research methods

• Primary Data

  data collected by the researcher first hand
• Secondary Data

  data collected by someone else that already exists to be used e.g official statistics
• Qualitative Data

  data in the form of words
• Quantitative Data

  data in the form of numbers
• Hypothesis

  a prediction of the likely results of your research
• Interviewer Bias

  when the interviewer accidentally influences the interviewee e.g. through body language or facial expression
• Practical Issues

  problems the researcher might face relating to time, money and access to participants
• Ethical Issues

  problems relating to the way you treat your participants e.g. harm to your participants or invasion of privacy
• Representativeness

  whether your sample reflects the whole population
• Generalisation

  when your study is representative you can generalise from it and say that what you found is true of the whole population
• Reliability

  whether another researcher could repeat the study and get the same results
• Validility

  whether the data is truthful and in-depth
• Longitudinal Research

  a study conducted over a long period of time with the same participants
• Case Study

  an in-depth study of a group of people
• Content Analysis

  the analysis of documents or images (e.g media products)
• Pilot Study

  a trial run of your research to check for problems
• Population

  the group you are interested in studying
• Questionnaire

  a set of structured questions delivered to respondents - often by post or electronic means - requiring self-completion
• Interview

  A method used to collect data in which people are asked questions face to face or via telephone
• Sample

  the small group that you select to carry out your research
• Sampling Frame

  the list you choose your sample from
• Sampling Method

  the method you use to choose your sample
• Random Sampling

  everyone in the population has the same chance of being chosen
• Stratified Sampling

  the sample frame will be split into a number of smaller groups e.g gender, ethnicity, age and then individuals will be drawn at random from these groups
• Snowball Sampling


  researchers may find a few participants and then ask their participants to find participants themselves
• Hawthorne Effect


  where participants change their behaviour because they know they're being watched
• Open Question


  a question where you can give your own answer and are not limited by options given to you
• Closed Question

  a question with a limited range of answers that are good for generating quantitative data
• Covert Observation

  where people don't know they're being studied
• Overt Observation

  where the people know they're being studied
• Official Statistics

  quantitative data published by the government on a variety of subjects e.g. unemployment, crime and education
• Personal Documents

  items such as letters and diaries that sociologists might use
• Research Aim

  what you're trying to find out in your study
• Research Method

  the way you try to find the information out e.g. questionnaire
• Triangulation

  using more than one method to study one topic