choosing a research method

Question 1

advantage and disadvantage of using primary data

Answer 1

sociologists get precise information they need to test hypotheses

but can be costly + time consuming

Question 2

advantage and disadvantage of using secondary data

Answer 2

quick and cheap

someone else has produced info so may not be interested in the same questions as sociologists. wrong info

Question 3

all practical issues when considering an experiment

Answer 3

time + money - e.g large scale surveys + data inputting staff cost, access to what it is they want to test

requirements of funding bodies
- research institutes, + organisations that provide funding may require results to be in a form like quantitative

personal skills + characteristics
- personal skills must be considered in their own abilities to carry out research like ability to form a rapport

subject matter - gaining access to a type of participants or studying those who can’t read + write

research opportunity- opportunity to carry research may come unexpectedly, may not be possible to use structured methods as planning not possible

Patrick - out of blue chance with gang members, he had to use participant observation

Question 4

all ethical issues when considering a research method

Answer 4

informed consent - participants should give fully informed consent so they should know the research process fully

confidentiality + privacy - participants should be able to keep identity hidden to prevents neg efffects on them

harm to research participants- - make sure no harm done to participants

vulnerable groups - special care with vulnerable people like age disability children. consent must be given

covert research - researchers identify kept hidden - deception, justified if studying dangerous groups

Question 5

all theoretical issues you should think about when researching

Answer 5

validity - true picture of what is being studied, qualitative

reliability - replicability if repeated by another sociologist will results be the same - quantitative, structured interview

representativeness - how generalisable it is ,large scale

methodological perspective- positivist and interpretivists

Question 6

all factors influencing choice of topic

Answer 6

sociologists perspective - e.g be right, functionalist

societies values - research aligns with societies state e.g feminists studying gender inequality in the 60’s

practical factors - accessibility of situations

funding bodies - paying for the research, determines the topic that is investigated

Question 7

process of research : regulating an aim or hypothesis

Answer 7

we formulate a specific hypothesis as a cause and effect statement - we collect info if it’s true or not

Question 8

advantage of an hypothesis

Answer 8

gives direction to what we are studying, gives focus to questions

Question 9

what methodological perspective favours hypotheses

Answer 9

positivists - start point for seeking cause and effect relationships- formality questions to design how factors are linked

Question 10

why do interpretivissts prefer an sim compared to a hypothesis

Answer 10

sim is a broad sim instead of a specific correlation that we can find a lot of data about so we can understand actors meaning

Question 11

the process of research - operationalising concepts

Answer 11

a way of measuring and giving a quantity to what we try to measure

operationalising important for positivists in testing a hypothesis

Question 12

the process of research : samples and sampling

Answer 12

sample - smaller sun group drawn from the wider group we are interested in
make sure it’s representative to make we can generalise findings to populations

Question 13

the process of research - the pilot study

Answer 13

smaller scale of research the iron out any problems do actual research goes smoothly

young + will mitt 100 pilot interviews to help them decide on their study. pilot study may reveal some questions are badly worded so they can finalise changes before real research

Question 14

the process of research : the sampling frame

Answer 14

list of all members of a population we are interested in
Young Willmott - used electoral register as sampling frame

sampling frame should be up to date so it’s representative

Question 15

all sampling techniques

Answer 15

random sampling - samples collected randomly by chance, everyone has an equal chance of being selected

quasi random /systematic sampling - every nth person selected Young + Willmott used every 6th name

stratified random sampling - researcher breaks down population sample frame is created from same proportions

quota sampling - e.g 29 makes 10 females

Question 16

practical reasons of why researchers do not use representative sampling techniques

Answer 16

social characteristics of population may not be known - no cross section

may be impossible to find sampling frame of particular research population e.g convicted criminals

some may refuse to participate

Question 17

what is snowball sampling

Answer 17

contacting individuals and then suggest others to be interviewed. keep doing until enough data is found - useful in contacting criminals

Question 18

what is opportunity sampling

Answer 18

convenient easiest access save money + time

Question 19

theoretical reasons of why researchers use non representative sampling

Answer 19

interpretivists - valid data is authentic understanding of social actors behaviour, so less bothered about generalisations