Sociology: Research Methods

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Primary data

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- collected by the researcher themselves for a specific purpose
- doesn't exist until the researcher creates it
- eg. surveys, interviews, observation

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Secondary data

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- data collected by someone else
- it already exists
- eg. official statistics, newspapers, books

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Qualitative data definition

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- data in word form
- often seen as more valid than quantitative
- eg. unstructured interviews, case studies, diaries

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Qualitative data pros and cons

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pros: more valid, detailed and in-depth on reality

cons: harder to analyze than statistics because it's not in numerical form so you can't see correlations and you can't make tables and charts, less reliable

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Quantitative data definition

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- data in numerical form
- tables, charts, etc can be made out of them
- able to establish correlations
- often seen as more reliable than qualitative
- eg. questionnaires, structured interviews, official statistics

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Quantitative data pros and cons

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pros: reliable and can be repeated over and over again to achieve the same results, easier to analyze

cons: less valid, may not accurately reflect the reality they are describing

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Personal documents pros and cons

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pros: valid if the documents were private as it tells us what people really thought of life back then

cons: well-known people have often kept diaries or letters with the intention of it being published in the future. these are likely to be written in a way that gives a good impression of the writer-bias

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personal documents definition

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- most often come in the form of letters and diaries
- eg. The Polish Peasant in europe and america by Thomas and Znaniecki where they used letters written between relatives at home in Poland and immigrants in the USA to study the experience of immigration

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Questionnaires definition

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- a list of questions decided in advance
- carried out with a number of respondents
- results are comparable because everybody answers the same questions in the same order

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Self-completed questionnaires pros and cons

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pros: few costs- no interviewers, no interviewer to influence, can reach a large number of respondents who might be far away, less time-consuming

cons: more limited

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Interview questionnaires pros and cons

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pros: interviewer can explain the purpose of research/question and can clarify

cons: takes more time, more expensive- pay interviewers, might be influenced by interviewer

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Closed questions pros and cons, definition

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respondents choose between number of fixed-choice answers eg. tick box, can be multiple choice or scaled

pros: easier to analyze results and present in charts, more reliable

cons: respondent may feel that the answer they want to give is unavailable, less valid

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Opened questions definition, pros and cons

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allows respondent to answer question in their own way

pros: more likely to reflect truthfully and accurately what respondents want to say, more valid

cons: much harder to produce statistics, less reliable

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Sampling definiton

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procedure for selecting respondents

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Population definition

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the whole group that you are studying eg. your class

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Sampling frame definition

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a list of everyone in the population eg. the class register or a telephone directory

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Sample definition

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a group of people taken from the sampling frame with whom you will do the research with eg. one person in every five from your class list

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Stratified sample definition

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a sample in which the sampling frame is divided into categories eg. age, ethnicity or sex

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Random sample definition

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a sample in which everyone from the sampling frame has an equal chance of being chosen eg. drawing names from a hat

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Systematic definition

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a sample with a regular pattern or a system eg. choosing every 10th name in the sampling frame

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Cluster sample definition

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samples chosen in limited areas, to save the cost of doing a sample across the whole country eg. small area in the UK like north or west

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Quota sample definition

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a sample without a sampling frame, when respondents are found which meet a set criteria eg. teenagers taking IGCSE sociology

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Snowball sample definition

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a sample in which one respondent puts the researcher in touch with other respondents eg. useful when interviewing gangsters for whom there is no sampling frame

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Interviews definition

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- face-to-face communication
- range from casual chats to standardized questions
- different kinds of interview are suitable for different types of research

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Semi-structured interview definition

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an interview where the interviewer does not follow a formalized list of questions. Instead, he has a list of general topics called an interview guide. It is flexible and the interviewee can also ask the interviewer questions. In between structured and unstructured interview and is informal

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Semi-structured interview pros and cons

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pros: valid, because the interviewee is free to express what they think, use of pre-determined questions in the beginning provides uniformity

cons: time consuming to collect and analyze data, requires some level of training to prevent interview bias, less reliable because it's difficult to replicate as the questions deviate from the original depending on the respondent, interviewer has no way of knowing if the respondent is lying

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Structured interview definition, pros and cons

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similar to interviewer completed questionnaires, more quantitative eg. job interviews

pros: good response rate, interviewer can explain purpose of research and answer questions

cons: more expensive- have to pay interviewers, respondent may be influenced, more time-consuming

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Unstructured interview definition, pros and cons

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more like a conversation, qualitative

pros: suitable for asking about personal or private issues because the respondent may feel more willing to talk about such matters to someone they feel that they can trust instead of writing it down on a questionnaire, valid, interviewer can explain and clarify if the respondent doesn't understand the questions

cons: not reliable because it cannot be replicated as there are no standardized questions, interview bias

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Content analysis definition

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-studying the media in a way which produces quantitative data
- involves counting the number of times or for how long particular words or images are used in a media product such as a TV programme or a newspaper
- eg. content analysis of newspapers might compare how much space different papers give to a particular news item and the number and size of accompanying photographs

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Statistics definition

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-official statistics are numerical data produced by national and local government bodies
- main sources are government and surveys

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Hard statistics definition

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- figures that are not affected much by factors eg. births, marriages, deaths, very accurate and miss out few people