2.1 Types of data, methods and research design

Question 1

primary data

Answer 1

information collected personally by a researcher

Question 2

examples of primary data

Answer 2

questionnaire, interviews and observational studies

Question 3

strengths of primary data

Answer 3

The researcher has complete control over how data is collected, by whom and for what purpose.

Where a researcher design and carries out their own research they have greater control over the reliability and validity of the data, as well as how reprasentative it is.

Question 4

limitations of primary data

Answer 4

• can be time-consuming to design, construct and carry out, esp. if it involves personally interviewing large numbers of people.
• can be expensive
• researcher may have difficulty gaining access to the target group. Some may refuse to participate or in historical research respondents may be deceased.

Question 5

secondary data

Answer 5

data that already exists; data not personally generated by the researcher

Question 6

examples of secondary data

Answer 6

documents such as government reports and statistics, personal letters, diaries or previous research completed by other sociologists

Question 7

strengths of secondary data

Answer 7

• saves time, money and effort
• there may be situations where secondary data is the only available resource, such as when researching suicide
• useful for historical and comparitive purposes
• some forms of secondary data may be highly reliable because the data is collected consistently, in the same way from the same sources. This type of data is also more likely to represent what it claims to represent

Question 8

limitations of secondary data

Answer 8

• Secondary data is not always produced with the needs of sociologists in mind.
• Sources can be unreliable.
• Historical documents may only reflect the views of a single individual rather than representing wider opinions.

Question 9

quantitative data

Answer 9

information expressed numerically that captures the ‘who, what, when and where’ of behavior.

Expressed in three ways: a raw number, a percentage and a rate.

Question 10

strengths of quantitative data

Answer 10

• useful if the researcher doesn’t need to ask for the reasons for people’s behavior - if they simply need to compare numbers.
• Allows sociologists to summarize sources of information and make comparisons. Statistical comparisons and correlations can test whether a hypothesis is true or false. They can also track changes in the behavior of the same group overtime.
• more reliable because it is easier to replicate the study.
• Makes it easier for researchers to remain objective. They do not need to have a close personal involvement with the subjects of the study so their personal views or biases are less likely to get in the way of the data collection process.

Question 11

limitations of quantitative data

Answer 11

• Quantification is often achieved by placing the respondent in an “artificial social setting” in order to control the responses and the data collected. Some argue that it is impossible to capture people’s real responses or normal behavior when the subjects are placed in such an artificial environment.
• Only captures a relatively narrow range of information – the “who, what, when and where” of people’s behavior.
• Doesn’t usually reveal the reasons for behavior because it lacks depth; the more detailed the behavioral data, the more difficult it is to quantify. As a result, quantitative data is often seen as surface level only data and superficial.

Question 12

qualitative data

Answer 12

Non-numeric data that expresses the quality of a relationship

Question 13

stregths of qualitative data

Answer 13

The aim is to understand people’s behavior, so they must be allowed to talk and act freely. This allows the researcher to capture the complex reasons for behavior. Qualitative methods involve the researcher establishing a strong personal relationship with respondents in order to experience their lives. In this way researchers have greater freedom to study people in their normal settings.

Question 14

participant observation

Answer 14

A research method that involves the researcher openly or secretly participating in the behavior they are studying

Question 15

official statistics

Answer 15

• a major source of secondary quantitative data published by governments. They are used by sociologists to examine trends and patterns within and between societies:

  * patterns of behavior may be picked up by statistical analysis because they provide a broad overview of behavior across potentially wide areas: local, national and international
  
  * in terms of trends, statistical data drawn from different years can be used to understand how something has changed

Question 16

comparative analysis

Answer 16

Collecting data on one group or society and then comparing them with others to identify conditions that may be causing social events

Question 17

strengths of official statistics

Answer 17

• may be the only available source covering a particular area of study
• oh data that would be expensive time-consuming and difficult to collect is readily available, especially because of the Internet
• they’re representative because they are often based on carefully chosen large samples which are recorded by law

Question 18

hard statistics

Answer 18

Statistics that have a high level of accuracy and cannot be doubted

Question 19

soft statistics

Answer 19

Statistics that are considered to be less accurate

Question 20

representativeness

Answer 20

Extent to which the characteristics of a sample population accurately reflect those of the target population

Question 21

limitations of official statistics

Answer 21

• don’t provide any great depth or detail
• involve problems of validity due to what governments include in or exclude from published data. This is a problem for two reasons:
  1. not all information may be available to those collecting the statistics
  2. statistical data do not reveal much about the reasons for people’s behavior
• Governments occasionally change the definition of key concepts. Different governments may also define a concept differently. Such changes and differences bring into question of the reliability of the data, because when making comparisons the researcher must compare like with like

Question 22

personal documents

Answer 22

Secondary source of data covering areas such as personal letters, diaries, oral histories, websites, social networking sites and photographs

Question 23

strengths of personal documents

Answer 23

(same as strengths of secondary data)

Question 24

limitations of personal documents

Answer 24

• documentary sources are not always easy to find
• paper documents can be faked and the researcher needs to know whether they are originals or copies that may have been changed by other authors
• documents may be incomplete, and accurate and unrepresentative for example diaries may simply be one individuals view
• Digital sources can be subject to change; old websites become inaccessible while others may be updated so that the original Contant is lost. Some sources may become harder to access as technologies become no longer used