Research Design

Question 1

What do ethical considerations contain?

Answer 1

data protection, anonymity, informed consent, confidentiality.

Question 2

What is the difference between primary and secondary sources of data?

Answer 2

Primary - Data that YOU have collected

Secondary - Data that someone else has collected

Question 3

What is the difference between qualitative and quantitative data?

Answer 3

Quantitative - data that can be measured or quantified and given a numerical value
Qualitative - data that is expressed through language; descriptive data.

Question 4

What is the difference between positivism and interpretivism?

Answer 4

Positivism - an approach to study that prioritises reliability, scientific method, objectivity, proving or disproving a hypothesis and quantitative data.
Interpretivism - an approach to study that prioritises validity, personal experience, subjectivity, rich accounts and qualitative data.

Question 5

What is a mixed method research?

Answer 5

A mixed method research, otherwise known as multimethodology, is a study where both qualitative and quantitative data has been collected.

Question 6

What is triangulation?

Answer 6

Cross checking findings from qualitative data against quantitive data.

Question 7

How does random sampling work?

Answer 7

Participants are randomly selected within the population. Each member of the population has an equal chance of being selected.

Question 8

How does systematic sampling work?

Answer 8

Participants within the population are selected at a regular interval (every “nth” person on a population list).

Question 9

How does snowball sampling work?

Answer 9

A non-probability form of sampling where participants recruit other participants for a test or study.

(When sampling frame is unavailable)

Question 10

How does quota sampling work?

Answer 10

A non-probability form of sampling where participants are selected according to some fixed standard.

Question 11

What is a sampling frame?

Answer 11

A list of members of a population that can be selected from.

Question 12

Give 2 advantages and disadvantages of structured interviews:

Answer 12

Advantages:

• interviewers can explain questions
• people with literacy issues can still take the survey

Disadvantages:

• INTERVIEW bias (the situation of an interview may cultivate inauthentic answers)
• INTERVIEWER bias (the interviewer’s age, ethnicity or gender may sway the participant’s answers)

Question 13

Give 2 advantages and disadvantages of self completion questionnaires

Answer 13

Advantages:

• quick and cheap to carry out
• eliminates interviewer bias

Disadvantages

• respondent may misunderstand or skip questions
• excludes the illiterate population

Question 14

What is a longitudinal study?

Answer 14

A study that follows the same participants over time. They allow researchers to study changes in participants’ behaviours.

Question 15

What does the term ethnography relate to?

Answer 15

The study of people’s behaviours in their own environment to understand their experiences, perspectives and everyday practices.

Question 16

Give 2 advantages and disadvantages of official statistics.

Answer 16

Advantages:

• easy to access + readily available
• based on large samples, so more likely to be representative.

Disadvantages:

• unable to check validity of official statistics
• interpretivists argue stats are social constructs

Question 17

What is the observer effect?

Answer 17

When the subject of the study alters their behaviour due to their awareness of the fact they are being observed.

Question 18

Why do some interpretivist sociologists believe statistics are a social construct?

Answer 18

Statistics are the result of the decisions of various people involved in constructing them. e.g, stats for crime only exist because a victim decided to report it, and police officer decided to take it seriously.

Question 19

What type of data describes the number of times something has occurred?

Answer 19

Nominal Data