Explain primary and secondary research methods and select appropriate qualitative and quantitative methods for a social inquiry.

What this dot point is asking

You must distinguish primary from secondary sources and qualitative from quantitative methods, describe common methods, and explain how to select appropriate methods for an inquiry.

Primary and secondary sources

The first distinction is where evidence comes from. Primary sources are data you collect directly for your own inquiry, such as responses to a survey you write or an interview you conduct. Secondary sources are materials others have already created, such as government statistics, research reports, news articles and academic studies. Primary data is tailored to your exact question but is limited in scale; secondary data gives breadth and authority but was gathered for someone else's purpose. Strong inquiries use both.

Quantitative and qualitative methods

The second distinction is the kind of data a method produces. Quantitative methods produce numbers, showing how much, how many and how often, and they reveal scale and patterns across many people. Qualitative methods produce words and meanings, showing why people think and act as they do, and they reveal depth, perspective and explanation. Quantitative data is good for generalising; qualitative data is good for understanding. Each answers different kinds of questions, which is why method choice depends on what you are asking.

Common social research methods

The subject draws on a standard toolkit of methods.

• Surveys and questionnaires gather data from many people, usually quantitative but with some open questions.
• Interviews explore individual views in depth, producing rich qualitative data.
• Focus groups gather a group's views through discussion.
• Observation records behaviour in real settings.
• Content analysis systematically examines media, documents or texts for patterns.
• Case studies examine one example in depth to illuminate a wider issue.

Each method has strengths and limits in reliability, depth and practicality.

Choosing the right method

Method choice should follow the research question, not the other way around. Ask what kind of evidence would actually answer the question: numbers showing scale, or detailed accounts showing meaning, or both. Then consider what is practical given your time, access and resources, and what can be done ethically. A focused question with well-matched methods produces usable evidence; a vague question with mismatched methods produces data that does not answer anything.

Applying this in the folio and investigation

In the folio and external investigation you will design your own small-scale research. A workable approach is to use secondary sources to establish what is already known and to frame the issue, then gather a manageable amount of primary data, such as a short survey and a couple of interviews, to add local insight and perspective. Keep the scale realistic; a small, well-designed and ethical study is far more valuable than an over-ambitious one you cannot complete or analyse properly.

Connection to the rest of the course

This dot point gives the practical skills behind the social inquiry process, turning the stages of inquiry into concrete methods. It connects to ethics in social research, since method choice raises ethical questions, and to analysing and presenting findings, the next step after data is collected. Mastering method selection is essential for producing credible evidence in the folio, group activity and external investigation.