It is very interesting to consider the many ways that sociologists can research the social aspects of life. It is also fascinating to learn their different methods they use in order to unlock those doors to a better understanding of their research question. It seems to be a difficult task to ask uncomfortable questions and hope that the responses are true in order to get empirical evidence. It also seems a hard task to try to have everybody included in the research to answer the question in the same way. For example, if we wanted to know if students who have low stress levels, moderate stress levels, or high stress levels differed significantly on how well they do on exams at school, the problem I can then forsee is that everybody handles stress differently and something that stresses one person out a lot may not stress the next person out in the same way.
Empirical research is important because although people perceive things in different ways, all a researcher has is their observation information of their participant which goes a long way. It is their perspective that is measured to be reliable and valid whether it is through aquestionnaire, survey, an interview, or possibly participant observation (fieldwork). It is cool to actually learn the many things sociologists do and how they do it.
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