QUALITATIVE RESEARCH METHODS Flashcards
What are PET Factors?
Practical Issues
- time and money
- funding bodies
- personal skills and characteristics
- subject matter
- research opportunity
Ethical Issues
- informed consent
- confidentiality and privacy
- harmful effects
- vulnerable groups
- covert methods
Theoretical Issues
- reliability: a method that gives the same results when repeated by a different sociologist
- validity: produces results that reflect the reality
- representativeness: the sample being studied is typical of a wider population.
What is Positivism?
A methodological perspective in which sociologists prefer research methods that produce quantitative data. They believe that society systematically influences and shapes the behaviour patterns and society is made up of social facts. They use methods such as questionnaires, experiments, structured interviews, and analysis of statistics.
What is Interpretivism?
A methodological perspective in which sociologists prefer methods that produce qualitative data. They believe that reality is constructed by our interactions. Our actions aren’t a result of external factors. They use methods such as unstructured interviews and personal documents.
What are the key features of a laboratory experiment?
Control: the lab is an artificial environment where variables can be controlled to reveal their effects. This allows testing of hypotheses about cause and effect.
- the experimental group is exposed to variables that the researcher believes may have a particular effect.
- the control group isn’t exposed to the independent variable, their conditions are kept constant.
The condition of both groups is measured prior to and after the experiment to discover the cause and effect.
What are Practical Issues with Laboratory Experiments?
- some sociologists argue that they can only be used study closed systems whereas society is an open system where countless factors are at work always. it isn’t possible for the researcher to identify or control all the relevant variables.
- individuals are complex so it is impossible to match the members of the control and the experimental group. no two humans are alike.
- studying the past isn’t possible
- the expectancy effect may take place where the subject feels like they have to act a certain way to meet what the researcher expects.
What are Ethical Issues with Laboratory Experiments?
- the researcher needs informed consent of the subjects. however sometimes explaining the aim of the experiment may defeat the purpose of the experiment.
- researcher should not harm the subjects however some argue that temporary harm can be justified if the results will benefit a larger population.
What are Theoretical Issues with Laboratory Experiments?
- positivists view them to be highly reliable as the conditions of the original experiment can be repeated and the quantitative data obtained can be compared.
- they may not be representative as a small sample is studied as well as the control over the variables may create unnatural and unrealistic results
- internal validity may unpresent because the findings of the experiment might essentially be untrue for the subjects due to the artificial environment and the hawthorne effect
What are the issues with the Stanley Milgram Experiment?
Practical: cost of the equipment, hiring the lab and the actors, personal skills of ability to communicate effectively.
Ethical: consent isn’t fully informed as the purpose of the research is hidden and the subject is deceived. may cause emotional harm to the subjects because they believe they are inflicting great pain on a human being.
Theoretical: results may be valid as hawthorne effect isn’t present. may not be reliable as different results may be obtained when different participants are used. it also may not be representative because the sample studied is from a small area in the US.
What are the key features of a Field Experiment?
- it takes place in the subject’s natural surroundings and environment.
- those involved aren’t aware of being a subject to a research.
- the researcher isolates and manipulates one or more variables in the situation to see its effects on the subjects.
What is the Rosenthal and Jacobson Experiment (1968)? What are the issues with it?
An experiment where the researchers manipulated the expectations of the teachers about their pupils by giving them misleading information about their abilities in order to discover the effects of this on the performance of the pupils.
- Practical: requires time
- Ethical: consent isn’t taken from teachers or students.
- Theoretical: mostly valid results as hawthorne effect isn’t present, not very representative as a sample sample of students and teachers are involved,validity is increased by the fact that it takes place in a natural environment.
What are the Practical Issues of using Questionnaires?
+ relatively cheap and quick
+ can gather large amounts of data
+ requires no training or recruitment of interviewers
+ data is easy to quantify
+ open ended questions gain qualitative data
- data is often limited
- response rate may be low
- close ended questions provide fixed answers and are inflexible as researcher can’t explore new areas of interest
What are the Ethical Issues of using Questionnaires?
+ more ethical as is it detached and no contact is made between researcher and respondent
+ respondent has the right to withdraw
+ info about how responds will be used can easily be provided
+ can be kept anonymous
- questions should not be triggering or senitive
What are the Theoretical Issues of using Questionnaires?
Positivists:
+ they are reliable as a different researcher can repeat it by using identical questions to get the same results
+ they are detached and subjective opinions are kept seperate
+ they are large scale and therefore highly representative, also representative methods of sampling may be used.
- however this can be undermined by low response rates
Interpretivists:
- detachment fails to produce a valid picture of what the actors mean
- validity is undermined as people may lie, forget, or try to impress.
- right answerism may occur where people feel like they have to answer in a certain way, may be caused by the way questions are worded.
- questions may be misunderstood or misinterpreted
What are Practical Issues with Structured Interviews?
+ can cover a large number of people because they are quick and fairly cheap.
+ useful in gathering factual information
+ close ended questions make the results easy to quantify
+ training of interviewers is relatively easy and cheap
+ response rates are generally higher than questionnaires
- inflexible
- only snapshots
What are Theoretical Issues with Structured Interviews?
Positivists:
+ useful for hypothesis testing as it can establish the correlation between variables
+ reliable as it can be repeated by replicating the questions
+ representativeness increased by sophisticated sampling and large sample
Interpretivists:
- close ended questions limits the responses
- artificial environment decreases validity
- status and power inequalities decreases validity
