Sociology · Oct / Nov 2022 · Paper 12 · Question 1

Source A Some sociologists prefer to look at society as a whole and take a macro approach while others prefer a micro approach where they can record the thoughts and feelings of individuals. Taking a micro approach, a researcher began to investigate why young people smoke. After discovering a younger relative had become a smoker, the researcher was interested to learn why young people start to smoke and how it affects their identity. The researcher’s first task was to gain access to a sample. Finding a sample is not always easy if there is not a sampling frame. As young people are unlikely to want to speak to a professional researcher with very different social characteristics, a snowball sample was used. Once a sample was gained an overt participant observation was conducted.

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