Summary
Contents
What is qualitative secondary analysis? How can it be most effectively applied in social research? This timely and accomplished book offers readers a well informed, reliable guide to all aspects of qualitative secondary analysis. The book: Defines secondary analysis. Distinguishes between quantitative and qualitative secondary analysis. Maps the main types of qualitative secondary analysis. Covers the key ethical and legal issues. Offers a practical guide to effective research. Sets the agenda for future developments in the subject. Written by an experienced researcher and teacher with a background in sociology, the book is a comprehensive and invaluable introduction to this growing field of social research.
Sampling: Types
Sampling: Types
Sampling is the process of selecting a sub-set, of people or social phenomena to be studied, from the larger ‘universe’ to which they belong, in one of several ways so as to be either non-representative (based on simple convenience or choice of particular illustrative cases) or representative (based on probability theory to make the cases more typical of the universe from which they have been selected).
Section Outline: All research is based on samples. Time; place; availability. Qualitative methods sampling: purposive; theoretical; snowballing; non-representative. Quantitative methods sampling: probability samples. ‘Randomness’: chances of being selected for a sample from a universe. Sample frame requirements. Sample/universe ‘fit’: weighting. Quota sampling and its limitations.
It is not possible to study everything. Inevitably, social researchers work on small sub-sets ...