Key Terms Methods

Question 1

COVERT OBSERVATION

Answer 1

• 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.

Question 2

DOCUMENTS

Answer 2

• Examples of secondary data, including, letters, emails, diaries, photographs.
• Public or private documents

Question 3

ETHICS

Answer 3

• Self regulatory guidelines for making decisions.

Examples of ethical considerations in conducting research, include:

• social inclusion
• informed consent
• protection from harm

Question 4

LABORATORY EXPERIMENTS

Answer 4

• A test carried out in controlled conditions in an artificial setting (laboratory) to establish cause and effect relationships between two or more variables.

Question 5

FIELD EXPERIMENTS

Answer 5

• Has the same aim as a laboratory experiment but is carried out in a more natural setting e.g. a street or workplace.

Question 6

FOCUS GROUPS

Answer 6

• 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.

Question 7

GENERALISABILITY

Answer 7

• Describes the extent to which research findings can be applied to settings other than the setting they were originally tested in.

Question 8

METHODOLOGICAL PLURALISM

Answer 8

• Refers to researchers using a range of methods in the same piece of research.

Question 9

NON-PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION

Answer 9

• Where the researcher observes the participants without the participants being actively taking part in the process being observed.

Question 10

OFFICIAL STATISTICS

Answer 10

• Pieces of numerical data which are collected and used by the government in order to make decisions about society and the economy.

Question 11

OPERATIONALISATION

Answer 11

• 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.

Question 12

OVERT OBSERVATION

Answer 12

• 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

Question 13

PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION

Answer 13

• Where the researcher (known as the participant observer) studies the life of a group by sharing in their activities.

Question 14

PRIMARY DATA

Answer 14

• 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.

Question 15

QUALITATIVE DATA

Answer 15

• Information which is given in written form.

- Allows people to give more detail about a subject and allows personal opinions to be expressed.

Question 16

QUANTATIVE DATA

Answer 16

• Information given in numerical form.

Examples include:

1) Official statistics
2) Market research surveys
3) Information collected by opinion polls

Question 17

ACTION THEORIES

Answer 17

• A micro approach to sociology that argues that people are responsible for their own actions rather than society being held responsible.

Question 18

AGENCY

Answer 18

• The capacity of individuals to act independently and to make their own free choices.

Question 19

ANECDOTAL RESEARCH

Answer 19

• 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.

Question 20

ANONYMITY

Answer 20

• A research protocol in which neither the researcher or the reader of the findings can identify a respondent based on their responses.

Question 21

ATTITUDINAL SURVEY

Answer 21

• An assessment of the feelings of a population toward a particular brand, product, or company.

Question 22

BRIEFING

Answer 22

• A meeting at which information or instructions are given to people, especially before they do something (in this case research).

Question 23

CASE STUDY

Answer 23

• 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.

Question 24

CENSUS

Answer 24

• 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.

Question 25

CLOSED-ENDED QUESTIONS

Answer 25

• Questions that can be answered with a yes or no.

Question 26

PRE-CODED QUESTIONS

Answer 26

• 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.

Question 27

CLUSTER SAMPLING

Answer 27

• 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.

Question 28

CONFIDENTIALITY

Answer 28

• Where information is kept private.

Question 29

CONSENT

Answer 29

• Where someone gives their permission for something to happen (for them to take part in research)

Question 30

CONTENT ANALYSIS

Answer 30

• 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.

Question 31

CONTROL GROUP

Answer 31

• 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.

Question 32

CONTROLLED VARIABLES

Answer 32

• A variable that is held constant in a research analysis.

Question 33

COVERT

Answer 33

• A type of observation where the participants do not know that they are being observed.

Question 34

CROSS-SECTION

Answer 34

• A group of people who the researcher sees to be representative of the wider group of people with these given character traits.

Question 35

DEBRIEFING

Answer 35

• 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.

Question 36

DECEIT

Answer 36

• Behaviour that is intended to make someone believe something that is untrue.

Question 37

DEMAND CHARACTERISTICS

Answer 37

• Refers to an experiment where participants form an interpretation of the experiment’s purpose and unconsciously change their behaviour to fit that interpretation.

Question 38

DEPENDENT VARIABLE

Answer 38

• The element(s) of the research is being observed and recorded by the researcher.

Question 39

EMPIRICAL RESEARCH

Answer 39

• The process of testing a hypothesis using experimentation, direct or indirect observation and experience.

Question 40

ETHNOMETHOLOGY

Answer 40

• 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.

Question 41

EXPERIMENTAL GROUP

Answer 41

• The group of participants that are exposed to the independent variable.

Question 42

EXTRANTANEOUS VARIABLES

Answer 42

• Variables that you are not intentionally studying in your experiment or test.

Question 43

FACTUAL SURVEY

Answer 43

• A survey made up of questions that aims to collect information which provide information about things for which there is a correct answer.