Research Methods- Topic 1 (Paper1)

Question 1

Definition and example of primary data.

Answer 1

This is information collected by sociologists themselves for their own purpose. E.g. social surveys, participant observations and experiments.

Question 2

Definition and example of secondary data.

Answer 2

This is information that has been collected or created by someone else for their own purposes, but which the sociologist can then use. E.g. Offical statistics, documents such as reports and emails.

Question 3

Definition and example of quantitative data.

Answer 3

The refers to information in a numerical form. E.g. Offical statistics, employment and GCSE’s

Question 4

Definition and example of qualitative data.

Answer 4

This gives a ‘feel’ for what something is. E.g. What it feels like to get good GSCE grades.

Question 5

Summarise the practical issue of time and money.

Answer 5

Different methods require different amounts of time and money and this may influence the sociologists choice.
E.g. Large-scale surveys may employ dozens of interviewers and data- inputting and cost a great deal of money.

Question 6

Summarise the practical issue of requirements of funding bodies.

Answer 6

Research institutes, businesses and other organisations that provide the funding for research may require the results to be in a particular form.
E.g. A government department funding research into educational achievement may have targets for pass rates and so require quantitative data to see whether these targets are being achieved.

Question 7

Summarise the practical issue of personal skills and characteristics.

Answer 7

Each sociologist possesses different personal skills and this may affect their ability to use different methods.
E.g. participants observation usually requires the ability to mix easily with others as well as good powers of observations and recalls, while depth interviews call for an ability to establish a rapport with the interviewee.

Question 8

Summarise the practical issue of subject matter.

Answer 8

It may be much harder to study a particular group or subject by one method than by another.
E.g. It might prove difficult for a male sociologist to study an all-female group by means of participant observation, while written questionaires may be useless for studying those who cannot read or write.

Question 9

Summarise the practical issue of research opportunity.

Answer 9

Sometimes the opportunity to carry out research occurs unexpectedly and this means that it may not be possible to use structured methods such as questionaires, which take longer to prepare. E.g. a Glasgow gang leader offered the sociologist James Patrick (1973) the chance ‘out of the blue’ to spend time with his gang.

Question 10

Summarise the ethical issue of informed consent.

Answer 10

Research participants should be offered the right to refuse to be involved.

Question 11

Summarise the ethical issue of confidentiality and privacy.

Answer 11

Researchers should keep the identity of research participants secret in order to help prevent possible negative effects on them.

Question 12

Summarise the ethical issue of harm to research participants.

Answer 12

Researchers need to be aware of the possible effects of their work on those they study.

Question 13

Summarise the ethical issue of vulnerable groups.

Answer 13

Special care should be taken where research participants are particularly vulnerable because of their age, disability or physical or mental health.

Question 14

Summarise the ethical issue of covert research.

Answer 14

This is when the researcher’s identity and research purpose are hidden from the people being studied.

Question 15

Summarise the theoretical issue of validity.

Answer 15

A vaild method is one that produces a true or genuine picture of what something is really like. It allows the researcher to get closer to the truth.

Question 16

Summarise the theoretical issue of reliability.

Answer 16

Another word for reliability is replicability. A replica is an exact copy of something, so a reliable method is one which, when repeated by another researcher, gives the same results.

Question 17

Summarise the theoretical issue of representativeness.

Answer 17

This refers to whether or not the people we study are a typical cross-section of the group we are interested in.

Question 18

Summarise the theoretical issue of methodological perspective.

Answer 18

Sociologists’ choice of method is also influenced by their methodological perspective- their view of what society is like and how we should study it.

Question 19

Which factor is the most important for researchers?

Answer 19

Theoretical.

Question 20

Summarise the sociologist’s perspective influencing choice of topic.

Answer 20

The sociologists theoretical perspective is a major influence on their choice of research topic. For example, a New Right researcher may study the effects of welfare on the growth of lone-parent families.

Question 21

Summarise society values influencing choice of topic.

Answer 21

Sociologists themselves are part of the society they study and thus are influenced by its values. As these values change, so does the focus of research.

Question 22

Summarise practical factors influencing choice of topic.

Answer 22

Practical factors such as the inaccessibility of certain situations to the researcher, may also restrict what topic they are able to study. For example, although sociologists may wish to study the ways in which global corporations make their decisions this may not be possible because these are made in secret.

Question 23

Summarise funding bodies influencing choice of topic.

Answer 23

Most research requires funding from an external body. These bodies include government agencies, the economic ans social research council (ESRc), charities and businesses.

Question 24

Give an example of triangulation and explain how this would give a more rounded picture when carrying out research.

Answer 24

Unstructured interviews as people will completely be themselves around sociologists.

Question 25

Advantages of hypothesis

Answer 25

Is that it gives direction to our research.
It’ll focus on our questions, since the is purpose is to gather information.
Specific.
It can be proven true or false.

Question 26

Advantages of an aim

Answer 26

Is that it is more open-ended.
We aren’t tied to trying to prove a particular hypothesis.
General.
Intend on what we want to study.

Question 27

Material deprivation.

Answer 27

Being deprived of materials in education or basic needs.

Question 28

Anti-school subculture.

Answer 28

Going against the values of the school.

Question 29

Educational underachievement.

Answer 29

How are you doing in school?
Achievements in schools.

Question 30

Summaries the reasons why sociologists may use a pilot study.

Answer 30

Sociologists who use social surveys often carry out a pilot study before find their main survey.

Question 31

Explain the purpose of sampling.

Answer 31

Sociologists often aim to produce generalisations that apply to all cases of the topic they are interested in.

Question 32

Explain representativeness.

Answer 32

The basic purpose of sampling is usually to ensure that those people we have chosen to include in the study are representative.
Typical cross section of the groups sample.

Question 33

Explain the sampling frame.

Answer 33

To choose a sample, we first need a sampling frame. This is a list of all the members of the population we are interested in studying.

Question 34

What are the most to least representative smacking techniques.

Answer 34

Most representative- Quota sampling.
Stratified random sampling.
Quasi-random sampling or systematic.
Least representative- Random sampling.

Question 35

List the reasons for using non-representative sample.

Answer 35

-The social characteristics of the research such as age,gender and class may be not known. As such it may be impossible to know it if a smalls is representative.
-May be impossible to find or create a sampling frame.
-Potential responders may refuse to participate.

Question 36

Define snowball sampling.

Answer 36

Involves collecting a sample by collecting a number of key individuals, who are asked to suggest others who might be interviewed, and so on, adding to the sample ‘snowball fashion.’

Question 37

Define opportunity sampling.

Answer 37

Sometimes called convenience sampling, involves choosing from those individuals who are easiest to access.

Question 38

Why do interpretivists so not see representativeness as important.

Answer 38

They believe it is more important to obtain vaild data and an authentic understanding of social actors’ meanings than to discover general laws of behaviours.

Question 39

Give 3 uses that sociologists can make of case studies.

Answer 39

1) Provide a detailed insight into a particular group.
2) To study exceptional cases.
3) To suggest hypotheses at the start of the research, looking closely at one case may give us ideas we can test on larger groups.