practical issues

Question 1

examples of practical issues

Answer 1

• choosing research topics
• funding
• operationalising
• negotiating access
• timescales

Question 2

how might a sociologist decide what to research?

Answer 2

• personal interest
• events and trends in society
• could be influenced by the theory you prefer

Question 3

funding research ?

Answer 3

• importnat factor
• government departments may directly commission specific pieces of research and you apply directly to them for funding

Question 4

operationalising concepts?

Answer 4

researchers have to think how they will measure the concepts they are studying.

Question 5

example for choosing a research topic ?

Answer 5

John williams = used participant observation to investigate football hooligans, his research interests reflected his own interests in football

Question 6

example for funding ?

Answer 6

Halsey = he was interested in social inequality especially in the education system. so he operationalised social inequality in the education system focusing on whether students had social mobility.

Question 7

identifying the target population ?

Answer 7

a key stage us identifying who is the target audience and who the researcher wants to be able to draw conclusions about.
example = researchers exploring gender differences in education at 16+ may identify their target audience at students making their A level choices

Question 8

negotiating access?

Answer 8

once target audience has been identified, and sampling methods decided, then the research has to make contact with potential research participants. closely linked to ethical issue of consent

Question 9

timescale and money ?

Answer 9

the amount of time and money available, resource limits the size of the research methods used