SOCIAL SCIENCE RESEARCH METHODS

Dr. Enock Mwakalila

 Data collection

• Data collection is the process of collecting and

evaluating information or data from multiple
sources to find answers to research problems,
answer questions, evaluate outcomes, and
forecast trends and probabilities.
 Primary Data Collection methods

• Primary data collection involves the collection of original data directly from the
source or through direct interaction with the respondents. This method allows
researchers to obtain firsthand information specifically tailored to their research
objectives. There are various techniques for primary data collection, including:
• a. Surveys and Questionnaires: Researchers design structured questionnaires or
surveys to collect data from individuals or groups. These can be conducted
through face-to-face interviews, telephone calls, mail, or online platforms.
• b. Interviews: Interviews involve direct interaction between the researcher and
the respondent. They can be conducted in person, over the phone, or through
video conferencing. Interviews can be structured (with predefined questions),
semi-structured (allowing flexibility), or unstructured (more conversational).
• c. Observations: Researchers observe and record behaviors, actions,
or events in their natural setting. This method is useful for gathering
data on human behavior, interactions, or phenomena without direct
intervention.
• d. Focus Groups: Focus groups bring together a small group of
individuals who discuss specific topics in a moderated setting. This
method helps in understanding opinions, perceptions, and
experiences shared by the participants.
 Secondary Data Collection Methods

• Secondary data collection involves using existing data collected

by someone else for a purpose different from the original intent.
Researchers analyze and interpret this data to extract relevant
information. Secondary data can be obtained from various
sources, including:
• a. Published Sources: Researchers refer to books, academic
journals, magazines, newspapers, government reports, and other
published materials that contain relevant data.
• b. Online Databases: Numerous online databases provide access
to a wide range of secondary data, such as research articles,
statistical information, economic data, and social surveys.
• c. Government and Institutional Records: Government
agencies, research institutions, and organizations often
maintain databases or records that can be used for research
purposes.
• d. Publicly Available Data: Data shared by individuals,
organizations, or communities on public platforms, websites,
or social media can be accessed and utilized for research.
• e. Past Research Studies: Previous research studies and
their findings can serve as valuable secondary data sources.
Researchers can review and analyze the data to gain
insights or build upon existing knowledge.
Data Collection Advantages Disadvantages
Method

– Accurate screening. The – High costs as this method

interviewee can’t provide require a staff of people to
1. Interview false information such as perform the interview.
The interview is a gender, age, or race. – The quality of the
meeting between an – The interviewer can collected data depends on
interviewer and capture raw emotions, tone, the ability of the
interviewee. voice, and word choices to interviewer to gather data
Interviews can be gain a deeper understanding. well.
done face-to-face or – Interviewers can ask – A time-consuming
via video conferencing follow-up questions and process that involves
tools. require additional transcription, organization,
information to understand reporting, etc.
attitudes, motivations, etc.
 – Survey fraud. Answers
– Ease of data collection – an may not be honest. There
online survey with a hundred are people who answer
or more respondents can be online surveys just to
2. Surveys And conducted fast. receive a promised reward.
Questionnaires – Online surveys are easily – Many questions might be
They are used to ask accessible and can be left unanswered and
respondents a set of deployed via many online participants may not stay
questions (both types –
open- and closed-ended channels like web, mobile, fully engaged to the end.
questions). Over the past email, etc. – Without someone to
decade, the use of online – Low price compared to explain, participants may
surveys has skyrocketed. other methods have different
– Easy to analyze and present interpretations of your
with different data questions.
visualization types – Cannot fully capture
emotions and feelings.
 – High costs – focus groups
3. Focus Groups – The moderator can ask are much more expensive
A focus group includes questions to gain a deeper compared to surveys.
dialogue with a group understanding of the – Moderator Bias.
of deliberately respondents’ emotions. Moderators can have a
selected participants – The moderator can observe significant impact on the
who discuss a non-verbal responses, such outcome of the discussion.
particular topic. as body language or facial – For sensitive topics,
Participants’ answers expressions. participants can not give
influence each other – Provide brainstorming honest answers.
during the discussion. opportunities and – The extrovert members
The focus group is led participants can create new can dominate the
by a person called a ideas. conversation with a more
moderator. aggressive approach to
giving feedback.
 – Simple to collect data. – Cannot study attitudes
4. Observation Observation does not require and opinions by observing.
Observation involves a tech skills of the researcher. – Can take a lot of time if
person who observes – Allows for a detailed the observer has to wait for
events, people, and description of behaviors, a particular event to
interactions around a intentions, and events. happen.
topic to provide a rich – Greater accuracy and data – A high potential for
description of them. quality. The observer can observer’s subjective bias.
Observation happens view participants in their The personal view of the
in the natural setting natural environment and observer can be an obstacle
of the participant. directly check their behavior. to making valid conclusions.
Ethnographic – Doesn’t depend on – Expensive method. It
research, for example, people’s willingness to requires a high cost, effort,
relies primarily on report. Some respondents and plenty of time.
observation. don’t want to speak about – Situations of the past
themselves or don’t have cannot be studied.
time for that.
5. Records And – Ease of data collection – the data – Information may be out
already exists and no additional
Documents
effort is needed. of date or inapplicable.
This method involves – The process of evaluating
extracting and analyzing – No need of searching and
data from existing motivating respondents to documents and records can
participate. be time-consuming.
documents. The
– Allows you to track progress. – Can be an incomplete
documents can be internal
Helps you understand the history
to an organization (such as
behind an event and track changes data collection method
emails, sales reports, because the researcher has
over a period of time. For example,
records of customer
feedback, activity logs,
you may want to find out why there less control over the
purchase orders, etc.) or are lots of negative reviews from results.
can be external (such as your customers about your – Some documents may be
products. In this case, you can look
Government reports).
at recorded customers’ feedback. not publicly available.
 Factors to consider when choosing a
Data collection method
• The nature, scope, and subject matter of
investigation all an impact on the approach that
is used.
• Availability of funds and resources.
• Time factor
• The necessary precision level
 Quantitative and Qualitative data

• Quantitative data refers to any

information that can be quantified — that
is, numbers. If it can be counted or
measured, and given a numerical value, it's
quantitative in nature.
• Quantitative variables can tell you "how
many," "how much," or "how often."
• Some examples of quantitative data:
• How many people attended last week's webinar?
• How much revenue did our company make last year?
• How often does a customer rage click on this app?
• To analyze these research questions and make sense of this
quantitative data, you’d normally use a form of statistical
analysis—collecting, evaluating, and presenting large
amounts of data to discover patterns and trends.
Quantitative data is conducive to this type of analysis
because it’s numeric and easier to analyze mathematically.
• Qualitative data is descriptive, expressed in terms of
language rather than numerical values.
• Qualitative data analysis describes information and
cannot be measured or counted. It refers to the words or
labels used to describe certain characteristics or traits.
• You would turn to qualitative data to answer the "why?"
or "how?" questions. It is often used to investigate open-
ended studies, allowing participants (or customers) to
show their true feelings and actions without guidance.
• Think of qualitative data as the type of data
you’d get if you were to ask someone why they
did something. Popular data collection methods
are in-depth interviews, focus groups, or
observation.
 Sample and sampling techniques

• Population is the entire set of items from which you draw

data for a statistical study. It can be a group of individuals,
a set of items, etc. It makes up the data pool for a study.
• Generally, population refers to the people who live in a
particular area at a specific time.
• A sample is defined as a smaller and more manageable
representation of a larger group. A subset of a larger
population that contains characteristics of that population.
• A sample is used in statistical testing when the population
size is too large for all members or observations to be
included in the test.
• When you conduct research about a group of
people, it’s rarely possible to collect data from
every person in that group. Instead, you select a
sample. The sample is the group of individuals
who will actually participate in the research.
• To draw valid conclusions from your results, you
have to carefully decide how you will select a
sample that is representative of the group as a
whole. This is called a sampling method.
 Sampling frame

• The sampling frame is the actual list of individuals

that the sample will be drawn from. Ideally, it should
include the entire target population (and nobody who
is not part of that population).
• Example:
• You are doing research on working conditions at a
social media marketing company. Your population is
all 1000 employees of the company. Your sampling
frame is the company’s HR database, which lists the
names and contact details of every employee.
 Sample size

• The number of individuals you should include in

your sample depends on various factors,
including the size and variability of the
population and your research design.
• There are different sample size calculators and
formulas depending on what you want to achieve
with statistical analysis.
 Sample size

•The existing formula which guided the sample

size is as follows:
• Sample size (n) = N/(1+N*e2)
• Whereby N is the population target number and
e is the 5% error.
 Types of sampling mthods

• There are two primary types of sampling

methods that you can use in your research:
• Probability sampling involves random
selection, allowing you to make strong statistical
inferences about the whole group.
• Non-probability sampling involves non-
random selection based on convenience or other
criteria, allowing you to easily collect data.
 Probability sampling methods

• Probability sampling means that every member

of the population has a chance of being selected.
It is mainly used in quantitative research. If you
want to produce results that are representative
of the whole population, probability sampling
techniques are the most valid choice.
• There are three main types of probability
sample.
 Simple random sampling

• In a simple random sample, every member of the population

has an equal chance of being selected. Your sampling frame
should include the whole population.
• To conduct this type of sampling, you can use tools like random
number generators or other techniques that are based entirely
on chance.
• Example:
• You want to select a simple random sample of 1000 employees
of a social media marketing company. You assign a number to
every employee in the company database from 1 to 1000, and
use a random number generator to select 100 numbers.
 Stratified sampling

• Stratified sampling involves dividing the

population into subpopulations that may differ in
important ways. It allows you draw more precise
conclusions by ensuring that every subgroup is
properly represented in the sample.
• To use this sampling method, you divide the
population into subgroups (called strata) based
on the relevant characteristic (e.g., gender
identity, age range, income bracket, job role).
• Based on the overall proportions of the population, you
calculate how many people should be sampled from each
subgroup. Then you use random sampling to select a
sample from each subgroup.
• Example:
• The company has 800 female employees and 200 male
employees. You want to ensure that the sample reflects the
gender balance of the company, so you sort the population
into two strata based on gender. Then you use random
sampling on each group, selecting 80 women and 20 men,
which gives you a representative sample of 100 people.
 Cluster sampling

• Cluster sampling also involves dividing the population

into subgroups, but each subgroup should have
similar characteristics to the whole sample. Instead
of sampling individuals from each subgroup, you
randomly select entire subgroups.
• If it is practically possible, you might include every
individual from each sampled cluster. If the clusters
themselves are large, you can also sample
individuals from within each cluster using one of the
techniques above. This is called multistage sampling.
• This method is good for dealing with large and dispersed
populations, but there is more risk of error in the sample,
as there could be substantial differences between
clusters. It’s difficult to guarantee that the sampled
clusters are really representative of the whole population.
• Example: Cluster sampling
• The company has offices in 10 cities across the country
(all with roughly the same number of employees in similar
roles). You don’t have the capacity to travel to every
office to collect your data, so you use random sampling to
select 3 offices – these are your clusters.
 Non-probability sampling methods

• In a non-probability sample, individuals are selected

based on non-random criteria, and not every
individual has a chance of being included.
• This type of sample is easier and cheaper to access,
but it has a higher risk of sampling bias. That means
the inferences you can make about the population
are weaker than with probability samples, and your
conclusions may be more limited. If you use a non-
probability sample, you should still aim to make it
as representative of the population as possible.
 Convenience sampling

• A convenience sample simply includes the individuals who happen to

be most accessible to the researcher.
• This is an easy and inexpensive way to gather initial data, but there is
no way to tell if the sample is representative of the population, so it
can’t produce generalizable results. Convenience samples are at risk
for both sampling bias and selection bias.
• Example:
• You are researching opinions about student support services in your
university, so after each of your classes, you ask your fellow students
to complete a survey on the topic. This is a convenient way to gather
data, but as you only surveyed students taking the same classes as
you at the same level, the sample is not representative of all the
students at your university.
 Purposive sampling

• This type of sampling, also known as judgement

sampling, involves the researcher using their expertise
to select a sample that is most useful to the purposes of
the research.
• It is often used in qualitative research, where the
researcher wants to gain detailed knowledge about a
specific phenomenon rather than make statistical
inferences, or where the population is very small and
specific. An effective purposive sample must have clear
criteria and rationale for inclusion. Always make sure to
describe your inclusion and exclusion criteria and
beware of observer bias affecting your arguments.
• Example:
• You want to know more about the opinions and
experiences of disabled students at your
university, so you purposefully select a number
of students with different support needs in order
to gather a varied range of data on their
experiences with student services.
 Snowball sampling

• If the population is hard to access, snowball sampling can be used

to recruit participants via other participants. The number of
people you have access to “snowballs” as you get in contact with
more people. The downside here is also representativeness, as
you have no way of knowing how representative your sample is
due to the reliance on participants recruiting others. This can lead
to sampling bias.
• Example:
• You are researching experiences of homelessness in your city.
Since there is no list of all homeless people in the city, probability
sampling isn’t possible. You meet one person who agrees to
participate in the research, and she puts you in contact with other
homeless people that she knows in the area.
 Multistage sampling

• In multistage sampling, or multistage cluster sampling, you draw

a sample from a population using smaller and smaller groups
(units) at each stage. It’s often used to collect data from a large,
geographically spread group of people in national surveys.
• In multistage sampling, you divide the population into clusters
and select some clusters at the first stage. At each subsequent
stage, you further divide up those selected clusters into smaller
clusters, and repeat the process until you get to the last step. At
the last step, you only select some members of each cluster for
your sample.
• Like in single-stage sampling, you start by defining your target
population.
• In multistage sampling, you always go from higher-level to
lower-level clusters at each stage. The clusters are often
referred to as sampling units.
• At the first stage, you divide up the population into clusters
and select some of them: these are your primary sampling
units (PSUs).
• At the second stage, you divide up your PSUs into further
clusters, and select some of them as your secondary sampling
units (SSUs).
• You can end at the second stage, or continue this process with
as many stages as you need. In the last stage, you’ll get to
your final sample of ultimate sampling units (USUs).
• Research example
• Your population is all students aged 13–19 registered at
schools in your region.
• In the first stage, you make a list of school districts within
the region. You select 15 school districts as your PSUs.
• In the second stage, you list all schools within those school
districts. You select 10 schools from each district as your
SSUs.
• In the third stage, you obtain a list of all students within
those schools. You select 50 students from every school as
your USUs, and collect data from those students.
 Literature Review

• A literature review is a piece of academic writing

demonstrating knowledge and understanding of
the academic literature on a specific topic placed
in context.
• A literature review also includes a critical
evaluation of the material; this is why it is called
a literature review rather than a literature report.
 Literature Review

• The purpose of a literature review is to:

• Place each work in the context of its contribution to
understanding the research problem being studied.
• Describe the relationship of each work to the others
under consideration.
• Reveal any gaps that exist in the literature.
• Point the way in fulfilling a need for additional research.
• Locate your own research within the context of existing
literature [very important].
 Types of Literature Review

• Theoretical Review
• The purpose of this form is to examine the corpus of theory
that has accumulated in regard to an issue, concept, theory,
phenomena. The theoretical literature review helps to
establish what theories already exist, the relationships
between them, to what degree the existing theories have
been investigated, and to develop new hypotheses to be
tested. Often this form is used to help establish a lack of
appropriate theories or reveal that current theories are
inadequate for explaining new or emerging research
problems. The unit of analysis can focus on a theoretical
concept or a whole theory or framework.
 Types of Literature Review

• Empirical Review
• An empirical literature review is more commonly
called a systematic literature review and it
examines past empirical studies to answer a
particular research question.
• A literature review is a summary of research that
has been conducted in the past on a certain
subject of interest. The purpose of the literature
review is to discover the gaps in literature.
• Under quantitative research the literature review
is extensive; may significantly influence a
particular study
• Under qualitative research the literature review
is limited; may not be exhaustive
Thank you!