A Level Sociology · Research methods

Key terms game

Match the terms. Beat the clues. Know your methods.

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Term

Definition

Ethics (ethical factors)

Thinking about how the research affects the people involved: informed consent, confidentiality, keeping within the law and avoiding harm

Interpretivism

An approach that tries to understand human action through the eyes of the people acting, using in-depth, respondent-led qualitative methods

Positivism

An approach that aims to be as close to the natural sciences as possible, using quantitative data to look for objective social laws

Practical factors

The real-world limits on research: time, cost, funding, access to respondents and the researcher's own skills

Primary data

Data collected first-hand by the researcher themselves, for example by questionnaire, interview, experiment or observation

Qualitative data

Information in words, pictures or sound, such as interview transcripts, newspapers and websites

Quantitative data

Information in numerical form, such as statistics

Reliability

Research is reliable if someone else repeats it with the same population and gets the same results

Representativeness

A sample is representative if it reflects the characteristics of the wider target population being studied

Sampling

Choosing a section of the population to take part in the research

Secondary data

Data that was collected by someone else, such as earlier researchers or the government

Theoretical factors

Validity, reliability, representativeness, and whether the researcher takes a Positivist or Interpretivist approach

Validity

Research is valid if it gives a true picture of what is really out there in the social world

Verstehen

A German word meaning to understand in a deep way: seeing the world from another person's point of view by putting yourself in their shoes