Research methods overview quiz - Eduqas GCSE Sociology quiz

A testable prediction the research sets out to test

The general aim or overall goal that the research is trying to achieve

The full list of the population that a sample is actually drawn from

A short summary of the main findings written up at the end of the study

Interpretivism

Positivism

Feminism

Interactionism

A postal questionnaire sent out to a large sample

A structured interview with a fixed list of set questions

An unstructured interview

Official statistics gathered by the government

When official statistics are deliberately made politically biased by a government

When a postal questionnaire is sent out but very few people bother to return it

When a sample is far too small to represent the wider target population properly

When a group behaves differently because it knows it is being watched

Data that already exists, collected by someone other than the researcher

Data that the researcher goes out and collects first-hand for the new study

Data that is always unreliable and so should never be used in research

Data gathered from a second follow-up interview with the same person

They are far too expensive for most sociologists to be able to use them

They miss unreported and undetected crime, the dark figure of crime

They cannot be repeated by other researchers to check the results again

They are always qualitative data about the meaning of crime, never numerical

By simply taking every nth person from a list of the whole population

By existing participants suggesting other people who could take part too

By dividing the population into groups and sampling each in proportion

Completely at random with no structure or grouping of the population at all

Whether the data collected are numerical or qualitative

Whether the sample chosen is large enough to use

Whether the chosen method is cheap and quick to carry out

Gaining informed consent and avoiding harm

Repeating the research with the same method would give the same results

The data truly measure what they actually claim and set out to measure

The sample chosen closely reflects the wider target population it comes from

The whole research study is completely free from any bias whatsoever

Whether the research can be repeated by others to check the results

Whether the findings can be generalised to the whole population

Whether the data collected are qualitative rather than numerical

Whether the chosen topic is ethical and safe for participants to study

Listing general textbook strengths and weaknesses without linking any of them to the topic

Describing every single research method in the textbook one after another in turn

Choosing and justifying a method for the specific topic and evaluating it in context

Avoiding making any judgement at all so as not to risk getting the answer wrong

A separate coursework task marked in school

A multiple-choice paper made up only of short questions

It is not assessed at all anywhere on Component 2

Applied methods of sociological enquiry