research methods

Primary data

Data collected by researchers themselves

Secondary data

Information that has been collected by others and is then used in a new piece of research, this might be earlier research studies or data collected by governments or other bodies.

Quantitive data

Numerical or statistical data e.g population statistics, examination results

Qualitative data

Data that is in words, describing social situations and their meanings e.g answers to open-ended questions in an unstructured interview.

Valid

Data is valid if it is truthful and measures what it claims to measure, for example church attendance figures tell us how many people go to church, they do not measure how many people are religious

Reliable data

Research is said to be reliable if it would produce similar results if repeated in similar circumstances. Reliable methods are standardised

Representative

A representative sample is one in which shares the same characteristics as the population under study

Generalisable

If research is to go beyond telling us about a particular group or situation being studied, it must be capable of being generalised. This means that findings are applicable to wider society.

Ethical

Researchers must follow ethical or moral guidelines when collecting data. Avoiding harm to the participants and the person conducting the study is the most important factor

Objective

This means being un-biased or neutral. Positivists believe that research should aim to be objective. Critics argue that objectivity is not possible, your values and beliefs inevitably influence what you study and how you study it

Subjective

The opposite of objectivity; unbiased research, interpretivists are interested in how social actors see the world, their research aims to identify subjective views