This document discusses different research methods and concepts in social research. It covers the differences between qualitative and quantitative data, as well as primary and secondary data. Different sampling techniques are described such as random, stratified, snowball, and opportunity sampling. Various data collection methods like surveys, interviews, and observation are outlined. The document also discusses issues of research design, ethics, reliability, and validity.

2.  Qualitative: involves opinions and values
(words) Favoured by intrepretivists
 Quantitative: numerical data. Favoured by
positivists.
 Primary data: collecting new data that hasnt
been collected before and for the
researchers purpose i.e. Surveys
 Secondary data: collected old data that has
been available before and has been collected
by someone else. i.e. Official statistics.

3.  PET- Practical (funding, access to
groups, time, cost) Ethical (informed
consent, confidentiality, psychological harm)
Theoretical ( if data is reliable: can it be
replicated, valid: is it true accurate picture of
research group)
 Research methods:
experiment, questionnaire, interview, observation,
official statistics, documents
 Positivism (advocated by durkhiem) look for
correlations, objective facts
 Interpretive: interpret meaning of words, use
qualitative data to do this.

4.  Selecting respondents to carry out research:
 Unit: individual of a population/ frame: list of all
people in a population
 Random: everyone has an equal chance of being
selected. Large sample needed. Most representative
 Stratified: population divided based on variables such
as sex. Need sampling frame. Small sample
 Snowballing: members put researcher in touch with
possible respondents. Not representative. Good for
groups that are hard to identify.
 Opportunity: people put themselves forward and those
who are easily accessible. Cant generalize. Easy,
cheapest and quick

5.  Face2face: high response rate, opertionalize concepts. Interviwer
bias, time consuming.
 Telephone: cheap, easy. Response rates
 Postal: cheap, easy. Response rates, generalize.
 Internet: cheap, quick. Response rate, limited to those with
internet access.
 Fixedq: respondents restricted to limited answers i.e. Yes/no.
Quantitative data, reliable. Hard to opertionalize concepts, cant
get qualitative data.
 Openq: respondents allowed to provide their own response.
Detailed data, opertionalize concepts. Time consuming,
interviewer bias.
 OVERALL: Large amounts of data collected quickly, easy to
compare results.
 People may act differently [hawthrone effect] data may be
inaccurate, researches mat nor understand respondents reasoning.

6.  Structured: pre-set of questions. Easy to replicate and
compare, less chance of interview bias. Lack of detail,
hard to find out more
 semi- structured: some fixed questions. Researchers
influence the route of interview. Reliability.
 Unstructured: few or no fixed questions. Researcher
directs the interview, hard to replicate, time
consuming, may go off track.
 Individual: less time consuming. cant observe
interaction
 Group: closer to real life, may sway opinion
 OVERALL: validity may be affected. Larger sample can
be used. Interprevists favour it.

7.  Participant> overt (researcher can ask
questions, difficult to become full
participant, research group may not want to
be observed>covert (respondents are not
aware of researcher) act more
naturally, difficult to access some
groups, unethical.
 Overall: can be done with little
preparation, in depth
studies, unethical, samples may be too small
to generalize, time consuming.

8.  Study of same people over long period of
time.
 Long term commitment, sample size can
affect validity
 Look over process for long time, valid
 Triangulation: using different research
methods to fill in data.

9.  i.e.Documents, diaries, official statistics
 Allow insight into peoples lives
 Cheaper, quicker
 Allow to study the past.
 May not be reliable
 May not be for the researcher purpose.
 Qualitative: historical data, content analysis
(comparing media studies).
 May not be representative, may be
untruthful, may be unreliablable.

10.  Case study-study in depth of something
 Collecitivits: grouping interests together
 Credibility: how believeable data is
 Factual survey: a survey collective detailed data
 Field experiments: conducted in natural setting
 Formal content analysis: analyis of media in numerical
data
 Hypothese: a statement to be tested in research
 Objectivity: making truthful statements about the world
 Operationalizing: breaking down a concept so it can be
measured.
 Official statistics: numberical data produced by the
government
 Private documents :i.e. Diaries
 Response rate: people who return the questionnaire