Back to the full dot-point answer
EnglandSociologyQuick questions
Researching and understanding social inequalities (Component 2)
Quick questions on Positivism, interpretivism and the research process - OCR A-Level Sociology Component 2
4short Q&A pairs drawn directly from our worked dot-point answer. For full context and worked exam questions, read the parent dot-point page.
What is types of data?Show answer
Positivists tend to favour primary quantitative data and existing statistics; interpretivists favour primary qualitative data and personal documents.
What is the research process?Show answer
Sociological research moves through recognisable stages: choosing a topic (often shaped by the researcher's values and funding), forming a hypothesis (positivists) or open research question (interpretivists), operationalising concepts (turning an abstract idea such as class into a measurable indicator such as occupation), choosing a sample, running a pilot study to test the design, collecting the data, and analysing and interpreting it.
What is q1?Show answer
Outline two features of a positivist approach to research. [4 marks]
What is q2?Show answer
Outline and explain two reasons why interpretivists prefer qualitative methods. [10 marks]
Have a question we have not covered?
This dot-point answer is short enough that we have not extracted many short questions yet. Read the full dot-point answer or ask Mo, our study assistant, in the chat for follow ups.