Choosing Research Methods With Influence Flashcards
Types of data
Primary
Secondary
Qualitative
Quantitive
What is primary sources of data
Information collected by sociologists themselves for their own purposes. This can be surveys, experiments and participant observation
What is secondary source data
Information collected by someone else that the sociologist can use for their own purposes. This can include official statistics and documents
Types of primary data
Social surveys - questionnaires
Participant observation - joins in activities
Experiments - laboratory experiment
Advantage and disadvantage of primary sources of data
Ad - precise and reliable
Dis - time consuming and expensive
Types of secondary data
Official stats - produced by government on a range of issues
Documents - letter, newspapers and and internet websites.
Advantages and disadvantages of secondary sources of data
Ad - cheap and time consuming
Dis - not accurate information and exactly what the sociologist needs.
Quantitative data
Information in numerical form, includes stats and percentages. Information collected by opinion rolls and market research often come in numerical form.
Qualitative data
Data that gives a feel for something like what it feels to get good grades in gcse rather than percentages of pass rates. Participant observation often comes in a form of qualitative data
Practical issues that affect choice of method
Time and money
Requirements of funding bodies
Personal skills and characteristics
Subject matter
Research opportunity
Time and money
Different methods take different lengths of time and money which some researchers can limit in affecting their choice of method
Requirements of funding bodies
Businesses and other organisations that provide the funding for research to take place may require the data to be in a particular form like quantitive, this means sociologists will have to use a method capable of producing such data.
Personal skills and characteristics
Each sociologist possesses different skills affecting their ability and choice of method. Sociologists disadvantaged may be limited to choice of method as a result of their lack of skill
Subject matter
It may be harder to study a particular group or subject by one method than by another. A male sociologist may struggle to study and or female group.
Research opportunity
Opportunities to carry out certain methods can come unexpectedly, can always use structured answers.
Eg. Glasgow gang leader and james patrick
What was the Glasgow and James Patrick research opportunity.
The gang leader gave James the chance of spending time with his gang, James was able to use the participant observation form of method.
Ethical issues
Moral issues of right and wrong.
Informed consent
The people studied should be offered the right to refuse to be involved and the researcher should also tell them about relevant aspects of the research
Confidentiality and privacy
Researcher should keep the identity of the research participants secret in order to help to prevent possible negative effects on them.
Harm to research participants
Researchers need to be aware of the possible effects of their work on those they study. Researchers should anticipate and prevent such harm.
Vulnerable groups
Special care should be taken where the participants are particularly vulnerable because of their age, disability or physical and mental health.
Covert research
When the researcher identity is kept secret as well as the purpose. This can create ethical problems like lying in order to maintain trust and information.
What are theoretical issues that influences method choice
Validity
Reliability
Representatives
Methodological perspective
What is a methodological perspective
The view of what society is like and how we should study it.
What is a positivist
They prefer quantitive data, seek to discover patterns of behaviour and see sociology as a science.
What is a interpretivist
They prefer qualitative data, seek to understand, social actors, meaning, and rejecting the view that social sociology model itself on the natural sciences.
Experimental group
The group in an experiment that receives the variable being tested.
Control group
In an experiment, the group that doesn’t get treatment, compared to the experimental group to evaluate the effectiveness of treatment
Dependant variable
The variable that is being measured/tested.
Independent variable
The factor that is altered, the effectiveness of this variable is studied
Casuality
The relationship between cause and effect.
Hypothesis
A testable prediction, often implied by a theory
Reliability
When a test has consistent results which is assessed by the consistency of scores on two halves of the test on alternate forms.
Validity
When a test measures and predicts to what it is meant to do
Hawthorne effect
A change In a subjects behaviour caused simply by the awareness of being studied
What does representative mean
which a sample mirrors a researcher’s target population and reflects the populations characteristics.
What does population in research mean
A population is the entire group that you want to draw conclusions about
