paper 2 - 2022 Flashcards
define validity
the extent to which a test measures what it claims to measure
define reliability
the consistency of a research study or measuring test.
define representativeness
the extent to which a sample mirrors a researcher’s target population and reflects its characteristics.
define generalisability
the extent to which the findings of a study can be applied to other situations.
define value freedom
refers to the ability of researchers to keep their own biases and opinions out of the research which they are conducting.
positivism key concepts
scientific principles - "the science of society" observable phenomena - correlation and cause directly measurable - objectivity reliability - rigorous research quantifiable data social facts causal relationship Patterns + trends Value freedom
define researcher imposition
when researcher unintentionally impose their own views or frame work on the people being researched and don’t really get at what respondents think.
strength of the positivism theory
+ objective and scientific approach - free from bias and own values - use quantitative research
+ government more likely to fund studies as it can be generalised and aren’t bias
+ more reliable as is scientific
weakness of positivism
- ignore the subjective experience of an individual
- researcher imposition
interpretivists key concepts
subjective - meaning and experiences of individuals
verstehen and empathy
research imposition - having an option the research
rapport
qualitative data - feelings, meanings and experiences
high validity results - detailed and in-depth
interpretation
strengths of interpretivism
+ high validity (personal experiences and feelings on topic)
+ good for sensitive topics
+ more meaningful
+ reflexivity - aware of own bias and conflicting it
weaknesses of interpretivism
- unsystematic - snowball effect
- research influence and narrow focus ( interpretivist believe this is okay )
- unrepresentative (small sample and individual cases) and narrow focus
- reliability not guaranteed ( interpretivist believe this is okay )
- researcher bias
ethnographic studies
researcher inserts themselves into the natural setting of the social group being studied
observe daily activities
research design - informal or unstructured interviews also used + empathesis with people
strengths
strength of ethnographic studies
+interpretivists support this method (reliable results)
+ detailed qualitative data provided
+ high in validity
+ learn about cultures
weakness of ethnographic study
- researcher bias and influence
- time consuming
- need a well-trained researcher
- ethical issue with illegal behavior (research + participant)
what is respondent validity
A method used by sociologists to double-check validity of behaviour they might have observed.
It checks whether the sociological interpretation of why such attitudes have been expressed in a questionnaire or interview is supported by those who expressed such attitudes
what does respondent validity aim to do
It aims to address problems of interpretation by the researcher that potentially undermines validity.
It aims to therefore improve the authenticity of the data collected by asking the respondents if the researcher’s interpretation of their attitudes/behaviour equates with reality.
A researcher may do this through a follow up informal conversation
what approach is most likely to use respondent validity
Interpretivists are most likely to use this method because the type of research they favour (qualitative) is very much open to interpretation and can therefore be prone to researcher bias or misinterpretation.
longitudinal study
a study carried out over a long period of time or a number of years. this can be continually (observation) or on annually basis (questionnaire, survey, interview)
strength of longitudinal studies
+provide a clear image of the change in attitudes and behaviors over a number of years
weakness of longitudinal studies
- participants may drop out or researchers may loss track of them = undermine representatively of original sample.
- remaining sample = different to those how dropped out = undermine reliability and validity
- positivists = research team become to close to the sample = loss of objectivity
primary research
a methodology where researchers collect data directly, rather than depending on data collected in previous research
secondary data
a research method that involves using already existing data. usually by non-sociologists such as the government
theoretical factors - effecting research methods
positivism or interpretivism
quantitative or qualitative results
practical factors - effecting research methods
costs - size of team, funding, training
time available - process and collate (depend on budget)
subject matter - accessibility, problematicality, intrusive
social characteristics of research or participants - age, ethnicity, gender…, negative consequence of the data collected
ethics
Informed Consent Debrief Confidentiality Deception Withdrawal Protection of Participants ( can do cant do with participants )
hypothesis
is an informed guess that the researcher thinks might be true and that can be tested by breaking it down into aims and objectives.
informed because of sociological knowledge.
operationalisation
process of breaking down the hypothesis or the research aim into observable and measurable elements.
- social phenomena’s cant do this
sampling techniques
random sampling - sample frame systematic - sample frame stratified - sample frame snowball - general population volunteer - general population opportunity -general population purposive -general population quota- general population
random sampling
draw names or numbers
use a sampling frame - list of names or addresses of the research population
+ representative sample - same chance of being picked
- however may still be disproportionate of research population - bias data
systematic sampling
type of random sampling
pick every Nth participate from the sampling frame (1 to 10)
- doesn’t guarantee a representative sample
+ however, the larger the sample the more likely it is to be representative.
+ therefore less likely to bias to one group
stratified random sampling
random sampling technique
divide research population into a number of frames then systematic sampling each group to gain the research sample.
+ avoid bias sample - representative - correct proportions
- time consuming
quota sample
non- random sampling technique
like stratified sampling however researcher decides how many people should be in each category and then looks for the right number of people for them
+ used for market research, newspapers
- lacks randomness therefore bias might effect the sample
- questionable if it is representative of the whole population
purposive sampling
non-random sampling
choosing individual or cases that fit the nature of the study
+ guarantee researcher are researching the aim
- small sample
opportunity sampling
non-random sampling
similar to purposive sampling however make the situation or opportunity to be likely found in the general population.
+ easy to gain a large sample
- unrepresentative = participant may be similar
snowball sampling
non-random sampling
used when researcher experiences difficulty in gaining access to people who would want to participate
involve interviewing one person who fits the research needs and asking for suggestions of other people who fit the need and will be willing to participate.
+ help study illegal or socially sensitive activities
volunteer sample
non-random sample
advertise for research volunteers in a magazine or newspaper or internet.
- unrepresentative sample- similar type of people may be likely to volunteer
- may not be the target research population
pilot study
help the researcher be aware of potential biases
small scale dress rehearsal of the real study involving a sub-sample
help check: if questions are understood, its the correct sample, interviewers are trained, it produces correct data
types of questionnaires designs
closed or open questions
- quantitative or qualitative data
semi - structured interviews = self-report or attitudinal (scale)
strengths of questionnaires
+ reach large and more representative sample
+ postal questionnaires can reach a more geographically diverse sample
+ guarantee anonymity - beneficial for sensitive and embarrassing research
+ positivists like questionnaires - produces a lot of data, high reliability
weakness of questionnaires questions
suffer from poor question design
- biases: respondent states what they believe the researcher want to hear
- loaded questions leading to emotional response
- technical vocabulary / Jürgen
- different understandings of the questions
weakness of questionnaires
- cant be bothered to reply
- postal questionnaires may have a low respondent rate
- criticized by interpretivists = interpret questions wrong
- respondent may lie or misrepresent themselves
- imposition problems in closed question questionnaires
interviews
tend to be recorded
structured or unstructured or semi structured
qualitative results
strength of interviews
+ study areas that cant be accessed with other sociological methods
+ in-depth and detailed results
weaknesses of interviews
- time consuming
- expensive
- need to recruit well trained interviews
structured interviews
list of closed questions - interview schedule
pre-set categories
interviewer plays a passive and robotic role
don’t deviate from the planned questions - no flexibility
covert information into quantitative data and express in statistics
strengths of structured interviews
+ positivists - method is scientific
+ closed questions and fixed choice allow easy comparison of data - correlation
+ quick to conduct
+ can explain aim and objectives before the interview - stop ethical concerns
+ better response rates
weakness of structured interviews
- artificial devices therefore led to false information (interview bias) = demand characteristics
- lack of rapport
- inflexible
- fail to capture the dynamic nature of social life
- interpretivist - imposition problem
- depends on the participant own remember of the situation
unstructured interviews
- interviewer has an active role - guided conversation
- no interview schedule
- follow up on ideas, previous responses, motives and feelings
- interpretivist argue this type of interview is ethnographic - natural setting
- in-depth and longer period of time
- one interview take place with one respondent
strength of unstructured interviews
- establish a rapport so respondent are more likely to open up
- very flexible allow researcher to formulate new hypotheses and test them with what arises in the interview
- help research socially sensitive groups
- provide richer and vivid data
weakness of unstructured interviews
- researcher may (un)consciously select material that support their view or hypothesis - bias material
- difficult to analysis - no pre-coded answers, qualitative, volume
- fewer participants = less representative and generalisable
- expensive = training
social policy
refers to attempts by governments to influence how society is organized and how members of society should behave by bringing in new laws
- often aims to bring social change
- have profound immediate effects e.g. NHS or more gradual influence e.g. tinkers with the educational system
social problem
is any type of social behavior that causes friction and misery.
for example, crime, poverty, educational underachievement, antisocial behavior or divorce
all seen as social problems by members of society and governments may be called upon to produce social policies to tackle them
sociological problem
focus on all the relationships that members of society enter into - married, children
e.g. sociologists are interest in why companionate marriage are more popular than open marriages
therefore, marriage is a sociological problem that requires an explanation
the role of sociology in relation to social policy
- distinguish between social problem and sociological problem
- sociologist aim to solve social problems or create solutions - e.g. crime
- recommend social policies through research into social problems - e.g. women’s vote
types of observations
direct observations
participant or non participant observations
define verstehen
when a sociologist employs a method that helps them to see the world through the eyes of the group being researched
define social class
term used by sociologists to describe the form of social stratification found in modern industrial societies.
- similar economic position, occupation and level of education.
hope - Goldthorpe classification
argues the divisions between social classes and looks at social mobility. 3 main classes - that are further sub-divided into 7 occupational classes service class = high professionals, managers, non manual workers intermediate = self employed artisans, routine non-manual workers class working class = skilled and semi skilled manual workers
NS-SEC
the national statistics socio-economic classification scale used to classify people by social class in official statistics e.g. census and government survey
define life chances
how some members of society have better opportunities than others to achieve the things in life that most people would see as desirable.
income statistics - social class inequalities
average income = is around £27,000
Adele’s income = is around £27,00,000 ( 1000x as much as the average UK worker)
define income
refers to the flow of money to a person or household over a time period. monthly or annually
the sources of income = earnings from employment, state benefits, pensions or interest/dividends on investments or savings
social class inequality in poverty
- child poverty action group argues that there are 3.5 million children in poverty
- some conservatives politicians have denied poverty existed at all
the consensual measure of poverty
- method of measuring relative poverty, involves asking a series of representative focus groups which of a list of item they regard as necessities
- items that were regarded as necessities by 50% or more were put into a list and surveys were carried out of a sample of the general population, asking them how many of the necessities they had to go without
- households that lacked 3 or more items were counted as poor
- households that lacked 5 or more were defined as in serve poverty
- in 2012 33% of households were defined as suffering from deprivation, compared to 14% in 1983
social class inequalities in social mobility
social mobility - the movement of individuals up and down the social scale
1. intergenerational mobility (between generations)
2. intragenerational (between classes in individuals working life)
open society = a lot of social mobility - referred to as meritocracy
closed society = little social mobility
Goldthorpe the oxford mobility study - John Goldthorpe 1980
- 10000 men
- used the hope-Goldthorpe scale to compare occupational classes between sons and fathers
- increase in absolute social mobility for everyone after ww2
- 1:2:4 rule of relative hope which applied to both generations
( an intermediate class boy has x2 the chance of whatever a working class boy had of reaching service class. and a service class boy had x4 the chance than an intermediate class boy)
hierarchy in the workplace - Marxists view
inequalities in the work place are due to the need for capitalist employers to keep wages down and profit up. - key workers such as managers are rewarded highly because of the way they act as agent of the ruling class ensuring the profitability of businesses for shareholders
sources of social class inequalities in the workplace and employment
- financial rewards = routine workers receive less pay and luxuries such as not getting longer paid holidays
- status = difference in status reflect differences in income. eg. different uniforms or facilities
- power and control = senior staff have more control eg. setting their own working hours and making decision about how they do their job. lower status paid workers have more supervision and have to follow set routines
- opportunities for advancement - in professional jobs, employees can work their way to the top. but in routine jobs employees tend to stay at the same level.
- job satisfaction - skilled jobs are more fulfilled but jobs can become very repetitive.
- job security - manual workers are more likely to loss their job
