sociology research methods

• what are all the practical issues? (5)

  time and money, requirement of funding bodies, personal skills and characteristics, subject matter and research opportunity
• give and example of the practical issue time and money?

  large-scale surveys may employ lots of interviewers, be quicker to complete but more expensive By contrast, a small-scale project involving a lone researcher using participant observation e.g may be cheaper to carry out, but it can take longer to complete.
• give an example of the practical issue requirement of funding bodies?

  govt department funding research into educational achievement may have targets for pass rates and so require quantitative data to see whether these targets are being achieved.
• what is the practical issue funding bodies?

  Research institutes, businesses and other organisations that provide the funding for research may require the results to be in a particular form.
• whats an example of the practical issue personal skills and characteristics?

  participant observation usually requires the ability to mix easily with others as well as good powers of observation and recall,
• what is the practical issue subject matter?

  when it may be much harder to study a particular group or subject by one method than by another
• what is an example of the practical issue subject matter?


  written questionnaires may be useless for studying those who cannot read or write
• what is the practical issue research opportunity?

  Sometimes the opportunity to carry out research occurs unexpectedly and this means that it may not be possible to use structured methods
• what is the ethical issue vunerable groups?


  Special care should be taken where research participants are particularly vulnerable because of their age, disability, or physical or mental health.
• what is the theoretical issue representativeness?


  the extent to which a sample mirrors a researcher's target population and reflects its characteristics.
• what are the ethical issues?

  informed consent, harm to pps, confidentiality and privacy, vunerable groups and covert research
• whats a positivists view on method choice?

  quantitative data, patterns/trends and see sociology a science
• whats a interpretivists choice of method?

  qualitative data, meanings, and rejects sociology as a science.
• what theories favour the positivist approach and why?

  functionalism and marxism as structural and macro theory.
• what theories favour interpretivist approach and why?

  interactionist as micro theory
• what are the factors influencing choice of topic?

  sociologist perspective, society's values, practical factors and funding bodies.
• give an example of sociologist perspective to influence choice of topic?

  feminist researcher may choose to study domestic violence.
• give an example of societys value to influence choice of topic?

  for example, rise in feminism lead to focus on gender inequality
• what do practical factors mean?

  the inaccessibility of certain situations
• give an example of practical factors to influence choice of topic?


  ways in which global corperations make their decisions, but may not be possible as made in secret.
• what is the method triangulation

  variety of methods and data to cross-check the results obtained by one particular method are valid and reliable
• what is an advantage of a hypothesis?

  gives a direction to research
• what type of methodological perspective favour hypothesis and why?

  positivists as they look at cause-effect relationships
• advantage of aim and what sociologists use this and why?

  open ended/broad used by interpretivists as they focus on meanings
• what methodological perspective are concerned on operationalising concepts and why?

  positivists because of the importance they place on creating and testing hypothesis
• what is a sampling frame? give willmott and young e.g


  list of all the members of the population we are interested in studying, for e.g electoral register
• what are the representative samples?


  random, stratified, quota and systematic
• whats quota sampling?


  population is stratified and each interviewer is given a quota in which they must fill respondents who fit these characteristics until full.
• what are the theoretical issues?

  validty, reliability, generalisability, representativeness and methodological perspective
• what are the two unrepresentative samples?


  snowball and opportunity sample
• why is it not possible to create a representative sample?


  impossible to find a sampling frame for that exact research population e.g not all criminals convicted so no complete list
• another reason why representative sample not possible?

  respondents may refuse to participate
• what is snowball sampling?


  contacting a number of key individuals, who are asked to suggest others who might be interviewed until sample is full
• what type of sample would a positivist collect?

  representative sample
• what type of sample would an interpretivist collect?


  non-representative sample
• what are the 3 main differences between studying young people and adults? according to Hill

  power and status, ability and understanding and vulnerability
• how is high status and power promoted in schools?


  teachers have higher status and power over pupils
• what research method reinforces power and status in school?


  questionnaire and structured interview as the researcher determines the questions
• how is ability and understanding promoted with adults and children?


  pupil vocab more limited than adults, sociologists take care in wording qs to make sure young respondents understand
• what type of ethical issue makes this harder to obtain?

  informed consent.