Methods Flashcards
Validity
A true, genuine, authentic picture of what is being studied
Low validity example- aries
Used paintings from medieval times to look at the role that children played in society.
Invalid because looking at paintings doesn’t give a real insight to what life was like then
High validity/ unstructured interviews- oakley
Unstructured interviews
Interviewed 66 women after pregnancy, built a rapport with participants, participants more likely to be honest about sensitive issues of pregnancy and childbirth
High validity- john howard griffin
Dyed his skin black and lived as a black man in america in 1960 in order to see what it felt like to be a victim of racism
Reliability
Repeatable and get the same results
Representativeness
Research in a larger group to get a general result
Types of sampling
Random- pick at random
Systematic- e.g every nth person
Stratified- system used to make it more representative
Quota- when the sociologist is working for someone they will follow the guidelines of what they want
Snowball- one person passes you on to another
Positivists
Sociological research should be like scientific research
Quantitive data Reliability Representativeness Objective (factual) No rapport with participants No empathy Valid
Interpretivism
Sociological research should not be like scientific research
Qualitative data Not reliable Not representativeness Subjective (interpretation) Build a rapport Gain empathy Valid
Practical factors
Time and money Social skills Characteristics of research and sociologist Funding bodies Opportunity
Ethical issues
Consent Confidentiality and privacy Effects on research participants Vulnerable groups Covert research
Triangulation
Involves using two or more sources or methods to obtain a more rounded picture by studying the same thing from more than one view point
Laboratory experiments
Milgrim- shock experiments, to see how far people would listen to authority.
Advantages-
P- could be cheap and quick to set up, don’t require good social skills
E-can get consent from people, easier to maintain confidentiality
T- favoured by positives- good for quantitative data, reliable
Disadvantages-
P- hard to get people to take part. Can be expensive- milgrims study
E- some sociologists have to deceive participants to ensure more valid results. And can cause psychological harm, Milgram study caused full blown uncontrollable seizures for three participants
T- hawthorne effect- too artificial not a real setting.
Field experiments
Rosenthal and jacobson- fake iq tests, teacher and students didn’t know they was involved in a study
Advantages-
P- As you are in an open world you don’t have to pay to set up an artificial situation so is cheap and quick
T- favoured by positivists good for producing quantitative data
Disadvantages-
P- funding bodies rarely fund field experiments
E- participants may not know they’re in a field experiment so can’t give consent and are being deceived, hard to maintain confidentiality and can cause physical or psychological harm
T- doesn’t give qualitative data
Postal questionaires
Connor and dewson- posted 4,000 questionaires to students to study the factors influencing the decisions of WC students to go to uni
Hite- not good for exploring sensitive issues, can be too personal and people can feel uncomfortable writing answers down
Advantages-
P- Quick and cheap, social skills are required, favoured by funding bodies
E-allows participants to remain anonymous, insurers confidentiality, participants can give consent.
T- favoured by positivists, generates quantitate data, representative, valid
Disadvantages-
P- sometimes is necessary to offer incentives to people so they complete the questionnaire, can be costly.
E- not good for exploring sensitive issues
T- can lack validity, might not be representative as the response rate is 8%
Structured interviews
Young and willmott- structured interviews together large amounts of factual data about family life, they got a high response rate, only 6% decline doing it
Advantages-
P- quicker than unstructured interviews, doesn’t need good social skills.
E- participants can give consent ,questions are closed so limits the chance of probing too deeply, easy to ensure confidentially
T- favoured by positivists, interviews are standardised can be repeated
Disadvantages-
P- hiring interviewers can be costly
E- Participant may feel pressured into taking part which means they aren’t really giving consent
T- participants are prone to social desirability as they may feel uncomfortable answering questions face-to-face, can also create the imposition problem
Unstructured interviews
Oakley- interviewed 66 women during and after pregnancy. She was able to build a report with participants which made them feel more likely to open up and be honest about the sensitive issues related to pregnancy and childbirth
Dobash and dobash- unstructured interviews of domestic violence lasted up to 12 hours
Advantages-
P- cheap method
E- participants can give consent, able to maintain anonymity of participants
T- favoured by interpretivists, sociologist can build a rapport and gain empathy. Involves qualitative data containing thoughts feelings and emotions
Disadvantages-
P- can be time-consuming, participants may refuse as they feel a power/status inequality between themselves and sociologist
E- sociologist my probe too deeply and cause psychological harm
T- participants may give invalid answers due to power and status inequalities, they may give socially desirable answers
Covert participant observation CPO
James patrick- joined a glasgow gang. Ended up going native
Punch- amsterdam police. He over identified with them and acted as a policeman himself
Advantages-
P- can be used to study groups that don’t want to be studied as they don’t know it’s happening
T- favoured by interpretivists, hawthorne affect will be avoided. Can gain empathy, first hand insight into how the people behave
Disadvantages-
P- very time consuming and expensive, needs to have really strong social skills
E- deception, no consent, could face psychological harm, sociologist could get guilty knowledge or i criminate themselves
T- cannot be repeated so not reliable, not representative, going native can ruin validity
Other types of observation
Overt participant observation- group know the true identity of the sociologist- venkatesh- gang leader for a day
Covert non participant observation- sociologist observes the group undercover from a distance without getting involved
Overt non participant observation- sociologist observes a group and is open about their identity- sociologist doesn’t participate
Public qualitative documents
Gerwitz et al - used a mixture of school brochures to see how they was seen in the education market place
Advantages-
P-easy to access, no need of social skills
E-person would have given consent to be put in a public document
T-favoured by interpretivists documents have in depth qualitative data, likely to be valid
Disadvantages-
P- public documents may not be of much use to the sociologist
T- might not be that valid
Personal qualitative documents
Douglas- looked at peoples diaries to explore the sensitive issue of suicide
Advantages-
P- only way of studying people who are dead
T- favoured by interpretivists as they provide qualitative data. Can gain empathy
Disadvantages-
P- can be hard to access to, may have to offer an incentive to get hold of the documents so maybe costly
E- impossible to get consent of a dead person, sociologist may pick up guilty knowledge
T- as they are written by one person they maybe bias and not valid
Official statistics
Lee and young- used official statistics to examine the problem of crime in society
Advantages-
P- data already exists so quick, free
E- highly ethical as no names are given in statistics
T- favoured by positivists, representative, objective (factual)
Disadvantages-
P- may not be of use for the particular topic the sociologist needs
T- not qualitative data, government manipulates data so might not be valid
