chosing a research method

What is qualitative data?

Information in numerical form

e.g- official statistics

What is qualitative data?

Gives a ‘feel’ for what something feels like

E.g - provides peoples experiences and feelings

Primary data ?

Information collected by sociologists by themselves for their own purpose

Secondary data

Information collected by someone else for their own purpose, which the sociologist then uses

Informed consent

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

Confidentiality and privacy

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

Vulnerable groups

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

Validity

One that produces a true or genuine picture of what something is really like - allows researcher to get closer to the truth

• gives a more valid/truthful account of what it is like to be a of a group

• Particpant observation can give us a deeper insight through firsthand experience

Reliability / replicability

A replica Is an exact copy of something, so a replicable method is one which when repeated by another researcher, gives the same results

Practical issues - time and money

Different methods require different amounts of time and money influenc8nf sociologists choice

Practical issues - Requirements of funding bodies

Organisations provide the funding for research may require the results to be in a practicals form.

Practical issues - Personal skills and characteristics

Each sociologist possesses different personal skills - may effect their ability to use different methods

Practical issues - Subject matter

May be much harder to study a particular group or subject by one method than another

Practical Issues - Research opportunity

The opportunity to carry out research occurs unexpectedly - may not be possible to use structured methods such as questionaires which take longer to prepare

Representativeness

Refers to whether or not the people we study are a typical cross section of the group we are interested in

• making sure the sample is representative or typical of the wider population

Methodological perspective

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

Advantages of a hypothesis

Produces measurable and testable statements making it easier to analyse relationships between variables

Advantages of an aim

Provides a clear overall focus and direction for the research so their study stays relevant

Pilot study

Irons out any problems, refine or clarifies questions and their wording and gives interviewers practice, so the actual survey goes smoothly

Young and Willmot - Pilot study

Carried out just over 100 pilot study’s to help the, devise on the design of their study, the questions to ask and how to word them

Purpose of sampling

To ensure that the people chosen to include in the study are representative of the research population, including all the people we gave not been able to include in the study

Sampling frame

A list of all the members of the population we are interested in studying

Reasons for using a non- representative sample

• practicality - quicker, easier , cheaper to acces than representative sample

• Access - useful when researching hard to reach or specific groups

• Depth of data - allows more detailed , in depth insights rather than broad generalisations

Snowball sampling

Helps researchers access hidden or hard to reach groups through participants contacts

Opportunity sampling

Quick and convenient as participants are chosen based on availability at the table

Explain why intereprstivists do not see representativeness as important

They are more interested in understanding the meanings , experiences and perspectives of individuals in depth rather than producing results that can be generalised to the wider population