Sociolgoy Research Method

Sociological Research Methods: Choosing a research method

The purpose of sociology is to answer questions about social life and the social world! EG: Why do middle-class children generally achieve better exam results than working class children? The following are issues we need to think about when deciding which research methods to use.. For the exam, you must learn these definitions, as they can be worth two marks! Primary Data- Information collected by sociologists themselves for their own purposes. EG: Social surveys (Observations/Interviews), Experiments, Observations

Secondary Data- Information that has been collected or created by someone else for their own purposes, but which the sociologist can use. EG: Official Statistics, Documents, such as letters/newspapers

Quantitative Data- Information in numerical form that can be presented in graph form EG: Closed ended questions, Structured Interviews, Official statistics

Qualitative Data: Information that focuses primarily on the meanings of things. These are data, which are no represented numerically but expressed in words. EG: Unstructured Interviews, Participant observation

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So how do we select the right one for our research? Different methods and sources of data have different strengths and limitations and we need to be able to evaluate these when selecting which on to use. We can look at these strengths and limitations in terms of practical, ethical and theoretical issues!

PRACTICAL ISSUES Time and Money

Di fferent methods requi re di fferent a mount of ti me a nd money. Eg: Intervi ews -You woul d need to tra i n s ta ff, therefore becomes more cos tl y, wherea s pa rti ci pa nt obs erva ti ons a re chea per but ma y ta ke l onger.

Personal skills and Characteristics

Ea ch s oci ol ogi s t pos s es s es di fferent pers ona l s ki l l s whi ch a ffects thei r a bi l i ty to us e di fferent methods . Eg: Pa rti ci pa nt obs erva ti on requi res the a bi l i ty to mi x wi th peopl e...