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
