Research method
In order to do a research there are various methods of recording it. Each research in its own right needs a certain research method based on what on what they wish to find out and the given criteria.
I have discarded the Experiment method; they are less useful to sociology because they conjure up artificial situations when usually sociologists want to observe is "natural" behavior. With Experiment method, The Hawthorn Effect makes research invalid, so researchers try to hide the true purpose of their investigations in order to make the experiment as natural as possible. However, this poses a threat to ethical problems because people have a right to know what research their participating in.
Therefore, I have decided to use a questionnaire because it is easy to measure and can gather a large sample. A questionnaire is a simple method of recording research and does not require very special skills, thus it is convenient and easy for a student like me to carry out. Questionnaires can be further segregated into self completion and interview questionnaires, in self completion questionnaires there are fewer response rates because not everyone returns the questionnaires, it's very cheap-no interviewers are required. Moreso, it can reach a large numbers of respondents who may live far away. In my questionnaire there are two types of questionnaire I use:
- Closed questions - a question with limited answers to choose from
- Open-ended questions - a question which allows the respondent to answer in his or her own way.
Although an interview questionnaire usually has a good response rate it is a costly method of research this is because interviewers are required. This is time consuming. In general, if all the questions in the survey are the same and in the same order it is said to be comparable. Also, my questions were designed around the title of the study and my hypothesis.
Practical/Ethical problems
During my research I was challenged with practical issues such as finding a computer to type up my research. Moreso, finding the right people was a challenge for me as I had specific requirements of participants: married with children over 40. Ethical problems that I had to steer well clear of was asking very personal questions. Like: “Do you love your husband?” This is blatantly very unethical and down right offensive.
Sample
The sample frame that I'm going to have consists of 30 people. The type of sample I am going to use is stratified sample - where the sampling frame is divided. E.g. a sample can be divided by sex, age or any other variable. My sampling frame is divided by age; this is because I want to find the difference in the family roles between younger and older couples. Other subdivisions I have to consider are if participants have a partner and children. This stratification will enable me to see the role of participant and their partner; if they have children then it'll be easier for me to decide whose role is whose.
Carrying out the research
My hypothesis was to see if “family roles have changed over 40 years”, therefore my questionnaire revolved around my hypothesis. After a questionnaire that satisfied my hypothesis I pilot studied my questionnaire on my teacher to see if there were any problems. Problems that I encountered were spelling mistakes that I later corrected. I perfected my questionnaire in a way that all my questions fitted on the page so as to make photocopying cheaper and surveying easier. I then gave out my questionnaires to 30 respondents, equally shred according to gender. I was also interested in different age groups: the young and the old. I didn't stay with the respondents. After collecting my questionnaire I then tallied everything up.
Materials and documents used
I used the text book "Active Sociology for GCSE", written by Jonathan Blundell and published by Longman Publication. It was first published in 2001. If you want to order the text book the ISBN is: 0 582 43443 2. The main chapter used was Chapter 2 and the key sociological terms were taken from page 50. I also used information from a web address to help me with my ideas.
Describe the main results of your investigation
My survey was given to 30 participants chosen to fit my research; I divided my research male and female 50% each. This would give me a balanced outcome. I also asked most of my participants in advance if they had children as most household tasks revolved around having children. Because my research was to see if family roles have changed over the last forty years I divided the age groups to three categories to somehow segregate participants into three generations. The results I obtained were very interesting.
It showed that the age group category 21-30 had:
