Choosing a research method.

Primary and secondary sources of data.

Primary data.

This is data that is collected by sociologists themselves for their own purposes, it gives a first-hand picture of a group or society.

Methods for gathering primary data include:

• Social surveys: Asking people questioans in written form or interview.
• Participant observations: Sociologists join in the activities of the group that he or she is studying.
• Experiment: Laboratory experiments are rarely used, but sociologists often conduct field experiments amd the comparitive method.

Advantage of primary data:

• Sociologist scan gather precisley what is needed for their research to test their hypotheses.

Disadvantages of primary data:

• Costly
• Time consuming.

Secondary data.

This is information that has been collected by someone else for their own purposes, therfore sociologists are using pre-existing data.

Sources of secondary data include:

• Official statistics produced by government on education, crime, divorce, unemployment etc.It also includes statistics published by charities, businesses, churches and other organisations.
• Documents: This includes letters, emails, novels, newspapers, photographs, the internet & television broadcasts.

Advantages of secondary data:

• Quick
• Cheap

Disadvantages of secondary data:

• The information may not be exactly what the sociologist requires.

Quantitative and qualitative data

Quantitative data

• This is information in numerical form.
• This includes: Official statistics (E.g GCSE pass ratw for girls), opinion poll data, market research findings etc.

Qualitative data.

• This is data that gives a 'feel' for what something is like.
• This includes research into: What it feels like to pass GCSE's, what it feels like to be a member of a minority group, what it feels like to get a divorce.

Factors influencing choice of method.

Practical isses.

Time and money.

• Large scale studies: Employ a great number of staff and are therfore very costly.
• Small scale studies: May use lone researcher, therfore much cheaper.
• Access to resources: Unknown researchers will have greater difficulty gaining research funding.

Requirements of funding bodies.

• Businesses, research institutes and other organisations that provide the funding for research may require research to be in a particular form I.E quantitative or qualitative inforamtion may be required.For example educational research may need to be presented in a way that emphasises statistics that represent educatioanl achievement.
  

Personal skills and characteristics.

• The combination of personal skills and abilities affects how well a researcher can conduct their study. E.g ability to establish rapport I.e the researcher will need to establish a…