research methods Flashcards
What are all the features of practical research methods?
Funding body, access/gatekeeper, background of researcher
What are all the features of ethical research methods?s
Informed consent/deception, confidentiality, protection of participants like vulnerable groups
What are all the features of theoretical research methods?
Validity, verstehen, reliability, representative
What is are the concerns of a funding body?
How long will it take? Who is paying? Are they willing to pay in long term and in turn cost them more?
What are the concerns of gatekeepers?
How do they get into the group? Who gives you access?
What are the concerns of background of researcher?
What is the researcher interested in? Are they a feminist? What is their personality? Are they an extrovert or introvert
What are the concerns of deception?
Do the participants known the true nature of your research?
What are the concerns of confidentiality?
What will happen with the data? Will it be published? Will it be anonymous?
What does the protection of participants concern?
Will the participants experience any physical or psychological harm? Are they over 16? Do they have any mental illness or learning need?
What are the concerns of validity and verstehen?
How true or accurate is the research to real life?
Can you put yourself in the participants shoes?
Has the researcher gone and joined the activities of the group?
What does reliability concern?
Can the research be repeated and give you the same or similar, consistent results?
What does representativeness concern?
Does the data reflect everyone in your target population - all ages, genders and ethnic groups? Can the results be generalised to the wider population? Sample size, response rates etc?
What was Connor and Dawson’s research in a nutshell?
Connor and Dewson conducted research to try and understand why some people from the lower classes do not attend university. They took a sample of individuals from higher to lower class backgrounds
GROUP 1 - Pre entry Alevel students- Using focus groups to ask about where they had applied
GROUP 2- Current students - Sent 4000 postal questionnaires to 23 universities: dealing with gatekeeper in each. They then received a 41% response rate, this has mainly closed questions.
GROUP 3 – Non-students - Held phone surveys with 176 young people who had not gone to university with mainly closed questions
They found that many issues affected an individual’s decision if to go onto HE- such as future job security and self-worth. The main reason not to attend was debt; this meant choosing local university if they did choose to go.
What is Schofield’s research in a nutshell?
Schofield has sent out a detailed questionnaire to teenagers age 15-19 within schools tog ain an insight into their sexual behaviour. This was sent to a cross section of the UK population of young people and included young people from a variety of class and ethnic backgrounds. It also covered both male and females. This consisted of both open and closed questions.
For example, he asked “Are you are virgin?” and one student responded “No not yet” which leads us to question the accuracy of data.
He found that people tend to bend the truth when it comes to sex, however it does give us an insight into what young people were willing to disclose. 20 years later his study has been replicated by the National Lifestyles Survey to gain comparable data.
