Research Methods

• Primary data


  Data that the sociologist collects themselves
• Secondary data


  Data produced by someone else that the sociologist uses
• Quantitative data


  Data that can be converted into numbers and statistics
• Qualitative data


  Data that is not numerical, such as words, pictures, feelings
• Aim


  The purpose of a research project
• Hypothesis


  A statement that can be tested as true or false
• Sample


  The people who are part of the research
• Response rate


  The extent to which people respond to the research
• Closed question


  A question with a limited set of answers
• Open question


  A question that allows for more detailed responses
• Reliability


  The extent to which research can be repeated and get the same results
• Validity

  How truthful, trustworthy or true to life the data is
• Primary research methods

  • Questionnaires
  • Interviews (structured, semi-structured, unstructured, group)
  • Observation (covert, overt, participant, non-participant)
  • Focus groups
• Secondary research methods

  • Official statistics
  • Documents (personal, historical, media)
• Practical factors

  • Time
  • Cost
  • Access
• Ethical factors

  • Avoiding harm
  • Informed consent
  • Anonymity
  • Confidentiality
  • No deception
• Theoretical factors

  • Reliability
  • Validity
  • Representativeness
  • Quantitative vs qualitative data
• Quantitative methods (questionnaires, structured interviews, official statistics)

  Tend to be reliable and representative due to standardised questions and large sample sizes
• Quantitative data


  Allows measurement of patterns and trends over time
• Quantitative methods are often practically cheap and quick to conduct, allowing large sample sizes</b>
• Researchers doing the research will be asking the same stuff in the same order in the same way of everybody and that doesn't change and that's like a big benefit to this type of data
• Standardized questions


  Questions that are the same and don't change depending on who you speak to or who's interviewing
• Researcher


  • They are at arm's length from the participants, they can't ask them to elaborate on their answers, they just ask a question and get the answer
• Quantitative methods


  Chosen because they tend to be practically quite cheap and quite quick to do, which means you get a really big sample size
• The bigger the sample size, the more likely it is to be representative of the broader population
• Ethically, there are very few things that can go wrong with quantitative methods, you just need to get informed consent
• If you have high reliability


  You are likely to have low validity
• Low validity


  The questions asked through questionnaires and structured interviews tend not to reveal the truth or get to the heart of an issue
• Quantitative data provides patterns and trends, but doesn't provide qualitative data to understand how or why something happens
• Quantitative methods can have access issues getting to the right people, and tend to have poor response rates
• Qualitative methods


  • Have high validity but low reliability
• Qualitative sample sizes


  Tend to be smaller, but provide more depth and detail
• Qualitative methods


  • Are very flexible, allowing the researcher to probe and identify new things they hadn't thought of
• Qualitative methods


  Are unreliable and not representative, but aim to provide a deep understanding of a small group
• Qualitative research is very time-consuming and expensive compared to quantitative methods
• Ethical issues with qualitative methods include deception and lack of informed consent, particularly with covert observation
• Observation as a research method can be overt (participant) or covert (non-participant), each with their own strengths and weaknesses
• Strengths of observation


  • Provides highly valid, detailed, qualitative data as the researcher sees things firsthand
  • Allows the researcher to get involved and gain a better understanding
• Weaknesses of observation


  • Low reliability as it is difficult to repeat and the results are subjective
  • Ethical issues, particularly with covert observation where informed consent is not obtained
• Observation and qualitative methods are often used to research 'hard to reach' groups in society