How do we know what we know?

Research is the main way that sociologists can come to conclusions about a specific topic. Practically anything can be studied, as long as it is collected in the right way and presented in the correct form. You can't just choose one hundred people who walk by you as your research, you need it to be very random so that your data encompasses everyone.

A very common way of collecting data is through a poll or a survey. These can be very helpfull in determining anything you would like, for example how well liked the iPhone is among high school students. Because there are thousands of high schools, you could take a sample of high schools from the population (which you could do through a random scramble on a computer) and poll everyone at those high schools. If we wanted to know its popularity at our own school we could put everyones name on a list and choose every number of students to get their opinion. By doing this randomly you ensure that a good amount of variation among students is being accounted for, but you can never be sure.

Another key aspect of your poll is to keep your questions neutral. If you have an implied answer already in your question than the responses you will get will be different than if your question did not already give away your own opinion. If you ask the kids at the high school, "What do you think of the latest and greatest new, shiny iPhone?" then you will most likey get a more positive result in your answer compared to if you asked, "What are your opinions on Apple's iPhone?"

These seem like easy concepts to apply to research, but ultimately they can be hard to control depending on what topic you are researching.