AS Sociology: Research Methods Unit Overview
Topic
Confidence before
revision
Confidence after
revision
Key concepts and Choice of Method
Positivism vs Interpretivism
Positivists
Interpretivists
Three key concepts:
reliability
Three key concepts:
Representativeness
Three key concepts:
Validity
Primary and secondary
data
Choice of research
method: Methodological
preference
Practical factors
Ethical factors
Evaluation: which factor is
most important
Evaluation: which factor is
the most important?
Choice of topic
Experiments
What are experiments?
Laboratory experiments
Problems with laboratory
experiments?
Field Experiments
Field experiments:
Advantages
Field experiments:
Disadvantages
Surveys and Sampling
Social surveys
Conducting a survey
Sampling
Samples and
representiveness
Types of sample: Random
sampling
Types of sample: Systematic
of quasi-random sampling
Types of sample: Stratified
sampling
Types of sampling: Quota
sampling
Questionnaires
What are questionnaires?
Why do positivists use
questionnaires
Advantages: Practical
advantages
Advantages: Reliability
Advantages: Hypothesis
testing
Advantages: Detachment
and objectivity
Advantages:
Representativeness
Disadvantages: Practical
problems
Disadvantages: Response
rate
Disadvantages: Inflexibility
Disadvantages:
Detachment
Disadvantages: Lying,
forgetting and ‘right
answerism
Disadvantages:
Imposing
the researcher’s meanings
Interviews
Types of interviews
Structured interviews
Why do positivists use
structured interviews?
Advantages of structured
interviews?
Disadvantages of
structured interviews?
Evaluation: how useful are
structured interviews?
Unstructured interviews
Why do interpretivists use
unstructured interviews?
Validity
Disadvantages of
unstructured interviews
Evaluation: How useful are
unstructured interviews?
Observation
Types of observation
Participant observation
Why do interpretivists use
PO?
Advantages of participant
observation: Validity
Advantages of participant
observation: other
advantages
Disadvantages
: unreliable
and unrepresentativeness
Disadvantages: Problems
with validity
Ethical issues
Practical problems
Overt and covert PO
compared
Evaluation: how useful is
PO?
Structured observation
Why do positivists use
structured observation?
Advantages and
disadvantages
Official Statistics
What are official statistics?
Why do positivists use
official statistics?
Advantages of official
statistics
Problems with official
statistics
Evaluation: how useful are
official statistics?
Documents
What are documents?
Why do interpretivists use
documents?
Personal documents
Personal documents:
advantages
Personal documents:
disadvantages
Public documents
Historical documents
Content analysis
Testing the usefulness of
documents
Evaluation: how useful are
documents?