research methods Flashcards
Give 4 practical issues that would influence the choice of research methods:
time and money
funding body
personal skills and social status
research opportunity
Practical issues
Time and Money
Diff methods require different amounts of time and money..
Questionnaires and social surveys = more efficient and less costly.
Practical issues
Funding Body
Whoever is funding the research may be in a position to dictate how they want the research to be conducted.
Give 4 Ethical Issues that would influence the choice of research methods:
informed consent
confidentiality and privacy
protection
vulnerable groups
What do Positivists like?
Quantitative data, see sociology as a science - like a macro level of analysis.
what do interpretivits like
qualitative data for more in-depth opinionated answers
Social surveys have 2 forms…
questionares or interviews
Stages to conducting a social survey:
1 - choose topic
2 - formulating an aim or hypothesis
3 - operationalising concepts
4 - the pilot study
5 - sampling
What is the Pilot Study?
A ‘draft’ version of the main research which is done on a smaller sample.
2 problems with structured interviews
no depth only quantitatve data
2 advantages of postal questionnaires
fast to collect, a source of primary data
outline 2 problems of using unstructured interviews
time-consuming, could get distracting
outline 2 problems with using Lab equipment in research
practical issues -> time and money
outline a way to get more responses
more canidates
advantages of group interviews
saves time and money
The primary source of data (meaning)
data the researcher has gathered themselves
secondary source of data (meaning
Data gathered by someone else
advantages of primary data
real-time data ,more reliable
advantages of secondary data
quick collection time, easy access
