Research Methods Flashcards

Question

What are some practical strengths of unstructured interviews?

Answer 1

Easy to build rapport, encouraging interviewees to give more detailed answers Researcher and interviewee can both check that they understand the questions/answers Highly flexible; researchers can change the interview as they go Useful for researching topics that the researcher doesn’t know much about as the interviewee leads the conversation

Answer 2

Time consuming This can mean that fewer interviews can be carried out Training; the researcher needs to be able to come up with questions on the spot, and needs sociological knowledge so they can identify when something important is said Interpersonal skills; the researcher needs to be able to build rapport

Answer 3

Building rapport can make it easier and more comfortable to investigate sensitive topics Interviewees do not have to reveal anything they don’t want to (privacy) Informed consent is gained, as interviewees do not have to participate if they don’t want to

Answer 4

Interviewees could be uncomfortable discussing sensitive issues face to face Psychological harm may occur when participants recall negative experiences

Answer 5

Interpretivists like them as it gives greater freedom than sticking to a script Verstehen can be gained through building rapport The flexibility of the questions, and the fact they are mostly open-ended, increases validity

Answer 6

Positivists dislike them as they are unstandardised and unique, making them impossible to repeat (low reliability) Hawthorne Effect; interviewees may lie or exaggerate answers Leading questions & interviewer bias; tone of voice, body language, and the questions created could reduce validity Smaller sample sizes as they take longer, reducing representativeness

Answer 7

A structured or unstructured interview with more than 1 interviewee

Answer 8

“Learning to Labour”. Group interviews and non-participant observations with 12 working class ‘lads’ who created an anti-school subculture. Willis believed they were working class heroes who were going against capitalist ideas

Answer 9

Less time consuming than other interviews as you can interview multiple people at once Subject matter; can be a useful way of generating initial ideas which can be followed up in later research

Answer 10

Data can take a long time to analyse as the group interactions are more complex Large groups can be difficult to control and manage Researcher may struggle to keep the group focussed on the discussion topic

Answer 11

Informed consent is gained, as interviewees do not have to take part if they don’t want to Can be used to observe group dynamics and norms Suitable for use with pupils (methods in context) as it creates a safe peer environment which they are used to from school

Answer 12

Can be uncomfortable for some interviewees being in a group dynamic, especially for sensitive issues Interviewees may feel unable to withdraw from the interview or certain questions due to the group dynamics

Answer 13

Interpretivists like them as they collect qualitative data, and you can build rapport/verstehen with participants Flexible as you do not have to stick to a script. Also means researcher and interviewees can ask for clarification on questions/answers Participants may be more comfortable speaking around others, increasing validity Participants can stimulate each others’ thinking/give each other ideas (increasing validity) Includes more people, increasing representativeness

Answer 14

Positivists dislike them as they are impossible to repeat exactly (low reliability) Hawthorne effect; participants may change behaviour because of the researcher AND the other participants (peer pressure) Some participants may dominate the discussion, stopping others from talking (reducing validity) May not be representative as not all interviewees may contribute

Answer 15

The researcher’s identity is NOT known to the participants

Answer 16

The researcher’s identity is known to the participants

Answer 17

“Tearoom Trades”. Investigated gay men engaging in secretive sex in public spaces when homosexuality was illegal. Used participants’ number plates to track them to their houses, then asked them further questions claiming it was for market research

Answer 18

A teacher who joined a gang in Glasgow known as the ‘Young Team’. Observed their violent behaviours before fleeing Glasgow to protect his identity

Answer 19

A teacher who joined a gang in Glasgow known as the ‘Young Team’. Observed their violent behaviours before fleeing Glasgow to protect his identity

Answer 20

Investigated racism against black people in the southern USA. Used UV lamps and medication to dye his skin black, then interacted with people in public. Found that racism was much was than he thought it was, despite being a university professor on race issues

Answer 21

“Gang Leader for a Day”. Spent 18 months over 7 years with a crack-dealing gang in Chicago. Lived with gang members and observed their illegal activities

Answer 22

“Making of a Moonie”. Spent 6 years with the Unification Church to investigate claims they were brainwashing people. Her conclusion was that they were not

Answer 23

Gains firsthand information on group activities, especially with groups where questioning would be ineffective Overt observations allow the researcher to ask naive but important clarification questions Access; some groups may say no to research, meaning they can only be reached covertly

Answer 24

Difficult to get in, stay in, and get out when performing covert observations Have to gain trust and cooperation of those observed, e.g. Venkatesh had to help beat up the boyfriend of an abused teenager Getting out can involve issues, e.g. Patrick faced threats to his safety after he published his work Covert observations require the researcher to maintain a disguise 24/7 Groups may refuse the researcher permission to observe them In covert observations, researchers cannot ask questions which may give them away

Answer 25

Overt observations do not involve deception and avoids the researcher taking part in illegal activities Overt observations can gain informed consent Debrief; participants can be told after the study that they were being studied, and what for Confidentiality; anonymity can be ensured

Answer 26

Covert observations involve deception, and cannot gain informed consent Researchers may have to lie about their reasons for leaving the group for their own safety (e.g. Patrick) Researchers may have to participate in immoral or illegal activities (e.g. Venkatesh, Griffin)

Answer 27

Interpretivists like them as they can gain verstehen, qualitative data, and avoid the Hawthorne Effect (if covert) Open minded approach; allows the researcher to discover things that other methods may miss It is the best way to understand the meanings of social activities for certain groups

Answer 28

Positivists dislike them as they are impossible to repeat exactly (low reliability) Usually small sample sizes, making them time consuming and not representative Analysing data can be biased as the researcher cannot remain objective Hawthorne Effect takes place if overt Reduces validity as there is a lot of subjectivity

Answer 29

A study where the researcher watches a group taking part in activities, but does not get involved

Answer 30

“Learning to Labour”. Group interviews and non-participant observations with 12 working class ‘lads’ who created an anti-school subculture. Willis believed they were working class heroes who were going against capitalist ideas

Answer 31

Observation schedule; if it is structured then it can take less time to complete than participants observations Reduces the impact that the researcher has on the participants as they are not getting involved Can be easy to gain access as they are usually conducted in natural settings

Answer 32

Difficult to gain access to certain groups, e.g. criminals Time-consuming as it takes time to see participants’ true behaviour

Answer 33

Informed consent is gained as participants are aware they are in a study (if overt) Safer for the researcher as they do not need to prove themselves to gain the group’s trust

Answer 34

Lack of informed consent; researchers may not reveal the true meaning of the study in order to gain valid data Lack of informed consent; non-participant observations may be used with groups that are unwilling to cooperate

Answer 35

Positivists like them as, if they are structured, they are easy to repeat, making them reliable No risk of researchers going native Little risk of interviewer bias as they do not get involved, increasing validity

Answer 36

Interpretivists dislike this method, as it does not gain verstehen because they do not get involved Hawthorne effect takes place (if covert) Reduces validity as there is a lot of subjectivity

Answer 37

Investigated obedience to authority. Deceived participants by telling them they had to give an electric shock to a fake ‘learner’ every time they got a question wrong. The voltage was increased with each wrong answer up to lethal levels. Participants were forced to continue even when they resisted

Answer 38

This study is where the Hawthorne Effect comes from. Mayo was asked to investigate productivity at the Hawthorne Plant (factory). Changed many variables which they thought would increase or decrease productivity. Found that all changes led to an increase, so Mayo concluded that the participants changed their behaviour because they knew they were being watched

Answer 39

Quick, especially for small-scale research Cheap. Only need a lab/space to conduct the study

Answer 40

Cannot always be used in sociology as society cannot fit into a lab Impossible to identify and control all variables which could affect the experiments (extraneous variables) Cannot be used to study the past Can only be used to study small samples

Answer 41

Informed consent is gained as participants do not have to take part Debriefs can be given after the experiment Supporters of Milgram argue that, even though his study was unethical, it was worth doing to find out what it takes to force a person to do something

Answer 42

Lack of informed consent, if deception is involved Could cause harm and distress to participants Could rely on deception

Answer 43

Positivists like them as they are reliable, thanks to being highly controlled and gaining quantiative data Can be repeated on different participants to increase representativeness Objectivity; standardised, so little chance for the researcher to influence the study

Answer 44

Interpretivists dislike them as verstehen cannot be gained, and they are low in validity (they only find out what happens, not why) Hawthorne effect can take place Lacks ecological validity as it is an articial setting Expectancy effect; participants may do what they think the researcher wants them to do, reducing validity

Answer 45

Interpretivists dislike them as verstehen cannot be gained, and they are low in validity (they only find out what happens, not why) Hawthorne effect can take place Lacks ecological validity as it is an articial setting Expectancy effect; participants may do what they think the researcher wants them to do, reducing validity

Answer 46

Performed IQ tests on students at a school and told teachers that a random 20% of them were ‘spurters’ who would make quick progress. A year later, they found that the spurters had made the most progress, suggesting that teacher labelling has a large impact on educational achievement

Answer 47

Sent fake patients into mental health hospitals in California complaining of schizophrenic symptoms. Once they were admitted to the hospital they would stop complaining about these symptoms, but would still be treated by hospital staff as schizophrenic, suggesting that the label ‘schizophrenic’ is what leads to them being treated as sick, not their symptoms

Answer 48

Easy to access a natural environment than a controlled (lab) one

Answer 49

Cannot be used too study complex problems Less control than a lab experiment Difficult to control extraneous variables

Answer 50

Debrief can be given after the experiment Less likely to cause harm as they usually involve making a small change to something that is already happening

Answer 51

Informed consent may not always be gained in natural settings Deception; participants may be lied to during the study

Answer 52

Positivists like them as they are in a natural environment, meaning results are more generalisable Some structure so they are somewhat reliable No Hawthorne Effect if participants are not aware they are in the study High ecological validity

Answer 53

Interpretivists dislike them as they lack verstehen and depth (they only show what happens, not why it happens) Low validity as you cannot control extraneous variables

Answer 54

Anne Frank was a young Jewish girl kept hidden from the Nazis by her neighbours during WW2 Germany. She kept a diary of her experiences. She later died in a concentration camp, but her diary has become a published and famous piece of work

Answer 55

Carried out a study into the formation of schoolgirl friendships. Collected notes that girls had passed to eachother in lessons. Also asked to see their diaries; in order to gain their trust in this, Hey gave the girls her diary to read as well

Answer 56

Historical documents may be the only source of information for studying parts of the past Can be used along with primary methods to check findings Quick and cheap because someone else has gathered the information

Answer 57

Authenticity; is the document what it claims to be? Could it be a hoax? E.g. the so-called ‘Hitler Diaries’ were later proven to be fake There may not be documents available for the topic sociologists want to research Access; could be difficult to access some documents, e.g. personal Some public documents can be kept classified for up to 30 years, making research time consuming Analysis of large scale government documents could be time consuming

Answer 58

Produced by someone else, so few ethical concerns for the researcher using them When using historical documents, researchers do not need to gain informed consent

Answer 59

Unique challenges; e.g. Anne Frank is dead and never intended her work to be published. Is it still appropriate to use it? This could impact the author’s family and friends Informed consent must be specifically gained when using personal documents

Answer 60

Intepretivists like them because they have high validity can gain verstehen, giving a real insight into how individuals think Personal documents are especially high in validity as the author had no reason to alter the truth if they only ever intended it to be for their own use

Answer 61

Positivists dislike them as they only use small sample sizes, making them unrepresentative Unstandardised and unreliable; based on subjective interpretations of events. Makes it hard to generalise results Researcher bias; researchers could misinterpret documents, or apply their own meanings to them Hoax documents are, by definition, very low in validity Certain groups may be unrepresented, such as the illiterate (who can’t read or write) or historical working classes who didn’t have the leisure time to keep diaries

Answer 62

Looked at media representations of two youth subcultures of the time: the Mods and the Rockers. There was an initial minor conflict between the groups, but Cohen found that the media exaggerated and distorted events to make it seem much worse than it was (an example of a moral panic)

Answer 63

Analysed gender roles in children’s reading schemes and TV shows. Found that females were portrayed in a set of roles that was both limited and stereotyped, typically performing domestic roles

Answer 64

Easy access; there is plenty of material to be analysed, such as newspapers, TV, radio, etc Cheap to use as sources already exist Allows the discovery of things that may not be obvious, e.g. whether gender role stereotypes really occur across children’s books

Answer 65

Can be time consuming to go through lots of content, especially if it is qualitative

Answer 66

Serves public interest to help them understand how manipulative the media can be No participants means no harm can be caused

Answer 67

If researcher bias takes place, this could be used to justify certain questionable viewpoints

Answer 68

If researcher bias takes place, this could be used to justify certain questionable viewpoints

Answer 69

Interpretivists like qualitative content analyses thanks to the depth of the data Positivists like quantiative content analyses as they are based on objective, scientific data, which is highly reliable (there are only a fixed number of each word/phrase in a particular document) Qualitative content analysis can be used to gain verstehen in certain situations No participants, removing some of the subjectivity involved with, for example, the Hawthorne Effect

Answer 70

Positivists dislike qualitatitive content analyses as they are based on the researcher’s personal interpretation Based on subjective interpretations of research, reducing validity Interpretvists argue that simpy counting up the number of times something appears in a document tells us nothing about its meaning

Answer 71

Compared suicide rates across European countries, finding patterns and trends which suggested suicide has some social factors. For example, marital status, children/childlessness, and religion all affects a country’s suicide rate. He used these results to argue that Sociology is a science

Answer 72

Every year, provides data on the experiences of crime in the general public. In 2011, found that only 38% of crimes were actually reported to the police, and the police did not record all of these

Answer 73

Every year, provides data on the experiences of crime in the general public. In 2011, found that only 38% of crimes were actually reported to the police, and the police did not record all of these

Answer 74

Allows comparisons between different groups, e.g. the educational achievement of different genders or ethnicities Collected regularly, so can be used to show patterns and trends, or ‘before and after’ comparisons to show cause and effect, e.g. of new legislation Easily accessible. Usually published online, saving time and money

Answer 75

Government collects statistics for their own purposes, so sociologists may not find the information they want Definitions used by the government may be different to those used by sociologists, e.g. poverty Definitions can change over time, making comparisons difficult Marxists would argue the government can manipulate statistics in order to serve the needs of capitalism, e.g. the definition of unemployment has changed multiple times over the years to make it seem that numbers are going down

Answer 76

No participants so no risk of causing them harm

Answer 77

Inappropriate to study suicide or domestic violence as it is dehumanising

Answer 78

Positivists like them as they are highly reliable (being collected in a standardised way) and scientific. This can make it easy to spot patterns and trends Covers very large numbers, making them representative Objective; no researcher bias as the researcher has no connection with the subjects of the research Usually much bigger than sociologists could carry out themselves. E.g. the Crime Survey for England & Wales 2014 had a sample size of 50,000 people Hard statistics have higher validity as they generally contain all the information they claim to

Answer 79

Interpretivists dislike them as the data is usually gathered by someone else, so they cannot be sure there weren’t leading questions, reducing validity No verstehen Soft statistics have lower validity as they generally don’t contain all the information Some statistics may be less representative as they are only based on a sample, not the whole population

Research Methods Flashcards

(103 cards)