1 / 7

Lesson 1

Research Methods. Lesson 1. Ms Stedmon. Quantitative research. Aim: to be able to recognise the features of a quantitative approach to social research. Describe the different types of quantitative methods used by sociologists. Quantitative research.

mercury
Download Presentation

Lesson 1

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript


  1. Research Methods Lesson 1 Ms Stedmon

  2. Quantitative research • Aim: to be able to recognise the features of a quantitative approach to social research. • Describe the different types of quantitative methods used by sociologists.

  3. Quantitative research • Quantitative data is usually gathered from a social survey. • A specific group of people (your sample) are asked a set of questions regarding your research. • When the answers to the questions are analysed, they often turn into numbers, statistics, percentages, tables and graphs. • This quantitative data tells you how many people gave particular answers to each question. • You as the researcher will then look for patterns or trends in the data to help you arrive at a conclusion. • For example, how many of you watch Eastenders?

  4. Gathering quantitative primary data • Primary data – this is data that you have collected for your investigation. • A number of methods are available for you to choose from: • Most efficient way is questionnaires. This could be through closed or graded questions. • Structured interviews use a set of pre-prepared questions that are read out face to face or over the telephone. Comparing answers can generate quantitative data. • A observation might involve you counting e.g. the amount of time that boys and girls spend on a particular activity in a primary school maths lesson. • Content analysis might help you see how many times individuals from minority ethnic backgrounds are presented in a positive or negative ways in newspaper articles, magazines or in ‘soaps’ on television.

  5. Sources of quantitative secondary data • When doing research you might want to look at other statistical information collected by other researchers and official organisations. • You can then compare your primary data with this secondary data. • The government creates lots of official statistics from large-scale surveys. • The best known of these is the Census, which takes place every 10 years and asks lots of questions about families, households and work.

  6. The British Crime Survey The British Crime Survey (BCS) is an important source of information about levels of crime and public attitudes to crime. The results play an important role in informing government policy. The BCS measures the amount of crime in England and Wales by asking people about crimes they have experienced in the last year. The BCS includes crimes that are not reported to the police, so it is an important alternative to police records. The survey collects information about: • The victims of crime • The circumstances in which incidents occur • The behaviour of the offenders in committing crimes. The interviews also provide information about other topics, such as people’s perceptions of anti-social behaviour and attitudes towards the criminal justice system, including the police and courts. The survey also looks at people’s attitudes to crime, such as how much they fear crime and what measures they take to avoid it. www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/

  7. Don’t forget to take homework sheet. • Must be in by next lesson. • Further surveys undertaken by government can be found at: • http://rds.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds • www.statistics.gov.uk/socialtrends

More Related