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Sociology > Component 2: Methods of Sociological Enquiry > Flashcards

Component 2: Methods of Sociological Enquiry Flashcards

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Sociology 101 flashcards
1
Q

What are the 7 practical issues?

A
  • choice of research
  • access
  • social profile
  • time
  • cost
  • skills of a researcher
  • issues of literacy
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2
Q

What are practical issues?

A

Influences that have an actual or physical impact on the ability to carry out a piece of research

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3
Q

What are the 6 ethical issues?

A
  • informed consent
  • protection from harm
  • anonymity
  • deception
  • confidentiality
  • sensitivity
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4
Q

What are ethical issues?

A

Moral concerns about the benefits and potential harm of research to the people being researched, to researchers themselves and to society, I.e. deceiving people, harming people

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5
Q

What are the two main approaches?

A
  • positivism

- interpretivism

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6
Q

Give an overview of positivism

A

.

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7
Q

Give an overview of interpretivism

A

.

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8
Q

What is the third theoretical approach?

A

Realism

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9
Q

Give an overview of realism

A

.

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10
Q

What was Eileen Barker’s study?

A

The making of a Moonie: Choice or brainwashing?

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11
Q

Give an example of a group in society that would be difficult to access

A

Gangs would be difficult to access because some of the activity that they demonstrate is illegal so they would not want to share it

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12
Q

Identify a group that you would find difficult to research due to your social profile

A

I would find it difficult to research gangs as I have no involvement in gangs, I’m young and female

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13
Q

Summarise how time can be seen as a negative issue

A
  • Relevance of data - if it takes too long to collect the data than it may no longer be relevant
  • Cost- the longer the research takes the more it’ll cost
  • If it takes too long, you can’t have so many participants
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14
Q

Summarise how time can be seen as a positive issue

A
  • Provides rich qualitative data
  • Increases validity
  • More (detailed) data can be collected
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15
Q

How can cost of a study be increased?

A
  • Time
  • Location of target population (i.e. will researcher have to travel?)
  • Size of sample (i.e. number of participants)
  • Number of researchers required
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16
Q

Why is time considered a strength in questionnaires?

A

Because they do not take long to create or analyse and can be sent out/given to a large number of people at once. This reduces costs and means the researcher can increase the number of participants they use

17
Q

Why is issues of literacy considered a strength of interviews?

A

Because the researcher is present so can clarify anything that the participant doesn’t understand. This will improve the quality of the data being collected

18
Q

Why is access considered a strength of questionnaires?

A

Because they can be sent through the post or be online so if a group is hard to reach for any reason, they can still complete them

19
Q

Why is social profile considered a strength of ethnography?

A

Because if it is right (depends on the study), then the participants are more likely to allow the researcher into their community to collect data

20
Q

Why is skills of the researcher considered a strength in unstructured interviews?

A

Because they will need to be able to create questions spontaneously by listening carefully to what the participant/s is saying . They will also need to ensure they are not upsetting the participant/s delving too deep. This will all impact quality of the data.

21
Q

Why is choice of research topic considered a strength of interpretivist methods?

A

Because researchers have the time to build up relationships with groups that are often hard to reach

22
Q

Why is time considered a weakness in unstructured interviews?

A

Because they take a long time to conduct and to analyse. This means that researchers would only be able to have a small number of participants so may not collect data that would be typical of the whole population

23
Q

Why is issues of literacy considered a weakness of questionnaires?

A

If a participants does not understand a question, there is no one to ask about it. They may therefore not bother to ask the question, or may answer it untruthfully or incorrectly, affecting the quality of the data

24
Q

Why is informed consent and right to withdraw considered strengths of questionnaires and interviews?

A

Because it is not possible to collect the data in this way without first getting permission from the participant- they would simple not answer the questions if they did not want to

25
Q

Why is anonymity/privacy considered strengths of questionnaires?

A

Because questions are generally closed and do not delve too deep into people’s experiences. Furthermore, people do not have to put their name on the questionnaire or could complete it online so no-one knows they have completed it. They are therefore more likely to be honest

26
Q

Why is sensitivity considered a strength of unstructured interviews and ethnography?

A

Because the researcher will take time to build up a relationship with the participant first. They will therefore be able to recognise when a participant is becoming upset or unable to continue. This will reassure the participant and encourage them to feel safe and open up

27
Q

Why is right to withdraw considered a weakness in the census?

A

Because if people do not complete the census, they are fined up to £1000, therefore making it virtually compulsory for people to complete it.

28
Q

Why is right to withdraw and deception considered a weakness of covert observations?

A

Because participants are unaware that they are part of the study

29
Q

Why is protection from harm considered a weakness of ethnography?

A

Because researchers may spent years with the participants, living with them and taking part in their daily activities. This could become very intrusive and stressful for the participants.

30
Q

Why are positivist methods generally seen as standardised?

A

Because they all do the same thing to provide quantitative data. Questions are typically closed questions

31
Q

Why does standardisation improve reliability?

A

Because the studies can be repeated in the same way over and over again by each participant

32
Q

Give strengths of questionnaires and surveys

A
  • quick and cheap
  • access
  • ethical
  • standardised
  • objective
  • social desirability is often not an issue
33
Q

What are the key studies used for questionnaires and surveys?

A
  • the census
  • born in Bradford
  • moonie
  • venkatesh
34
Q

Give weaknesses of questionnaires and surveys

A
  • issues of literacy
  • right to withdraw - census
  • lacking in depth
  • issues of validity due to limited choice of responses

Sociology (41 decks)

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