Have Family Roles Have Changed Over the Last Forty Years?

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.