Keywords

Research method

Research method

The different ways of collecting data used by sociologists.

Primary research methods

Information that the research gathers themselves

e.g. questionnaires.

Secondary research methods

Information that already exists and has been collected by other people

e.g. public documents

Quantitative data

Numerical data expressed in numbers and quantities

e.g. official statistics

Qualitative data

Non-numerical data such as words and images

e.g. the transcript from an interview

Research participants

The people that take part in the research

e.g. completing the questionnaires

Research aim

This sets out what the researcher wants to investigate and provide a focus – often a question

e.g. what are the biggest causes of poverty?

Hypothesis

An informed guess written as a testable statement that can be proven true or false

e.g. teenagers are impacted greatly by social media usage.

Pilot study

A practice run of a piece of research

Validity

A measure of how true or genuine something is.

Reliability

If a method is reliable, it means that it can be repeated and, if done correctly, it ought to get the same results every time.

Funding bodies

Organisations that pay for sociological research

e.g. governments, charities, businesses and universities

Practical factors

Things which affect how easy or difficult the research is to do.

e.g. time and money

Research population

The wider group of people that you are interested in researching

e.g. Year 10 students at HGS

Sample

a sub-group of your research population (e.g. 20 year 10 students at HGS

Sampling

The process of selecting the people who will take part in your research

Representative

The sample accurately reflects the research population

Questionnaires

A list of questions used to gather data from respondents about their attitudes, experiences, or opinions.