introduction to research methods

• sociologists must make a series of decisions about how best to approach their study
• Aim: this is what sociologists hope they will discover
• hypothesis:this is the researchers' prediction of what the outcome of the research will be
• target population:this is the group of people that the research findings will help to explain
• pilot study:this is a small-scale version of research completed before the larger piece of research
• sample:this is the group of people who take part in the research