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Design of Sociological Research

"Design of Sociological Research" or Research Design is a broad plan of a piece of empirical research specifying the manner in which data are to be collected and analyzed in order to test Research Design derived from theory, or to develop insights into the problem being investigated. It combines relevance of the problem with economy in procedure. The design stage is most crucial phase of the research process. A particular design may specify whether experiment, social survey, participant observation, other methods, or a combination of more than one method will be used.

Nowadays it has became imperative to chart out the research design before starting any work, Modern research in sociology thus specifies the probable method to be used for date collection analysis, etc keeping in view, time money and, of course, the topic of research. Generally, a research design includes the following steps:

a). Universe of Study (whether a tribe, or a village, or an urban areas, or a particular group, etc.)
b). Subject of Study (whether it focuses on the whole society, or any specific institution or a part of it).
c). Tentative relationship between certain variables (Formulating a Research Design but it is not obligatory to start with a Research Design; certain research designs lack Research Design).
d). Sets of selected methods (whether participant observation, Interview, Questionnaire, or some other methods of data collection would be used).
e). Analytical categories (by which the empirical data is subjected to analysis and interpretation).

Although the steps for formulating a research design remain common the designs differ, depending on the research purpose. The latter may be to report an unknown tribe, or to investigate the intricacies of an institution, or to test a specific Research Design in field situation, or to test a well-designed Research Design in controlled situations. Depending on the research purpose, one delineates an appropriate research design. However, validity of the steps for forming the design will always have to be there. Every study has its own purpose, but all the research purposes can be conceptualized as falling in one of the following categories. Each category refers to a type of research design. Thus, generally, social scientists identify three types of research design on the basis of different research purposes.

These are:

(a)Explanatory research Design

When the purpose of the study is to explore a new universe, one that has not been studied earlier, the research design, is called explanatory. The research purpose in this case is to gain familiarity in unknown areas. Often explanatory research design is used to formulate a problem for precise investigation, or aims at formulating Research Design. Thus, often when the universe of study is an unknown community, explanatory design forms the first step of research, after which other types of research designs can be used.

Two very good examples of explanatory designs are:
(i) Malinowski's study of Trobriand society; and
(ii) Whyte's study of the Street Corner Society.

Both these studies for the collection of data have relied on the special method of participant observation. Both researchers had an explanatory objective. Rather than aiming to test a limited set of specific Research Design, Malinowski and Whyte present in advance only the out line a conceptual model and provide a wide range of detail from which a number of other Research Design can be derived. Instead of concentrating on just unspecific areas and selecting a few aspects for consideration (as may be the case in descriptive research design), researchers gather such a great variety of data that they are able to see the actors in their total life situation. Explanatory studies are not to be confused with raw empiricism, with fact gathering that is unrelated to sociological theory. The explanatory study always carries with it a set of concepts that guide the researcher to look for the facts.

(b) Descriptive research Design

Generally, if a researcher is studying a community which is familiar and his research purpose is to depict accurately and in detail the characteristics of a particular institution, group or an event in the community, the appropriate research design is called Descriptive research Design. Sometimes, descriptive design forms a second step of research, the first step being explanatory design. Thus some times, research Research Design is formulated through explanatory design and to test the Research Design, descriptive design is formulated.

(c) Experimental research Design

The research design that is used to test a Research Design of causal relationship under controlled situation is called experimental design. The essence of the experimental design (in sociology) lies in its testing Research Design derived from a theory.

The experimentation in sociology observes the following aspects:
a. In an experimental design, the investigator controls or manipulates an independent variable or stimulus (X),
b. And observes the effects on the dependent variable (Y), and
c. The effect of the independent variable on the dependent variable is observed by minimizing the effects of extraneous variables that might confound the result.
e. These propositions are tested off on the sample, generally called the experimental sample (E).

Experimentation in sociology raises certain important questions, viz. ethical question, difficulties in forming a control sample and retaining it over time; the difficulties encountered in controlling the extraneous environment, etc. Realizing these problems, in some of the 'experiments' carried out by sociologists, the experimental sample is used as the control sample. It is debatable whether the absence of a control means a non -experimental study. This actually is a modification of the classic experimental design.

The theoretical propositions followed here are the following.
i. Experimental sample is also the control sample.
ii. The experimental sample is measured in the given respect before introducing the independent variable,
iii. After it has been measured, the stimulus for independent variable is introduced.
iv. The experimental sample is measured after stimulus and the change is calculated.

This modification of the experimental design in generally accepted in sociology and is called before and after research. The best example of this type of research design is the Hawthorne study carried out by E. Mayo, F. Roethlisberger, W. Disckson and G. Homans.In this study, the relationship between physical conditions of world (independent variable) and the productivity of the worker (dependent variable) is examined.

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