quantitative research methods

Question 1

What are the key features of laboratory experiments?

Answer 1

• control over variables due to artificial environment
• experimental group vs control group
• this allows cause and effect relationships to be established

Question 2

What are practical issues to lab experiments?

Answer 2

• the artificial environments aren’t equivalent to real life
• can’t be used to study past events

Question 3

What are theoretical issues to lab experiments?

Answer 3

• small samples
• hawthorne effect
• expectancy effect – if the researcher expects an outcome then they may unconsciously influence behaviour

Question 4

Ethical problems for lab experiments?

Answer 4

• informed consent
• harm to participants

Question 5

What are key features of field experiments?

Answer 5

• takes place in the subjects natural settings
• those involved do not know they are participating
• the reseaching isolates and manipulates one or more of the variables to see the effect

Question 6

What is an example of a field experiment?

Answer 6

• Rosenthal and Jacobson – the teacher expectation one

Question 7

What is the comparative method?

Answer 7

• a thought experiment carried out only in the mind of the sociologist
• sometimes referred to as a natural experiment
• relies on re-analysing secondary data but is designed to establish cause/effect relationship

Question 8

What are key features of questionnaires?

Answer 8

• written answers to pre-set questions
• answers may be closed or open ended

Question 9

Practical advantages of questionnaires?

Answer 9

• quick cheap and able to achieve large samples
• no need to train or recruit interviewers
• data is easy to quantify, particularly with pre-coded questions

Question 10

Practical issues with questionnaires?

Answer 10

• data is limited and superficial
• could have to involve incentives
• no guarantee of identity (v)
• low response rate (r)
• inflexible

Question 11

Theoretical advantages to questionnaires?

Answer 11

• reliable
• objective
• detached
• can test hypotheses
• produces quantitative data

Question 12

Interpretivist criticisms of questionnaires?

Answer 12

• can’t obtain valid data about the meanings of actions
• no rapport
• subjective interpretations

Question 13

Key features of structured interviews?

Answer 13

• similar to questionnaires
• questions are usually closed and therefore pre-coded

Question 14

Practical advantages of structured interviews?

Answer 14

• fairly quick so can cover a larger number of people cheaply
• good for straightforward info
• easily quantified
• inexpensive

Question 15

What are ethical issues to structured interviews?

Answer 15

• relatively few
• some may feel pressured to answer
• informed consent needed
• sensitive issues
• confidentiality but not anonymity

Question 16

Theoretical advantages to structured interviews?

Answer 16

• reliable
• quantitative
• objective
• representative

Question 17

What do Feminists believe about structured interviews and questionnaires?

Answer 17

• Graham – questionnaires and interviews give a distorted view of women as questions and categories are determined by male researchers

Question 18

Key features of official statistics?

Answer 18

• produced by the government or other official body
• major source of quantitative data
• often used for policy making

Question 19

Practical advantages to official statistics?

Answer 19

• free source of large amounts of data
• individuals are compelled by the state to be a part of the data
• comparisons can be made between groups
• conducted at regular intervals

Question 20

Practical issues of official statistics?

Answer 20

• governments have a motive
• may be mismatched due to differences in data collection
• state definitions don’t match sociological ones (homelessness, truancy)
• state definitions change over time

Question 21

Theoretical advantages of official statistics?

Answer 21

• reliable
• social facts
• patterns and trends
• representative

Question 22

What do interpretivists believe about official statistics?

Answer 22

• cicourel – stats are merely social constructs that represent the labels officials attach to people
• hard stats – more valid and unable to manipulate (birth and death rates)
• soft stats – less valid and compiled against less rigorous definitions or subject to interpretations (suicides determined by coroners)

Question 23

What do Marxists believe about statistics?

Answer 23

• deny that they are objective facts
• merely the outcome of labels applied to individuals
• designed to serve the needs of the powerful
• part of the ISA

Question 24

What is an A03 to Marxists view of stats?

Answer 24

• not all stats support the ruling class (showing class inequality)

Question 25

What do feminists believe about stats?

Answer 25

• generated by the masculine state to represent men and their interests
• they generate patriarchal ideologies