AS RESEARCH METHODS Flashcards
One of the advantages of lab experinments is that they hypotheses can be trested in controled conditions
MENTION MORE
1) particapants may not be aware that they are being observed thus –> hawthrone effect is avoided
2) Postivits see this as a detatched + Objective scinteifc mean of study
being in controled coditons –> relaible thus replicable
What are the types of interviews
Unstructured
Semi structured
Focus groups
What does reliability mean
Research can be repeated with the same responses
What includes content annylisis
Studying the content of documents and mass media
what is the interviewer effect?
when interviewer may influence participants responses –> through their characteristics –>
- apperance
- verbal cues –> such as facial expresssions OR tone of voice
what are hard statistics/evidence copy?
AND give examples
they should be complete accurate
apart from any errors ot incompleteness
recorded by law
eg// in most countries records kept of al births + marriages + death
what does generalisabilty mean?
when findings about a sample can be applied to a larger grp of ppl sharing same characteristics
what are soft statistics copy?
AND give examples
these depend on ppl making decisions about what + how to record
^these decisions may lead to –> different statistics + there may be changes overtime IN WHAT IS RECORDED
not clearly recorded
e.g// include unemployment statistics +
how many crimes taken place –> bec DECISIONS ARE MADE ABT WHAT TO INCLUDE + HOW TO COMPILE STATISTICS
what is the difference bwetween qualitative and quantitive data?
3 mention
QLTLTIVE DATA
- describes phenomena
descriptive
includes U.I and Participant obervation
prefered by interprevitists
offers validity
- looks a t meanings, interaction patterns between induviduals
QNTTIVE DATA
- numerical
produced as numbers such as officual statistics
- allows representativeness of target population
- includes surveys questionaries, Structured interviews
allows relaibility, representation and generalizability
what are the 2 methodoligies used in research
Inductive methodolgy
- gathering statistics fro evidence –> then giving theory on the basis of of evidicne
Deductive Methodolgy
give a theoratical hypothosis then –> testing agqainst evidence
What is primary data
Mention it’s + and -
Data that sociologists personally gather themselves
Researcher has greater control over the definition of Sociological phenomena
Representative data
Validity and reliability
Time consuming
Requires a lot of effort and expense
Difficult to gain access to target grp
what does the term validity mean?
it refers to the extent to which findings REFLECT REALITY + give TRUE PIC
define historical documents
Documents produced in the past so may be useful to investigate how society has changed over time
Define the features of personal documents
First person accounts
Documents less easy for researcher to obtain since may feel that they are private thus may not show their availability or existence
Mention the limitations of using personal docs and historical docs
May be unrepresentative
Need to be checked
against resources
May give favourable view of themselves and actions
May be biased
intentionally as may have the intention to publish in the future
Mention the strengths of digital sources
Make vast range of information available at low cost + very easy access
Are global -> makes it easier to access information about different parts of the world
What does representativeness mean
Sampling a smaller version of the population
how do quessionares add to flexibility of the scientific quantitive methods?
can be used in different ways
administered in different ways
- via internet
- via telephone
- via postal or online qs
via person (can include hawthrone effect)
What is secondary data?
Mention it’s + and -
Data that already exists in form such as docs or research previously completed by other sociologist
Save time money and effort —> by using existing data eg statistics of crime
May be situations where secondary data only the available resource
Definitions of sociological phenomena may not match with those of the researcher
Validity + reliability may impact
Official definitions about social institutions + behaviours may be unreliable and varied
in depth methods–> allows researcher to develop _______ _______ of the ________ and how they actually ____ about the _____ being researched
detailed understanding
feel
issue
What does Objectivty mean?
Ability of researcher to remain detached in his work
mention the strengths of qualitative data
1) valid due to indepth + detail
2) more in depth
3) procides with understanding of meanings + motivations –> behind respondants actions
4) Led more by the respndant rather than researcher who is less likely to impose own perspective
mention limitations of qualitative data
since small sample size difficult to generalize –> cannot ensure representativeness
less relaible –>bec research difficult to replicate
time consuming process that quantititve
cannot make comparisions btween different patterns and trends
questionaires reflect _______ _______ ________
researchers world view
