Sociology
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- Category: Science
- Date Submitted: 11/15/2015 05:34 AM
- Pages: 6
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1.) Outline 2 techniques of sampling.
Random sampling is a technique where a sample is selected purely by random chance. For example, picking a name out of a hat. Stratified sampling is when you divide the population into males and females and then take 1% sample of each. You then ensure that you have equal numbers for each sex and that the sample is representative of population as a whole. This can be repeated for other important variables such as peoples age or income.
2.) Evaluate the advantages of postal questionnaires in sociological research.
A postal questionnaire is usually a close ended questionnaire which is sent to individuals to complete. These questionnaires are commonly used by positivists as they provide reliability and representativeness, however interpretivists dislike the use of questionnaires as it lacks validity.
One advantage of postal questionnaires is that they are very quick and efficient, cheap and can easily collect large quantities of data from a large number of people, that are widely spread geographically. Postal questionnaires prevents time wasting as researchers would not spend time on alternative methods such as interviewing. If a researcher was to interview 1000 people, interviewing every single individual would be too time consuming therefore postal questionnaires are a lot more easier and simple as they have the ability to ask the same questions to the research population at once and do not require people leaving their houses. By the individuals not leaving their home, it would increase the number of responses as people would find it a lot more convenient comparing it to the interview, which requires going to the researcher and may result in not everyone attending or a poor outcome of responses. Helen Connor and Sara Dewson carried out a postal questionnaire in 2001, and sent out nearly 4000 questionnaires to students around the country, to research the factors influencing the decisions of working class students to go to...
Random sampling is a technique where a sample is selected purely by random chance. For example, picking a name out of a hat. Stratified sampling is when you divide the population into males and females and then take 1% sample of each. You then ensure that you have equal numbers for each sex and that the sample is representative of population as a whole. This can be repeated for other important variables such as peoples age or income.
2.) Evaluate the advantages of postal questionnaires in sociological research.
A postal questionnaire is usually a close ended questionnaire which is sent to individuals to complete. These questionnaires are commonly used by positivists as they provide reliability and representativeness, however interpretivists dislike the use of questionnaires as it lacks validity.
One advantage of postal questionnaires is that they are very quick and efficient, cheap and can easily collect large quantities of data from a large number of people, that are widely spread geographically. Postal questionnaires prevents time wasting as researchers would not spend time on alternative methods such as interviewing. If a researcher was to interview 1000 people, interviewing every single individual would be too time consuming therefore postal questionnaires are a lot more easier and simple as they have the ability to ask the same questions to the research population at once and do not require people leaving their houses. By the individuals not leaving their home, it would increase the number of responses as people would find it a lot more convenient comparing it to the interview, which requires going to the researcher and may result in not everyone attending or a poor outcome of responses. Helen Connor and Sara Dewson carried out a postal questionnaire in 2001, and sent out nearly 4000 questionnaires to students around the country, to research the factors influencing the decisions of working class students to go to...