PET and choice of method

What is primary data

• data you collected yourself

• Specific to your study

What is secondary data

• Data someone else collected

• Not specific to your study

Why might researchers have no choice but to use secondary data

• if it’s something from the past you’ll have to use secondary data

• If it’s something unethical you’ll have to use secondary data

What are the 4 main ways of collecting primary data

• questionnaires

• Interviews

• Observation

• Experiment

What are the 2 main ways of collecting secondary data

• official statistics

• Documents e.g. diaries

What is quantitative data

Numerical data

What is qualitative

In-depth data that give a literary response

What are types of ways to get quantitative data

• official statistics

• Closed questionnaire

• Observation

What are types of ways to get qualitative data

• open questionnaire

• Interviews

• Observation

What is an example of primary quantitative data

• structured interview

• Closed questionnaire

What is an example of primary qualitative data

• unstructured interview

• Open questionnaire

What is an example of secondary quantitative data

Statistics

What is an example of secondary qualitative data

Letters

What are the 3 key influences when choosing a method

• practical

• Ethical

• Theoretical

What are the practical issues

• time and money

• background of researcher

• Access

Time and money

• how long will it take

• Will someone be able to fund it

Background of researcher

For example depending on a person class they may not be able to research certain groups because they may not be welcome e.g. gang

Access

How do they get into a group e.g. a gang

What are the ethical issues

• informed consent

• Deception

• Confidentiality

• Protection of participants

• Vulnerable groups

What are the theoretical issues

• validity

• Verstehen

• Reliability

• Representativeness

Validity

How true or accurate something is

Verstehen

Can you see something from the other persons perspective

Reliability

How replicable something is

Representativeness

Can it be generalised to the whole population

What is triangulation

Using a mixture of methods

How can a sociologists perspective influence their research topic

E.g. if they’re Marxist then they’d be more likely to study class inequality

What is operationalising

Making something measurable

How could you operationalise social class

Measure household income

Pilot study

A smaller scale version of your study to make sure it works how you want it too

Positivism

• likes scientific methods

• Quantitative data

What methods are positivists likely to use

• Questionnaire

• Official statistics

• Lab experiments

Why do positivists like certain methods

• they’re replicable

• Reliable

• Generalisable

Interpretivists

• detailed research

• Qualitative data

What methods would interpretivists use

• observations

• Interviews

• Field experiment

• Case studies

• Documents

Why do interpretivists like these methods

• validity

• Verstehen

What perspectives are usually positivists

• functionalists

• New right

• Marxists

• Realists

What perspectives are usually interpretivists

• interactionism

• Feminism

• Weberian theorists