11. Write notes on any tow of the following (200 Words)

1. Reliability and validity.
2. Verstehen method.
3. Sources of hypothesis.
4. Survey research.

Reliability and validity.

Reliability and Validity are two dominant concerns to test the veracity of any piece of sociological research and make it more scientific. Sociological research is reliable if other researchers who employ the same methods of observation come to similar conclusion or insights. Generally quantitative research methodology is more reliable but scores less on validity in comparison to qualitative research methods.

Data or research is considered to be reliable if it is free of bias, is consistent, repeatable and standardized. Validity refers to the fact that a particular test actually measures what it purports to measure. Depth of study and representations are the two parameters which determine the extent of validity.

Both the concepts validity and reliability are independent. A reliable data may or may not be valid.

Sociology being a social science has limitations to the extent of validity and reliability that is practically possible but questions of validity and reliability can never be ignored. 

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Verstehen method.

Verstehen in German means understanding. Weber used this concept in his study of protestant ethics of capitalism. It is one of the most controversial concept of sociological research methodology.

It is an interpretative understanding of social action, through empathetic liasioning, in order to, trace the cause and effect of social action through a sequence of motives.


Controversy

1. It was blamed that he used a method which was well known to German Historians of that time and the concept has been derived from the field of Hermeneutics (method to understand and interpret the published writings), Weber extended this idea to the field of Social Life
2. Many blamed that it is simply based on intuition of the researcher, which Weber categorically rejected and contended that its a rigorous and elaborate method

Problem

Till date sociologists differ on the view, whether it was a method to understand the individual actors or large scale units of analysis

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Sources of hypothesis.

The main sources of hypothesis formation are as follows:

1. Personal Experience: Researcher uses his own personal experience and mind to develop a hypothesis to study
2. Imagination and thinking: Creative thinking and imagination of researcher helps in formulating a hypothesis
3. Observation: The collection of previous and present facts, studying them can help in arriving at hypothesis
4. Scientific Theory: A researcher can question any scientific theory and create hypothesis
5. Previous study: A researcher can study previous work on similar area and develop his own hypothesis to prove
6. Culture: Culture like family system, tradition, norms and values etc. helps in formulating it.

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Survey research.

It is a research methodology in which the researcher collects standardized data about a large number of people. The data is usually collected through questionnaire and it is in statistical form, the questionnaire may or may not be administered by the interviewer
Stephen Ackroyd and John A. Hughes classified it into three categories

1. A Factual Survey : eg. Government census data
2. Attitudinal Survey: eg. Opinion Polls
3. Explanatory Survey: It is beyond just a survey and tests hypothesis to create theories

The data is collected either through mail surveys, personal interviews, telephonic interviews or internet surveys. It also involves creating a sample postulating a hypothesis, designing the research tool and finding the correlation to arrive at the theory.