Quantitive Research Methods Flashcards
Suggest two ethical problems of conducting laboratory experiments.
Getting informed consent from participants may affect the results; the participants’ experience
should not be harmful, either during or after the experiment; one group should not be
advantaged over another.
Identify two reasons why experiments are seen as high in reliability.
Because of the high level of control, an experiment can be replicated easily; it is an objective
method; it produces quantitative data.
What are the similarities and differences between a laboratory experiment and a field experiment?
They both aim to test a hypothesis by manipulating one or more variables. Unlike the artificial
laboratory environment, a field experiment takes place in natural surroundings.
Suggest one advantage and disadvantage of using the comparative method.
Advantages might be: it may be used to study the past; there are no potential ethical problems;
it does not involve an artificial situation. Disadvantages might be: there is less control possible;
there is more potential for experimenter effect
Identify two advantages of pre-coded questions.
The researcher prepares a limited range of possible answers from which the respondent
chooses. They provide a clear focus to questions and can be easily analysed and fed into a
computer.
Suggest two reasons why questionnaires have few ethical problems.
Because there is usually no face‐to‐face contact and respondents may remain anonymous.
Explain why questionnaires are high in reliability.
They are easy to replicate, as another researcher can repeat the research using exactly the same
questions, and therefore the findings can be checked
Explain why (a) positivists see ‘Detachment’ as an advantage of questionnaires and (b) why interpretivists see it as a disadvantage.
For positivists, detachment means objectivity and no researcher bias; for interpretive
sociologists, detachment means the researcher does not see things through the eyes of the
respondent and therefore will not gain a full understanding.
Explain why structured interviews are described as standardised measuring instruments.
Because they are measures that can be used in exactly the same way by different researchers.
Suggest two advantages of structured interviews over postal questionnaires.
They involve face‐to‐face situations and so response rates are likely to be higher; useful
observations may be made of the person or place; call‐backs can be used.
Suggest two reasons why structured interviews may lack validity.
In a structured interview, closed questions may not fit the answers participants wish to give;
there is no chance to explain questions or clarify answers; validity may be affected by the
interaction situation; people may lie or exaggerate.
Identify tree advantages of official statistics.
They are very representative; reliable; enable comparisons to be made between groups and over
time; they provide information on a large scale that an individual researcher could not collect.
What are the three main sources of information from which official statistics are collected?
Registrations, official surveys and administrative records.
What is the difference between ‘Soft’ and ‘Hard’ statistics.
‘Hard’ statistics are government statistics, often produced via registration and backed by a legal
requirement, so they are likely to be complete. ‘Soft’ statistics are often produced by
