Quantitative Research Methods

Question 1

Pratical Issues

Answer 1

Time and Money
The requirements of funding bodies
Research oopportunity
Personal skills and characteristics of researches

Question 2

Ethical Issues

Answer 2

Informed Cosnetn
Confidentiality and privacy
Harmful effects
vulnerable gorups
Covert Methods

Question 3

Theoretical issues

Answer 3

Reliability
Validity
Representativeenss

Question 4

Positivist perspective on preferred research methods

Answer 4

Produces quantitative data that is information innumerical or statistical form

Question 5

Interpetivists prefer research methods that produce

Answer 5

qualitiative data that is information that gives us a feel frow hat something is like. These methods include unstructred interviews ,participant observation and the analysis of personal documents.

Question 6

Positivism and Quantitative Methods

Answer 6

Positivsits believe that sociology can and should model its research methods on those of natural sciences such as physics and chemistry. In their view this will rpoduce objective ,true ,scientific knowledge of society.

See society as an objective reality made up of social facts that exist out ther ejust liek the phyisical world and natural scientists study. Social reality is not random it follows a pattern that can be measured and observe. E.G:: there are clear social patterns of educational achievement and underachievement.
These patterns exist as society erxert an influence over its members , positivsits beleive they can discover laws of cause and effect that explain these social patterns just like physicsts and chemist have discovered law such as law of gravity.

use quantitative data on exam results to show class differeneces by correlation their income we may be able to show low income is a cause of underachievement

Question 7

What is a laboratory experiment

Answer 7

controlled experiment. An artificial environment in which scientist can control different variables in order to discover what effect they have.Test a hypotheses about the cause of a phenomenon with the aim of discovering a causal law.

Question 8

Laboratory experiment Procedure

Answer 8

tale a set of subjects(things or poeple in the experiment who will be conducted)
They must be identical in relavent respects
these are then divided into two groups
experimental group-exposed to a variable called the independent variable that the researcher believes may have a particular effecct
The control group-whoa re not exposed tot the independent variable their conditions are kept constant

Question 9

cause and effect of procedure(LAb)

Answer 9

Conditions of both groups measured before experiment if we descivor a change in xperimental group but non in control we will conclude that this was caused by different treatment the two groups receivved
allows us to predict what will happen under same condiitons

Question 10

Laboratory Experiment Theoretical Issues(Reliability)

Answer 10

This method is highly reliable because:

• It’s highly repeatable- the researcher can set out exactly what steps were followed in the original experiment so other researchers can repeat it.
• It’s a detached method- the researcher’s personal feelings/opinions aren’t involved as they’re simply manipulating variables and recording the
  results.
  Produces quantitative data so results of re run expereiments can eb easily compared to the original
  Because this method finds cause-and-effect relationships, positivist sociologists who like a scientific approach will prefer it.

Question 11

Laboratory Representativeness

Answer 11

Positivists representativeness is important as they aim to amke generalisations about the wider structure shapes individuals behaviour
laboratory experiments may lack external validty.
Experiments can only study small samples there is a greater risk they are not a representative crosss section of pop ther esearcher is interested in if so the finding s cannot be generalsied beyond experiment itself.

Lack of external validity arises out of high level of control the experimenter has Control over condiitons in the experiment is valuable ebcause it enables us to establisth that a particular variable causes a particular effect. Higher level of control the more unnatural the circumstances this creates which may not be true for the wolrd outside the laboratory

Question 12

Eval for findings for Laboratory experiments

Answer 12

May lack internal validity that is their findings may not even be true for the subjects of the experiment itslef let alone the wider world. The artificiality of the laboratory enviroment this may eoncourage the hwthrone effect where the subjects react simply to being studied and os o in ways that produce invalid results

Question 13

Eval: for findings of laboratory experiments

Answer 13

Interpretivists argue human beings are fundamentally different from the plants rocks and otehr natural phenomena that natural scientist studty.
Humans have free will and choice rather than objectives. Our behaviour is not caused nby external forces so it cannot be explained in terms of cause and effect statements.Our actions can only be understood in terms of cchoices we freely make on the basis of the meanings Laboratory experiment with its search for causes is a undamentally innpapropriate method for studying human beigns

Question 14

Laboratory Experiments Ethical Issues

Answer 14

• Lack of informed consent- this is difficult to get from groups like children or those with learning difficulties, who won’t understand the
  nature/purpose of the experiment.
  Explaining the aim will be self defeating in these cases for the experiment to work the subejcects must be deceieved because if they know its true purpose they may very well act differently.
• Deception- it’s wrong to mislead people as to the nature of the experiment. Milgram (1974) did this in his study of obedience by not telling
  participants the real purpose of his research was to test people’s willingness to obey orders to inflict pain.
• Harm- Milgram’s participant’s came to harm- sweating, stuttering, digging their nails into flesh, having seizures.

Question 15

practical problbems

Answer 15

In practice, it’s impossible to identify and control all the possible variables influencing a child’s educational achievement.
* Lab experiments can’t be used to study the past, which is a disadvantage.
* They aren’t as representative as other methods because they’re best carried out with small samples.

Question 16

Theoretical Issues for Laboratory Experiments:Reliability

Answer 16

Can be replicated-repeated exactly in every detail by other researcers to obtain same results
Can control coditions and specify precise steps that were followed in original experiment so others can easily repeat these steps to re run it
Produces quantitiatve data so results of re run experiments can be easily compared to original
very detached and objective emethod the researcher merely manipulates variables and records results

Question 17

Field Experiments

Answer 17

Field experiments differ from lab ones because:

• They take place in the subject’s natural surroundings instead of an artificial environment.
• Those involved aren’t aware that they’re subjects of an experiment, therefore removing the
  Hawthorne Effect.

Question 18

Field experiments howt hey work

Answer 18

• The research manipulates 1+ variables in the situation to see the effect it has on the subjects.
• EG- Rosenhan’s (1973) experiment admitted researchers to mental hospitals saying they were
  hearing voices. They were all admitted and diagnosed with schizophrenia. They stopped these
  complaints once in hospital, but staff still treated them as mentally ill, which suggest it was
  actually the label of schizophrenic that cause this treatment, not being ill.

Question 19

Studiies of feild experiments show

Answer 19

They are more natural and valid for real life and they avoid the artificiality of laboratory experiments.However ther is a trade off between naturalism and control the more natural and realsitic we make the siuation the less contorol we have over the variables that might be operating. if sso we cannot be certain that we have identified the true case.

Question 20

Evaluation of field experiments

Answer 20

Study shows field experiments to be more natural, valid and realistic because they don’t use

an artificial lab.
* However, the more realistic the situation, the less control we have over variables, meaning we
can’t be sure the ones identified are the right ones.
* These experiments can be seen as unethical because the subjects don’t know they’re
involved.

Question 21

The comparative method

Answer 21

is carried out in the mind of the sociologist.–“thought experiment” soemtimes called a natural experiment it does not involve the researcher actualyl exprimenting on real people at all. It usually relies on re analysing seecondary data that has already been collected.
Like the lab experiment it is too designed to cover cause and effect relationships

Question 22

how the comparative method works

Answer 22

identifies two groups that are alike in all major respects except for the one variable we are interested in
then compare two groups to see if this one difference between them has any effect
An example of the comparative method is durkheim study of suciide which relies on analysing official stats

Question 23

comparative emthod advantages

Answer 23

avoids artificiality
it can be used to study past events
it avoids the ethical problems of harming or deceiving subjects
gives researcher even less control over variables than do field experiments

Question 24

QuestionnairesPraticical Limitations

Answer 24

ask people to provide written answers to pres set written questions

Question 25

close ended questionnaires

Answer 25

respondents must choose from a limited range of possible answes that the researcher has selected in advance. These answers are often precoded for ease of analysis

Question 26

open ended questionnaires

Answer 26

respondents are free to answer however they wish in their own words without any pre selected choices being offered by researcher

Question 27

Pratical Advantages of questionnaires

Answer 27

Quick and cheap in gathering large amounts of data across large samples. * No need/cost of recruiting and training people to collect data, respondents just answer the questions. * Closed questionnaires are easily and quickly quantified into data. can be computer processed to reveal relationships between variables

Question 28

Practical Limitations of Questionnaires

Answer 28

Data from questionnaires is limited and superficial because the questions are fairly brief- long, time-consuming questions are unlikely to be answered. * Though this method is cheap, there can be the cost of adding incentives for participant’s involvement- like prizes.(students wont randomly just particiapte) * Postal/online questionnaires have no way of knowing if they were received, or if the returned answers were completed by the person the form was sent to. -Postal emialed questionnairees we cannot be sure whether an unreturned questionnaire was actually received by respondent -very low responese rates are a major problem.collecting them by had but this adds cost and time. questionnaire that requires complex language may only be done by well educated

Question 29

Relaibility definition

Answer 29

reliabiltiy involves replicability :if anothere researcher repeats research using same method they should gain same results as the first researcher.For positivists reliability is important becuase it allows a scientists findings to be confirmed or falsified by others. if others can repeat resarch and obtain same results we have more confidence that its findings are ture.

Question 30

Theoretical Issues:Reliabiility of Questionnaires

Answer 30

Queestionnaires are reliable as we repeat someoens research as we can use a questionnaire identicla to original and ask the same qeustions as the origal ones. Questionnaire is a standardised measuring instrument. A fixed yardstick can be used by any researcher just like a thermometer. This means one researchers study can easily be replicated and checked by others. It also means if we do find differences in answers that respondents give we can assume there are sult of real differences ebtween respondents and not because of dfiferentquestionaires it allows us to make comparisions a by asking the smae questions in different time s or societies we can compare results obtained if results differ.

Question 31

Representativeness definition

Answer 31

if a method produces representative data then the fiindings can be generalised from the sample studied to wider populationf romw hich the smaple is draw. representativeness is important to positivist sbecause they are macro or structural theoreis.-they aim to make generalisations about how the wider socials structure shapes our behaviour.

Question 32

Theoretical Issues :Representativeness Questionnaires

Answer 32

They are large scale because questionnaires can be distributed quickly and cheaply by post or email over wide geographical areas they can collect info from a alrge sample of people.As a result their finidngs stand a better chance of being truly representative of the wider population. They use representative samples:researchers who sue questionnaires tend to use more sohpisticated sampling techniques designed to obtain a representative sample Eval:Representativeness can be undermined by low response rate especially if those who dor eturn their questionnaires are different in some way from those who dont . if so this will produce distorted and unrepresentative results

Question 33

Positivists Questionnaires(Detachment and objectivity

Answer 33

positivsits sicentific research is objective(unbiased) and detached The scientistss own subjective opinions are kept seperate from research and not able to contaiminate or affect subject matter Positivist favour questionnaires because they see them as detached and scientific form of research where the sociologists personal invovlement with their respondents is kept to a minimum. For instance postal wuestionnaires arec ompleted at a distance and involve little or no personal contact between researchers and respondents.

Question 34

Interpetivists and Questionnaires

Answer 34

Interpretivists tend to reject the use of questionnaires they arrgue that questionnaires cannot yield valid data about the meanings of sociala actors

Question 35

Interpetivists Questionnaires:Detachment eval for Questionnaires being valid for being detached

Answer 35

Most detached methodsof all rpimary methods the lack of contact between researcher and rrespondent makes it almost impossible to clarify what questions mean for the resondent or to check that the researcher has correctly understood the answers given This can be a serious probeln especially where there are language differences this produces invlaid data that fails to give a true picture

Question 36

Eval for questionnaires providing valid data

Answer 36

as well as it being detached All methods rely on the participants’ willingness and ability to provide full and accurate answers. * Respondents lying, forgetting, not knowing and not understanding what they’re being asked all affects the validity of results. Michael scofields research ons exual behaviour -Are you avirgin no not yet whether they did not understand or were being msicheivooous the resulting data alacked validity * Respondents may also guess the ‘right’ answer the question is looking for, rather than give their own views. * Questionnaires are at a particular disadvantage as they’re often not in-person, whereas the researcher in other methods has more of achance of noticing a respondent’s hesitation/dishonesty through their actions. For thisr eason obersrvations are loves by interpretivist since they allow us to see for ourselves what people actually dor ather than what they say

Question 37

Interpetivist :imposing the researchers meanings Questionnaires

Answer 37

Interpretivists argue that questionnaires are more likely to impose the researcher’s meanings than reveal the respondent’s: * When the researcher chooses what questions to ask, they are the ones deciding what is important. * Choosing closed questions means the respondent has to fit their answer to the closest option, giving us an invalid picture of their reality. * However, open ended questions can solve this issue, though this will the data much harder to quantify.

Question 38

pratical issues of structured interviews

Answer 38

Training interviewers is straightforward and simple as all they do is follow a set of instructions. However, other methods are still cheaper, like posting or emailing people questionnaires. * Large sample sizes can be reached as these interviews are relatively quick and cheap to administer. Again, they don’t match the huge samples postal/email questionnaires can reach. * Suitable for getting straightforward/factual info like age and job. * Includes close-ended questions, so results are easily quantifiable and goof for hypothesis collecting.

Question 39

Theoretical issues :Representativeness(structurd interviews)

Answer 39

The large numbers that can be reached means structured interviews are more likely to be representative, and unlike questionnaires, they generally have a higher response. This may be because people find it harder to reject a face-to-face request. * However, they have the same limitation as questionnaires- those with time/willingness to be interviewed may be untypical, which undermines the ability to generalise the research’s findings.

Question 40

Theoretical issues:validity(structured interviews)

Answer 40

Critics argue that structured interviews aren’t valid because like questionnaires, the paint a fake picture: * These interviews usually have closed questions, so there are limited answers that may not represent the interviewee. * Structured interviews give little freedom for interviewers to make clarifications and help an interviewee who misunderstands the question. Answers can’t be valid if someone doesn’t know what they are being asked. * People may also lie or exaggerate in their answers.

Question 41

inflexibility of structured interviews

Answer 41

Structured interviews are inflexible because the interviewer decides what’s important by making the questions in advance. * Therefore, the interviews can lack validity because they don’t represent the interviewees concerns/priorities.

Question 42

feminist criticisms of structured interviews

Answer 42

Graham (1983)- argues methods like questionnaires and structured interviews are patriarchal and give a distorted and invalid image of women’s experience, and instead advocates for using direct observation or unstructured interviews: * The non-female researcher is in control of the interview and line of question, which mirrors women’s subordination in society. * These methods see women as isolated individuals instead of in the context of the power relationships that oppress them. * These methods impose the researcher’s categories on women, which means they can’t express their experiences of oppression and the unequal power relationship of the sexes is concealed.

Question 43

official stats

Answer 43

* Official stats are quantitative data gathered by the government/official bodies. This included stats on births, deaths, marriages, divorce, exam results, school exclusions, crime and more. * Official stats can be collection via registration (eg law requires parents to register births) or official surveys (eg Census or General Household Survey). * Other organisations/groups can also produce official stats, like trade unions, charities, pressure groups and businesses.

Question 44

pratical issues of official stats

Answer 44

Advantages: * A free source carrying huge amounts of data- like the Census covering the whole UK. This saves sociologists time/money. * Stats allow comparisons between groups, like comparing educational achievement or crime between class, gender, ethnicity. * Official stats are collected regularly, so we can see patterns and trends over time and establish cause-and-effect relationships. Disadvantages: * Government collects stats for their own benefit, not sociologists, which means researcher might not find what they need, like stats on the religion of suicide victims for Durkheim. * The definitions used by the state when collecting data may differ from the sociologist’s, like ‘poverty’- meaning we don’t really know the scale of the issue. * If definitions change cross-temporally, comparisons are harder to make, such as ‘unemployment’ changing 30 times between the 1980s-90s.

Question 45

Representativeness of official stats

Answer 45

Advantages: * Due to large sample size and care taken with sampling procedures, official stats provide very representative data and are a better base for hypothesis/generalisations than a sociologist’s study. Disadvantages: * However, official stats such as the British Crime Survey may be less representative than others because they’re based on only a sample of the relevant population.

Question 46

reliability of official stats

Answer 46

Advantages: * Official stats are seen as reliable because they’re compiled in a standardised way by trained staff who follow set procedure. Disadvantages: * However, they may not be wholly reliable if census coders make errors or omit info when recording data, or if the public fills the form out incorrectly.

Question 47

validity of official stats

Answer 47

Advantages: * Hard official stats do in fact measure what they set out to measure, such as marriage and divorce stats. Disadvantages: * However, soft stats give a much less valid picture, such as police statistics not recording all crime or education stats missing racist incidents- these missing stats are known as the dark figure.

Question 48

positivism and official stats

Answer 48

Positivism: * Positivists see official stats as a valuable source for sociologists, as they establish social facts about phenomena in society. * They see sociology as a science and develop hypothesis to discover the causes of behaviour patterns that stats indicate.

Question 49

interpretivism and official stats

Answer 49

* Interpretivists like Atkinson (1971) argue official stats lack validity because they do not represent real things/social facts that exists, but instead are socially constructed numbers that represent the labels some people give to other's behaviour. * This means that for example, suicide stats don’t represent the real rate of suicides, but instead the number of deaths coroners labelled as such.

Question 50

marxism and official stats

Answer 50

* Marxists don’t see stats as the outcome of labels applied by officials, but as serving the interests of capitalism. * The stats the state produces are part of the ruling class ideology that keeps capitalists in power. For example, the ever-changing definition of unemployment in stats has shown the rate going down. This serves capitalism by hiding the real unemployment level and the damaging effects it has on the working class.

Question 51

why positivists tend to reject documents

Answer 51

Positivists tend to reject documents: * Documents are unstandardised and unreliable and generalisations can’t be drawn from them. EG: every diary will be unique. * Documents are unrepresentative. EG: only literate groups can write letters/diaries. * The researcher may impose their own meanings on the document they’re interpreting.

Question 52

covert observation

Answer 52

* Researcher’s identity and purpose are concealed from the group, and they taken on a false identity/role in order to observe them.

Question 53

covert observation advatnagages

Answer 53

Validity: * Highly valid because of no Hawthorne Effect. * Seen as collecting valid info due to first-hand experience. * Joining the group enables researcher to go into more depth- find out who, what, when, why, etc.

Question 54

covert observation disadvantages

Answer 54

Practical: * A researcher’s ‘cover’ can be blown easily if they don’t have any knowledge of the group’s way of life before joining. * Gaining a group’s acceptance/trust is time consuming. Validity: * Findings may not be as ‘true’ as what really occurred, as the researcher cannot record data in front of the group. Ethical: * No informed consent can be obtained, and it’s immoral to deceive people and get information through being their ‘friend’. * Research may become involved in immoral/illegal acts to maintain the ‘cover’.

Question 55

overt observation

Answer 55

Researcher makes their identity and purpose of research known to people in the study.

Question 56

overt observations

Answer 56

Ethical: * Informed consent is obtained from the group so they know the researcher’s intentions. Validity: * Researcher is openly able to make notes, means findings will be more accurate. * Researcher can use interview method to follow-up what they’ve observed.

Question 57

disadvantages of overt observations

Answer 57

Practical: * Can be time consuming. * A group can refuser the researcher permission. Validity: * There is risk of the Hawthorne Effect. Reliability: * Difficult to repeat.

Question 58

participant observation

Answer 58

Researcher takes part in the everyday life of a group/event while observing it.

Question 59

advantages of PO

Answer 59

Practical: * May be the only way to research a certain group, like those involved in deviant activities or seen as deviants/outsiders. Validity: * Observation gains rich qualitative data that gives a ‘real’ picture of how people live. * The best way to understand something is to experience it yourself, which is what this method does. Sociologists argue this ‘verstehen’ allows researchers to understand a groups values, meanings and viewpoints. Flexibility: * Researcher can enter the situation without a fixed hypothesis, and keep an open mind to what they’ll find. * Basically, you can’t get answers to questions you’re not asking- observing people can overcome this.

Question 60

disadvantages of PO

Answer 60

Practical: * Very time consuming. * Researcher has to be trained to know what situations are sociologically significant. * Needs high interpersonal/observational skills that not everyone has. * Can be issues getting in, staying in, and getting out of groups, especially with covert participant observation. Ethical: * Covert observations are highly unethical due to their deceptive nature and risk of participating in illegal/immoral acts. Representativeness: * Samples studied are often small , so data can’t be generalised to the wider population. Reliability: * The personal skills and characteristics used in participant observations means they’re unable to be replicated. * The qualitative data also can’t be compared with other studies, which positivists see as negative. Validity: * Positivists reject the advantage of verstehen and instead argue that findings using this method are just subjective and biased impressions of the observer. * There’s risk of the Hawthorne Effect if the observation is overt. Bias & lack of objectivity: * Researcher risks ‘going native’- being one-sided/supportive of the group in their findings. * This method attracts sociologists who sympathise with ‘underdogs’. EG- Willis is criticised of giving romanticised accounts of the lads. Lack of a concept of structure: * Structuralist sociologists like functionalists and Marxists see this method and inadequate because it focuses on micro interactions between individuals while ignoring wider structural forces that shape our behaviour, like norms or class.

Question 61

non po advantages

Answer 61

Practical: * Less time consuming as no researcher/participant rapport needs to be developed. Reliability: * Can be seen as more reliable as researcher is less involved. Validity: * Little to no risk of the researcher ‘going native’.

Question 62

non po disadvantages

Answer 62

Validity: * Researcher may be unable to discern groups’ true meanings as they aren’t able to ask them. Reliability: * Each observation will be subjective, therefore unable to be repeated. Representativeness: * Research is on a small scale and therefore can’t be generalised.