Ruth’s Sociology Resources Blog

The information on this page is for anyone taking A-level sociology regardless of what exam board

For A2 Sociology Coursework information and ideas please click here – the page is aimed at OCR candidates but those of you doing the AQA research project will find some useful hints too.

The exam structure for AQA and OCR can be found at the bottom of this page.

Unit contents & skills

By the end of this unit you should be able to:

• Understand the research process and the steps in designing and carrying out research
• Distinguish between quantitative & qualitative and primary & secondary data, for key concepts click here
• Identify quantitative and qualitative methods and sources of data, including:
• Questionnaires
• Interviews
• Observation techniques
• Experiments
• Documents & official statistics
• And their advantages and disadvantages in relation to specific research situations
• Understand positivist and interpretivist viewpoints and their relationship to sociological methods
• Analyse theoretical, practical and ethical considerations surrounding the :
• Choice of topic
• Choice of method
• Conduct of research

This unit is primarily about building your analytical and problem-solving skills. You need to be able to apply your knowledge of different research methods to specific research situations.

The Research Process

The research process is about how you get from an initial research idea to presenting the finished thing – there’s a lot of hard work and many things to consider on the way:

Key Concepts

Below are some of the key concepts you should know for this unit, there are many more which you will come across as you go through the material for the unit. I’ve given explanations for the first few, more explanations may follow in time and anyway, you should find them as you go through the unit material.

AQA students: - warning! most of the explanations given here do not contain enough to gain two marks for question a) on the exam paper – you will need to add your own detail/examples to clarify

For a printable sheet which you can print off and fill in yourself click here – this is useful to test yourself and as a summary of the material covered in the unit.

Qualitative Data: This is data which is unmeasurable, usually giving in-depth information about something, this is the kind of data usually gathered through observation or in-depth interviews, among other methods

Quantitative Data: Measurable data – this can be turned into numerical information – “50% of students think sociology is ‘great’”

Primary data: Data collected by the researcher for the purposes of their research – “first hand”

Secondary data: Data collected/produced by somebody else – “second hand”

Official Statistics: Quantitative data collected by government bodies/state-funded institutions – police, DfES, prisons, Ofsted, National Statistics Office ….

Validity: To what extent the data collected gives a “true” picture of social situation being studied.

Reliability: If you repeated the research could you expect to get similar results?

Triangulation: Using multiple methods to check the validity of your findings

Methodological Pluralism: Using multiple methods to increase the breadth/depth of your findings

Other key concepts include:

• Representativeness
• Objective
• Subjective
• Objectivity
• Generalisability
• Credibility
• Authenticity
• Hawthorne Effect
• Positivist
• Interpretivist
• “Verstehen”
• Ethnography
• Pilot study
• Cross-sectional study
• Longitudinal study
• Observation
• Covert Observation
• Overt Observation
• Non-Participant observation
• Participant Observation
• Gatekeeper
• “Going native”
• Surveys
• Closed questions
• Open questions
• Detachment
• Rapport
• Response rate
• Respondent
• Sampling
• Sample frame
• Target population

Research Methods

Below are a variety of research methods used by sociologists, they have been roughly sorted into whether they produce qualitative or quantitative data (remember there are plenty of exceptions to these rules!)

Positivism & Interpretivism

A sociologist’s theoretical viewpoint on social research can have a big impact on their choice of method and even their choice of research topic.

Theoretical viewpoints on research can be split into two main groups – Positivists and Interpretivists

Positivists believe that social research can and should be scientific - this means that:

• Social research should be able to discover generalisable rules about the way that society functions
• Positivist viewpoints are therefore often linked to structuralist approaches such as Marxism and functionalism
• Research will often be large-scale
• Research should be objective – uninfluenced by values and opinions or distorted by different interpretations
• It is therefore only possible to research objectively measurable things – feelings and emotions do not come into this category
• Data should be quantitative
• The methods used should be scientific – eg. experiments, pre-coded questionnaires
• Positivist approaches tend to place emphasis on the reliability of research

Interpretivists do not agree with the positivist approach.
They believe that it is impossible for the social researcher to be scientific – this means that:

• Social research must always be subjective – influenced by the values, interpretations and assumptions of the researcher
• Interpretivist viewpoints are therefore often linked to interactionist approaches
• General rules about the functioning of society do not exist
• The aim of social research is to investigate the meanings and interpretations of social actors in specific situations
• Research is therefore usually small-scale
• Qualitative data is valued for the insight it offers
• Interpretivists tend to place emphasis on the validity of research