choosing a research method

Question 1

outline types of primary sources of data

Answer 1

social surveys, participant observation and experiments

Question 2

what is primary data?

Answer 2

Primary data is the information collected by sociologists to obtain a first hand picture to test a hypothesis
ABLE TO GATHER PRECISE INFORMATION TO TEST A HYPOTHESIS, IT IS COSTLY AND TIME CONSUMING.

Question 3

what is secondary data?

Answer 3

secondary data is data that has been collected by someone else ,, sociologists can use them too.
IT IS QUICK AND CHEAP, SECONDARY SOURCES MIGHT NOT PROVIDE THE EXACT INFO NEEDED.

Question 4

outline sources of secondary data

Answer 4

official statistics- often produced by the government such as education, crime, divorce and unemployment
Documents- letters, emails, diaries, novels, newspapers, the internet and television broadcasts.

Question 5

what is qualitative data?

Answer 5

Is evidence gathered by using participant observation, gives us a feel of what it is like to be apart of a particular group

Question 6

what is quantitative data?

Answer 6

information in a numerical form, it includes statistics

Question 7

describe the practical issue factors that influence choice of methods.

Answer 7

• time and money
• subject matter
• research opportunity
• requirements of funding bodies
• personal skills and characteristics
• informed consent
• confidentiality and privacy
• harm to research participants
• vulnerable groups
• covert research

Question 8

practical issue - time and money

( influences choice of methods)

Answer 8

different methods require different amounts of time and money
eg: a small scale project involving one researcher may be cheaper to carry out but can take years

Question 9

practical issue - requirements of funding bodies

influences choice of methods

Answer 9

a sociologist might use the government to help them research into educational achievement. This means that the researcher would have to use questionnaires and structured interviews

Question 10

personal skills and characteristics

influences choice of methods

Answer 10

eg : participant observation may mean that the researcher has good recall, some researchers may find this difficult as they have to pay attention to detail

Question 11

subject matter

influences choice of methods

Answer 11

male researchers would find it difficult to use participant observation for all female groups

Question 12

Ethical issues

Answer 12

informed consent
research participants might not want to be involved in research.The researcher should not hide parts of the research, so that the participant can make a biased opinion

Question 13

harm to research participants

ethical issue

Answer 13

researchers should be aware that participants can become unemployed, become socially excluded and may suffer from psychological damage
RESEARCHERS SHOULD PREVENT THIS HARM

Question 14

Vunerable groups

ethical issue

Answer 14

some groups may be vunerable because of their age , disability, physical or mental health. For example, researchers researching in schools should consider child protection, have consent of the child or parent

Question 15

covert research

Answer 15

covert research consists of the researchers identity being hidden, along with the purpose of the research
This betrays the trust of participants included in the research

Question 16

positivists interpretivists

Answer 16

Positivists use quantitative data while interpretivists use qualitative.
Positivists use structured observation to measure patterns of behaviour, they take a scientific approach making it easier to turn it into data

they use questionnaires, structured interviews and official statistics

Question 17

three concepts ( to judge the usefulness of a research method)

Answer 17

Reliability - to see if the data can be copied, making sure it will have the same results regardless of who carries out the data
Validity - how ‘true and authentic’ the data is
Representativeness-

Question 18

what is a control group

Answer 18

in this group, the quantity of nutrients is constant , it measures and quantifies the size of the plants

Question 19

what are the advantages of questionnaires

Answer 19

gathers large amounbts of data, there is no need to gather representatives as respondents return the questionnairews themselves
the data is easy to quantify , computers can be used to reveal the relationship between different variables

Question 20

how do questionnaires show reliability

Answer 20

a questionnaire is identical with the questions used

Postal questionnaires are reliable as there is no interviewer to influence the respondent’s answers

Question 21

how do questionnaires test a hypothesis?

Answer 21

analysis of the respondents answers could show the correlation between achievement and family size

Question 22

detatchment and objectivity

Answer 22

positivists favour questionnaires as they use a detatched method and involve little to no contact with respondents , this maintains the detatchment and objectivity

Question 23

how is representativeness a factor of questionnaires

Answer 23

researchers who use questionnaires pay more attention to maintain a representative example

Question 24

what are the ethical issues in questionnaires

Answer 24

they may ask sensitive questions, researchers should guarantee anonymity

Question 25

what are the disadvantages of questionnaires

Answer 25

questionnaires are cheap but you may have to offer incentives to get more people to complete the form

Question 26

what can be said about the low response rates of questionnaires

Answer 26

this happens because some people comp-lete questionnaires but don’t complete it, you can complete this by sending follow up questionnaires

Question 27

outline what inflexibility does to questionnaires

Answer 27

once the questionnaire is finalised, nothing can be changed for example, the questions cant be changed
this contrasts with unstructured interviews as anything can be asked

Question 28

outline two other disadvantages of using questionnaires

Answer 28

one disadvantage is how respondents may lie about their answers , thyis may make the data unreliable, affecting the whole range of data.This may be because of the insensitive topics asked , causing the respondents to feel uncomfortable

Question 29

outline the types of interview and its differences

Answer 29

structured interviews- are like a conversation, anything can be asked
unstructured interviews- are like a guided conversation , the interviewer sticks to the questions asked , they may ask follow up questions
semi structured interviews have a set of questions but can ask extra questions to gain understanding

Question 30

what are the advantages of structured interviews

Answer 30

the interview is straight forward, not time consuming, structured interviews can cover a lot of people with not many resources , it has a high response rate but may increase the cost of the survey
interviewers can control the results and weigh out the similarities and differences

Question 31

what are the advantages of using questionnaires

Answer 31

they are quick and cheap
there is no need to recruit data
the data is easy to quantify

Question 32

what is the reliability factor in questionnaires

Answer 32

when the questionnaire is repeated, the same questions are asked to different respondents
with postal or online questionnaires, the researcher cannot influence answers
repeating questionnaires allow comparisons

Question 33

what are the representative factors of using questionnaires

Answer 33

they can collect data on large scales , researchers that use questionnaires pay attention to the representative samples

Question 34

outline disadvantages of using questionnaires

Answer 34

the data used can be limited , this makes