research methods

primary and secondary data 

primary data (collected by yourself/ first hand)

• questionnaires
• interviews
• observations

secondary data (collected by someone else/second hand)

• textbook
• statistics 
• newspaper

qualitative data - (written data) invloves opinions and values - favoured by interpretivists

quantitative data - (numerical data) - favoured by positivists

Practical (can the research be done?)

• time and money
• funding
• opportunities 

Ethical (should the research be done?)

• informed consent
• confidentiality
• will anyone be harmed
• moral?

Theoretical (will the research be useful?)

• is it valid/genuine
• reliability
• representativeness

lab experiments take place in an artifical controlled environment 

• aims to measue the effect of variable and test a hypothesis

example - bobo doll experiment - seeing how a child would treat a doll after watching an adult act aggressive towards it - most similar was when the child was the same gender as the adult

adv.

• (practical) easy to attract funding / takes place in one setting
• (ethical) rarely ask participants to do anything illegal / most get infromed consent
• (theoretical) relaible - easy to repliacte conditions / establish cause and effect relationships

disadv.

• (practical) time consuming /  impractical to observe large scale social processes in a laboratory
• (ethical) might result in harm / decpetion
• (theoretical) hawthorne effect - less valid/ small scale - unrepresentative

take place in a real world context such as a school or a hospital

• aim to measure the effect of variables and test hypothesis

example - stanford prison experiment 1971 

adv.

• (practical) quicker and less money
• (theoretical) more valid - no hawthorne effect 

disadv.

• (practical) not much access to participants
• (ethical) some dont consent
• (theoretical) not representative

close-ended; respondent has a limited range of answers to chose from

open-ended; respondent gives the answer they wish to give in their own words

all surveys have an aim or hypothesis

sampling;

• random - individuals are chosen at random
• systematic - individuals are chosen at regular intervals.
• stratified - divide population into groups and randomly or systematically choose from there
• quota - method for selecting survey participants that is a non-probabilistic
• snowball - research participants recruit other participants for a test or study
• opportunity -  researcher selects participants based on their availability

close-ended; quantitative - numerical data - participant has a fixed list of answers 

open-ended; qualitative - respondent gives the answer they wish to give in their own words

adv.

• (practical) they are generally quick and easy and cheap to complete.
• (theoretical) data should be reliable and representative
• (ethical) informed consent

disadv.

• (theoretical)constrain or distort the way respondents answer – they may therefore lack validity.
• (ethical) best avoided when talking about sensitive topics
• (theoretical) postal questionnaires get a low response rate

official statistics

- quantitative data gathered by the government or other official bodies 

examples include statistics on births, deaths, marriages and divorces, crime and health

there are two ways of collecting official statistics;- registration e.g parents register birth of a child

- official surveys e.g the census

adv.

• (practical) free sources of huge amounts of data
• (theoretical) representative - large scale 

disadv.

• (theoretical) reliable - some participants may fill out information wrong

historical documents

personal or public documents created in the past

adv. 

• only way to obtain information about the past
• study changes over time 
• understanding past events is important to help with understanding current society

disadv.

• authenticity - is it genuine? is there missing pages? who wrote it?
• credibility - is the author sincere in what they write? 
• representativeness - how representative is this document compared with others of that time
• meaning - the literal and underlying meaning might be difficult to decipher

personal document

these documents record details of a persons life experiences - mainly qualitative - favoured by interpretivists - examples include diaries, letters, photos

adv.

• valid 
• allow sociologists to get close to the meanings and people involved

disadv.

• unscientific
• difficult to obtain
• lack representativeness

content analysis

- used to study media texts - appeal to positivists

adv.

• cheap
• scientific
• reliable - can be checked by others

disadv.

• critiscised by interpretivists for lacking depth
• bias - researcher decides what parts to count, ignoring things that dont fit the hypothesis
• may be time consuming

case study

detailed examination of a single case or example such as school or workplace. it may even be a study of one person

Strengths

• Detailed insight into a particular group
• Qualitative
• Interpretivist 
• Validity

Limitations

• Representative
• Cannot generalise

longitudinal study

follows same sample or group over an extended period of time

strengths 

• trace developments over time
• make comparisons between groups over time causes can be identified

limitations

• keeping track of sample
• demograohic changes may mean original sample is not representative
• large amount of data - time consuming to analyse
• hawthorne effect
• costly - parkers five year study of illegal drug use cost £380,000

life histories

often case studies of indiviuals, it is a qualitative mathod used by interpretivists to understand how individuals interpret their life

strengths 

• detailed insight into a persons individual experience 
• qualitative data
• adds historical dimension

limitations

• representative 
• cannot generalise
• time consuming

triangulation

combination of methods gaining both qualitative and quantitative methods

strengths

• more rounded picture
• weaknesses in one method can be complemented with another
• both qualitative and quantitative
• both reliable and valid 

limitations

• time consuming