Sociology: research methods

Question 1

Advantages of Official Statistics

Answer 1

• Save time and money as they already exist and are available to the public
• Based on large samples, therefore they are more representative
• Allow sociologists to investigate trends over time in areas e.g divorce
• Can be combined with qualitative data in mixed methods research

Question 2

Disadvantages of Official Stastics

Answer 2

• Might not tell sociologists exactly what they want to know about a particular issue. For example divorce statistics tells us how many people get divorced a year but excludes empty shell marriages.
• Interprevist sociologists argue that official statistics on divorce or unemployment tell us nothing about what it means to the individuals involved to be divorced or unemployed
• Sociologists cannot check the validity of official statistics. Some statistics are likely to give a valid or true picture, example birth rates. However not every statisti gives an accurate measurement of its extent, for example domestic abuse.
  Interpretivist sociologists argue that official statistics are a social construct, meaning the outcome is due to the decisions of the many people who partook.

Question 3

Advantages of Quantitative Data collected by other researchers

Answer 3

• Researchers can save time and money by analysing pre-existing data from surveys rather than collecting data from scratch
• Many of the data sets are of high quality. They are based on large samples that are reasonably representative
• It is possile to carry out longitudinal anaysis of this data

Question 4

Disadvanatges of Quantitative Data collected by other researchers

Answer 4

• The researcher did not collect the data and has no control over its quality or its validity
• The data was collected for other purposes so some key variables may be missing

Question 5

Advantages of Qualitative Secondary Data

Answer 5

Written documents may provide useful background information about the organisations, experiences or events they refer to

Question 6

Disadvantages of Qualitative Secondary Data

Answer 6

• Written documents such as diaries or autobiographies may be forgeries. If they are genuine, the contents may not be true
• The events described may have been misinterpreted, for example due to the writer’s prejudices

Question 7

Advantages of Content Analysis

Answer 7

• Generates quantitative data and the contents of different products can be compared statiscally
• The researcher works with a set of categories so the analysis can be replicated to check reliability

Question 8

Disadvanatges of Content Analysis

Answer 8

• Time consuming and laborious

- Involves subjective judgements which may create invalid data