Topic 1 - Choosing a Research Method

Question 1

What is quantitative date ?

Answer 1

quantatative data refers to inmformation in numerical form

Question 2

What is qualitative data ?

Answer 2

qualitative data gives a feel for what something is like e.g. what it feel like to get good GCSE results

Question 3

What are the 5 practical issues which influence choice of research method ?

Answer 3

-Time and Money
-Requirements of funding bodies
-Personal skills and Characteristics
-Subject Matter
-Research Opportunity

Question 4

How is Time and money a practical issue when choosing a research method ?

Answer 4

Different research methods require different amounts of time and money and this influences the sociologists choice of method
For example large surveys may employ dozens of interviewers and data inputting staff which requires a great deal of money whereas small scale project using participant observation may be cheaper to complete but take many years to complete
The researchers access to resources can also be a major factor in determining which method they use e.g. a well known professor will have more access to research funds than a young student

Question 5

How is requirements of funding bodies a practical issue when choosing a research method ?

Answer 5

Research institutes . businesses and other organisations that provide funding for the research may require results to be in a particular form. This means the sociologist has to ensure their method will provide that data.

Question 6

How is personal skills and characteristics a practical issue when choosing a research method ?

Answer 6

Each sociologist possesses different personal skills and this may affect their ability to use different research methods. e.g. participant observation requires the ability to mix easily with others and good powers of observation and recall while in depth interviews require sociologist to be able to build a good rapport with the participant

Question 7

How is the subject matter a practical issue when choosing a research method ?

Answer 7

It may be harder to study a particular group or subject when using one method instead of another e.g. it might be difficult for a male sociologist to study an all female group by the means of participant observation. while written questionnaires will be useless when studying those who cant read or write.

Question 8

How is research opportunity a practical issue when choosing a research method ?

Answer 8

Sometimes the opportunity to carry out research occurs unexpectedly and this means that it may not be possible to use structured methods such as questionnaires which take longer to prepare.

Question 9

What are 5 ethical issues which influence the choice of research method ?

Answer 9

-Informed consent
-Confidentiality and privacy
-Harm to research participants
-Vulnerable groups
-Covert research

Question 10

How is informed consent an ethical issue when choosing a research method ?

Answer 10

Research participants should be offered the right to refuse to be involved at all. The research should also tell them about all the relevant aspects of the research so they can make a fully informed decision. Consent should be obtained before the research begins and at intervals throughout the process.

Question 11

How is confidentiality and privacy an ethical issue when choosing a research method ?

Answer 11

Researchers should keep the identity of the research participants secret in order to prevent negative effects on them. Researchers should also respect their privacy. personal information concerning research participants should remain confidential.

Question 12

How is harm to research participants an ethical issue when choosing a research method ?

Answer 12

Researchers need to be aware of the possible effects of their work on those they study. These could include police intervention , harm to employment prospects , social exclusion and psychological damage wherever possible researchers should anticipate and prevent such harm.

Question 13

How is Vulnerable groups an ethical issue when choosing a research method ?

Answer 13

Special care should be taken when research participants are particularly vulnerable because of their age , disability or physical or mental health. For example when studying children in a school researcher should have regard for issues of child protection and they should obtain the consent of both the child and the parent and use language that the child can understand

Question 14

What is covert research ?

Answer 14

Covert research is when the researchers identity and research purpose are hidden from the people being studied

Question 15

How can covert research lead to ethical issues when choosing a research method ?

Answer 15

Covert research can create ethical problems such as deceiving or lying to people in order to win their trust or obtain information. and it is impossible to gain informed consent while at the same time keepng the research or its purpose secret

Question 16

How do some sociologist argue the use of covert research can be justified ?

Answer 16

some sociologists argue that the use of covert research can be justified in certain circumstances such as for gaining access to secretive , dangerous or powerful groups.

Question 17

What are the 3 theoretical issues which influence choice of research method ?

Answer 17

• Validity
  -Reliability
  -Representativeness

Question 18

What is a valid method ?

Answer 18

A valid method is one that produces a true or genuine picture of what something is really like and allows the researcher to get closer to the truth

Question 19

What type of methods do sociologists believe give use a more valid picture and why do they ?

Answer 19

sociologists argue that qualitative methods such as participant observations are more valid picture compared to questionnaires because they give us a deeper insight

Question 20

What is another word for reliability and what does it mean ?

Answer 20

reliability also means replica and a replica is an exact copy of something so a relaible method is one that when repeated by another researcher gives the same results.

Question 21

What type of methods are more reliable ?

Answer 21

quantitative methods such as written questionaries are more reliable compared to qualitative methods such as unstructured interviews.

Question 22

What is representativeness ?

Answer 22

Representativeness refers to whether or not the people we study are a typical cross section of the group we are interested in

Question 23

If our findings are representative what does this allow us to do ?

Answer 23

if our findings are representative this allows us to make generalisations about the wider population

Question 24

What type of research methods are more representative ?

Answer 24

large scale quantatative surveys are more likely to be representative

Question 25

What data do positivist sociologists Favour and why ?

Answer 25

Positivists favour quantative data because seek to discover patterns of behaviour and see socoiology as a science

Question 26

What data to interpretivists favour and why ?

Answer 26

interpretivists favour qualitative data because seek to understand social actor’s meanings and reject the view that sociology can model itself on the natural sciences.

Question 27

What are the 4 factors influencing the choice of research topic ?

Answer 27

-The sociologists perspective
-society’s values
-Practical factors
-Funding bodies

Question 28

How does sociologists perspective influence the choice of research topic such as feminists ?

Answer 28

the sociologists research perspective is a major influence on their choice of research topic.
feminists researcher is likely to study domestic violence

Question 29

How does society’s values influence the choice of research topic ?

Answer 29

sociologists are part of the society they study and are influenced by its values and as these values change so do the focus of the research.

Question 30

How do practical factors influence the choice of research topic ?

Answer 30

Practical factors such as inaccessibility of certain situations to the researcher may restrict what topic they are able to study. For example sociologist may want to study the ways in which global corporations make their decisions but this may not be possible as they are made in secret

Question 31

How do funding bodies influence the choice of research topic ?

Answer 31

Most research requires funding from an external body as the funding body will pay for the research , it will determine the topic that is investigated

Question 31

What is a hypothesis ?

Answer 31

A hypothesis is a possible explanation that can be tested by collecting evidence to prove it true or false.

Question 32

What is an advantage of a hypothesis ?

Answer 32

Advantage of a hypothesis is that it gives us direction to our research so will give us focus to our questions

Question 33

who favour hypothesis and why ?

Answer 33

positivists favour hypothesis because they seek to discover cause and effect relationships

Question 34

how is an aim different to a hypothesis ?

Answer 34

an aim is more general , it identifies what we intend to study and achieve through the research. often it will simply be to collect data on a particular topic

Question 35

What is an advantage of an aim ?

Answer 35

advantage of an aim is it is more open ended which is useful at the start of our research when we know very little about the topic

Question 36

Who favour an aim and why ?

Answer 36

interpretivists often favour broad aims because they are interested in understanding actors social meanings rather than impose the researchers own explanations in the form of a hypothesis

Question 37

What is operationalisation ?

Answer 37

operationalisation is the process of converting a sociological concept such as class into something we can measure

Question 38

How can we operationalise social class ?

Answer 38

social class is a fairly abstract concept so we need to operationalise it most sociologists would probably use parents occupation as an indicator of pupils social class

Question 39

What do sociologists do after they have operationalised a concept ?

Answer 39

once the concept has been operationalsied then we start asking questions to find out the answers such as asking parents what is your job . this allows us to see what social class each pupil belongs to

Question 40

what can make operationalisation of a concept difficult ?

Answer 40

problems may arise when different sociologists operationalise the same concept differently. for example they may disagree if a routine office worker is working or middle class and this makes it hard to compare the findings of different pieces of research

Question 41

What is a pilot study ?

Answer 41

A pilot study is involves carring out a draft version of the questionnaire or interview on a small sample

Question 42

What is the basic aim of a pilot study ?

Answer 42

The basic aim of a pilot study is to iron out any problems , refine or clarify questions and their wording and give interviewers practice , so the actual survey goes as smoothly as possible. A Pilot study may reveal that some questions are badly worded and hard to understand or answers are difficult to analyse so need to be changed before actual study

Question 43

What is a sample ?

Answer 43

A sample is a smaller sub group drawn from the wider group we are interested in.

Question 44

What is sampling ?

Answer 44

sampling is the process of creating or selecting a sample

Question 45

What is the basic purpose of sampling ?

Answer 45

the basic purpose of sampling is to ensure that those people we have chosen to include in the study are representative or typical of the research population including all the people who have not been included in the study

Question 46

What is a research population ?

Answer 46

the research population refers to the whole group that we are interested in

Question 47

If our sample is representative , what does this allow us to do , what sociological perspective likes this and why ?

Answer 47

if our sample is representative then we should be able to generalise our findings , positivists like this because allows them to make law like statements about the wider social structure

Question 48

What is a sampling frame ?

Answer 48

A sampling frame is a list of all the members of the population we are interested in

Question 49

What happens after we have obtained our sapling frame ?

Answer 49

Once we have obtained our smapling frame we can choose our sample from it

Question 50

What are the 4 sampling techniques that sociologists use ?

Answer 50

-Random sampling
-Quasi - random or systematic sampling
-Stratified random sampling
-Quota sampling

Question 51

What is random sampling ?

Answer 51

Random sampling is the simplest technique , where the sample is selected purely by chance e.g. names taken out of a hat

Question 52

What is Quasi-random or systematic sampling ?

Answer 52

Quasi-random or systematic sampling is where every nth person in the sampling frame is selected

Question 53

What is stratified random sampling ?

Answer 53

Stratified random sampling is where the researcher stratifies (breaks down ) the population in the sampling frame by age , class , gender etc . The sample is then created in the same proportions e.g. if 20% of the population are over 18 then 20% of the sample also must be over 18

Question 54

What is Quota sampling ?

Answer 54

Quota sampling is where the population is stratified ( broken down ) and then the interviewer is given a quota of say 20 females and 20 males , which they have to fill with respondents who fit these characteristics , the interviewer keeps at task until their quota is filled.

Question 55

What are practical reasons that not all studies use represntative sampling techniques ?

Answer 55

Practical reasons not representative
-the social characteristics of the research population , such as age , gender , class may be unknown and it would thus be impossible to create a sample that was an exact cross section of the research population.
-It may be impossible to find or create a sampling frame for that particular research population . for example not all criminals are convicted so not a complete list available to select a sample from
-Potential respondents may refuse to participate for example some criminals may refuse due to fear their response will be passed on to the police

Question 56

What are 2 sampling techniques sociologists can use when not able to obtain a representative sample ?

Answer 56

-Snowball sampling
-Opportunity sampling

Question 57

What is snowball sampling ?

Answer 57

Snowball sampling involves collecting a sample by contacting a number of key individuals who are asked to suggest others who might be interviewed and so on. This is not representative but can be useful to contact a sample of people who otherwise might be difficult to find or persuade to take part , such as criminals

Question 58

What is Opportunity sampling ?

Answer 58

Opportunity sampling involves choosing from individuals who are easiest to access for example passers by on the street or from a captive audience such as pupils in a class . it is not likely to be representative of the target research population.

Question 59

What are theoretical reasons some sociologists may not chose to create a representative sample?

Answer 59

-because of the sociologists methodological perspective
interpretivists believe it is important to obtain valid data and to understand social actors meanings than to discover laws of behaviour because interpretivists are less concerned to make generalisations they have less representative samples