IGCSE Sociology: Research Methods, Identity and Inequality — Revision Notes

Condensed for the final weeks. For the full explanation, use the Research Methods, Identity and Inequality study guide.

Research methods

Primary data is collected by the researcher; secondary data already exists. Quantitative data is numerical; qualitative data is descriptive.

Concept	Meaning
Reliability	Repeating the study would give the same result
Validity	It gives a true and accurate picture
Representativeness	The sample reflects the wider population

Quantitative methods are strong on reliability and weak on validity; qualitative methods are the reverse. That single trade-off answers a large share of methods questions.

Method	Strengths	Weaknesses
Questionnaire	Cheap, large samples, reliable, easy to quantify	Low response rate, low validity, no chance to clarify
Structured interview	Reliable, comparable, higher response rate	Interviewer bias, limited depth
Unstructured interview	Valid, detailed, flexible	Time-consuming, unreliable, small samples
Participant observation	Very valid, sees real behaviour	Hawthorne effect, going native, unrepresentative, ethically difficult
Experiment	Controlled, identifies cause	Artificial, low ecological validity
Official statistics	Cheap, large-scale, comparable over time	Socially constructed, may not measure what the researcher wants

Sampling: random, systematic (every nth), stratified (proportional by group), quota, snowball (for hidden or hard-to-reach populations, such as drug users or the homeless), opportunity. A sampling frame is the list from which a sample is drawn — its absence often forces a non-random method. A larger sample reduces sampling error but does not remove bias — a biased method stays biased at any size.

Ethics: informed consent, confidentiality, protection from harm, no deception, right to withdraw. Covert observation breaches consent and involves deception, which is why it is defended only when overt research would be impossible.

A pilot study tests the method on a small scale first, so problems with wording, timing or procedure can be fixed before the main study.

Perspectives in one line each

• Functionalism — institutions work together for stability through shared values.
• Marxism — society shaped by class conflict over economic resources.
• Feminism — society is patriarchal, organised in men’s interests.
• Interactionism — society built from the meanings people give situations.

Culture, identity and socialisation

• Culture — the whole way of life of a group: norms, values, roles, beliefs.
• Norms — expected rules of behaviour in a situation. Values — beliefs about what is important.
• Primary socialisation — the family, in early childhood. Secondary socialisation — school, peers, media, religion, workplace.
• Sanctions — positive (reward) or negative (punishment); formal (written rules) or informal (a look, exclusion).
• Social control — formal (laws, police, courts) and informal (disapproval, ridicule, exclusion).

Nature versus nurture: the sociological case rests on cross-cultural variation and on feral children cases, both of which show that behaviour taken to be natural is in fact learnt.

• Ascribed status — fixed at birth: sex, caste, family.
• Achieved status — earned: occupation, qualifications.

Identity is shaped by class, gender, ethnicity, age, nationality and religion — and by the agencies of socialisation that transmit expectations about each.

Inequality

Social class:

• Life chances — the opportunities a person has for health, education, housing and income. Class is the strongest single predictor.
• Social mobility — movement between classes. Intergenerational compares a person with their parents; intragenerational compares points in one person’s own career.
• An open society allows mobility by merit; a closed society, such as a caste system, fixes position at birth.
• Poverty: absolute poverty is lacking the basic necessities for survival; relative poverty is falling below the standard considered acceptable in that society. The distinction is that relative poverty exists in wealthy countries too.
• The cycle of deprivation explains how poverty reproduces itself: poor housing and diet → poor health and education → low-paid work → poverty in the next generation.

Gender: the glass ceiling blocks promotion to senior roles; horizontal segregation concentrates women in particular occupations; vertical segregation concentrates them at lower levels. Causes include gender socialisation, the domestic and caring burden, discrimination, and interrupted careers. Changes: equal-pay legislation, girls’ educational achievement, and changing attitudes.

Ethnicity: discrimination in employment and housing, institutional racism, negative media representation, and the difficulty of separating ethnic disadvantage from class disadvantage — much of the apparent ethnic effect narrows once class is controlled for. That qualification is worth making.

Exam traps

• Reliability and validity are not synonyms — the most penalised confusion in this subject.
• Confusing absolute with relative poverty.
• Confusing ascribed with achieved status.
• Functionalism and Marxism are structural (macro) perspectives, not micro.
• Evaluating a method in the abstract instead of for the specific research topic.
• Don’t say a bigger sample removes bias.
• Confusing intergenerational with intragenerational mobility.
• Giving only one side — evaluation questions need strengths, weaknesses and a judgement.

Self-test

1. Distinguish reliability from validity, and say which methods favour each.
2. Which method best suits studying a secretive or hard-to-reach group, and why?
3. What is a pilot study for?
4. Distinguish absolute from relative poverty.
5. Distinguish intergenerational from intragenerational mobility.
6. Explain the cycle of deprivation.

Answers: 1. Reliability means repeating the study would give the same result — favoured by quantitative methods; validity means it gives a true picture — favoured by qualitative methods. 2. Participant observation, combined with snowball sampling — access and trust are needed to reach the group, and observation gives valid insight into their meanings, though the results are not reliable or representative. 3. To test the method on a small scale so that problems with wording, timing or procedure can be corrected before the main study. 4. Absolute poverty is lacking the basic necessities for survival; relative poverty is falling below the standard of living considered acceptable within that particular society. 5. Intergenerational mobility compares a person’s class position with their parents’; intragenerational compares positions within a single person’s own working life. 6. Poor housing and diet lead to poor health and educational underachievement, which lead to low-paid or insecure work, which reproduces poverty in the next generation.