method of research

• Primary data


  Information collected personally by a researcher using methods such as questionnaires, interviews and observational studies
• Strengths of primary data

  • Researcher has complete control over how data is collected, by whom and for what purpose
  • Researcher has greater control over the reliability and validity of the data, as well as how representative it is
• Limitations of primary data

  • Time-consuming to design, construct and carry out
  • Can be expensive
  • Difficulty gaining access to the target group
  • Some people may refuse to participate or potential respondents may no longer be alive
• Secondary data


  Data that already exists in some form, such as documents (government reports and statistics, personal letters and diaries) or previous research completed by other sociologists
• Strengths of secondary data


  • Researcher is able to save time, money and effort
  • May be the only available resource
  • Highly reliable if consistently collected from the same sources
• Limitations of secondary data


  • Not always produced with the needs of sociologists in mind
  • Sources can be unreliable
  • May only reflect the views of a single individual rather than representing wider opinions
• Quantitative data


  Information expressed numerically as raw numbers, percentages or rates
• Strengths of quantitative data

  • Useful for comparing numbers and testing hypotheses
  • More reliable as it is easier to repeat the study
  • Allows researchers to remain more objective
• Limitations of quantitative data

  • Respondents are placed in an 'artificial social setting'
  • Captures a relatively narrow range of information
  • Lacks depth and does not reveal the reasons for behaviour
• Qualitative data


  Aims to capture the quality of people's behaviour by exploring the 'why' rather than the 'what, when and where'
• Strengths of qualitative data


  • Allows respondents to talk and act freely to capture complex reasons for behaviour
  • Researchers can establish a strong personal relationship with respondents to experience their lives
  • Results are more likely to show how people really behave and what they really believe
• Limitations of qualitative data


  • Focuses on the intensive study of relatively small groups, limiting the ability to apply the data more widely
  • Difficult to compare qualitative data across time and location
  • Lower reliability than quantitative research due to the depth and detail of the data
• Official statistics


  Quantitative data created and published by governments, used by sociologists to examine trends and patterns
• Strengths of official statistics

  • Provide a broad overview of behaviour across wide areas
  • Can be used to understand trends over time
  • Highly representative due to large sample sizes
  • Some are considered 'hard' statistics with a high level of accuracy
• Limitations of official statistics


  • May not provide depth or detail
  • Validity issues due to what governments include or exclude
  • Do not reveal the reasons for people's behaviour
  • Definitions and methods can change over time, affecting reliability
• Personal documents, digital content and media sources


  Secondary sources such as letters, diaries, autobiographies, websites, blogs, newspapers, books and moving images
• Strengths of personal documents, digital content and media sources

  • Provide access to data that would be costly to collect personally
  • Can provide qualitative data with great depth and detail
  • Allow comparison of past and present accounts to understand social change
• Limitations of personal documents, digital content and media sources

  • Availability and authenticity issues
  • Reliability problems due to incompleteness, inaccuracy or unrepresentativeness
  • Digital sources can be subject to change or become inaccessible over time
• Social change and development

  How sociologists have had to adapt research methods because of changes such as the digital revolution in technology
• Diaries are a commonly used personal document
• Questions a sociologist would ask about diaries


  1. What people keep diaries?

  2. Why do they keep them?

  3. Did they intend for other people to read them?

  4. What things do they put in (and what do they leave out?)

  5. Which diaries from the past have survived and why?
• Quantitative research methods


  • Questionnaires
  • Structured interviews
  • Experiments
  • Content analysis
• Questionnaires


  Written questions that take one of two forms: postal questionnaires or researcher-administered questionnaires
• Postal questionnaires


  Normally completed in private without the researcher being present, including web-based or emailed questionnaires
• Researcher-administered questionnaires


  Completed in the presence of the researcher, with respondents answering questions verbally: these are structured interviews
• Closed-ended or pre-coded questions


  Researcher provides a set of answers from which the respondent can choose
• Open-ended questions


  Researcher does not provide possible answers, respondent answers in their own words
• Strengths of questionnaires


  • Pre-coded questions make it easier to quantify data
  • Questionnaires can result in highly reliable data
  • Respondents often remain unknown (anonymous) which improves validity
• Limitations of questionnaires


  • Low response rate can result in unrepresentative sample
  • Difficulty examining complex issues and opinions
  • Researcher has to decide at the start what is and is not significant
  • Researcher has no way of knowing if respondent has understood a question properly
• Structured interviews


  Researcher asks questions to respondents in person, with the same questions asked in the same order each time
• Strengths of structured interviews

  • Potential reliability problems can be fixed by the researcher
  • Avoids the problem of unrepresentative samples - response rates will be 100%
• Limitations of structured interviews

  • Involve assumptions about people's behaviour
  • Lack of anonymity can lead to interview effect and researcher effect
• Experiments


  Involve testing the relationship between different variables - things that can change under controlled conditions
• Correlation


  Two or more things happen at roughly the same time, suggesting a relationship but not necessarily causation
• Causation


  When one action occurs, another always follows, indicating a causal relationship
• Ways to separate correlation from causality

  • Test and retest a relationship
  • Use different groups with exactly the same characteristics: an experimental group whose behaviour is manipulated and a control group whose behaviour is not manipulated
• Laboratory experiments


  Take place in a closed environment where conditions can be precisely monitored and controlled
• Field experiments


  More appropriate for sociological research, conducted in a natural setting rather than a closed, controlled environment
• Strengths of experiments


  • Laboratory experiments are easier to replicate
  • Experiments can create powerful, highly valid statements about behaviour based on cause-and-effect relationships
  • Field experiments can be used to manipulate situations in the real world
• Limitations of experiments


  • Difficulty controlling all possible influences on behaviour, even in a laboratory setting
  • Hawthorne (or observer) effect - changes in people's behaviour directly resulting from their knowledge of being studied