Research Methods - Snowball Sampling

Snowball sampling is when you choose one participant and ask them to ask their friends to take part too. This can be used when you're researching a group that's quite hard to get
access to, for example, criminals.

30 Marker Practice

As an A Level student, you have been asked to design a research project to collect qualitative data on the way of life of young homeless people in your area. (30 marks)

Before beginning my research, I would do some secondary research into young homeless people in the Poole and Bournemouth area. Due to people under 18 often being able to go into social care or hostels, it is difficult to find homeless people under the age of 18. Therefore my research would class young people as those aged 18 to 25. My secondary research would help me to gain a better understanding of the topic which would benefit my project.

Operationalisation is key, so I will operationalise 'way of life' by looking into the norms, values, beliefs and daily routines of my participants. This would be more valid because I would be gaining an in-depth look at how young homeless people go about their daily lives. My participants may also show the Hawthorne Effect, so this would have to be considered and taken into account when my results are collected. The results also may not be reliable due to issues with consistency, so I would not be able to generalise my data. Each participant would be different so representativeness would also be an issue. All of this would be taken into account when looking at the results of my project.

My target population will be young homeless people in Poole and Bournemouth. I won't be able to create a sampling frame, which is a drawback of being an A Level student. Due to this, the best sampling method would be Snowball sampling. This is when you find one participant and ask them to ask people they know to be part of your research. This way, you can find more people from the same sort of population, in this case, homeless people. A drawback of this is that my sample is likely not to be representative because all my participants know each other, however due to this research being qualitative, it is more important to gain in-depth research than representative research.

I would be using unstructured interviews to gain qualitative data. This is when I have a rough ida of what my interview aims to find out, but my questions aren't planned which allows me to ask questions relevant to the information the participant gives me. This method is good because it would allow me to get lots of information in a way that allows the participant to be understood clearly and allows me to collect relevant data. This method also means that my participants are able to fully explain their way of life and their experiences, and I’m able to fully understand them. However, a drawback of this method is that it's unlikely any of my interviews will ave the same sort of outcome, making it difficult to compare my results and to categorise them. This makes the research less reliable and inconsistent.

I would carry out a pilot study in order to make sure my interviews are easy to understand and to complete, and to make sure I am able to collect relevant data for my aim. I would use opportunity sampling due to being a student and having little money. I would ask a homeless person a series of questions to check if they are easy to understand and answer.

I would need to consider ethical issues such as consent, privacy, confidentiality and withdrawal. I would make sure all my participants are happy to take part and also that they are aware of their options when it comes to privacy and confidentiality. They would be given the option to remain anonymous. I also need to consider sensitivity, due to some areas of my research potentially being upsetting for my participants. Therefore I would make sure all my questions are worded in a way which stops them from being upsetting, and that my participants are given the option to say that they don't want to answer a question if they feel its too personal or invasive. Due to the sensitivity of the research, the results may not be valid.

A practical issue I may face is time. Due to my use of unstructured interviews, my research is likely to be time consuming which means I can spend less time interviewing extra participants. This will impact the representativeness of my results. However, due to Bournemouth and Poole being busy areas, there is a higher concentration of homeless people, who may be willing to take part in my research. This will save me time as I won't have to be looking for more participants.

Once I have completed my research, I will look at my notes from each interview in order to see any similarities or trends in the way of life of my participants. This would be seen through their answers regarding their norms, values, beliefs and routines.

My research would be interpretivist, due to the fact that way of life can't be measured. The fact that this data must be interpreted means it will be more valid.

Positivists would state that this research would be unreliable due to being subjective and inconsistent. Also, because the sample would be small, it lacks generalisability.

After all of this, I would draw a conclusion from my research which would outline the way of life of young homeless people in the Poole and Bournemouth area.