Sociological research is aimed at obtaining new information and identifying patterns about social reality. Sociologists need to form hypotheses and theories and select methods and procedures appropriate for their studies. Therefore, it is necessary to identify and analyze significant components of the research process.
The purpose of this essay is to consider and compare some elements of a study process, such as primary and secondary data, a questionnaire, and a structured interview as research methods, qualitative and quantitative analysis, stratified, and judgment sampling.
Primary Data and Secondary Data
The data which are gathered for the first time by a researcher is known as primary data. Primary sources are materials that have not yet been evaluated by anyone else. The examples of primary data are firsthand accounts of an event topic or historical period and people’s original materials. For example, archeological remains, autobiographies, or personal journals are primary data. In the sciences, primary sources include raw data from an experiment or survey, lab notes or reports, trial results, interviews, or questionnaires.
The data which had already been collected by someone else but used by another person is secondary data. Secondary sources are “written sources that interpret or record primary data, and tend to be less reliable” (Walliman, 2017, p. 69). Examples of secondary data include essays, reviews, books, or journal articles, and criticism or commentaries on original works. In the sciences, they include textbooks, surveys, and experiment or trial results.
Questionnaire and Structured Interview
A questionnaire and a structured interview both are non-experimental techniques which means that there are no independent and dependent variables. Both are types of self-report methods that rely upon the participants reporting their feelings and thoughts. A questionnaire is a method of socio-psychological research, and a survey is conducted without the help of an interviewer. It is a designed list of questions applied to collect information from many respondents. Simplicity and anonymity are significant characteristics of the method.
An interview is a method of socio-psychological research, in which an interviewer conducts a survey. A structured interview contains carefully scripted questions presented to an interviewee, whose replies are carefully documented. It often contains many closed questions and fewer open ones. Sometimes, the interviewer presents the participant with predetermined options to choose from.
Qualitative and Quantitative Analysis
Quantitative and qualitative research are two approaches for gathering information about an individual. Quantitative research is based on statistical data and aimed to consider a causal link between numerous variables. The investment of quantitative analysis is predominantly of the technology, while methodology relies on statistics.
In comparison with quantitative research, qualitative research is intended to reveal the social reality and consider various subjective characteristics of it, such as feelings, values, experiences. The main feature of qualitative analysis is an investment, predominantly in human capital. Therefore, it is prone to a multitude of errors that are typical of the human mind.
Stratified Sampling and Judgment Sampling
The idea of stratified sampling is to divide the population into groups called strata. Then a researcher randomly selects individuals from each group (Taherdoost, 2016). For example, there are 50 states in the US, and to take a sample from this, one would have to select individuals from each state randomly.
According to Taherdoost (2016), “judgmental sampling is a strategy in which particular settings persons or events are selected deliberately to provide important information that cannot be obtained from other choices” (p. 23). Particular participants or cases are included in the sample because they are believed to be valuable information for the research outcomes.
Conclusion
Sociological research is an activity aimed at obtaining knowledge or data about social relations, phenomena, and processes. It is a system of logically consistent methodological and organizational-technical procedures, which are interconnected by one goal. Data collection, sampling, research methods are vital elements of this process because they help a sociologist to choose the type of research. Therefore, it is necessary to understand the differences between these components.
References
Taherdoost, H. (2016). Sampling methods in research methodology; How to choose a sampling technique for research. International Journal of Academic Research in Management (IJARM), 5(2), 18-27.
Walliman, N. (2017). Research methods: The basics. New York, NY: Routledge.