Sociology: Research Methods

What are the 2 types of data collection?

QUANTITATIVE: Numerical data, in numbers
QUALITATIVE: Word-data

What's the difference between primary and secondary data?

PRIMARY: Collected by yourself
SECONDARY: Collected by a secondary source, like the census

What 4 factors impact a researchers choice of topic?

-Skill set
-Funding
-Personal beliefs
-Opportunity

Positives/negatives of quantitative data?

Easy to analyse but can simplify so external factors aren't taken into account

Positives/negatives of qualitative data?

More detailed but hard to analyse

what are the PET factors

-Practical
-Ethical
-Theoretical

5 practical factors impacting research

-Money
-Time
-Skills
-Opportunity
-Subject matter

5 ethical factors impacting research

-Informed consent
-Confidentiality
-Deception
-Vulnerable groups
-Covert research

4 theoretical factors in research

-Validity
-Reliability
-Representativeness
-Generalisability

What is positivism

"Top down" scientific approach favouring quantitative data

What is interpretivism

"Bottom up" less scientific approach, use qualitative methods and smaller samples

5 main sampling techniques

-Random
-Systematic
-Stratified
-Opportunity
-Snowball

Give a strength and weakness of random sampling

S: less likely to be biased
W: impractical and time consuming

Give a strength and weakness of systematic sampling

S: less biased
W: impractical to list everyone in target population

Give a strength and weakness of snowball sampling

S: gets access to hard to reach target groups ie, drug addicts
W: biased group as all know each other

Give a strength and weakness of opportunity sampling

S: participants will definitely agree
W: biased

Give and strength and weakness of stratified sampling

S: ensures same proportions of target population
W: impossible to get EXACT proportions for everything