The research process, surveys and questionaires Flashcards
Sampling frame
The list of people from which a sample of people is selected. A school register, for example, contains a list of all students who might potentially be selected to take part in the research.
Sample
The people selected from the sampling frame, who will be asked to take part in the research.
Snowball Sampling
This is where a researcher gains access to a group and ten uses members of the group to contact others, and then in turn uses the new group to make contact with others. This is often the only way of accessing people who belong to secretive or deviant groups.
Systematic sampling
This is where people in the sampling frame are selected in order. For example, every 10th person in the school register.
Random sampling
This is where the people in the sampling frame have an equal chance of taking part in the study e.g. names out of a hat.
Quota sampling
This is where researchers go out looking for the right number of each sort of person required to take part in the study. For example, a researcher might need a quota of 500 males and 500 females.
Stratified-random sampling
This is where the sampling frame is divided into groups, for example, by gender, and then a random sample is taken.
This will help to ensure that the sample is truly representative of the population being studied. For example, if a sample were to look at boys’ attitudes towards school, the register would need to be divided into boys and girls, before a sample of boys was taken.
Social Surveys
Social surveys collect standardized data from large numbers of people. The census in Britain is a perfect example. It is distributed to every household in England and Wales every ten years in the form of a detailed questionnaire.
What are the three types of surveys?
Factual surveys- collect descriptive data relating to the population.
Attitude surveys- seek people’s opinions, thoughts, and ideas.
Explanatory surveys- begin to test assumptions that researchers hold.
Close-ended questions
Pre-coded, tick box, yes/no questions which make it very easy for the sociologist to quantify the data.
Sometimes a Likert scale is used, allowing the respondents to select range of options, including ‘agree’/ ‘strongly agree’.
-They are time efficient and enable clear spotting of trends and patterns.
Open-ended questions
These provide the freedom to go into more detail. There may be some opportunity for a respondent to expand on their initial comments. These are likely to provide valid data since they allow people to express what they mean, in their own words.
Operalisation of sociological concepts
Before a questionnaire is used, abstract concepts must be translated into concrete questions, so that precise measurements can be taken.
For example, in the term ‘social class’ is used, the researcher must be clear about how he/she intends to define social class so that a precise measurement can be taken. Without this the possibility for confusion increases, which can undermine the validity of the data collected.
EXAMPLE:
> In low-income, black American areas, the word ‘uptight’ is used to mean a close relationship between friends, yet in other places, it is used to refer to being tense and anxious.
A sociologist who does not realize this may find problems n using the word in asking a question on their survey, so a precise definition should be made clear.
Postal questionnaires
These are mailed out to a sample of respondents, who are asked to complete and then return them using an enclosed stamped-addressed envelope.
> These questionnaires can be distributed over a large geographical area, and in theory, they can access large numbers of people This can result in a representative sample of responses, which once the data is collected, can make it much easier to draw generalized conclusions. However, the response rate is often low.
> It is not u usual for a sociologists to achieve a 50% response rate, and in many cases figures are lower. The impersonal nature of postal questionnaires is that they all end up in the bin.
> People may not fully understand English Language or are too busy within their own life, therefore failing to complete it.
> Questionnaire’s sent through the post can often be seen as ‘junk mail’, meaning that they are disposed of quickly. However some people offer rewards for completing the questionnaire in order to get more valuable and accurate results.
Advantages and disadvantages of postal questionnaires.
Advantages:
> Allows respondents to take their time, in the comfort of their own home, to complete the information required of them.
> The freedom this brings may result in the respondent being much more honest when answering open ended questions.
Disadvantages:
> The absence of the researcher may mean that the respondent is unable to clarify anything that they do not understand in the questionnaires.
> The questionnaire may not be completed to by the intended recipient as they are unsure on how to respond.
Callander and Jackson (2005)
Fear of debt and Higher Education
Callander and Jackson used self-completion questionnaires to measure the fear of debt associated with a university study.
> They researched the attitudes of A-level students in England towards debt and their decisions about whether to apply for university.
> The research involved the postal distribution of 3582 questionnaires to 101 school sixth-formers and colleges. Responses were received from 1954 students in 82 schools and colleges, the response rate was 55%.
Callander and Jackson found that the fear of debt was mostly from low-income groups. This remained the case when other factors were held constant, such as the type of institution they attended, gender, age and ethnicity.
