Quantitative Approach Flashcards
In what two ways can quantitative research be used in the sociological research
In the study of data, especially numerical data like each income clothes size such are quantitative and a statistical approach will be required
Secondly, necessary in situations where the data would have to be translated into more numerical aspects, for example , the level of enjoyment from getting drunk the research of me as college students at a party to reach the level of alcohol usage on the scale of one to five.
Although drinking is not naturally quantitative, but a researcher can frame the question to give a quantitative answer
What are the two steps of quantitative method sociology?
Data collection and analysis
The most traditional method to collect quantitative data analysis is by
survey
How does the quantitative methods measure the social world and that measurement, What does it mean?
It is done by variables
Variables how we try to understand a specific phenomenon which usually has different values and changes. It is something that is everywhere it is present it is common It is different depending on the situation and how we want to study.
For example, study of not income itself but the difference in income between doctors and teachers
Variable s not the thing itself but something about it a characteristic that is measurable
What is operationalization
This involves specifying, how a researcher would approach a larger concepts, specifying it into a specific aspect, to which he wants to study
For example, study of iPhone usage in teens between the ages of 12 to 18. iPhone use is a broad topic but the researcher may specify, type use of the social media app, on the iPhone of teens between 12-18
The researcher has restricted this research to only studying social media, so if a survey comparing game app to so avail media is 2 to 10, yes more teens use social but the researcher does not know if its tik tok or instagram used more. Restricted how the research would be translated
What is the independent and dependent variable?
The independent variable is usually what influences the dependent variable it has an effect
While dependent variable is affected by the independent variable, it’s changes because of the independent variable
What does it mean for variables to be spurious in research
This means that the two variables share a relationship, because of the third variable connects in them. They are not related to each other without taking into account the third variable.
To determine the type of sampling procedure to be used is based of what?
Research question
What’s the difference between population on sample and how does that relate to generalizability
Population is the entire group number of people that don’t research is relevant to
Sample is a particular group from that population that is to be investigated
Generalizability is necessary when picking a sample because the sample should produce results that can be used to assume that result also applies to the entire population.
Why is generalizability important
It is important, because the subsets of individuals studied should be able to give the researcher an inference that to apply to the entire public
Quantitative methods best in this aspect, because inference from a small sample can be applied to the population as well
A large sample and a good something method can give a reason to move result that can be generalizable to the public.
What 2 qualities of generalizability makes the sample a good guess of what the population is and how do they actually help
Large sample size- with a larger size there is a better estimate of what the population is based off the sample
Quality of sampling procedure- random, representative, convening and snowball sampling
Why is random sampling procedure the best method of proffering generalization
This is because when each indivisible is picked they have an equal chance of being selected like anyone else
For example, when the are. 4 people to be surveyed all of they have an equal 25% chance of being picked
What issue might a researcher have with selecting a sample randomly
The issue is that people can choose to answer or ignore you, the less people answer you the higher the chances of the other people being picked causing it to not be random anymore
How does representative sample differ from random, give an example
A representative sample is one that cannot be taken randomly because of a specific a characteristic that forces the sample to be taken as a specific group
For examplestudying a subset of population with a rare allergy
Why is connivence sample bias
Because the people picked are based of the ease of access to researcher, picking your friends as people to use in your study
Why is snowballing an advantage to qualitative but a disadvantage to quantitative
Snowballing occurs when the people being sample, introduce the researcher to other people they could sample
This is a poor sampling choice for quantitative because, the sample is limited to a specific group of people that are related without giving on equal opportunity to others outside that people group
While the positive part is that this type of method is required to study select groups of people that are difficult to access, for example a gang, class of elites. Without being part of such people it’ll be difficult to survey them, but by gaining access and building rapport you get introduced to others within their group
Secondary analysis, data scraping and quantitative content analysis, all have what in common
They are quantitative methods
Thomas decides to research the population of Canadians with children with multiple schlorosis, he realizes to do this he needs, the funds to access those homes around Canada, a massive sample size as it covers the whole Canada and he would need to ensure that somehow those families are interested in being in such a study, what quantitive sampling method would be best to use and what is a disadvantage to this method
Secondary analysis, he can use the data collected by the Canadian health government already, but the disadvantage is hell not be able to modify that study depending on his research question
If he wanted to study the percentage of immigrants families which have children with ms, I’df the Canadian government idt survey that, then he can’t know
What procedure originated in marketing and involves using computer software to generate data about people behavior on the internet, give an example
Data scraping
The percentage of people who snooze their alarms in the morning depending on the day of the week
What kind of variable is not quantitative, give an example
Nominal or categorical
Numbers can not be used to rank or evaluate the data
Race, status, marital status,
Being black or white or Asian does not make you more or less a better human, or being married, single or dating does not signify you have a better relationship with people
When precise values of the variable can be ranked but cannot be used to measure precise differences between ranks we call that
Ordinal
