research Flashcards
What factors affect topic choice
Personal interests and values
theoretical/political perspective
opportunity and access
funding
in vouge topics
ethics
What are the two ways of dividing data
Qualitative vs quantitative
primary vs secondary
give five examples of primary data
Surveys, observations, questionaries, interviews and experiments
give five examples of secondary data
Official stats, internet, historical documents, diaries
What are the five practical factors
Personal characteristics, time, access to participants, funding, cost
What are the six ethical factors
Informed consent. confidentiality right to withdraw, privacy, confidentiality, debriefing
What are the four theoretical factors
Reliability, generalisability, validity, theoretical perspective
What are the strengths of positivism
Can determine social facts
objective conclusions
trends can predict behaviour
What are some weaknesses of positivism
Impossible to be completely objective
tells you what but not always why
artificial settings leads to less validity
what are some strengths of interpretivism
Detailed in depth data
tells you the why and the meaning
what are some weaknesses if interpretivism
Open to interpretation
descriptive
methods can be time consuming to complete and analyse
What are four types of interviews
Structured, semi-structured, unstructured, group
What are the advantages of a structured interview
More effective way of getting questionaries completed due to higher response rate
data is more reliable
easy to record
quantitative data
less risk of interviewer bias
what are the disadvantages of structured interviews
Can’t impose limits on peoples responses
not suitable for personal and sensitive issues
more time consuming and costly than written questionaries
What are the advantages of an unstructured interview
Higher validity
can probe more deeply
ambiguities can be clarified
interviewers can change directions
group interviews that can spark ideas
what are the disadvantages oF an unstructured interview
Time consuming and costly
lower validity
lower reliability
difficult to compare
risk of interviewer bias
group settings can show more peer pressure
Give an example of an unstructured interview
Oakley (1974) sociology of housework
give an example of a structured interview
Young and willmott (1962) the importance of extended families
What are the four types of questionaries
Postal. Web-based, hand, face to face
What are the two types of questions
Open and closed
Advantages of a questionnaire
Quick and cheap
reliable
closed Qs allow for easy comparison
standardised data
more valid data
no risk of interviewer bias
What are the disadvantages of questionaries
People may not understand Qs
imposition problem
researcher may misunderstand responses
open Qs makes comparison harder
low response rate
people may lie/forget
Give an example of a questionare
Venkatesh (2011) gang leader for a day
What is a case study
An intensive study of a single example of whatever it is the sociologist wants to study
What is a life history
Case study that focuses on one individual/ small group combining unstructured interviews with reference to personal documents
