Key Terms Methods Flashcards
1
Q
COVERT OBSERVATION
A
- Type of participant observation where the identity of the researcher and meaning of the research is not disclosed and the participants are not aware they are being observed.
2
Q
DOCUMENTS
A
- Examples of secondary data, including, letters, emails, diaries, photographs.
- Public or private documents
3
Q
ETHICS
A
- Self regulatory guidelines for making decisions.
Examples of ethical considerations in conducting research, include:
- social inclusion
- informed consent
- protection from harm
4
Q
LABORATORY EXPERIMENTS
A
- A test carried out in controlled conditions in an artificial setting (laboratory) to establish cause and effect relationships between two or more variables.
5
Q
FIELD EXPERIMENTS
A
- Has the same aim as a laboratory experiment but is carried out in a more natural setting e.g. a street or workplace.
6
Q
FOCUS GROUPS
A
- Where a group of people are selected to be interviewed and voice their opinion about a certain topic.
- This type of interview is interactive and participants are free to discuss their opinions with each other.
7
Q
GENERALISABILITY
A
- Describes the extent to which research findings can be applied to settings other than the setting they were originally tested in.
8
Q
METHODOLOGICAL PLURALISM
A
- Refers to researchers using a range of methods in the same piece of research.
9
Q
NON-PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION
A
- Where the researcher observes the participants without the participants being actively taking part in the process being observed.
10
Q
OFFICIAL STATISTICS
A
- Pieces of numerical data which are collected and used by the government in order to make decisions about society and the economy.
11
Q
OPERATIONALISATION
A
- Describes when a researcher defines a variable and then the a way of measuring that variable is specifically developed for the needs of the researcher,
- This is not always easy and care must be taken to ensure the method gives a valid variable for the research.
12
Q
OVERT OBSERVATION
A
- The people being studied are aware of the identity of the researcher, the meaning of the research, and that that they are being observed.
- Opposite to covert observation
13
Q
PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION
A
- Where the researcher (known as the participant observer) studies the life of a group by sharing in their activities.
14
Q
PRIMARY DATA
A
- Information that is collected by the sociologist and used for their own purpose.
- The sociologist finds their own information rather than using someone else’s.
15
Q
QUALITATIVE DATA
A
- Information which is given in written form.
- Allows people to give more detail about a subject and allows personal opinions to be expressed.
16
Q
QUANTATIVE DATA
A
- Information given in numerical form.
Examples include:
1) Official statistics
2) Market research surveys
3) Information collected by opinion polls
17
Q
ACTION THEORIES
A
- A micro approach to sociology that argues that people are responsible for their own actions rather than society being held responsible.
18
Q
AGENCY
A
- The capacity of individuals to act independently and to make their own free choices.
19
Q
ANECDOTAL RESEARCH
A
- A semiformal or formal research project that relies on anecdotal evidence and is formalised with rules and protocols to determine the way the evidence is collected, analyzed, and interpreted.
20
Q
ANONYMITY
A
- A research protocol in which neither the researcher or the reader of the findings can identify a respondent based on their responses.
21
Q
ATTITUDINAL SURVEY
A
- An assessment of the feelings of a population toward a particular brand, product, or company.
22
Q
BRIEFING
A
- A meeting at which information or instructions are given to people, especially before they do something (in this case research).
23
Q
CASE STUDY
A
- A research method that relies on a single case rather than a population or sample. When researchers focus on a single case, they can make detailed observations over a long period of time, something that cannot be done with large samples without costing a lot of money.
24
Q
CENSUS
A
- An official survey of the population of a country that is carried out in order to find out how many people live there and to obtain details of such things as people’s ages and jobs.
25
Q
CLOSED-ENDED QUESTIONS
A
- Questions that can be answered with a yes or no.
26
Q
PRE-CODED QUESTIONS
A
- A question that is asked by interviewers as though it is an open-ended question, but it has precoded responses that interviewers are to use to match respondents’ answers rather than copy down the speech given by the respondent.
27
Q
CLUSTER SAMPLING
A
- A sampling method where the researcher divides the population into different groups called clusters and then selects a random sample of clusters from the population and the researcher conducts the study using the data from the sampled clusters.
28
Q
CONFIDENTIALITY
A
- Where information is kept private.
29
Q
CONSENT
A
- Where someone gives their permission for something to happen (for them to take part in research)
30
Q
CONTENT ANALYSIS
A
- Something that is used by sociologists to investigate
the content of various media (books, magazines, TV, film etc) in order to discover how particular issues are presented.
31
Q
CONTROL GROUP
A
- The group in an experiment or study that does not receive treatment by the researchers and is then used as a benchmark to measure how the other tested participants do.
32
Q
CONTROLLED VARIABLES
A
- A variable that is held constant in a research analysis.
33
Q
COVERT
A
- A type of observation where the participants do not know that they are being observed.
34
Q
CROSS-SECTION
A
- A group of people who the researcher sees to be representative of the wider group of people with these given character traits.
35
Q
DEBRIEFING
A
- The procedure that is conducted in research with human subjects after an experiment or study has been concluded.
- It involves a structured or semi structured interview between the researcher and the subjects whereby all elements of the study are discussed in detail.
36
Q
DECEIT
A
- Behaviour that is intended to make someone believe something that is untrue.
37
Q
DEMAND CHARACTERISTICS
A
- Refers to an experiment where participants form an interpretation of the experiment’s purpose and unconsciously change their behaviour to fit that interpretation.
38
Q
DEPENDENT VARIABLE
A
- The element(s) of the research is being observed and recorded by the researcher.
39
Q
EMPIRICAL RESEARCH
A
- The process of testing a hypothesis using experimentation, direct or indirect observation and experience.
40
Q
ETHNOMETHOLOGY
A
- An approach within sociology that focuses on the way people, as rational actors, make sense of their everyday world by employing practical reasoning rather than formal logic.
41
Q
EXPERIMENTAL GROUP
A
- The group of participants that are exposed to the independent variable.
42
Q
EXTRANTANEOUS VARIABLES
A
- Variables that you are not intentionally studying in your experiment or test.
43
Q
FACTUAL SURVEY
A
- A survey made up of questions that aims to collect information which provide information about things for which there is a correct answer.
