MT1- Process of research

Question 1

social survey

Answer 1

=a method of gathering large amounts of data from a wide variety of people.

• done through research methods such as questionnaires and interviews using both closed-ended and open-ended questions.
• carried out using a standardised process.

Question 2

STAGE 1 OF SURVEY- choosing the topic to research

Answer 2

There are 4 factors that will affect the topic a researcher chooses to research:
-The sociologist’s theoretical perspective–> this will affect the topics you are interested in researching, e.g. a Feminist is more likely to research gender

• Society’s values – sociologists are members of the societies they research so the society’s values are also the sociologist’s values. e.g. as social values changed to be more accepting of LGBTQ+ people, sociologists carried out more research into same sex families.
• Practical factors – some topics may be difficult to research, e.g. teacher racism
• Funding organisation – all sociological research has to be paid for and it is often financed by the government, charities or businesses. They will often request the researcher to research a particular topic

Question 3

STAGE 2 OF SURVEY- deciding on aim and hypothesis

Answer 3

aim= statement that identifies what the researcher intends to study and hopes to achieve
–>advantage of an aim is that it allows the researcher to investigate a broad range of interesting info about the topic of research.
hypothesis=possible explanation which the researcher sets out to prove or disprove by gathering evidence
–>advantage of hypothesis is that it gives direction to the research and gives the researcher a focus for the questions to ask- enables the researcher to measure the cause and effect relationships

Question 4

STAGE 3 OF SURVEY- operationalise the concepts

Answer 4

process of converting a sociological key concept into something measurable

Question 5

STAGE 4 OF SURVEY-choosing the research method

Answer 5

-sociologists can use a variety of research methods which they choose depending on their methodological perspective and on practical issues

Question 6

STAGE 5 OF SURVEY- conducting the pilot study

Answer 6

• this is a trial run of a draft version of the questionnaire or interview.
  The aim of the pilot study is to improve any questions and their wording to make sure the respondents can understand them easily.

Question 7

STAGE 6 OF SURVEY-selecting the sample

Answer 7

• the sample are the people the researcher will ask to take part in the study.
• The sample can be selected through a variety of sampling methods, usually from a sampling frame.
• The sample should be representative of the whole population.

Question 8

STAGE 7 OF SURVEY-conducting the survey

Answer 8

-carry out the actual interviews or questionnaires.

Question 9

STAGE 8 OF SURVEY-analysing the data

Answer 9

-involves analysing the responses and quantifying them. -From the analysed data, the researcher reaches a conclusion on whether the hypothesis was proven true or false.