Research Methods - AQA GCSE Sociology

where each member of the population has an equal chance of being included

- Pros: equal chance of being included in the study; unbiased and quick
- Cons: unrepresentative and generalisations can’t be made

where participants finds other people to join the study and so on

- Pros: quick and easy
- Cons: bias from participants as they’re more likely to pick their friends

approaching random people in proportion to the population

-Pros: representative and can make generalisations
- Cons: time and bias

taking every nth item from a sampling frame

Pros: no bias in terms of selection and easy
Cons: unrepresentative and no generalisations

selecting participants based on characteristics

dividing groups by characteristics and then selecting in proportion to the frame (e.g. 15% of sample frame are same as participants)

Pros: representative and generalisations can be made
Cons: more difficult, bias and time consuming

numerical data that is reliable and replicable; more likely to be representative as it’s quicker to conduct and can research more people, however it’s low in validity

wirrten data that is valid and true, however it’s low in reliability and less likely to be representative as a result of researching less people

data that has been collected by an individual or group by themselves, it can be expensive to produce though

data that has been collected by another party, which makes it cheap but potentially outdated

offical statistics and questionnaires with closed questions

diaries, news reports, unstructured interviews, tape recorded observations