- Compare key research methods
- Explain sampling and validity
- Evaluate strengths and weaknesses
Research Methods
How do you study something as big as a society? Carefully, and from several angles at once.
Definition: Representative sample
A representative sample mirrors the population being studied — so findings can be generalised. Random sampling gives everyone an equal chance of selection; biased samples produce misleading results.
Key points
- Surveys/questionnaires: large samples, quantitative — but shallow and prone to bias.
- Interviews: rich qualitative detail — but small samples, hard to generalise.
- Participant observation: deep insider understanding — but time-consuming and subjective.
- Official statistics: huge datasets — but collected for government purposes, not research.
Studying a subculture
To understand football hooligans, sociologists joined them for seasons — participant observation revealing codes of honour no survey would catch.
Practice
Why might a survey of ‘voters’ conducted outside one train station mislead?
Who uses that station?
It’s an unrepresentative sample — commuters at one station don’t mirror the electorate’s age, class or views.
Give one strength and one weakness of interviews.
Depth vs breadth.
Strength: rich, detailed insight into meanings and motives. Weakness: small samples, interviewer effects, hard to generalise.
Key takeaways
- No single method captures society — triangulation helps.
- Sampling determines whether findings generalise.
- Quantitative methods count; qualitative methods understand.
- Every method has trade-offs.