Doing Sociology: Research MethodsClass 11 Introducing Sociology NCERT Solutions

Distinguishing Sociology from Common Sense: Sociology deals with subjects that are familiar to everyone, such as family, social groups, and relationships. Unlike a natural scientist studying rocks or plants, a sociologist studies a world that everyone already has knowledge about through their own experience. Therefore, what distinguishes a sociologist from a layperson is not what they know, but how they acquire their knowledge. The use of a systematic and rigorous method is the crucial element that allows sociology to claim its status as a social science, moving beyond everyday common sense.

Understanding Insider and Outsider Perspectives: Sociology is deeply interested in the lived experiences of people. It seeks to understand not only what is observable from an outsider's point of view but also the subjective meanings, opinions, and feelings of the people involved. For example, a sociologist wants to know what friendship means to people in different cultures or how a shopkeeper and customer interpret each other's actions. To capture both the 'outsider's' and the 'insider's' points of view requires a special set of procedures and methods, making the methodological approach central to the discipline.

Self-Reflexivity: Sociologists rigorously and continuously examine their own ideas, feelings, and biases regarding the subject of their research. They try to adopt an outsider's perspective on their own work, looking at themselves and their research through the eyes of others. This constant self-examination helps in identifying and mitigating personal biases.

Systematic Documentation: A crucial aspect of scientific method is the careful documentation of all procedures and the formal citation of all sources of evidence. This ensures transparency, allowing other researchers to retrace the steps taken to arrive at a conclusion and verify the findings. It also helps the researcher to check and re-check their own line of argument.

Acknowledging Social Position: To counter unconscious bias, sociologists may explicitly mention features of their own social background (like class, gender, religion, etc.) that could be relevant as a possible source of bias. This alerts the reader to the possibility of bias and allows them to mentally 'compensate' for it when evaluating the research.

Reconceptualising Objectivity: Modern social scientists no longer believe that a completely 'objective, disinterested' social science is attainable. Instead, objectivity is viewed as the goal of a continuous, ongoing process of refinement and self-correction, rather than an already achieved end result.

Stratification: This principle requires that all relevant sub-groups or 'strata' within the population are identified and represented in the sample. A population is rarely homogenous; it can be divided based on criteria like rural/urban location, class, caste, gender, age, or religion. For a sample to be representative, it must include members from all these relevant strata in proportion to their presence in the overall population. For instance, if a study is on religious attitudes, the sample must include members of all relevant religions.

Randomisation: This is the principle that the actual unit (e.g., a person, household, or village) is chosen purely by chance. Once the strata are identified, the selection of individuals from within each stratum must be random. This ensures that every unit has an equal probability of being selected, much like winning a lottery. This can be achieved through methods like drawing lots, using random number tables, or computer-generated random numbers. Randomisation prevents the researcher from introducing bias by, for example, only choosing villages near a main road or households they know.