RESEARCH KEY POINTS Flashcards
WHAT ARE THE 5 MAIN THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES
- Functionalism
- Post-modernism
- Social Activism
- Marxism
- Feminism
5 RESEARCH METHODS
- Experiments
- Questionnaires
- Official Statistics
- Documents
- Observations
LABORATORY EXPERIMENTS
Favoured by positivists, lab experiments test hypothesis’s in a controlled environment
Advantages:
- Highly reliable
- Can easily identify cause and effect on relationships
DIsadvantages:
- Artificial environment
- Hawthorne effect
- Ethical issues (consent)
- Unrepresentative (small scale)
FIELD EXPERIMENTS
Takes place in the real social world, sociologist creates a situation or adapt real life situations. Those involved are unaware
Advantages:
- Less artificial, more realistic
- Those involved are unaware - validity
Disadvantages:
- Ethical issues (consent)
- Less control over variables
- Limited application
QUESTIONNAIRES
Favoured by positivists, written and self completed questionnaires - a form of social surveys and can be distributed in a range of ways
Typically a list of pre-set questions that are close ended.
Advantages:
- Practical - cheap and quick
- Quantifiable data
- Representative
- Reliable, questions are easily repeatable
- Limited ethical issues- no obligation to answer
Disadvantages:
- Slow response rate or low response rate
- Low validity (more likely to lie)
- Unrepresentative - Elderly might have time to respond, but younger people might not.
- No follow up questions
OFFICIAL STATISTICS
Quantitive data collected by government bodies. Favoured by positivists. Data is quick, cheap and easy to access Covers a wide range of social issues
Advantages:
- Practical, cheap and easy to obtain and access.
- Collected at regular intervals, can compare over time.
- Representative - official statistics cover range of people
Disadvantages:
- Collects statistics for own benefits, may not cover specific studies
- Definitions and opinions vary. Sociologists may not have the same meaning for the same word
PRIVATE DOCUMENTS
A type of secondary data that mainly contains quantitive data. Personal documents take form of diaries, memoirs, autobiographies, and letters
Advantages:
- Valid, written for personal purposes
- High degree of validity - genuine insight into peoples attitudes.
- Practical- cheap and saves time
- Illuminates areas of social life
- Can be used to confirm or question other interpretations or accounts
Disadvantages:
- Some groups are unlikely to produce personal documents and letters therefore their views are not represented.
- Personal documents like are written with an audience in mind and may affect what’s being recorded.
- Personal Bias.
HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
A type of secondary data that mainly contains quantitive data. Historical documents provide evidence from the past.
Advantages:
- Allows for comparisons over time
-useful for assessing the outcomes of various social policies
Disadvantages:
-Unrepresentative- some documents may have been lost or destroyed
- Validity pf documents are open to question - may have been selectively written
- Authenticity of document is open to question as it may not have been written by the person it is attributed to.
PARTICIPANT OBSERVATIONS
Where the researcher joins in the activity of the group they are researching
Advantages:
- Valid - groups are observed in a natural and authentic setting (true account of groups behaviour).
- Gives insight into social behaviour
- Data generated is richly detailed and offers insight into social behaviour.
Disadvantages:
- Unreliable as its open ended and subjective research.
- No fixed procedure or standardised system of measurement
- cannot be replicated.
- Hawthorne effect - observer may affect groups behaviour
- Ethical issues (anonymiy of participants)
- Practical issues with getting into the group
- Unrepresentative (Mainly researches small scale group and not wider population)
NON-PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION
A observer avoids any direct involvement with the research group.
Advantages:
- Valid, limited risk of the researcher going native
Disadvantages:
- Unreliable as its open ended and subjective research.
- No fixed procedure or standardised system of measurement
- cannot be replicated.
- Unrepresentative (Mainly researches small scale group and not wider population)
WHATS THE PURPOSE OF RESEARCH?
- To test existing theories
- To develop new theories
- Observe social life
- Ideas in how society works
- Test social behaviours
WHAT ARE THE TYPES OF DATA?
- Quantitive data
- Qualitative Data
QUANTITIVE DATA
Data in numerical form:
- Statistics
- Opinion polls
- Market research
QUALITATIVE DATA
Any data that is not numerical and gives a feel for what something is like:
- Opinions
- Diaries
- Participant observation
- Interviews
WHAT ARE THE TYPES OF RESEARCH METHODS?
- Secondary research
- Primary research
SECONDARY RESEARCH
Existing data that other researchers have collected that can be used for their own purposes, e.g:
- Government statistic
- Organisations
- Documents
Advantages:
- Quick and easy
- Low cost
Disadvantages:
- May not be exact information sociologists need for their research
PRIMARY RESEARCH
Data that the researcher collects themselves, e.g:
- Questionnaires
- Interviews
- Field experiments
Advantages:
- Precise and specific information can be gathered to test hypothesis
Disadvantages:
- Time consuming and costly
