Scientific Method
Reading: The Scientific Method
Review the steps of the scientific method and see how they apply to sociology in the following lumen learning course & Video
Surveys
a survey collects data from subjects who respond to a series of questions about behaviors and opinions, often in the form of a questionnaire.
An interview is a one-on-one conversation between the researcher and the subject, and it is a way of conducting surveys on a topic.
American Sociological Association: Research on Sociology
ASA Department of Research on the Discipline and Profession. Contains Current Projects, Briefs and Articles, Trends in Sociology, Sociology Job Market, Project Funding, and Survey Templates
Internet Crossroads in the Social Sciences
offers links to US government sites, US nongovernmental sites, International governmental sites and International nongovernmental sites. Useful for sociology and demography.
All sociologists are interested in the experiences of individuals and how those experiences are shaped by interactions with social groups and society as a whole. Sociologist study how cultural patterns and social forces put pressure on people to make certain decisions over others. Sociologist study the interactions of large groups with these same pressures and determine what behavior patterns or changes in environment reflect changes in decisions or outcomes.
When conducting research you may come across many different types of sources and each source falls under a specific category. There are three main categories of sources which include Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary.
Primary source is a firsthand account of information by an individual with close connections to a topic. Ex: autobiographies, personal correspondences like diaries, government documents, documentaries, archives, works of art and literature, statistical data, and newspaper articles written by reporters close to the source.
Secondary Source is a source that is not involved or close to the event, usually written after the event has happened. Secondary sources describe, analyze, interpret, comment, and summarize a primary source. Ex: biographies, interpretation of statistics and data, book reviews, scholarly articles that talk about someone else's research, and anything written after an historical event that reevaluates what happened.
Tertiary sources contain information that is used to locate or find primary or secondary sources. Ex: almanacs, timelines, dictionaries and encyclopedias, directories, guidebooks, indexes, abstracts, manuals, and textbooks.
Various types of resources available for your research assignment or paper.
Choosing & Using Sources: A Guide to Academic Research
A guide to academic research by The Ohio State University for Teaching & Learning, University Libraries
Secondary Analysis
The use of existing sources or completed work of other researchers.
Content Analysis
Applying a systematic approach to record and value information gleaned from secondary data as they relate to the study at hand.
Field Research
Field research refers to gathering primary data from a natural environment without doing a lab experiment or a survey.
Experiments
Sociologist investigate relationships to test a hypothesis—a scientific approach. There are two main types of experiments: lab-based experiments and natural or field experiments.
For more than four decades, the General Social Survey (GSS) has studied the growing complexity of American society. It is the only full-probability, personal-interview survey designed to monitor changes in both social characteristics and attitudes currently being conducted in the United States.
Types of Sources 
