Notes : Pilot Study, Mixed methods, Process of research design, and Sampling techniques

Pilot study

A pilot study is a %%small-scale trial run of the research before the full research is carried out%%. This might be carried out to %%practice skills%% as a researcher. E.g. If a researcher has little experience of interviewing, it would be good to practice interviewing skills such as, building rapport, listening skills, thinking of questions as the participant speaks etc. Pilot studies are also useful to %%check that the method works%%. E.g. if a questionnaire is being used, the researcher will want to check that the questions all make sense, that the participants understand them and that they cover all of the topic the researcher needs to find out about. Conducting a pilot study saves time and money. It helps to find out any issues with the research before a lot of time or money are spent. E.g. if the interviewer is unable to build rapport then they may need a different interviewer, if the questions don’t make sense then they can be adapted before 1000’s of questionnaires are printed.

Mixed methods

Also known as %%triangulation%%. Using mix methods means to use more than one method to research a particular topic. This might be done to cross-check your findings – to make sure that they are valid.__Or, sometimes it is useful to complete one method first so that you can __gain the information needed to conduct further methods. E.g. Eileen Barker’s study of the Moonies. Barker completed interviews and observations before she created a questionnaire. Without the information from the interviews and observations she would not have known what to ask in her questionnaire.

Weaknesses: Both quantitative and qualitative data can be gained – the weaknesses of both types of data are therefore a weakness of the mixed method. Primary and secondary data can be gained - the weaknesses of both types of data are therefore a weakness of the mixed method. Any research methods can be used - the weaknesses of all methods used are therefore a weakness of the mixed method.

Process of Research Design

Sociologists follow the research process. They will first select a research area or topic. Next they will produce an aim and a hypothesis.%%Aim%%: This is a statement about what you want to investigate. For example; ‘to find out if boys and girls play differently’.%%Hypothesis%%: A prediction about what you think you will find. It should be written as a statement and you will either support or not this statement with your research. For example, ‘Students in 2021 do not follow traditional gender stereotypes’. This will then inform which research method(s) they select to get the best information for their aim. The researcher will then conduct a pilot study. Following a pilot study they will select their sample from the target population. Once the sample is selected they will conduct the research on their participants.The data collected will then be analysed and the researcher will draw conclusions based on their data.

Different types of data

Type of Data:	Primary	Secondary	Quantitative	Qualitative
Definition:	Data that has been collected first hand by the researcher from the research participants.	Data that already exists that someone else has collected and the researcher uses for their research.	Data in numbers or statistical form – graphs.	Data in descriptive or categorical form – descriptive.
Examples of Methods:	Interviews, questionnaires, observations.	Documents, official statistics.	Questionnaires.	Interviews.
Strengths:	It will be up to date. You can collect data for your aim specifically.	It might be cheaper than conducting your own research. It takes less time than conducting your own research to find the information.	Easy to analyse. Able to see patterns and trends. Can collect lots of this data relatively easily (more representative).	More in depth understanding is gained (valid). Can find the meaning behind the statistics. Allows the participant to fully express their ideas.
Weaknesses:	It may be expensive to collect. It may be time consuming to collect.	It may not always answer your research question specifically. It may be outdated if it was collected a period of time ago.	Doesn’t allow for the meaning behind the numbers to be seen (less valid). Might not truly reflect the experience of the participant.	More difficult to analyse. Difficult to compare (less reliable) and see patterns and trends. More time consuming to collect (less representative).

Sampling Processes

Sampling is about %%how you chose your participants (sample) from your target population%%. There are 5 sampling methods a sociologist might use:

• Random - This is an unbiased sampling method. The research gets the names of participants at random from a hat or from a computer generator. Every person in the target population has an equal chance of being chosen.

• Systematic - This is where every ‘nth’ person on a list is selected to be a participant. This is not random and not everyone has an equal chance of being chosen.

• Stratified - This is where the target population is divided into groups based on features that matter in the research and then each feature is represented in the sample.

• Snowball - This is where a contact of the researcher will be used to introduce them to other people who can be used as participants.

• Opportunity - This is where the researcher uses people that they know and can easily get access to as their participants.

Sampling Technique(s)	Evaluation
Opportunity	It tends not to be representative. The people who take part are usually helpful and confident, so don’t represent people who are not. But it can save time as you are using whoever is available and you can access.
Random	It is not always practical. If a target population is large then getting all of the populations names onto a list can be difficult to achieve. It is also all down to chance so there is a possibility of a biased/freak sample. You could draw all female names or everyone could come from the same year group by chance.
Stratified	It can take a really long time to find out all of the characteristics of the target population and work out what proportions of each you need in the sample. But the end sample is representative of the target population and therefore the data can be generalised. However, Those selected might not want to take part – you still end up with an unrepresentative sample.
Snowball	This is really useful for getting participants from hard to reach groups, e.g. criminals. But, the people in the sample tend to have similar characteristics. They might all live close together, be a similar social class or age group. Therefore, they are not representative.

Target Population – The people that a sociologist wants to study in their research.

Sample – The people who become the participants in the research. They are chosen from the target population.

Representative – if the sample of participants used in research represent the target population.

If research represents a target population it is easier to generalise the findings.

Generalising – findings can be applied to all people similar to the sample – the target population.