Sociology Revision Sociological Methods Types of data Primary data- Information collected by the sociologist themselves for their

own purposes, to test hypothesis or gain better understanding etc, e.g. participant observation, experiments etc. Advantages- Tailored to sociologists needs= more relevant, can gain greater understanding verstethen etc. Disadvantages- More costly + time consuming, require greater funding. Secondary data- collected by someone else for their own purposes, but sociologist can then use e.g. official statistics, documents, etc. Advantages- Quick, cheap and easy to obtain. Disadvantages- As obtained by someone else for different requirements, may not be totally useful or meet sociologists need (and may be unreliable). Quantitative data- Information in numerical form e.g. official gcse statistics, questionnaires. Qualitative data- evidence gathered that aims to increase understanding of group being studied, e.g. interviews, participant observation, diaries. Qualitative/quantitative data can be come from primary/secondary research. Remember

Practical Ethical Theoretical Topic

Cost Access Time

Deceit Informed consent Damage/debrief

Positivism Interpretivism Structuration

Structuration = macro (social structure), micro (social action). Topic = Sociologist influenced by own interests when choosing topic = feminist studies housework. Remember these also are key: Representativeness, reliability, validity.