Experiment

Description: Kendall (1998: 26) describes an experiment as a "carefully designed situation (often taking place in a laboratory) in which the researcher studies the impact of certain factors on subjects' attitudes or behaviors."

Advantages: The experiment offers a high degree of exactness because one can control everything in a laboratory setting. Variables can be precisely studied. Natural science uses this approach most often. So does psychology. It is easier to determine cause and effect relationships.

Disadvantages: One disadvantage with the experiment in studying social phenomena is that the environment is contrived. People do not normally carry out their lives in a laboratory setting. Ethical issues may also arise when performing experiments on people. The Nazi death-camp experiments represent extreme instances of ethical violation. Even in ordinary university type experiments deception and misinformation are often employed. Many consider these ethical violations.

Existing Data

Description: Existing data includes government records (census), personal documents, or mass communication (published books, the news, movies). The Statistical Abstract of the United States is an excellent source of existing data.

Advantages: The advantages are that data are generally easy to obtain. They already exist and can be found in most university libraries. Much existing data are also standardized. Standardisation makes it easier to compare one set of data with another.

Disadvantages: One problem associated with existing data is that the researcher must use the format provided. For example, a researcher studying poverty would be frustrated with the census before 1970 because there was no poverty rate in 1960 and before.