Sociology Unit 2 Research Methods (AQA)
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Transcript of Sociology Unit 2 Research Methods (AQA)
SOCIOLOGY UNIT 2-
RESEARCH METHODS (AQA)
TYPES OF DATA Qualitative: involves opinions and
values (words) Favoured by intrepretivists
Quantitative: numerical data. Favoured by positivists.
Primary data: collecting new data that hasnt been collected before and for the researchers purpose i.e. Surveys
Secondary data: collected old data that has been available before and has been collected by someone else. i.e. Official statistics.
EVALUATING DATA PET- Practical (funding, access to groups, time,
cost) Ethical (informed consent, confidentiality, psychological harm) Theoretical ( if data is reliable: can it be replicated, valid: is it true accurate picture of research group)
Research methods: experiment, questionnaire, interview, observation, official statistics, documents
Positivism (advocated by durkhiem) look for correlations, objective facts
Interpretive: interpret meaning of words, use qualitative data to do this.
SAMPLING Selecting respondents to carry out research: Unit: individual of a population/ frame: list of all
people in a population Random: everyone has an equal chance of being
selected. Large sample needed. Most representative Stratified: population divided based on variables such
as sex. Need sampling frame. Small sample Snowballing: members put researcher in touch with
possible respondents. Not representative. Good for groups that are hard to identify.
Opportunity: people put themselves forward and those who are easily accessible. Cant generalize. Easy, cheapest and quick
SURVEYS/QUESTIONNAIRES
Face2face: high response rate, opertionalize concepts. Interviwer bias, time consuming.
Telephone: cheap, easy. Response rates Postal: cheap, easy. Response rates, generalize. Internet: cheap, quick. Response rate, limited to those with
internet access. Fixedq: respondents restricted to limited answers i.e. Yes/no.
Quantitative data, reliable. Hard to opertionalize concepts, cant get qualitative data.
Openq: respondents allowed to provide their own response. Detailed data, opertionalize concepts. Time consuming, interviewer bias.
OVERALL: Large amounts of data collected quickly, easy to compare results.
People may act differently [hawthrone effect] data may be inaccurate, researches mat nor understand respondents reasoning.
INTERVIEWS Structured: pre-set of questions. Easy to replicate
and compare, less chance of interview bias. Lack of detail, hard to find out more
semi- structured: some fixed questions. Researchers influence the route of interview. Reliability.
Unstructured: few or no fixed questions. Researcher directs the interview, hard to replicate, time consuming, may go off track.
Individual: less time consuming. cant observe interaction
Group: closer to real life, may sway opinion OVERALL: validity may be affected. Larger sample
can be used. Interprevists favour it.
OBSERVATION Participant> overt (researcher can ask
questions, difficult to become full participant, research group may not want to be observed>covert (respondents are not aware of researcher) act more naturally, difficult to access some groups, unethical.
Overall: can be done with little preparation, in depth studies, unethical, samples may be too small to generalize, time consuming.
LONGITUDINAL STUDY Study of same people over long period
of time. Long term commitment, sample size can
affect validity Look over process for long time, valid Triangulation: using different research
methods to fill in data.
SECONDARY SOURCES i.e. Documents, diaries, official statistics Allow insight into peoples lives Cheaper, quicker Allow to study the past. May not be reliable May not be for the researcher purpose. Qualitative: historical data, content
analysis (comparing media studies). May not be representative, may be
untruthful, may be unreliablable.
WORDS YOU NEED TO KNOW FOR RESEARCH Case study-study in depth of something Collecitivits: grouping interests together Credibility: how believeable data is Factual survey: a survey collective detailed data Field experiments: conducted in natural setting Formal content analysis: analyis of media in numerical
data Hypothese: a statement to be tested in research Objectivity: making truthful statements about the world Operationalizing: breaking down a concept so it can be
measured. Official statistics: numberical data produced by the
government Private documents :i.e. Diaries Response rate: people who return the questionnaire