Research Methods: Sociology

• Primary data is data that the researcher collects themselves.
• Ethics in research involves ensuring everyone is safe from harm, obtaining informed consent, maintaining anonymity and confidentiality, and not deceiving participants.
• Secondary data is data that is produced by somebody else that the sociologist then uses almost secondhand.
• Quantitative data is any data that can be converted into numbers and statistics.
• Qualitative data is anything other than numerical data, such as words, pictures, feelings, photographs, books.
• Observation and qualitative methods in general are used if you're trying to reach hard to reach groups, such as in criminal activity, drugs, gangs, football hooligans, etc.
• Quantitative data provides patterns and trends, but lacks qualitative data.
• Observation has its strengths and weaknesses, depending on the type of topic being studied.
• Observation is a method that provides a better understanding than another method, especially if you're getting involved in actually participating.
• Qualitative methods are very flexible, allowing changes if needed.
• Qualitative data methods have a very low reliability and are very subjective, relying on the skill of the researcher and their ability to take notes.
• Qualitative methods, such as participant observation, provide high validity but have low reliability.
• Closed questions can limit the truth of something or how something works.
• Theoretical issues in qualitative data help us understand issues in depth.
• Sample sizes in qualitative methods are smaller, but the data provides more depth and detail.
• Aims are the goals of every research project, even if the aim is just to explore people's thoughts on a certain topic.
• Hypotheses are statements that can be tested as either true or false.
• A sample is the people who the sociologist speaks to as part of their research.
• Reliability in social research means to what extent is that piece of research easy to be repeated by someone else and if they were to repeat it with the same people would they get the same results.
• Primary methods are those you do yourself, while secondary methods are those you collect from others.
• Practical issues in research methods include time, which can be a factor in how long a study takes.
• Validity in sociology means how truthful, trustworthy or true to life a piece of data is.
• A closed question has one or a very small grouping of answers, while an open question allows for more data.
• Pet stands for practical ethical and theoretical and is a key analysis to remember when doing research methods.
• Common secondary methods include official statistics and documents.
• Response rate is the extent to which people respond to the sociologist's actual research.
• A closed question is a question that only has a particular answer to it and may even give a range of answers that people can fill in in their questionnaire or in their research.
• Quantitative data is excellent for measuring patterns over time and developing trends through graphs.
• A weakness of structured interviews is that if the right questions arent asked you may not get the answers your looking for. This is a problem if your trying to measure trends or patterns
• Quantitative methods include questionnaires, structured interviews, and official statistics.
• Quantitative data is highly reliable because it's been standardized, meaning the questions don't change when asked again.
• Quantitative data can reach large sample sizes, making it representative of the broader population.
• One of the strengths of quantitative methods is that they are cheap and quick to do, resulting in a large sample size.
• Ethically, quantitative methods are sound as long as informed consent is obtained from participants.
• Observation is a qualitative research method that provides truthful data as you see it firsthand, particularly if you're doing covert research because the participants are not aware of being observed.
• Observation can take a long time as the interviews themselves can last for days or even weeks.
• One of the weaknesses of observation is that it can be difficult to repeat as the conversations or observations are not recorded.
• Observation can be longitudinal, meaning it goes on for a long time.
• The cost of observation can be high due to the need for
• The cost of observation can be high due to the need for highly skilled interviewers and the expense of hiring them.