Survey method in sociology. The developed system of theoretical, methodological and practical recommendations for the effective application of the survey method can be used by practicing sociologists in the study of various economic, social, political

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The history of sociology testifies to the complex path of formation, development and enrichment of methods for studying social reality.

At the early stages of the formation of sociology, its methods and methods of cognizing reality differed little from those used by the already existing sciences - philosophy, law, history. However, even at this stage, which was especially vividly embodied in positivism, sociology focused on the study of specific data, “tangible” information, which, as in the exact sciences, could receive both qualitative and quantitative interpretation.

Sociology gradually accumulated its methods of cognition, especially when it came to empirical research. Separate documents, questionnaires, interviews, analysis of documents received a complete holistic interpretation mainly in the 20s of the twentieth century, when it was possible to talk about more or less scientifically based methods, procedures, techniques and techniques, making it possible to comprehensively analyze the phenomenon under study, which sharply increased the scientific and practical significance of sociology. It is quite obvious that the reliability of the facts and conclusions obtained by the researcher depends on how the latter came to these facts and conclusions, that is, on the method he used.

IN Everyday life we also describe facts, evaluate their plausibility, deduce hypothetical patterns, or refute other people's conclusions. However, in science, all these everyday methods of obtaining new knowledge are much more carefully developed.

The methodology of science is a discipline that studies both technical, "procedural" issues of research organization, and more general issues of the validity of the methods used, the reliability of observations, the criteria for confirming or refuting scientific theories. Evaluation of existing theories and hypotheses in the social sciences, as well as in the natural sciences, involves the introduction of certain criteria for empirical testability and the truth of theoretical statements, as well as the development and application of research methods corresponding to these criteria.

In the most general form, sociological research can be defined as a system of logically consistent methodological, methodological and organizational-technical procedures, interconnected by a single goal:

obtain reliable data about the phenomenon or process being studied, as well as the trends and contradictions of their development, so that these data can be used to increase scientific knowledge or in the practice of managing social life.

Within the framework of the main methods of sociology, there are also specific methods by which empirical sociological research is carried out. These include methods for collecting sociological data (survey, observation, analysis of documents, experiment) and methods for processing and summarizing sociological information. In this paper, we will focus specifically on the survey methods of research.

Survey Methods

At present, it can be said with certainty that this method is the most common method for collecting primary sociological information. Its popularity can be explained by the fact that verbal information obtained by this method is easier to quantify than non-verbal information. The practice of sociological research shows that verbal information is generally more reliable than non-verbal information.

The advantages of this method include its versatility. During the survey, both the motives of the activity of individuals and the products of their activity are recorded. Many practicing sociologists note that the information obtained by the survey method is cheaper than the information obtained by other methods. Also, the skillful use of closed variants of the question allows the use of computer technology in the processing and analysis of information obtained by the survey method.

Poll - provides, firstly, an oral or written appeal of the researcher to a certain set of people - respondents with questions, the content of which represents the problem under study at the level of empirical indicators. Secondly, registration and statistical processing of the received answers, as well as their theoretical interpretation.

Any sociological survey cannot be conducted until it becomes extremely clear why and how it should be done. In other words, the survey should be preceded by the development of a research program, a clear definition of goals, objectives, concepts (categories of analysis), hypotheses, object and subject, as well as sampling and research tools. Each survey involves an ordered set of questions (questionnaire) that serves to achieve the goal of the study, solve its problems, prove and refute its hypotheses.

The wording of the questions must be carefully considered in many respects, but above all as a way of capturing the categories of analysis. A sociological survey loses much of its meaning if the respondents' answers are not analyzed in terms of their social and demographic characteristics. Therefore, it requires that the "passport" be filled in, where the data about each respondent is entered, the need for which is again dictated by the research software.

Any survey is a specific act of communication between the interviewer (the person conducting it) and the respondent (the respondent). Therefore, it must be carried out in compliance with the following, at a minimum, the rules:

1. The respondent knows who is interviewing him and why.

2. The respondent is interested in the survey.

3. The respondent is not interested in issuing false information (says what he really thinks).

4. The respondent clearly understands the content of each question.

5. The question has one meaning, does not contain several questions.

6. All questions are put in such a way that they can be given a reasonable and accurate answer.

7. Questions are formulated without violating lexical and grammatical standards.

8. The wording of the question corresponds to the level of culture of the respondent.

9. None of the questions has an offensive meaning for the respondent, does not degrade his dignity.

10. The interviewer behaves neutrally, does not demonstrate his attitude towards question asked, nor to the answer to it.

11. The interviewer offers the respondent such answer options, each of which is equally acceptable.

12. The number of questions is consistent with common sense, does not lead to excessive intellectual and psychological overload of the respondent, does not overwork him.

13. The whole system of questions and answers is sufficient to obtain the amount of information that is necessary to solve research problems.

The general rules of sociological surveys are modified in different ways in their specific varieties.

The polling method is used in a number of cases:

· When the problem under study is insufficiently provided with documentary sources of information, or when such sources are not available at all.

· When the subject of research or some of its characteristics are not available for observation.

When the subject of study is the elements of social or individual consciousness: need, interests, motivations, moods, values, beliefs of people, etc.

· As a control (additional) method for expanding the possibilities of describing and analyzing the characteristics under study and for rechecking data obtained by other methods.

The survey method provides for obtaining sociological information in a situation of socio-psychological communication. And this leaves its mark on the content and quality of the data received. In sociology, a significant number of methodological requirements and procedures have been developed in order to overcome subjectivism, to increase the reliability and efficiency of this form of collecting sociological information.

According to the forms and conditions of communication between a sociologist and a respondent, the survey differs:

1. by the nature of the population being surveyed:

mass

expert

Mass - when conducting a survey, the respondent speaks on his own behalf, as a spokesman for his opinion. The number of interviewed people can be from 100 people to 10,000 people.

Expert - when conducting a survey, the respondent acts as a spokesman for the opinion of a group of people, or as a specialist in a particular field. The number of interviewed people can be from 1 to several dozen.

2. in connection with the researcher and the respondent:

correspondence

Face-to-face - the questionnaire is distributed by the researcher himself, but he may or may not be present.

Correspondence - the questionnaire is distributed by mail or printed in the press. But with such a survey, there is a small percentage of the return of questionnaires, about 5% and low speed return of questionnaires.

3. according to the degree of coverage, the studied population:

solid

selective

Solid - there is a certain group of up to 200 people, and the entire population of people is interrogated.

Selective - there is also a group of people, but a certain part of the people is being polled.

4. by frequency:

one-time

panel

Panel - used in the study of social phenomena in the dynamics of development. One group of questions is known, while the other changes as social phenomena change.

5. at the venue:

· at the place of residence

place of work or study

At the place of residence - these may be issues related to the family, landscaping or medicine.

At the place of work or study - the survey can be on industrial or political topics.

6. according to the degree of formalization:

standardized

non-standardized

Standardized - carried out according to a pre-prepared plan.

Non-standardized - free.

7. depending on the nature of obtaining information:

written

Written - these are questionnaires

Oral - interviews

8. A specific type of survey is the outgrowth of expert experts in the area under study.

Other principles for classifying surveys could also be named.

But here are just the main ones. In this job Special attention we will focus only on the two most common and most popular types of survey - a questionnaire and an interview.

(survey method in sociology) PLAN

Introduction…………………………………………..

1. Survey Methods

1.1 Questionnaire

1.2 Interviewing

1.3 Press poll

1.4 Post survey

1.5 telephone survey

1.6 Fax (teletype, telegraph)

1.7 Television Express Poll

Conclusion

Bibliography

INTRODUCTION

Sociology / from Latin - society + Greek - word, concept, doctrine / - the science of the laws of formation, functioning, development of society, social relations and social communities. The term was introduced by the French positivist Auguste Comte /1798-1857/ in the middle of the 19th century. The world-famous Pitirim Aleksandrovich Sorokin /1889-1968/ to his own question: what kind of science is sociology? What is the subject of its study? - answered like this: "Sociology is the science of society and the laws that manifest themselves in social phenomena." With an attempt to single out the social in the narrow sense of the word, i.e. within the society itself to distinguish social relations from economic, political, etc., is connected with the formation of various subject areas of sociology. This is how a whole family of sociologies arose: labor, education, politics, family, and so on. social institutions and processes. Sociological theories of the so-called. middle level, based on the material collected in empirical studies. Methods, techniques, and organization of sociological research have emerged as a special layer of sociological knowledge. Like other sciences, sociology has an object, subject and subject of research. The object and subject of sociological research is social reality and its various aspects and relationships.

It is quite obvious that the reliability of the facts and conclusions obtained by the researcher depends on how the latter came to these facts and conclusions, that is, on the method he used. In everyday life, we also describe facts, evaluate their plausibility, deduce hypothetical patterns, or refute other people's conclusions. However, in science, all these everyday methods of obtaining new knowledge are much more carefully developed. The methodology of science is a discipline that studies both technical, "procedural" issues of research organization, and more general issues of the validity of the methods used, the reliability of observations, the criteria for confirming or refuting scientific theories. Evaluation of existing theories and hypotheses in the social sciences, as well as in the natural sciences, involves the introduction of certain criteria for empirical testability and the truth of theoretical statements, as well as the development and application of research methods corresponding to these criteria.

Quantitative methods of collecting sociological information include ways to obtain information about the object under study, which allow you to identify its quantitative characteristics. We are talking, first of all, about content analysis, observation, sociometry, a set of survey methods, as well as a sociological experiment. In my work, I will focus specifically on survey methods of research.

Survey Methods

Polls are conducted by sociologists so often that some people evaluate them as the main and almost the only method of empirical sociology. This assessment is wrong in at least two respects. Firstly, in the arsenal of sociology there are many non-survey methods, which were discussed above and will be discussed below. Secondly, this method is not only sociological. Recently, it has been widely used in political science, journalistic, economic, demographic, cultural, psychological, legal and other social studies.

The main purpose of sociological surveys is to obtain information about people's opinions, their motives and assessments of social phenomena, about the phenomena and states of public, group and individual consciousness. Insofar as these opinions, motives, and phenomena are properties of the objects studied by sociology, polls provide the necessary information about them. The significance of polls increases if there is not enough documentary information about the phenomenon under study, if it is not accessible to direct observation or does not lend itself to experiment. In such situations, a survey can become the main method of collecting information, but it must be supplemented by other research methods.

Do not think that the research possibilities of surveys are endless. The data obtained by survey methods express the subjective opinions of the respondents (respondents). They need to be compared with information of an objective nature, which should be generated in other ways. Surveys give the greatest research effect only in combination with either content analysis, or observation, or experiment, or other methods.

The survey methods are very diverse. Along with the well-known questioning, they are expressed in the form of interviews, postal, telephone, press, fax, expert and other surveys. Each of the types of surveys has its own specifics, which will be discussed below. We now describe their general principles.

Each survey involves an ordered set of questions (questionnaire) that serves to achieve the goal of the study, solve its problems, prove and refute its hypotheses. The wording of the questions must be carefully considered in many respects, but above all as a way of capturing the categories of analysis.

A sociological survey loses much of its meaning if the respondents' answers are not analyzed in terms of their social and demographic characteristics. Therefore, it requires that the "passport" be filled in, where the data about each respondent is entered, the need for which is again dictated by the research software.

1. The respondent knows who is interviewing him and why.

2. The respondent is interested in the survey.

3. The respondent is not interested in issuing false information (says what he really thinks).

4. The respondent clearly understands the content of each question.

5. The question has one meaning, does not contain several questions.

6. All questions are put in such a way that they can be given a reasonable and accurate answer.

7. Questions are formulated without violating lexical and grammatical standards.

8. The wording of the question corresponds to the level of culture of the respondent.

9. None of the questions has an offensive meaning for the respondent, does not degrade his dignity.

10. The interviewer behaves neutrally, does not demonstrate his attitude either to the question asked or to the answer to it.

11. The interviewer offers the respondent such answer options, each of which is equally acceptable.

12. The number of questions is consistent with common sense, does not lead to excessive intellectual and psychological overload of the respondent, does not overwork him.

13. The entire system of questions and answers is sufficient to obtain the amount of information that is necessary to solve research problems.

The general rules of sociological surveys are modified in different ways in their specific varieties.

1.1 Questionnaire

Questioning - a written form of a survey, carried out, as a rule, in absentia, i.e. without direct and immediate contact between the interviewer and the respondent. It is useful in two cases: a) when you need to ask a large number of respondents in a relatively short time, b) respondents must carefully think over their answers, having a printed questionnaire in front of their eyes. The use of questionnaires to interview a large group of respondents, especially on issues that do not require deep reflection, is not justified. In such a situation, it is more appropriate to talk with the respondent face to face.

Questioning is rarely continuous (encompassing all members of the community under study), much more often it is selective. Therefore, the reliability and reliability of the information obtained by questioning depends, first of all, on the representativeness of the sample.

The main (but not the only) tool of this method is a questionnaire, which consists not only of a questionnaire and a "passport", but also of a preamble-instructive section. The significance of the latter cannot be underestimated, because in the conditions of correspondence communication with the respondent, the preamble is the only means of motivating the respondent to fill out the questionnaire, forming his attitude to the sincerity of the answers. In addition, the preamble states who conducts the survey and why, provides the necessary comments and instructions for the respondent to work with the questionnaire.

The main part of the questionnaire (questionnaire) is developed not only on the basis general requirements to the survey, but also taking into account a number of additional considerations. In the questionnaire, you can and should put:

1. not only software-thematic, i.e. questions directly arising from the research program, but also procedural and functional, aimed at optimizing the course of the survey;

2. both direct, inviting the respondent to express his own position, and indirect (agreement or disagreement with the positions of other people) questions;

3. questions - "hooks", put in order for the respondent to "peck", i.e. for the sake of maintaining his interest in filling out the questionnaire;

4. questions - "filters" that allow you to select a part of the respondents on some basis, say, to filter out that part of them whose opinion on the question following the "filter" seems to be either particularly valuable, on the contrary, or not very important;

5. control questions that check the stability and consistency of respondents' opinions;

6. questions - "traps", which are a kind of control, designed to determine the degree of sincerity of the answers;

7. leading questions that help to more accurately understand the meaning of the subsequent (more important) question;

8. dichotomous questions, involving two mutually exclusive answers (such as "yes-no");

9. questions - "menu", i.e. with multiple answers, when the respondent can choose any combination of answer options;

10.questions - "dialogues", the answers to which are made up of the answers of imaginary persons;

11.scale questions, i.e. those, the answer to which lies in the scaling of something;

12. tabular questions that require an answer in the form of filling out a table;

13.closed questions, i.e. accompanied by all theoretically possible answers, from which the respondent has to choose the one that corresponds to his opinion;

14.open questions that do not contain any answer options, suggesting that the respondent will write what he wants in a specially designated place in the questionnaire;

15. semi-closed, more precisely, partially closed (or partially open) questions, to which only a part of the answer options is given in advance, which may not satisfy the respondents who have the opportunity to add their own version.

When developing the text of the questionnaire, one should avoid the monotony of the types and forms of questions used, remember that each of them has its own advantages and disadvantages. At the same time, one should not forget about the subsequent processing of personal data. Open-ended questions, say, are preferable to closed questions if it is important to reveal all the nuances of respondents' opinions, but the information obtained on their basis will be difficult to formalize and process. Closed-ended questions, especially in the form of "menus", scales, tables and dichotomies, are more convenient for processing, but do not guarantee the completeness of the respondents' assessments.

It is important to emphasize the need to comply with the rule of consistency of the questionnaire. This is necessary in order to use for scientific purposes information not only on individual questions, but also that which is found when comprehending all questions as interacting structures, and all answers to them as interacting elements.

The statement of control questions in the questionnaire (including "traps") does not release its compiler from the logical consistency of the sequence of questions that ensures their mutual control. The logic of constructing questionnaires, traditional for sociological questioning, is based on the principle "from general to particular", in which subsequent questions play the role of control ones in relation to the previous ones. But sometimes it is advisable to be guided by the opposite principle - "from particulars to the general."

1.2 Interviewing

Interviewing is a form of face-to-face survey in which the researcher is in direct contact with the respondent. This method is preferable to questionnaires in the following respects:

a) there are practically no questions without answers;
b) vague or inconsistent answers can be clarified;
c) it is possible to observe the respondent and fix not only his verbal answers, but also non-verbal reactions;
d) the information received is more complete, deeper and more reliable than the questionnaire.

The main disadvantage of the interviewing method is its low efficiency, significant time costs, the need a large number interviewers, the impossibility of its use in situations of short-term mass surveys. For novice sociologists, it presents many difficulties, because requires special training and solid training. In addition, different types of interviewing suggest that the researcher has ambiguous sets of knowledge and skills.

The most widespread in sociology has received a standardized interview, a distinctive feature of which is a strict sequence, pre-prepared clear wording of questions and well-thought-out models of answers to them. It can be carried out according to the questionnaire questionnaire, which is often done to control and supplement the questionnaire data.

A semi-standardized interview is used somewhat less often. It is carried out on the basis of not a formalized questionnaire, but a memo ("guide") with a list of mandatory questions, as a rule, semi-closed ones, which do not exclude discussion with the respondent of other problems related to the research topic.

Focused interviews are even rarer, in which only the initial question is standardized (albeit in several variations), and the main task is seen in focusing the respondents' attention on discussing the variant of the problem that seems to them the most important.

Only experienced sociologists (and even then not always) use free and exploratory interviewing. Such an interview is called free when the interviewer faces the problem of collecting information relevant to research tasks without the presence of a previously developed tool. Here the sociologist is free to choose questions, determine their order, number and ways of expression, as well as methods of fixing information.

An intelligence interview (its other designation is in-depth) is used to determine and/or refine the formulation of working hypotheses at the stage of developing a research program. Its goal is not only and not so much to obtain information about the object, but to find out what information is to be produced in the upcoming study. At the same time, both the interviewer and the respondent are free to choose how to conduct the conversation.

Each of the five types of interviews described can be implemented:

a) once or in a panel (multiple times after a certain time interval);
b) in interpersonal (interviewer-respondent), personal-group (a group of interviewers - a respondent or, conversely, an interviewer - a group of respondents) and group-group form (when a group of interviewers talks with a group of respondents).

The range of requirements for interviewers working in such different situations is, of course, very wide both in sociological and psychological, pedagogical, conflict management, journalistic and other respects. To conduct one-off standardized interviews of an interpersonal nature, it is possible not to involve qualified sociologists (sometimes this is even desirable in order to increase the impartiality of the data). But without them it is impossible to obtain reliable information in all other types of interviewing.

1.3. Press poll

Press poll - a kind of questioning, carried out through periodicals. Main advantages: efficiency, mass character, economy, frankness of respondents, due to the voluntary nature of their participation in the survey.

Its main disadvantages are: low representativeness, low rates of return of completed questionnaires, aggravated by their large rejection, small number of questions, the predominance of closed questions, limited opportunities the use of scale, tabular, dialogue, menu-shaped, control and filter questions, the likelihood of other persons influencing the respondent.

1. preliminary testing (pilot) among all qualitatively different groups of readers of this press;

2. the utmost simplicity of the wording of questions and instructions for filling out;

3. use of different fonts when publishing (for highlighting semantic structure questionnaires);

4. reprinting the questionnaire in the same newspaper a week and a half after the first publication;

5. announcement of the results of the survey on the pages of the same publication.

Since each newspaper has its own regular readers, who differ from other people in a number of social characteristics (level of material wealth, place of residence, ideological, political and other predilections), insofar as the results of a press survey conducted by one newspaper, it is impossible to judge the state of public opinion inherent in everything population. Hence the desirability and need for the simultaneous conduct of press polls on the same questionnaire in newspapers of various directions. Violation of this principle (unfortunately, in modern Russian conditions it occurs not as an unfortunate exception, but as a rule) leads not to the knowledge of true public opinion, but to various kinds of ideological and political speculation.

1.4. Post survey

Mail survey - a form of questionnaires by mail, involving the distribution of questionnaires (to specially selected addresses) to those persons who collectively represent the object under study.

Advantages of the method - the possibility:

a) get answers to questions of a sensitive and intimate nature,
b) to cover with the survey settlements where it is impossible for the questionnaires to reach,
c) have additional information correcting data produced by any other method,
d) save money (a mail survey costs at least two times cheaper than a regular interview).

Disadvantages:

a) low age of the questionnaires,
b) distortions of representativeness,
c) the inevitability of culling,
d) violation of the anonymity rule of the survey,
e) amplifying distortion of responses.

Mandatory requirements of this method:

1. thorough, multidimensional and reusable pilotage of the draft questionnaire;

2. detailed instructions for filling it out;

3. encryption of envelopes;

4. inserting a clean envelope into the postal items to return the questionnaire;

5. reminding respondents of the need to return the questionnaire (by phone, mail and other means).

1.5 Telephone survey

A telephone survey is a specific synthesis of questioning and interviewing, used, as a rule, within the framework of one city or other locality. The popularity of using this method in modern Russian conditions is increasing, especially during periods of election campaigns.

Main advantages: efficiency, short-term and profitability. The main drawback: due to the impossibility of observing the rule of representativeness of the sample. This circumstance is due to the lack of telephones in certain social groups population; big amount refusals of subscribers from the survey for various reasons and occasions; many other factors.

Mandatory requirements for the method:

1. preliminary study of the map of the city, places of contact residence of representatives of different social groups, location of automatic telephone exchanges;

2. development of a special tool, including a cartogram of the survey, questionnaire forms and coding sheets, a diary and protocol of the survey, detailed instructions for interviewers;

3. availability of telephone directories;

4. observance of a predetermined step (interval) when dialing the telephone number of one PBX;

5. special training, including special training for telephone interviewers;

6. increased demands on their honesty;

7. mandatory control over their activities;

8. rechecking the received data by means of selective control polls of the interviewed subscribers.

1.6. Fax (teletype, telegraph) survey

A fax (teletype, telegraph) survey is a form of questioning rarely used for purely scientific purposes, in which institutions and organizations that have a fax, teletype-telegraph or other electronic connection with a sociological center act as the units for selecting respondents. It occurs in two varieties, differing in the actual composition of the respondents. In the first one, the respondents are the heads of the aforementioned enterprises and institutions, in the second one, the circle of respondents is expanded due to the survey by the managers (or sociologists) of those persons who are identified by the organizers of the survey.

The main advantage of the method is the super-efficiency and expert significance of the information obtained. Disadvantages: an extremely compressed questionnaire (no more than five positions), closed questions and limited answer options (no more than seven).

1.7. Television express - poll

Television express - poll - a method of collecting not so much sociological as political information, used by leading political television programs. The technique of this method involves:

1. formulation by the TV presenter of one of the most pressing issues;

2. motivating viewers to express their answer to the question in the form of either "yes" or "no";

3. a request to viewers to immediately call the indicated phone number and declare their position before the end of this TV show (ie, within 20-30 minutes);

4. prompt counting of the survey code with a demonstration of this counting on an electronic scoreboard;

5. commenting on the results.

This method of television journalism, which is attractive to many, can only give a superficial idea of public opinion in general, on the question posed, in particular. He cannot reveal the mentality of the whole people, because not everyone saw this TV show, and only a few had the opportunity to call the TV studio. Nevertheless, this method can be used in sociological research, of course, without pretensions to the role of the main and objective.

Referendums, plebiscites and other popular votes are political events that are associated with a survey of the population, and therefore should be used to sociological analysis public opinion and the degree of social tension. Unfortunately, when developing questions submitted for popular vote, scientific standards are violated in favor of the political interests and ambitions of their representatives. This sharply reduces the sociological value of their results, but does not exclude the expediency of taking them into account in research work, for example, when constructing hypotheses.

Expert surveys are a specific type of surveys that do not have a mass character, but play an important role in empirical sociology and are increasingly used by it.

CONCLUSION

Sociology in our country is a relatively young science. There was a time when, along with cybernetics and genetics, sociology was considered a bourgeois science. Sociological research was not encouraged, because it was believed: everything is true that is contained in party documents. In passing, it can be noted that at present we have hit the other extreme: every student and every non-specialist teacher considers himself a complete sociologist and considers it unnecessary to know sociological theory, methodology and methodology for conducting sociological research, limiting himself to compiling primitive questionnaires. Meanwhile, the study of sociology for future specialists is of theoretical and practical interest.

The peculiarity of the sociological method of research lies in two fundamental points: first, it allows you to formalize the method of collecting social information. What other humanities spend many years of labor and money on, a sociologist can do in a few days, and at the same time obtain relatively cheap and objective information. Second, the sociological method of research makes it possible, by means of conceptual fixation of a phenomenon in the process of its development, to test the obtained conceptual constructions, albeit relative to its previous stage, i.e., fixation as a post factum. But this allows quite successfully to predict, and accordingly, plan their activities and even design some social processes.

List of used literature

1. Kurbatov V.I. Sociology. – M.: March, 2000.

2. Radugin A.A., K.A. Radugin. Sociology. - M.: Center, 2001.

3. Rastov Yu.E., S. I. Grigoriev. The Beginnings of Modern Sociology: Textbook. - M., 1999 ..

4. Sociological dictionary. - Minsk: University, 1991.

5. Yadov V.A. Sociology in Russia. – M.: Institute of Sociology. RAN, 1998.

ALL-RUSSIAN ACADEMY OF FOREIGN TRADE

Department of Political Science and Economic Culture

in sociology

"Methods

sociological research"

Work completed:

2nd year student

Protsenko D.M.

Job accepted:

Patrushev S.V.

Introduction

General overview of sociological research methods

Experiment
Observation
Survey
Document Analysis
Sociometry

Survey methods in sociology

Questionnaire
Post survey
Interviewing

Conclusion

INTRODUCTION

Like any science, sociology has its own method of cognition - sociological research. Its emergence dates back to the end of the 19th century and is due to the persistent need of practice. Although in simpler modifications it has been used by mankind since ancient times.

The method of sociological research is an important and reliable cognitive tool of the sociologist. It provides a solution to the problems that social reality poses to researchers of society. With its help, opinions, assessments, values, attitudes of people, various social institutions(family, marriage, religion) and processes (narcotization of society, adaptation of individuals to changing living conditions), etc.

Today, the method of sociological research, together with theory, the history of sociology, forms the basis of social science. Its undoubted advantages include: a variety of "private" methods (survey, the method of expert assessments, document analysis, etc.); as well as the possibility of their application not only for social sphere, but also their effective use in other (non-sociological) areas of activity.

The methods have passed a long and thorough testing and currently accumulate logical, psychological, statistical and mathematical knowledge. These circumstances necessitate careful attention to their use. Since their use by unskilled specialists leads to unrepresentativeness, distortion of the information received.

GENERAL REVIEW

METHODS OF SOCIOLOGICAL RESEARCH

Experiment

It is the method that provides the best empirical evidence for testing hypotheses about the existence of a causal relationship between phenomena, as well as the most reliable tool for solving many practical problems associated with evaluating the effectiveness of social and political programs. A multivariate controlled experiment, as we shall see later, meets the highest standards of scientific inference and is indispensable when comparing the explanatory power of different theories. In some respects, the procedure for experimental testing of hypotheses even surpasses the standards of the “traditional image of science” described above, since the need to formalize the theoretical model, operationalize the variables that determine the “main effect”, and also to find tools for controlling extraneous, mixing influences, which arises when planning an experiment, leads not only to the clarification of the main hypothesis, but also to the analysis of all those external conditions and environmental factors for which the relationships postulated by the theory are observed (such an analysis, as will be shown in Chapter 4, is intended to guarantee the external validity of the experiment).

The disadvantages of the experimental method are a continuation of its merits (which, however, is also true for all other methods). Originating in the naturalistic tradition of sociological research, the experimental method was originally oriented towards a laboratory or quasi-laboratory research context, a high level of formalization of the theories to be tested, and the maximum ability to measure and control all relevant variables. In addition, proponents of the experimental method from the outset favored the rather abstract and general concepts of scientific theory to the detriment of the specific and unique concepts used to describe social interaction by its direct participants or "lay" observers.

In other words, the experiment turned out to be a method more suitable for testing the most “established” and developed sociological and socio-psychological theories than for exploratory research aimed at developing an adequate theoretical language and formulating test hypotheses describing the laws of the natural course of social processes.

In addition, one should be aware of the ethical issues that sometimes arise in the experimental manipulation of variables. social environment. These problems may relate not so much to the hypothetical influence of undesirable factors, but to the possible social inequality that arises in large-scale field experiments when participants are distributed into experimental and control groups, since as a result, members of the control groups do not receive "positive" experimental influence (on the assessment of the effectiveness of which and sent an experiment), for example, social benefit, a new progressive method of teaching, etc.

Finally, the experimental method is not very suitable for obtaining results that could be extended to society as a whole or to large social groups; it does not allow one to see a "cut" of large-scale social processes. The results of good laboratory experiments are highly reliable, but they are quite far from the “real world” (in fairness, it should be noted that the social sciences should not always strive to reflect the diversity of “living life”). The results of field experiments are generally characterized by greater proximity to " real world”, however, this advantage comes at the cost of somewhat less reliability and greater susceptibility to all sorts of biases. The quality of the data obtained in large-scale social experiments does not always justify their extremely high cost.

Observation

The direct involvement of the researcher in the studied social situation, group or culture often makes it possible to obtain unique information about the meanings and symbols used by the participants themselves, about local or subcultural "languages of interaction", familiarity with which is a self-evident condition for their further theoretical analysis. Although the scientist cannot "get into the shoes" of other people, especially those belonging to a foreign culture or other historical era, he can try to streamline and subject to a deeper and more systematic consideration those words, symbols and cultural forms through which the people he studies describe and transmit their experience by doing it often inconsistently, accidentally or not quite consciously.

Relatively abstract and highly meaningful terms of scientific description, in turn, allow the sociologist or ethnographer to turn spontaneous experience and changing cultural forms into the subject of theoretical analysis proper, to take one more step towards increasing reliable, accessible to collective understanding and verifiable scientific knowledge.

The most obvious shortcomings of participant observation and, to a somewhat greater extent, the biographical method are associated with the overly descriptive nature of the data obtained, the danger of replacing scientific explanations with highly artistic and completely subjective narratives, in which rhetorical figures and suggestive authorial intonations replace intelligible theoretical ideas and empirical evidence.

Survey

Polling is perhaps the most popular sociological method. It surpasses experiment in terms of descriptive possibilities and serves not only purely academic purposes, being the best means of obtaining social statistics. It is public opinion polls that are used to study the opinions and attitudes of broad sections of society, providing, if applied correctly, the ability to “track” even small changes in a wide variety of areas of public life, from the distribution of family budgets to the dynamics of electoral preferences. Modern approaches to sampling and data analysis make it possible to bring the possibilities of testing causal hypotheses provided by the mass survey method as close as possible to the possibilities of the experimental method.

The shortcomings of the polling method also partly coincide with the shortcomings of the latter. First of all, we are talking about the low sensitivity of this method to the unique features of the studied social situation, about the relatively less attention to the subjective and individual characteristics of the experience of the people and groups under study, to their self-descriptions, interpretations and "ordinary theories". The described shortcomings, in turn, are the reverse side of the desire for a theoretical generalization of the results and conceptual rigor. The advantages of participant observation and the biographical method lie, first of all, in the possibility of obtaining detailed “pre-theoretical” information about the studied social phenomena.

Document analysis

This is a method of collecting primary information, the main source of which are documents. Documents are printed, handwritten, etc. materials that are created to store information.

The types of documents are:

How information is stored

By the nature of the source (official, unofficial)

The analysis of documents has the problem of the reliability of information and the reliability of documents. It is decided during the selection of documents for certain studies, and during internal and external analysis of the content of documents. External analysis - the study of the circumstances of the occurrence of documents. Internal analysis - the study of the features of the content, style of the document.

Types of analysis:

qualitative(in-depth logical and stylistic study of the document). It is focused on tracing, recreating the individual history of the author. It is used to analyze unique personal documents and is adjacent to the direction of understanding sociology.

qualitative-quantitative (content analysis). The essence of this method is to recreate social reality according to some indicators that can be identified in the text. This is a calculation of how the semantic units presented in a certain information array characterize the extra-textual reality. This method is used to analyze large arrays of documents.

Sociometry

Sociometry is one of the socio-psychological methods developed by professional psychiatrist Jacob Levi Moreno (USA) to assess interpersonal emotional ties in a group (1934). According to the results of a sociometric survey of the team, one can distinguish
informal leaders, make a rating of employees, identify those who find themselves in social isolation. Sociometric methods make it possible to express intra-group relations in the form of numerical values, graphs and their textual interpretation, and thus obtain valuable information about the state of psychological subjective relationships in a group.

SURVEY METHODS IN SOCIOLOGY

The task of surveys in society is to ensure a two-way flow of information between managers and those controlled, to provide the data necessary for decision-making.

For sociology, a survey, when properly applied, allows you to obtain information about the subjective world of people, their opinions, inclinations, and motives for actions.

Typically, surveys are conducted on a sample population (sample). The sample is formed using statistical methods and should be a micromodel of the general population, i.e. research models. The properties of the sample to represent the properties of the population is called representativeness.

However, one should always take into account the possible distortion of information obtained by the survey method, associated with the peculiarities of the process of reflecting various aspects of social practice in the minds of people.

Questionnaire

The most common type of survey in the practice of applied sociology is the questioning. It can be group or individual.

group questionnaire is a survey used mainly in organizations (places of work, study, etc.).

At individual questioning questionnaires (questionnaires) are distributed at the workplace or at the place of residence of the respondent. Recently, a one-time survey (using electronic forms of communication: telephone, E-mail) has become widespread.

Sociological questionnaire- a system of questions united by a single research plan aimed at identifying the quantitative and qualitative characteristics of the object and subject of analysis. Its purpose is to provide reliable information. To do this, you need to know and follow a number of rules and principles for its design, as well as the features of various issues. When compiling questionnaires, it should be taken into account that the question should be equally clear to different socio-demographic groups of respondents (young and old, people with different education, etc.).

All questions can be classified: by content (questions about the facts of consciousness, the facts of behavior and the personality of the respondent); by form (open and closed, direct and indirect); by function (basic and non-core).

Questions about the facts of people's consciousness are aimed at revealing opinions, wishes, expectations, plans for the future, etc. Questions about the facts of behavior reveal the actions, actions, results of people's activities. Questions about the personality of the respondent reveal his personal characteristics (gender, age, etc.).

A closed question is called if it contains a complete set of answers in the questionnaire. After reading them, the respondent chooses only the one that matches his opinion. Closed questions can be alternative and non-alternative. Alternative ones suggest that the respondent can choose only one answer, and non-alternative ones - several answers.

Open-ended questions do not contain clues and do not “impose” an answer option on the respondent. They provide an opportunity to express your opinion in its entirety and to the smallest detail, so they provide richer information than closed questions.

Direct and indirect questions. Sometimes the questions of the questionnaire require the respondent to take a critical attitude towards himself, the people around him, evaluate the negative phenomena of reality, etc. Such direct questions in some cases either remain unanswered or contain inaccurate information. In such cases, questions formulated in an indirect form come to the aid of the researcher. The respondent is offered an imaginary situation that does not require an assessment of his personal qualities or the circumstances of his activities.

The main questions of the questionnaire are aimed at collecting information about the content of the phenomenon under study. Minor - to identify the addressee of the main question (filter questions), check the sincerity of the answers (control questions).

Post survey

A mail survey is a kind of questionnaire and is rightfully regarded as an effective technique for collecting primary information. In its most general form, it consists in sending out questionnaires and receiving answers to them by mail.

An important advantage of the mail survey is the ease of organization. There is no need for selection, training, control over the activities of a large number of questionnaires. Another positive feature is the possibility for the respondent to choose the most convenient time for filling out the questionnaire.

However, the mail survey also has its drawbacks. The main one is the incomplete return of the questionnaires, that is, not all respondents fill out the questionnaires and send them to the researchers, so it may turn out that the opinions of the respondents do not coincide with the opinions of those who abstained from participating in the mail survey.

A variation of the mail survey is a press survey. In this case, the questionnaire is printed in a newspaper or magazine. There are two types of such a survey. One is when the editorial office turns to a survey in order to obtain data about its readers and their opinions about the work of a given publication. The second is when an opinion on a topical issue is studied through a printed organ.

Interviewing

During interviewing, the contact between the researcher and the respondent is carried out with the help of the interviewer, who asks questions provided by the researcher, organizes and directs the conversation with each individual and records the answers received according to the instructions. This survey method is more time consuming and costly than questionnaires, but at the same time increases the reliability of the data collected by reducing the number of non-responders and errors in filling out the questionnaires.

Features of the interview are manifested in different ways in its various organizational forms. Let's consider them.

Interview at the place of work, classes, that is, in the office. It is most expedient when production or educational teams are being studied, and the subject of research is related to production or educational affairs.

Interview at the place of residence. It becomes preferable if the subject of the survey concerns such issues that it is more convenient to talk about in an informal setting, free from the influence of work or school relations.

In applied sociology, there are three types of interviews: formalized, focused and free.

Formalized interview - the most common type of interview. In this case, the communication between the interviewer and the respondent is strictly regulated by a detailed questionnaire and instructions intended for the interviewer. When using this type of survey, the interviewer must strictly adhere to the wording of the questions and their sequence.

The focused interview is the next step leading to less standardization of the behavior of the interviewer and the interviewee. It aims to collect opinions, assessments about a specific situation, phenomenon, its consequences or causes. Respondents in this type of interview are introduced to the subject of the conversation in advance. Questions for such an interview are also prepared in advance, and their list is obligatory for the interviewer: he can change their sequence and wording, but he must receive information on each question.

Free interview is characterized by minimal standardization of the behavior of the interviewer. This type of survey is used when the researcher begins to define the research problem. A free interview is conducted without a pre-prepared questionnaire or a developed conversation plan; only the topic of the interview is determined.

CONCLUSION

Methods of sociological research are a universal tool for understanding a large complex of social problems. At the same time, the opportunities that these methods provide to specialists allow them to be used in the activities of psychologists, social workers, journalists, and, of course, economists. It is necessary to know that the choice of method is determined by a number of reasons. First of all - the problem, purpose and objectives of the study.

The most popular popular is a sociological survey. Even Karl Marx used the survey method to study the opinions of workers. In the twentieth century, the method underwent detailed development and was improved. Now we know several varieties: questioning, interviewing; mail, telephone and press surveys.

The current level of economic development and the variety of contradictions that arise in the socio-economic sphere show that there is a need for their in-depth study and theoretical understanding. And of course, the methods of sociological research will help the economist in this.

Bibliography:

Devyatko IF Methods of sociological research. Tutorial. Moscow: ISO RCGO-TEMPUS/TACIS, 2002.

Grigoriev S.I., Rastov Yu.E. Fundamentals of modern sociology. Publishing house of Altai state university, 2001.

Volkov Yu.G. Sociology Elementary course., M: Jurist, 2001.

Moreno Ya.L. Sociometry: experimental method and the science of society. M.: Academic project, 2001.

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