
how this might affect both what was being said and
her interpretation of the data. Her final report con-
tained large amounts of transcript to illustrate the
points she had raised.
Processing the data
These examples show that there are different processes in-
volved in qualitative data analysis.
You need to think about the data from the moment you
start to collect the information.
You need to judge the value of your data, especially
that which may come from dubious sources.
As your research progresses you need to interpret the
data so that you, and others, can gain an understand-
ing of what is going on.
Finally, you need to undertake the mechanical process
of analysing the data.
120 / PRACT ICAL R ESEARCH MET HODS
H O W T O A N A L Y S E Y O U R D A T A / 121
It is possible to undertake the mechanical process using
computing software which can save you a lot of time,
although it may stop you becoming really familiar with
the data. There are many dedicated qualitative analysis
programs of various kinds available to social researchers
that can be used for a variety of different tasks. For exam-
ple, software could locate particular words or phrases;
make lists of words and put them into alphabetical order;
insert key words or comments; count occurrences of
words or phrases or attach numeric codes. Some software
will retrieve text, some will analyse text and some will help
to build theory. Although a computer can undertake these
mechanical processes, it cannot think about, judge or inter-
pret qualitative data (see Table 10).
QUANTITATIVE DATA ANALYSIS
If you have decided that a large survey is the most appro-
priate method to use for your research, by now you should
have thought about how you’re going to analyse your
data. You will have checked that your questionnaire is
properly constructed and worded, you will have made
sure that there are no variations in the way the forms
are administered and you will have checked over and over
again that there is no missing or ambiguous information.
If you have a well-designed and well-executed survey, you
will minimise problems during the analysis.
Computing software
If you have computing software available for you to use
you should find this the easiest and quickest way to ana-
lyse your data. The most common package used by social
scientists at this present time is SPSS for windows, which
TABLE 10: USING COMPUTERS FOR QUALITATIVE DATA
ANALYSIS: ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES
ADVANTAGES
Using computers helps to
alleviate time-consuming and
monotonous tasks of cutting,
pasting and retrieval of field
notes and/or interview
transcripts.
Computers are a useful aid to
those who have to work to tight
deadlines.
Programs can cope with both
multiple codes and over-lapping
codes which would be very
difficult for the researcher to
cope with without the aid of a
computer.
Some software can conduct
multiple searches in which more
than one code is searched much
more quickly and efficiently than
by the researcher.
Programs can combine codes in
complex searches.
Programs can pick out instances
of pre-defined categories which
have been missed by the
researcher during the initial
analysis.
Computers can be used to help
the researcher overcome
‘analysis block’.
DISADVANTAGES
In focus groups the group moves
through a different sequence of
events which is important in the
analysis but which cannot be
recognised by a computer.
Programs cannot understand
the meaning of text.
Software can only support the
intellectual processes of the
researcher – they cannot be a
substitute for these processes.
Participants can change their
opinions and contradict
themselves during an interview.
A computer will not recognise
this.
The software might be beyond
an individual’s budget.
User-error can lead to
undetected mistakes or
misleading results.
Using computers can lead to an
over-emphasis on mechanical
procedures.
122 / PRACT ICAL R ESEARCH MET HODS
H OW TO A N A L Y S E Y O U R D A T A / 123
has become increasingly user-friendly over the last few
years. However, data input can be a long and laborious
process, especially for those who are slow on the key-
board, and, if any data is entered incorrectly, it will influ-
ence your results. Large scale surveys conducted by
research companies tend to use questionnaires which
can be scanned, saving much time and money, but this op-
tion might not be open to you. If you are a student, how-
ever, spend some time getting to know what equipment is
available for your use as you could save yourself a lot of
time and energy by adopting this approach. Also, many
software packages at the push of a key produce profes-
sional graphs, tables and pie charts which can be used
in your final report, again saving a lot of time and effort.
Most colleges and universities provide some sort of statis-
tics course and data analysis course. Or the computing de-
partment will provide information leaflets and training
sessions on data analysis software. If you have chosen this
route, try to get onto one of these courses, especially those
which have a ‘hands-on’ approach as you might be able to
analyse your data as part of your course work. This will
enable you to acquire new skills and complete your re-
search at the same time.
Statisticl techniques
For those who do not have access to data analysis soft-
ware, a basic knowledge of statistical techniques is needed
to analyse your data. If your goal is to describe what you
have found, all you need to do is count your responses and
reproduce them. This is called a frequency count or uni-
variate analysis. Table 11 shows a frequency count of age.
TABLE 11: AGE OF RESPONDENTS
AGE GROUP
Under 20
20-29
30-39
40-49
50-59
Over 59
FREQUENCY
345
621
2
12
198
154
121
From this table you would be able to see clearly that the
20-29 age group was most highly represented in your sur-
vey. This type of frequency count is usually the first step in
any analysis of a large scale survey, and forms the base for
many other statistical techniques that you might decide to
conduct on your data (see Example 12).
However, there is a problem with missing answers in this
type of count. For example, someone might be unwilling
to let a researcher know their age, or someone else could
have accidentally missed out a question. If there are any
missing answers, a separate ‘no answer’ category needs to
be included in any frequency count table. In the final re-
port, some researchers overcome this problem by convert-
ing frequency counts to percentages which are calculated
after excluding missing data. However, percentages can be
misleading if the total number of respondents is fewer
than 40.
124 / P RACTICAL RESE ARCH ME THODS
H O W T O A N AL Y S E Y O U R D A T A / 125
EXAMPLE 12: TOM
Tom works part-time for a charity which provides infor-
mation and services for blind and partially sighted peo-
ple in the town. He was asked to find out how many
people use the service and provide a few details about
who these people are and what they do in life. Tom de-
signed a short questionnaire which could be adminis-
tered face-to-face and over the telephone by the
receptionist. Anyone who called in person or telephoned
the centre over a period of a month was asked these ques-
tions. If they had already completed a questionnaire they
did not have to do so again.
Tom did not have access to any computing facilities,
so he decided to analyse the questionnaires by hand. He
conducted a count of gender, age, occupation, postcode
area of residence and reason for attending or telephon-
ing the centre. From this information, members of staff
at the centre were able to find out that their main custo-
mers were women over the age of retirement. This meant
that they were able to arrange more activities which sui-
ted this age group. Tom found out also that one of the
main reasons for contacting the centre was for more in-
formation on disability benefits. A Braille booklet and a
cassette recording containing all the relevant informa-
tion was produced and advertised locally.
It took Tom one month to design and pilot the question-
naire, another month to administer the questionnaire
and two months to analyse the results and write the re-
port.
Finding aconnection
Although frequency counts are a useful starting point in
quantitative data analysis, you may find that you need to
do more than merely describe your findings. Often you
will need to find out if there is a connection between
one variable and a number of other variables. For exam-
ple, a researcher might want to find out whether there is a
connection between watching violent films and aggressive
behaviour. This is called bivariate analysis.
In multivariate analysis the researcher is interested in ex-
ploring the connections among more than two variables.
For example, a researcher might be interested in finding
out whether women aged 40-50, in professional occupa-
tions, are more likely to try complementary therapies
than younger, non-professional women and men from
all categories.
MEASURINGDATA
Nominal scales
To move beyond frequency counts, it is important to un-
derstand how data is measured. In nominal scales the re-
spondent answers a question in one particular way,
choosing from a number of mutually exclusive answers.
Answers to questions about marital status, religious af-
filiation and gender are examples of nominal scales of
measurement. The categories include everyone in the sam-
ple, no one should fit into more than one category and the
implication is that no one category is better than another.
Ordinal scales
Some questions offer a choice but from the categories gi-
126 / P R A C T I C A L R E S E A R C H M E T H O D S
H O W T O A N A L Y S E Y O U R D A T A / 127
ven it is obvious that the answers form a scale. They can
be placed on a continuum, with the implication being that
some categories are better than others. These are called
ordinal scales. The occupationally based social scale
which runs from ‘professional’ to ‘unskilled manual’ is
a good example of this type of scale. In this type of scale
it is not possible to measure the difference between the
specific categories.
Interval scales
Interval scales, on the other hand, come in the form of
numbers with precisely defined intervals. Examples in-
cluded in this type of scale are the answers from questions
about age, number of children and household income.
Precise comparisons can be made between these scales.
Arithmetic mean
In mathematics, if you want to find a simple average of the
data, you would add up the values and divide by the num-
ber of items. This is called an arithmetic mean. This is a
straightforward calculation used with interval scales where
specific figures can be added together and then divided.
However, it is possible to mislead with averages, especially
when the range of the values may be great. Researchers,
therefore, also describe the mode which is the most fre-
quently occurring value, and the median which is the mid-
dle value of the range. The mode is used when dealing with
nominal scales, for example it can show that most respon-
dents in your survey are Catholics. The median is used
when dealing with both ordinal and interval scales.
Quantitative data analysis can involve many complex sta-
tistical techniques which cannot be covered in this book.
If you wish to follow this route you should read some of
the data analysis books recommended below.
SUMMARY
The methods you use to analyse your data will depend
upon whether you have chosen to conduct qualitative
or quantitative research.
For quantitative data analysis, issues of validity and re-
liability are important.
Qualitative data analysis is a very personal process.
Ask two researchers to analyse a transcript and they
will probably come up with very different results.
After having conducted an interview or a focus group,
it is useful to complete a summary form which con-
tains details about the interview. This can be attached
to the transcript and can be used to help the analysis.
Qualitative data analysis methods can be viewed as
forming a continuum from highly qualitative methods
to almost quantitative methods, which involve an ele-
ment of counting.
Examples of qualitative data analysis include thematic
analysis, comparative analysis, discourse analysis and
content analysis.
The analysis of large-scale surveys is best done with the
use of statistical software, although simple frequency
counts can be undertaken manually.
Data can be measured using nominal scales, ordinal
scales or interval scales.
128 / P R A C T I C A L R E S E A R C H M E T H O D S
H O W T O A N AL Y S E Y O U R D A T A / 129
A simple average is called an arithmetic mean; the
middle value of a range is called the median; the most
frequently occurring value is called the mode.
FURTHER READING
QualitativeAnalysis
Corbin, J. and Strauss, A. (1990) Basics of Qualitative Re-
search: Grounded Theory Procedures and Techniques,
Newbury Park, CA: Sage
Dey, I. (1993) Qualitative Data Analysis: A User Friendly
Guide for Social Scientists, London: Routledge.
Kelle, U. (ed.) (1995) Computer-Aided Qualitative Data
Analysis: Theory, Methods and Practice, London: Sage.
Miles, M.B. and Huberman, A.M. (1994) Qualitative
Data Analysis: An Expanded Sourcebook, Thousand
Oaks, CA: Sage.
Silverman, D. (2001) Interpreting Qualitative Data: Meth-
ods for Analysing Talk, Text and Interaction, 2
nd
edi-
tion, London: Sage.
Weitzman, E.A. and Miles, M.B. (1995) Computer Pro-
grams for Qualitative Data Analysis: A Software Source-
book, Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
QuantitativeAnalysis
Bryman, A. and Cramer, D. (1990) Quantitative Data
Analysis for Social Scientists, London: Routledge
Bryman, A. and Cramer, D. (2001) Quantitative Data
Analysis with SPSS Release 10 for Windows: A Guide
for Social Scientists, (new edition) Hove: Routledge.
Clegg, F. (1989) Simple Statistics, Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Field, A. (2000) Discovering Statistics Using SPSS for
Windows: Advanced Techniques for Beginners, London:
Sage.
Owen, F. and Jones, R. (1994) Statistics, 4
th
edition, Lon-
don: Pitman.
130 / PRACT ICAL R ESEARCH MET HODS
12
How to ReportYour Findings
Once you have completed your research and analysed
your data, there are three main ways of reporting your
findings – written reports and journal articles, both of
which can be reproduced on-line, and oral presentations.
WRITTENREPORTS
If you are a student your college or university may have
strict rules and guidelines which you have to follow when
writing up your report. You should find out what these
might be before you start your research as this could influ-
ence your research methodology, as Jeanne found out (see
Example 13).
EXAMPLE 13: JEANNE
I am a mature student and had worked for many years
in a women’s refuge prior to taking up my course.
Naturally when it came to doing my dissertation I
wanted to do some research within the refuge. I was in-
terested in issues of women helping themselves to run
the refuge rather than having inappropriate activities
imposed upon them, sometimes by social workers
who really had no experience of what the women were
going through. That’s when I found out about action
131
research. I decided I would be able to work with the wo-
men to achieve acceptable goals for everyone.
In my opinion the research went really well. During the
evaluation stage all the women said they were happy
with both the process and the outcome. We were all
happy and I was pleased with what we’d achieved. Then
it came to writing my dissertation. I had known all
along that writing up a piece of action research would
be difficult, but I had got my head around it and
worked out how it could be done. Then I found out that
my university had set rules for the format of a disserta-
tion, and worse my tutor had not even mentioned this
when I started my research. So, I had to try and fit my
research into what I saw as a really old fashioned, scien-
tific format which really didn’t suit my work. I felt this
was unfair and wouldn’t do justice to the research I had
actually carried out. I felt that I would have to spend so
long justifying my methodology, that there wouldn’t be
any room for anything else.
At the moment, I’ve decided to argue my case at the
examination committee and the Students’ Union has
agreed to represent me. I can’t help feeling this will pre-
judice people against me. It has made me wonder what
research is for and who it should benefit.
As pressures of work increase, tutors may not have the
time to impart all the required information to each indi-
vidual student. As a student you need to make sure that
you have all the relevant information to hand. If you have
132 / P R A C T I C A L R E S E A R C H M E T H O D S
H O W T O R E P O R T Y O U R F I N D I N G S / 133
not been given a copy of the dissertation guidelines ask
your tutor if they are available and from where they can
be obtained. It is then up to you whether you want to fol-
low these guidelines and conduct a piece of research which
will fit well into the set format, or whether you have a
burning passion to conduct something a little more inno-
vative and become a trailblazer in the process. If the latter
appeals to you, always talk over your ideas with your tutor
first as you could waste time and effort in conducting a
piece of research which will not be considered suitable
by the examiners.
If you are not a student you may have more flexibility in
the style and structure of your report. However, remem-
ber that one of the purposes of your report is to convince
people that you have produced a good, sound piece of re-
search and the more professional your report looks the
better your chances of success.
Remember the audience
An important point to remember when writing a report is
to think about your audience. What style would they pre-
fer? Do they understand complex statistics or do you need
to keep it simple? Have they the time to read through
reams of quotations or are they interested only in conclu-
sions and recommendations? Are they interested in your
methodology? Do you need to justify your methodology
to a non-believer? Do you need to write using complex ter-
minology or do you need to keep your language as simple
as possible? (Normally I would recommend using plain,
clear language, but on some occasions you will need to
convince people of your knowledge of the subject by in-
cluding some more complex terms. However, make sure
you understand the terminology thoroughly yourself. A
few researchers have come unstuck by including terms
which it becomes obvious later they do no understand).
WRITTENREPORT FORMAT
Traditional written reports tend to be produced in the fol-
lowing format.
T|tle Page
This contains the title of the report, the name of the re-
searcher and the date of publication. If the report is a dis-
sertation or thesis, the title page will include details about
the purpose of the report, for example ‘A thesis submitted
in partial fulfilment of the requirements of Sheffield Hal-
lam University for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy’. If
the research has been funded by a particular organisation,
details of this may be included on the title page.
Contents Page
In this section is listed the contents of the report, either in
chapter or section headings with sub-headings, if relevant
and their page numbers.
List of Illustrations
This section includes title and page number of all graphs,
tables, illustrations, charts, etc.
Acknowledgements
Some researchers may wish to acknowledge the help of
their research participants, tutors, employers and/or
funding body.
134 / PRACTICAL RES EARCH METHODS
H OW TO RE P OR T Y O UR F I N DI N G S / 135
Abstract/Summary
This tends to be a one page summary of the research, its
purpose, methods, main findings and conclusion.
Introduction
This section introduces the research, setting out the aims
and objectives, terms and definitions. It includes a ratio-
nale for the research and a summary of the report struc-
ture.
Background
In this section is included all your background research,
which may be obtained from the literature, from personal
experience or both. You must indicate from where all the
information to which you refer has come, so remember to
keep a complete record of everything you read. If you do
not do this, you could be accused of plagiarism which is a
form of intellectual theft. When you are referring to a par-
ticular book or journal article, find out the accepted stan-
dard for referencing from your institution (see below).
Methodologyand Methods
In this section is set out a description of, and justification
for, the chosen methodology and research methods. The
length and depth of this section will depend upon whether
you are a student or employee. If you are an undergrad-
uate student you will need to raise some of the methodo-
logical and theoretical issues pertinent to your work, but
if you are a postgraduate student you will need also to be
aware of the epistemological and ontological issues in-
volved. If you are an employee you may only need to pro-
vide a description of the methods you used for your
research, in which case this section can be titled ‘Research
Methods’. Remember to include all the practical informa-
tion people will need to evaluate your work, for example,
how many people took part, how they were chosen, your
time scale and data recording and analysis methods.
Findings/Analysis
In this section are included your main findings. The con-
tent of this section will depend on your chosen methodol-
ogy and methods. If you have conducted a large
quantitative survey, this section may contain tables,
graphs, pie charts and associated statistics. If you have
conducted a qualitative piece of research this section
may be descriptive prose containing lengthy quotations.
Conclusion
In this section you sum up your findings and draw conclu-
sions from them, perhaps in relation to other research or
literature.
Recommendations
Some academic reports will not need this section. How-
ever, if you are an employee who has conducted a piece
of research for your company, this section could be the
most important part of the report. It is for this reason
that some written reports contain the recommendation
section at the beginning of the report. In this section is
set out a list of clear recommendations which have been
developed from your research.
Further Research
It is useful in both academic reports and work-related re-
ports to include a section which shows how the research
can be continued. Perhaps some results are inconclusive,
136 / PRACT ICAL R ESEARCH MET HODS
H O W T O R E P O R T Y O U R F I N D I N G S / 137
or perhaps the research has thrown up many more research
questions which need to be addressed. It is useful to include
this section because it shows that you are aware of the wider
picture and that you are not trying to cover up something
which you feel may be lacking from your own work.
References
Small research projects will need only a reference section.
This includes all the literature to which you have referred
in your report. Find out which referencing system your
college or university uses. A popular method is the Har-
vard system which lists the authors’ surnames alphabeti-
cally, followed by their initials, date of publication, title of
book in italics, place of publication and publisher. If the
reference is a journal article, the title of the article appears
in inverted commas and the name of the journal appears
in italics, followed by the volume number and pages of the
article. This is the method used in this book. Figure 5 pro-
vides a section of a bibliography from a PhD thesis to il-
lustrate this method.
Bibliography
Larger dissertations or theses will require both a reference
section and a bibliography. As discussed above, the refer-
ence section will include all those publications to which
you have referred to in your report. If, however, you have
read other work in relation to your research but not actu-
ally referred to them when writing up your report, you
might wish to include them in a bibliography. However,
make sure they are still relevant to your work – including
books to make your bibliography look longer and more
impressive is a tactic which won’t impress examiners.
Clegg, S. (1985) ‘Feminist Methodology: Fact or Fic-
tion?’ Quality and Quantity,19: 83-97.
Cohen, A.P. (1994) Self Consciousness: An Alternative
Anthropology of Identity, London: Routledge.
Cook, J.A. and Fonow, M.M. (1986) ‘Knowledge and
Women’s Interests: Issues of Epistemology and
Methodology in Feminist Sociological Research’, So-
ciological Enquiry, 56: 2-29.
Crowley, H. and Himmelweit, S. (eds.) (1992) Knowing
Women: Feminism and Knowledge, Cambridge: Polity
Press in Association with the Open University.
Currie, D. and Kazi, H. (1987) ‘Academic Feminism
and the Process of De-radicalisation: Re-examining
the Issues’, Feminist Review, 25: 77-98.
Curry, C., Trew, K., Turner, I. and Hunter, J. (1994)
‘The Effect of Life Domains of Girls’ Possible
Selves’, Adolescence, 29: 133-150.
Erikson, E.H. (ed.) (1978) Adulthood, New York: Nor-
ton.
Evans, N (ed.) (1980) Education Beyond School: Higher
Education for a Changing Context, London: Grant
McIntyre.
Faludi, S. (1992) Backlash: The Undeclared War
Against Women, London: Chatto and Windus.
Fig. 5. Example list of references
138 / PRACT ICAL R ESEARCH MET HODS
Appendices
If you have constructed a questionnaire for your research,
or produced an interview schedule or a code of ethics, it
may be useful to include them in your report as an appen-
TEN REASONS WHY REPORTS FAIL
There is no logical structure.
Ideas are not well thought out.
Work is disorganised.
Assumptions are made which cannot be justified by
evidence.
There are too many grammatical and spelling mis-
takes.
Sentences and/or paragraphs are too long or too
obscure.
It is obvious that ideas and sentences have been ta-
ken from other sources.
There is too much repetition.
There is too much irrelevant information.
Summary and conclusions are weak.
H OW TO RE P OR T Y O UR F I N DI N G S / 139
dix. In general, appendices do not count towards your to-
tal amount of words so it is a useful way of including ma-
terial without taking up space that can be used for other
information. However, do not try filling up your report
with irrelevant appendices as this will not impress exam-
iners. When including material you must make sure that it
is relevant – ask yourself whether the examiner will gain a
deeper understanding of your work by reading the appen-
dix. If not, leave it out. Other information which could be
included as an appendix are recruitment leaflets or letters;
practical details about each research participant; sample
transcripts (if permission has been sought); list of inter-
view dates; relevant tables and graphs or charts which
are too bulky for the main report.
JOURNAL ARTICLES
If you want your research findings to reach a wider audi-
ence, it might be worth considering producing an article
for a journal. Most academic journals do not pay for ar-
ticles they publish, but many professional or trade publi-
cations do pay for your contribution, if published.
However, competition can be fierce and your article will
have to stand out from the crowd if you want to be suc-
cessful. The following steps will help you to do this:
Choose a topical, original piece of research.
Do your market research – find out which journal pub-
lishes articles in your subject area.
Check on submission guidelines – produce an article in
the correct style and format and of the right length.
Read several copies of the journal to get an idea about
the preferences of editors.
If you are thinking about writing for a trade publica-
tion, approach the editors by letter, asking if they
might be interested in an article. Include a short sum-
mary of your proposed article.
Produce a succinct, clear, interesting and well-written
article – ask friends, tutors or colleagues to read it and
provide comments.
Make sure there are no mistakes, remembering to
check the bibliography.
If it is your first article, gain advice from someone who
has had work published. Also you might find it easier
to write an article with someone else – some tutors or
140 / PR A C T I C AL R E S E A R C H M E T H O D S
HOW TO REPORT YOUR FIND IN GS/ 141
supervisors will be willing to do this as it helps their
publication record if their name appears on another
article. You may find that you will do most of the
work, but it is very useful to have someone read your
article and change sections which do not work or read
well. It is also useful to have people comment on your
methodology or analysis assumptions which could be
criticised by other researchers.
ORAL PRESENTATIONS
Another method of presenting your research findings is
through an oral presentation. This may be at a university
or college to other students or tutors, at a conference to
other researchers or work colleagues, or in a work place
to colleagues, employers or funding bodies. Many re-
searchers find that it is better to provide both a written
report and an oral presentation as this is the most effective
way of enabling a wider audience to find out about the re-
search, especially if you also reproduce your written re-
port on-line.
If you want people to take notice of your results, you need
to produce a good presentation. Table 12 provides a list of
dos and don’ts when making a presentation.
PowerPoint is a useful presentation graphics program
which enables you to create slides that can be shared live
or on-line. You can enhance your presentation with ani-
mation, artwork and diagrams which make it more inter-
esting for your audience. Full details about PowerPoint
can be found at www.microsoft.com/office/powerpoint.
TABLE 12: MAKING PRESENTATIONS: DOS AND DON’TS
DO
Arrive early and make sure the room
is set out in the way that you want.
Make sure that all the equipment is
available and that you know how to
work it.
Try to relax and breathe deeply.
Acknowledge that this is your first
presentation and people will tend to
help you along.
Produce aide memoirs, either on
cards, paper, OHP transparencies or
presentation software such as
PowerPoint.
Make it clear from the outset
whether you are happy to be
interrupted or whether questions
should be left for the end. If you have
invited questions, make sure you
make every effort to answer them.
Look around the room while you are
speaking – if it’s a small group, make
eye-contact with as many people as
possible.
Present interesting visual
information such as graphs, charts
and tables in a format which can be
viewed by everyone. This could be
OHP transparencies, slides,
PowerPoint or handouts.
Alter the tone and pitch of your
voice, length of sentence and facial/
hand gestures to maintain audience
interest. Show that you are interested
in your subject.
Produce a paper or handout which
people can take away with them.
Talk to people after your
presentation and ask them how it
went, whether there are any
improvements they might suggest for
future presentations.
DON’T
Rush in late, find that the overhead
projector doesn’t work and that you
have no pen for the whiteboard.
Worry about showing your nerves.
Everybody gets nervous when they
first start giving presentations and
your audience should know this.
Read straight from a paper you have
written.
Get cross if you are interrupted and
have not mentioned that you don’t
want this to happen. Invite questions
and then do not answer them or
patronise the inquirer.
Look at your notes, never raising
your head.
Produce visual information which
people can’t see, either due to its size
or print quality.
Present in a monotone voice with no
facial/hand gestures. Make it clear
that your subject bores the pants off
you.
Let the audience go home without
any re
cord of what you have said.
Run away never to be seen again.
142 / PR AC TI C A L R E S E A R C H M E T H O D S
H O W T O R E P O R T Y O U R F I N D I N G S / 143
SUMMARY
There are three main ways of reporting your findings:
written reports, journal articles and oral presentations.
Before starting your research, find out whether you are
going to be restricted by structure, style and content of
your final report.
Think about your audience and produce your report
accordingly.
A traditional written report includes the following:
– title page
– contents page
– list of illustrations
– acknowledgements
– abstract/summary
– introduction
– background
– methodology/methods
– findings/analysis
– conclusions
– recommendations
– further research
– references
– bibliography
– appendices.
If you are interested in writing an article for a journal,
do your market research. Make sure that the subject
matter, style, structure and length of your article suit
the journal.
Try to seek advice and comments from people experi-
enced in writing journal articles.
Think about producing your first article with another,
more experienced researcher.
Remember that anyone can reproduce reports or arti-
cles on-line. If you were to do so, your work would
reach a wider audience than it might do otherwise.
When making oral presentations always be prepared.
Arrive early, make sure equipment works and that
you have everything you need.
Show that you are interested in what you are saying
and try to keep audience interest by using visual aids
and altering tone, pitch and gestures.
Don’t shrug off questions or patronise your audience –
pitch your presentation at the right level.
Never let an audience leave without taking away a re-
cord of what you have said.
FURTHER READING
Bessant, A. (2001) Learning to Use PowerPoint, Oxford:
Heinemann.
Bowden, J. (1999) Writing Good Reports, Oxford: How To
Books.
Durie, B. (2000) Creating a Web Site, 3
rd
edition, Oxford:
How To Books.
Hasbani, G. (1999) Making Great Presentations, Oxford:
How To Books.
Owen, M. (1998) I Hate Giving Presentations, 2
nd
edition,
London: Kogan Page.
144 / P R A C T I C A L R E S E AR C H M E T H O D S
HOW TO REPORT Y OUR FINDIN GS/ 145
Smith, P. (2000) Writing an Assignment, 4
th
edition, Ox-
ford: How To Books.
Williams, S. (1996) Presentations, Tadworth: Elliot Right
Way Books.
13
How to be an Ethical
Researcher
As researchers we are unable to conduct our projects suc-
cessfully if we do not receive the help of other people. If
we expect them to give up their valuable time to help us, it
follows that we should offer them something in return.
Many people are willing to disclose a lot of personal in-
formation during our research so we need to make sure
that we treat both the participants and the information
they provide with honesty and respect. This is called re-
search ethics.
TREATINGPARTICIPANTS WITHRESPECT
As a researcher you must remember that the research pro-
cess intrudes on people’s lives. Some of the people who
take part in your research may be vulnerable because of
their age, social status or position of powerlessness. If par-
ticipants are young, you need to make sure a parent or
guardian is present. If participants are ill or reaching
old age you might need to use a proxy and care should
be taken to make sure that you do not affect the relation-
ship between the proxy and the participant.
Some people may find participation a rewarding process,
whereas others will not. Your research should not give
rise to false hopes or cause unnecessary anxiety. You must
146
HOW TO BE A N ETHICAL RES EARCHER/ 147
try to minimise the disruption to people’s lives and if
someone has found it an upsetting experience you should
find out why and try to ensure that the same situation
does not occur again.
As a researcher you will encounter awkward situations,
but good preparation and self-awareness will help to re-
duce these. If they do happen, you should not dwell too
long on the negative side – reflect, analyse, learn by your
mistakes and move on.
You must do your best to ensure anonymity and confiden-
tiality. However, information given by research partici-
pants in confidence does not enjoy legal privilege. This
means that the information may be liable to subpoena
by a court. If you’re dealing with very sensitive informa-
tion which you know could be called upon by a court of
law, you will need to inform your participants that you
would be obliged to hand over the information.
OVERTANDCOVERT RESEARCH
Overt research means that it is open, out in the public and
that everyone knows who you are and what you are doing.
Covert research means that you are doing it under cover,
that no one knows you are a researcher or what you are
doing. In my opinion covert research should be kept to
a minimum – there are enough journalists and television
personalities doing this kind of undercover, sensationalist
work.
Covert research
In the past researchers have justified their covert work by
saying that it has been the only way to find out what goes on
in a particular organisation that would not otherwise let a
researcher enter. Such work has been carried out within re-
ligious cults and within warring gangs of young people.
However, this type of research can have serious implications
for the personal safety of the researcher and the people with
whom she comes into contact. It can also give research a
bad name – other people may read about the work and be-
come suspicious about taking part in future projects.
Overt research
I believe researchers should be open and honest about
who they are and what they’re doing. People can then
make an informed choice about whether they take part
in a project. It is their prerogative to refuse – nobody
should be forced, bullied or cajoled into doing something
they don’t want to do. If people are forced to take part in
a research project, perhaps by their boss or someone else
in a position of authority, you will soon find out. They
will not be willing to participate and may cause problems
for you by offering false or useless information, or by dis-
rupting the data collection process. Who can blame them?
Wouldn’t you do the same if you were forced to do some-
thing you didn’t want to do?
This means that not only should you be open and honest
about who you are and what you’re doing, but so should
those who open the gates for you, especially those who are
in a position of authority. Consider Example 14 from a
student new to research.
148 / P R A C T I C A L R E S E AR C H M E T H O D S
HOW TO BE AN ETHICAL RESE ARCHER/ 149
EXAMPLE 14: STEVE
It was the first project I’d ever done. I wanted to find out
about a new workers’ education scheme in a car factory.
One of my tutors knew someone in charge of the scheme
and that person arranged for me to hold a focus group
in the factory. This meant that the person in charge of
the scheme chose the people for the focus group. I was
really pleased because it meant I didn’t have to do a lot
of work getting people to come. Of course I soon found
out that he’d chosen these people for a particular rea-
son, and he’d actually told them that they had to attend,
that there was no choice involved. When I turned up to
hold the group, no one had been told who I was and
what they were doing there. When I started to introduce
myself some of the workers looked a bit uneasy and
others just looked plain defiant. It was only after the
group that I spoke to someone who said that they’d
all thought I was a ‘spy’ for the company and that some
had decided to give the ‘company line’ on what the
scheme was all about, whereas others had decided not
to say anything. She said that really they didn’t believe
a lot of what had been said, but none of them dared say
anything different as they thought I was going to go
straight to management with the results. I felt that the
information I collected wasn’t very useful in terms of my
research, but it was useful in terms of getting an idea
about employer-employee relations.
If you are relying on someone else to find participants for
you, it is important that you make sure that that person
knows who you are and what you’re doing and that this in-
formation is then passed on to everyone else. A useful way
to do this is to produce a leaflet which can be given to any-
one who might be thinking about taking part in your re-
search. This leaflet should contain the following
information:
Details of who you are (student and course or employ-
ee and position).
Details of the organisation for which you work or at
which you study.
Information about who has commissioned/funded the
research, if relevant.
Information about your project – subject and purpose.
Details about what will happen to the results.
Information about the personal benefits to be gained
by taking part in the project. This section is optional,
but I find it helps to show that people will gain person-
ally in some way by taking part in the research. This
acts as an incentive. You might offer further informa-
tion about something in which they are interested, or
you might offer them a copy of the final report. Some
consumer research companies offer entry into a prize
draw or vouchers for local shops and restaurants.
CODE OF ETHICS
Once you have been open and honest about what you are
doing and people have agreed to take part in the research,
it is useful to provide them with a Code of Ethics. The best
time to do this is just before they take part in a focus
150 / P R A C T I C A L R E S E AR C H M E T H O D S
HOW TO BE AN ET HIC AL RE SEARCHER/ 151
group or interview, or just before they fill in your ques-
tionnaire. The Code of Ethics supplies them with details
about what you intend to do with the information they
give and it shows that you intend to treat both them
and the information with respect and honesty. It covers
the following issues:
Anonymity: you need to show that you are taking steps
to ensure that what participants have said cannot be
traced back to them when the final report is produced.
How are you going to categorise and store the informa-
tion? How are you going to make sure it is not easily
accessible to anyone with unscrupulous intentions? Do
you intend to change the names of people, towns and
organisations? If not, how will you ensure that what
someone says cannot be used against them in the fu-
ture? However, you must be careful not to make pro-
mises that you cannot keep.
Confidentiality: you need to show that information sup-
plied to you in confidence will not be disclosed directly
to third parties. If the information is supplied in a
group setting, issues of confidentiality should be rele-
vant to the whole group who should also agree not
to disclose information directly to third parties. You
need to think about how you’re going to categorise
and store the information so that it cannot fall into un-
scrupulous hands. Again, you need to make sure that
you do not make promises which you can’t keep.
Right to comment: this will depend on your personal
methodological preferences and beliefs. Some re-
searchers believe that willing participants should be
consulted throughout the research process and that if
someone is unhappy with the emerging results and re-
port, they have the right to comment and discuss al-
terations. Indeed, this can be seen as part of the
research process itself. Other researchers believe that
once the information has been supplied, it is up to
them what they do with it. If you’re not willing to dis-
cuss the final report or take on board comments from
unhappy participants, you must make this clear from
the outset.
The final report: it is useful for participants to know
what is going to happen with the results. Who will re-
ceive a free copy of the report? Will it be on public dis-
play? If the final report is very long you can produce a
shorter, more succinct report which can be sent to in-
terested participants. This will keep down your own
production and postage costs.
Data Protection: you need to show that you understand
the Data Protection Act and that you intend to comply
with its rules. The Data Protection Act 1998 came into
force on 1 March 2000. It sets rules for processing per-
sonal information and applies to paper records as well
as those held on computers. It covers issues such as act-
ing fairly and lawfully; not keeping the information
longer than necessary; making sure that the data is ac-
curate and kept secure. Personal data covers both facts
and opinions about an individual. More details about
the Data Protection Act can be found at www.datapro-
tection.gov.uk. A copy of the Data Protection Act 1998
can be obtained from The Stationery Office Limited at
a price of £10, or from www.legislation.hmso.gov.uk
152 / PR AC TI C A L R E S E A R C H M E T H O D S
Anonymity
I guarantee that I will not use any names and addresses
in the final report, or store or categorise information
using names and addresses. This will help to ensure that
what you have said during the discussion will not be
traced back to you by third parties.
Confidentiality
I guarantee that I will not disclose directly any informa-
tion provided in this group to third parties, unless per-
mission has been granted to do so. As some of the
comments made in this group may be of a personal or
private nature, other participants should respect the
confidentiality of individuals and also not disclose infor-
mation directly to third parties.
Your right to comment
I agree to keep you informed about the progress of the
research. If at any stage you wish to comment on the
emerging results or final report you may do so. I agree
to listen to your comments and make relevant altera-
tions, if appropriate.
The final report
This research is funded by [name of organisation or
funding body]. A copy of the final report will be sent
to this organisation, to the University library and to
anyone who has taken part in the research who has re-
quested a copy.
Data Protection
The researcher will comply with the Data Protection
Act 1998.
Fig. 6. Code of ethics
HOW TO BE AN ETHICAL RESE ARCHER/ 153
The amount of detail you provide in your Code of Ethics
will depend on your research, your participants and your
methodological preferences. Some people will not want to
see a lengthy list of ethical considerations, whereas others
will go through your list with a fine tooth-comb. It is for
this reason that you might find it useful to produce two – a
short summary and a longer version for those who are in-
terested. A short Code of Ethics is provided in Figure 6.
The British Sociological Association has produced a
Statement of Ethical Practice which can be viewed at
www.britsoc.org.uk. This statement covers issues such as
professional integrity; relations with, and responsibilities
towards research participants; relations with, and respon-
sibilities towards sponsors and/or funders. It is a very de-
tailed list and will help you to think about all the ethical
issues which may arise during your research.
SUMMARY
Our research would not be possible without the help
and co-operation of other people. If we expect people
to continue helping us, we should treat them with hon-
esty and respect.
Disruption to a participant’s life should be kept to a
minimum.
False hopes or expectations should not be raised.
Confidential or anonymous data does not enjoy legal
privilege.
Overt research means that it is out in the open – every-
one knows who the researcher is and what she is doing.
Covert research means that it is under-cover work. No-
body knows who the researcher is and what she is
154 / P R A C T I C A L R E S E AR C H M E T H O D S
HOW TO BE AN ETHICAL RESE ARCHER/ 155
doing. This type of work can give research a bad name
and has personal safety implications for the researcher
and for the people with whom she comes into contact.
It is an individual’s prerogative to refuse to take part
in research – nobody should be forced, bullied or ca-
joled into taking part.
If someone is thinking about helping with your re-
search, they should be given a leaflet which includes
the following information:
– Details about who you are and the organisation for
which you work.
– Details about your project, the funding body and
what will happen to the results.
– Information about possible benefits to be gained by
taking part in the research (false promises should not
be made).
A short Code of Ethics should be given to everyone
who takes part in the research. This should include
the following issues:
– anonymity
– confidentiality
– right to comment
– the final report
– Data Protection.
A longer, more detailed Statement of Ethical Practice
can be produced for anyone who requests a copy.
FURTHER READING
Barnes, J.A. (1979) Who Should Know What? Social
Science, Privacy and Ethics, Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Bulmer, M. (1982) Social Research Ethics, London: Mac-
Millan.
Homan, R. (1991) The Ethics of Social Research, London:
Longman.
Lee-Trewick, G. and Linkogle, S. (eds.) (2000) Danger in
the Field: Risk and Ethics in Social Research, London:
Routledge.
156 / PR A C T I C AL R E S E A R C H M E T H O D S
Index
action research, 16–17
aims and objectives, 56–57
anonymity, 151, 153
appendices, 138–139
arithmetic mean, 127
background research, 40–46
bibliography, 137–138
bivariate analysis, 126
body language, 70, 76
box-ticking, 64, 88
budgets, 59–60
census, 47
closed-ended questionnaires, 31,
87–88
cluster sample, 50
Code of Ethics, 150–154
comparative analysis, 115, 116
confidentiality, 151, 153
content analysis, 115, 118
convenience
sample, 51
conversational analysis, 115, 119
covering letter, 99
covert participant observation,
33
Data Protection Act, 152–153
direct observation, 32
discourse analysis, 115, 119
disproportionate stratified
sample, 51
dissemination, 60
epistemology, 18
ethics, 103
ethnography, 17
extreme cases, 51
feminist research, 18
field notes, 106–107
focus group summary form, 114
frequency counts, 123
gaining access, 102–103
generalising, 47
grounded theory, 18–19
heterogeneous samples, 51
interactive questionnaires, 32
interlibrary loan service, 43
interval scales, 127
interview schedule, 67–69
interview summary form, 113
interviewer-administered
questionnaires, 87
journal articles, 140
key informants, 107
listening skills, 71
median, 127
157
memos, 112
mode, 127
multivariate analysis, 126
nominal scales, 126
note-taking, 67
open-ended questionnaires, 31,
87–88
oral presentations, 141–142
ordinal scales, 126–127
overt participant observation, 33
participant observation, 101–109
personal disclosure, 69, 77
personal profile form, 96
piloting a questionnaire, 95, 97
prestige bias, 89
primary research, 40–41, 45
probability samples, 48–51
probing, 71–73
purposive samples, 48–51
qualitative research, 14–16
quantitative research, 15–16
quasi-random sample, 51
questionnaire layout, 93–94
questionnaire length, 93–94
quota sample, 50
rapport, 28, 70–71
recruitment, 82–83
referencing, 137–138
reliability, 110
research ethics committees, 10–
11
research proposal, 55–63
resources, 59–60
response rates, 97–98
sample size, 49, 53
saturation point, 19
secondary research, 40–42, 45
self-administered questionnaires,
87–88
semi-structured interviews, 28–29
simple random sample, 50
snowball sample, 50
stratified random sample, 51
structured interviews, 29
systematic sample, 51
tape recorder, 64–67, 80
thematic analysis, 115–116
theoretical sampling, 51
timetables, 58–59
transcripts, 112
triangulation, 20
univariate analysis, 123
validity, 110
venue, 81–82
video recorder, 66, 80
written reports, 131–139
158 / PR A C T I C AL R E S E A R C H M E T H O D S
Themost common research methodologies are listed below (I have cut and pasted these from
various sources to give you a simple list!) – if you want to use some other method, check with
me first! Also Reading 02b is a methods text that provides more details for your information.
1) Questioning subjects: asking individuals, or small groups, a series of questions; can be
both open-ended (without specific questions) or more structured
a. Surveys: can be done in written form or online (see the webpage Survey Monkey)
b. Interviews: one-one discussions (need to think about note taking or recording)
c. Focus groups: talk with 1-2 researchers and a small group of subjects
2) Ethnography, Fieldwork: Observations of a social space. You are studying subject on
their territory while taking notes on what you observe.
3) Participant Observation: Typically coupled with interviewing and/or ethnographic
observation—you participate in the group that you wish to study to gain more insight into
the processes of that group
a. Jeff Ferrell became a graffiti artist in order to gain access to his subjects and to
interact with them on ‘their territory’
4) Experiments: Experiments involve comparing the outcomes of a treatment group and
control group. You might have participants read a statement and respond to it,
randomly varying a key word in the prompt.
5) Content Analysis: The researcher looks for key words, phrases, or subject matter in
written or video media that already exists and assesses how they vary on key dimensions
a. newsletters, webpages, online forums, song lyrics, visual images, TV shows,
movies, government testimony
6) Sometime Content Analysis is described as – Historical /Archival: The researcher use
content analysis of primary source documents (bills, laws, newspapers, letters, etc.) and
interviews with key social actors to piece together how a historical event occurred.
a. I wrote my dissertation on the creation of Ohio’s Ethnic Intimidation Law by
reviewing written testimony, media coverage, and interviews with the person who
wrote the bill as well as supporters and opponents of the proposed legislation.
7) In secondary analysis, researchers analyze data that others have collected.
a. There are a number of data sets available where researchers can use a statistical
program, such as SPSS, to extract variables they are interested in and run analysis
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