Positivist Methods Flashcards
Why do positivists favour lab experiments?
- They are reliable
- They are objective/detached
- They are scientific
- They all for hypotheses to be tested and are able to establish cause and effect
:( Lab experiments: Keat & Urry (1982)
Lab experiments are only useful when studying closed systems while society is an open system which means that many factors can influence them
:( Issues of lab experiments
• Lack external validity
• Not as representative
• Lack internal validity
• Ignores freewill/complexity of individuals
• Affected by the hawthorne effect and the expectancy event
Field Experiments
A study which takes place in the subject’s natural surroundings
-> those involved do not know they are involved
• Brown & Gay (1985): send a white actor and a black actor for interviews for the same post to see who would be offered the position
Comparative Method
- Compares two groups alike in all major aspects other than the studied characteristic
- The groups are compared based on whether the difference has had an effect
:) Doesn’t involve the researcher experimenting on real people therefore avoiding ethical issues
Why do positivists favour questionnaires?
• Representative
• Reliable
• Detached
• Test hypotheses
• Establish correlational data
:( Questionnaires: Interpretivist view
• Fails to produce a valid picture: we cannot work closely with the participants and therefore we do not know how the questionnaire is perceived
Structured Interviews
• Reliable: same questions asked & interviewers can be specially trained
• Representative: cheap to conduct
-> More people are willing to take part
• Objective
• Scientific data (quantitative)
:( Structured Interviews: Interpretivists and Feminists
• Reinharz: ‘research as rape’ since research reflects the nature of relationships in patriarchal society
• Oakley: structured interviews reflect the power imbalance in patriarchal society
