Sociology-research methods-choosing a research methods

Question 1

What is primary data?

Answer 1

Information collected by sociologists themselves for their own purposes. These purposes may be to obtain a first-hand ‘picture’ of a group or society, or to test a hypothesis

Question 2

What do methods for gathering primary data include?

Answer 2

Social surveys, participant observation, experiments

Question 3

What is an advantage of using primary data?

Answer 3

Sociologists may be able to gather precisely the information they need to test their hypotheses

Question 4

What is an disadvantages of using primary data?

Answer 4

Collecting the data can often be costly and time consuming

Question 5

What is secondary data?

Answer 5

Information that has been collected or created by someone else for their own purposes, but which the sociologist can then use

Question 6

What do sources of secondary data include?

Answer 6

Official statistics, and documents

Question 7

What is an advantage of using secondary data?

Answer 7

It can be a quick and cheap way of doing research, since someone else has already produced the information

Question 8

What is a disadvantage of using secondary data?

Answer 8

Those who produce the secondary data may not be interested in the same question as sociologists, and so secondary sources may not provide exactly the information that sociologists need

Question 9

What is quantitative data?

Answer 9

Information in a numerical form

Question 10

What are examples of quantitative data?

Answer 10

Official statistics eg on how many girls passed five or more GCSEs, also information collected by opinion polls and market research surveys often come in the from of quantitative data

Question 11

What is qualitative data?

Answer 11

It gives a ‘feel’ for what something is like. Evidence gathered by using participant observation aims to give us a sense of what it feels like to be a member of a particular group. Also in-depth interviews that probe deeply into a person’s view can give insight into what it’s like to live as that person

Question 12

What is an example of qualitative data?

Answer 12

What it feels like to get good GCSE result

Question 13

What factors influence the choice of research method?

Answer 13

Practical issues, ethical issues and theoretical issues

Question 14

What are practical issues that influence the choice of research method?

Answer 14

Time/money, requirements of funding bodies, personal skills/characteristics, subject matter, and research opportunity

Question 15

What ethical issues influence the choice of research method?

Answer 15

Informed consent, confidentiality/privacy, harm to research participants, vulnerable groups, and covert research

Question 16

What theoretical issues influence the choice of research method?

Answer 16

Validity, reliability, representativeness, and methodological perspective

Question 17

How does time and money influence the choice of research method?

Answer 17

Different methods require different amounts of tie and money. Eg large scale surveys may employ many interviewers and data inputting staff and cost a lot of money, whereas small scale projects involving a lone researcher using participant observation may be cheaper to carry out but can take several years to complete. Researchers access to resources can be a major factor too eg well known professor will likely have access to more research funds than a young student

Question 18

How would requirements of funding bodies influence the choice of research method?

Answer 18

Research institutes, businesses and other organisations that provide funding for research may require the results to be in a particular form eg a government department funding research into education achievement may have targets for pass rates so require quantitate data to see whether these have been achieved

Question 19

How would personal skills and characteristics influence the choice of research method?

Answer 19

Each sociologist possesses different personal skills which can affect ability to use different methods eg participant observations need someone who can mix well with others and are good at observation/recall

Question 20

How would subject matter influence the choice of research method?

Answer 20

It may be harder to study a particular group or subject by one method than by another, eg it might be difficult for a male sociologist to study an all-female group by means of participant observation, while written questionnaires may be useless for studying those who are illiterate

Question 21

How would research opportunity influence the choice of research method?

Answer 21

Sometimes the opportunity to carry out research occurs unexpectedly and this means that it may not be possible to use structured methods such as questionnaires which take longer to prepare

Question 22

What is an example of a research study that was influenced by research opportunity?

Answer 22

A Glasgow gang leader offered the sociologist James Patrick the chance ‘out of the blue’ to spend time with his gang. Patrick had little time to prepare so had to use participant observation, where in other circumstances he might have been able to spend more time selecting another method

Question 23

How would informed consent influence the choice of research method?

Answer 23

Research participants should be offered the right to refuse to be involved. The researcher should also tell them about all relevant aspects of the research so that they can make a fully informed decision. Consent should be obtained before research begins and, if the study is length, again at intervals throughout the process

Question 24

How would confidentiality and privacy influence the choice of research method?

Answer 24

Researchers should keep the identity of research participants secret in order to help to prevent possible negative effects on them. Researchers should also respect their privacy. personal information concerning research participants should be kept confidential

Question 25

How would harm to research participants influence the choice of research method?

Answer 25

Researchers need to be aware of the possible effects of their work on those they study. These could include police intervention, harm to employment prospects, social exclusion and psychological damage. Wherever possible, researchers should anticipate and prevent such harm

Question 26

How would vulnerable participants influence the choice of research method?

Answer 26

Special care should be take if vulnerable due to age, disability, or physical/mental health. Consent should be gained from participant and eg in schools, need consent from parents to-issues of child protection

Question 27

How could covert research influence the choice of research method?

Answer 27

Can create serious ethical issues such as deceit and lying to win peoples trust or to obtain information. It would be impossible to obtain informed consent, however some sociologists argue it can be justified in some circumstances such as gaining access to secretive, dangerous or powerful groups

Question 28

How would validity influence the choice of research method?

Answer 28

Valid methods produce true or genuine pictures of what something is really like, allowing the researcher to get closer to the truth. Many argue qualitative methods give a more valid account rather than quantitative methods

Question 29

How would reliability influence the choice of research method?

Answer 29

A reliable method is one which, when repeated by another researcher, gives the same results-quantitative methods tend to produce more reliable results

Question 30

How would representativeness influence the choice of research method?

Answer 30

Refers to whether or not the people studied are a typical cross-section of the group we are interested in. Large-scale quantitative surveys that use sophisticated sampling techniques to select their sample are more likely to produce representative data

Question 31

How would methodological perspective influence the choice of research method?

Answer 31

Refers to a sociologists view of what society is like and how it should be studied. The two contrasting perspectives are positivism and interpretivism

Question 32

What are positivists?

Answer 32

Prefer quantitative data, seek to discover patterns of behaviour and see sociology as a science (functionalists and marxists often take this view)

Question 33

What are interpretivists?

Answer 33

Prefer qualitative data, seek to understand social actors’ meanings and reject the view that sociology can model itself on the natural sciences (Interactionists often take this view)

Question 34

What factors influence choice of topic?

Answer 34

The sociologists perspective, society’s values, practical factors and funding bodies

Question 35

How would the sociologists perspective influence choice of topic?

Answer 35

It is a major influence on choice eg New Right may want to study welfare dependency while feminists may want to research opposition to gender oppression

Question 36

How would society’s values influence choice of topic?

Answer 36

As sociologists are part of society, they are influenced by its values. As these views change, so does the focus of research.

Question 37

How would practical factors influence choice of topic?

Answer 37

Practical factors such as inaccessibility of certain situations to the researcher, can restrict topic of research eg may not be able to study the ways the global corporations make decisions, as this is kept secret

Question 38

How would funding bodies influence choice of topic?

Answer 38

Most research requires funding from an external body, including government agencies, the Economic and Social Research Council, charities and businesses. As the funding body is paying for the research, it will determine the topic to be investigated

Question 39

What are the different stages of the process of research?

Answer 39

Formulating an aim or hypothesis, operationalising concepts, the pilot study, samples and sampling

Question 40

What happens once a hypothesis is created?

Answer 40

It can be tested, and kept or discarded if it turns out to be false

Question 41

What are the advantages of having a hypothesis?

Answer 41

It gives direction to research. It gives focus to the questions as purpose of the research is to gather information to confirm or refute the hypothesis

Question 42

What are positivists views on hypotheses?

Answer 42

They favour a hypothesis as the starting point for research as they want to find a cause-and-effect relationship

Question 43

What is the difference between a hypothesis and an aim?

Answer 43

A hypothesis is a statement about a specific relationship, while an aim is more general, identifying what is intended to be studied and what is hoped to be achieved through the research

Question 44

What is the advantage of an aim?

Answer 44

It is more open ended so researchers are not tied to trying to prove a particular hypothesis and so any information that appears interesting can be gathered

Question 45

Who favours a broad aim, rather than a hypothesis?

Answer 45

Interpretivists as they are interested in understanding actors’ meanings so the task is to find out what the actors themselves think is important, rather than to impose the researcher’s own possible explanations in the form of a hypothesis

Question 46

What does operationalising mean?

Answer 46

How something can be tested or measured

Question 47

What is a problem with operationalising concepts?

Answer 47

Different sociologists may operationalise the same concept differently which can make it hard to compare findings or different pieces of research

Question 48

Why are positivists concerned to operationalise concepts?

Answer 48

Because of the importance they place on creating and testing hypotheses

Question 49

Why do interpretivists put less emphasis on operationalising concepts?

Answer 49

Because they are more interested in actors’ own definitions and understandings of ideas such as ‘class’, ‘achievement’ etc, than in imposing their own definitions of these concepts

Question 50

How does Young and Willmott, and pilot stuides link together?

Answer 50

Young and Willmott carried out over 100 pilot interviews to help them decide on the design of their study, the questions to ask and how to word them

Question 51

What is the basic purpose of sampling?

Answer 51

To ensure the results are representative of the population being studied, and so can be more easily generalised

Question 52

What is a sampling frame?

Answer 52

A list of all the members of the population that is being studied, eg Young and Willmott used the electoral register. The list needs to be complete, accurate, up to date with no duplications to ensure it is representative of the wider population we are interested in

Question 53

What are the different sampling techniques?

Answer 53

Random sampling, quasi-random or systematic sampling, stratified random sampling and quota sampling

Question 54

What is random sampling?

Answer 54

Simplest technique where sample is selected purely by chance, eg names drawn out of a hat. Everyone has an equal chance of being selected. A large enough random sample should reflect the characteristics of the whole research population. However, not all random samples are large enough to ensure this happens

Question 55

What is quasi-random, or systematic sampling?

Answer 55

Where every nth person in the sampling frame is selected. Young and Willmott used every thirty sixth name on the electoral register for their sample

Question 56

What is stratified random sampling?

Answer 56

The researcher first stratifies the population in the sampling frame by age, class, gender etc. The sample is then created in the same proportions eg if 20% of the population are under 18, then 20% of the sample have to be under 18

Question 57

What is quota sampling?

Answer 57

The population is stratified as above, and then each interviewer is given a quota which has to be filled with respondents who fit these characteristics. The interviewer keeps at this task until their quota is filled

Question 58

What is non-representative sampling?

Answer 58

For practical and theoretical reasons, not all studies use representative sampling techniques

Question 59

What are the practical reasons why non-representative sampling may be used?

Answer 59

Social characteristics of the research (eg age, gender, class making it impossible to create a cross section of the research population), may be impossible to find or create a sampling frame for a particular research population eg not all criminals are convicted so there is no complete list available to select a sample, potential respondents may refuse to participants eg some criminals may refuse for fear that their responses may be passed to the police

Question 60

What type of sampling may be used where it is not possible to obtain a representative sample?

Answer 60

Snowball sampling, and opportunity sampling

Question 61

What is snowball sampling?

Answer 61

Involves collecting a sample by contacting a number of key individuals, who are asked to suggest others who might be interviewed, and so on, adding to the sample until enough data has been collected-it isn’t representative but is useful to contact a sample of people who might otherwise be difficult to find or persuade to take part, such as criminals

Question 62

What is opportunity sampling?

Answer 62

Sometimes called convenience sampling, it involves choosing from those individuals who are easiest to access. Examples include selecting from passers by in the street or from a captive audience such as a class of pupils. In neither case is the sample likely to be representative of the target research population

Question 63

What are theoretical reasons for using a non-representative sample?

Answer 63

Some researchers choose this due to their methodological perspective. Interpretivists believe that is is more important to obtain valid data and an authentic understanding of social actors’ meanings than to discover general laws of behaviour. Because interpretivists are less concerned to make generalisations, they have less need for representative samples.