quantitative secondary sources by Sam Cook a former student
There are two types of quantitative sources, primary and secondary.
Positivists prefer to collect quantitative data through the following research methods which are seen to collect reliable data:
- closed/structured questionnaires
- structured interviews
- the experiment
- the comparative method
- official statistics
- social surveys
The core principles of positivism (quantitative methods listed above) are:
- social scientific research is based on logic with a clear methodology
- research must be objective throughout all processes
- the role of theory is to generate a hypothesis (prediction) which can be tested
- look for cause and effect (patterns of behaviour) in order to uncover universal laws about the social world – what Durkheim termed social-facts
- positvists use quantitative methods
A popular source of secondary data for sociologists is the large amount of official statistics collected by national and local government for example births, death and marriage data as well as education data and crime data. While this page looks at the type of examination questions structured on research methods.
These are the key features of globalisation:
- all societies have become interconnected
- international economic integration with global production
- transnational media systems creating a global culture, global consumerism to create a global village
- global tourism
- media imperialism
- transnational corporations that drive a global economy
Parsons’ key book The Social System set out any successful social system has four functional prerequisites – adaptation; goal attainment; integration and pattern maintenance – in more depth.
Below is a list of some of the main functional prerequisites you would look for if a society was to survive:
- social control – how to keep things running (functioning) by bringing people into line and prevent any anti-social behaviour
- socialisation – how society’s values are transmitted from one generation to the next
- adaption – the need for housing and shelter as well as the production food and materials
- a belief system – religion or ideology so a set of values and culture is passed on from one generation to the next
- goal attainment – motivation of the members of the society to set out and achieve certain goals
- leadership – a person or group to make things happen
- reproduction – a set of rules within sexual activity
- social stratification – to ensure the right people run things
- the family – to ensure reproduction
There a several stages the sociologist has to complete when designing a questionnaire, one being the clarification of 
key concepts (e.g social-class) used in the research so concepts can be measured.
Researchers need to know what makes something what it is particularly how they would recognize it something if they saw it in the responses or through the questions they ask.
Operationalisation is better understood with an example. Imagine the research question is: Does social-class affect attainment at school?
In order to collect data a researcher would need to operationalise the term ‘social-class’ in order to know what questions to ask. For example, a child wearing a scruffy uniform could be sign of poverty, while a child wearing a smart uniform could be a sign of wealth. A researcher would have to establish such a criteria before gathering their data.
The image below shows how a recent a Guardian survey about old age got each respondent to define what they perceived old-age to be and so were operationalising the concept of old-age so it could be measured.
The effect of the sociologist being in a particular situation and influencing it is known as the Hawthorne effect, after
a phenomenon noted during the Hawthorne Studies into workplace behaviour in the 1920s.
questionnaires by Sam Cook a former student
Questionnaires are a common method of discovering sociological truths. Many students think all you have to do is write a list of questions and then go and get people to answer them. Once that’s completed you summerise your findings from your valid 
(validity) data to form a general (generalisation) conclusion. To most students it seems the simplest of things to undertake, the trouble is it’s a lot more complicated than that.
Firstly if you’re using positivist methods you’ll have to make an closed or structured or pre-coded questionnaire in order to gather quantitative data. On the other hand as a sociologist you might wish to adopt an interpretivist approach and use open-ended or unstructured questionnaires.
Closed or structured or pre-coded questionnaires
Advantages
- relatively quick to complete by respondent
- easier, quick, and less costly to analyze
- data produced ought to be reliable (easy to repeat) allowing other researchers to test the findings (replicating
the method of the natural scientists) - they produce data which is relatively easy to categorise and present in statistical form such as graphs and charts
- make it easy for comparisons to be between different groups. This is because respondents are all answering the same questions
Disadvantages
- possible misinterpretation of questions
- limited choice of answers puts artificial limits on how the respondent answers
- if answered with researcher present respondent might ‘lie’ as they’re too embarrassed to tell the truth
- the responses set out are those of the sociologist and not necessarily those of the respondent (imposition problem)
- too many options might confuse the respondent
- no way of knowing if respondent understood the question/questions
- response options can put ideas into the respondents mind
Open or unstructured questionnaires
Advantages
- responses are in the respondents own words, rather than those of sociologist as with closed questionnaires, which improves validity
- the imposition problem found in closed questionnaires is less of an issue as the respondent is using their own words and not those of the researcher as with closed questionnaires
- they provide more detailed and deeper answers including more information such as feelings and attitudes
- open-ended questions simply do not allow respondents to speed read or avoid reading the questions and so “fill in” the answer without thinking
Disadvantages
- with such a broad range of answers it can be hard to classify and quantify the date into graphs and charts
- with such a broad range of answers it can be difficult to compare results with similar research
- response rate can lower than with those that use closed-ended questions as people have to fill them in and they might feel awkward regarding their spelling and or hand-writing
- responses might be ‘skip’ to the point as the respondent is in a rush and so the answers given are too vague
- hand-writing might be illegible through the respondent rushing
Survey’s are used to collect primary data from large numbers of people in a standardised statistical form (when questions are standardised it means everyone is asked the same set of questions) in order to make generalisations
about the population as a whole. Postal questionnaires are a common form of social survey.
The emphasis on standardisation shows how social surveys are driven by positivist principles through the use of pre-coded questionnaires or structured interviews (occasionally there are open or free choice questions).
As the aim of any survey is to form a conclusion or conclusion (generalisations) it is important that a sample is chosen which is representative (known as a representative sample) of the population or group (known as survey population) being studied.
A representative sample is a smaller group taken from the population being surveyed. To make it representative the sample needs to cover a reasonable cross-section of the group being surveyed such a age, gender etc.
Sampling methods are the techniques used to select a representative sample such as random sample; systemic sample; stratified random sample; quota sample; snowball sample and multistage or cluster sample.
A sampling frame is a list of names of all those people included in the survey population from which the sample is 
selected
sampling methods by Sam Cook a former student
A point to remember before looking through sampling methods is the survey population is the whole group being studied while the sampling frame is a list of names of all those included in the survey. These two aspects of social
research come from the sample size which needs to representative of the group being studied. To help the researcher have a representative sample a sampling method is chosen in order to achieve the most representative sample possible.
The main sampling methods are:
- Random sampling – people selected at random
- Stratified random sampling – a random sample is chosen from a subdivided group of people eg a specific age range
- Quota sampling – researcher selects people by a certain criteria eg gender
- Snowball sampling – the researcher selects a respondent meeting their requirements, then asks them to recommend someone meeting the same criteria
- Cluster or multistage sampling – selecting your sample in various stages eg 1st – take a random sample of hospital patients; 2nd – select a random sample from within those patients for your study
- Systematic sampling – selecting from the sampling frame at regular intervals until the size of sample is reached
by Sam Cook
Triangulation is sometimes referred to as methodological pluralism
Triangulation is the use of one or more research method when carrying out social research in order for the different methods to complement each other.
For example Ofsted using overt observations as well as official data (exam results) to assess how well as school is performing. The trouble is triangulation produces a lot of data which takes a long time to process
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