research methods Flashcards
positivism
treat humans as objects that can be observed, measured and counted in the same way as natural phenomenon
quantitative data research
expressed in numerical form
- objective
- representativeness
interpretivism
weber - people are active conscious beings with free will
- social constuction
interpretivism characteristics
- ethnographic
- rapport
- verstehen
- qualitiative data
- primary methods
positivist criticism of interpretivism
unsystematic and unstructured
- ethnographic research is hard to judge
- difficult to replicate
verstehen
an empathetic understanding of situations in the way that participants do
researcher imposition
bias towards the researchers thoughts and interests
influences on research topics
- social problems
- interests and values of the researcher
- current debates in academic world
- funding
- access to research subjects
primary data
carried out directly from the sociologist within the community
secondary data
previously collected and published
practical factors
- cost
- time available
- subject matter of research
ethics -BSA
- no deception
- privacy of subjects
- subjects aware of research
- protected from harm
- no illegal or immoral behaviour
- no harm to researchers
hypothesis
informed guess that the researcher thinks might be true
operationalisation
turning an abstract idea into somethinbg measureable
random sampling
entails selecting subjects randomly from a sampling frame
systematic
pickign a subject at a regular interval within the frame
stratified
divides population into smaller frames and uses another method within each subframe
non random sampling
deliberately targeting specific groups that soicologists want to study
quota sampling
decides how many of each subframe should be included
purposive sampling
allows researchers to pick who they think fit the nature of the research
opportunity sampling
makes the msot of situations where research population is most likely found
snowball sampling
gaining access to a group is difficult - using connections of one person
volunteer sampling
advertises for research subjects
detecting bias
- pilot studies can find misunderstandings
- respondent validation invloves feedback on if the data was interpreted correctly
social survey
longitudinal survey
studying the same group over a long period of time
longitudinal survey problems
- drop out rate
- attatchment issues
- expensive
questionnaires
closed and open questions asked to respondents
questionnaires benefits
- non time consuming attracts participants
- straightforward questions bring desired data
- reach larger samples
questionnaires problems
- bias in leading questions
- different interpretations
- low response rates affects validity
structured interviews
closed questions where passive interviewer cannot deviate from the set questions
structured interviews benefits
- conducted quickly
- better response rate
structured interview weaknessess
- infelxible
- fail to capture change
- reserarcher imposition
secondary data
official statistics
data collected by government such as ONS or Census
unofficial statistics
quantitative data collected by non governmental organisations
statistics strengths
- easy and cheap to access
- positivist preferred
- large representative samples
- trends can be identified
statistics weaknesses
- not a complete picture of sociological problem
- political abuse
- socially constructed
content analysis
media products such as adverts are used to identitfy how social groups or situations are portrayed
content analysis strengths
- cheap
- comparitive methods
- reliable
content analysis weaknesses
- time consuming
- personal and political views
- subjective
ethnography
unstructured interviews
guided conversation with infornal structure
unstructured interviews strengths
- qualitatie interaction
- flexible
- researching sensitive groups
unstructured interviews weaknesses
- researcher has to be selective
- difficult to categorise
- fewer particiapants
- less representative
group interviews/focus groups
investigate dynamics of groups
- children feel comfortable
- dominating personalities
semi structured interviews
closed and open questions adding depth and detail
observation
non participant and participant
non participant observation
researcher observes an acitvity as a detached entity
non participant strengths
- detahced observation means its objective
- not influenced by researcher views
non participant weaknesses
- observing artificial behvaiour
- observers make personal judgements
participant observation
sociologist immerses themself in the activity
overt
the subjects know the observer is a soiciologist
covert
sujects arnt aware of the sociologist
participant observation strengths
- researcher sees perspective of group
- validity
- respondent validation
participant observation weaknesses
- researcher effect
- attachment
- breach ethics of safeguarding
mixed methods
triangulation
methodologial pluralism
triangulation
combining research methods to verify validity of research findings
the case study
detailed and in depth examination of one particular case or instance of something using methodological pluralism
methodological pluralism
combining different research methods in order to build up a full picture
methodological pluralism
- official stats show how many are unemployed
- media products assess impact of unemployement
- questionnaire assess local experiences
- unstructured interviews for qualitative data
- direct observation of interactions in job entres
