research methods

Question 1

ethical issues- deception

Answer 1

-informed consent give
-no information witheld/giving false information

Question 2

ethical issues- privacy

Answer 2

privacy of participants should be respected
sometimes, the participants give informed consent but are unaware of the extent of intrusion.

Question 3

ethical issues- confidentiality

Answer 3

anything between the participant and researcher should remain confidential/between the two

Question 4

ethical issues- anonymity

Answer 4

when the research findings are published, all names/personal info should not be used
instead, code names should be used

Question 5

practical issues- time

Answer 5

e.g. when researching parent and children’s views on school dinners, you may not have enough time for length interviews but enough time for a questionnaire.

Question 6

practical issues- money

Answer 6

different researchers will have different funding/a professor working for a research organisation will have more funding than a student.

e.g. you may have enough funding for interviews but not for participant observations as this can last several years- cost issue.

Question 7

personal skills and characteristics- practical issues

Answer 7

type of research method used depends on the personal skills and characteristics of the researcher
for participant observation- you need good observation and info retention skills.
for interviews- you need to be able to build rapport/ feelings of empathy and trust between participant and observer.

Question 8

practical issues- requirements of funding bodies

Answer 8

certain funding bodies may require certain data e.g. quantitative data- certain research methods need to be used to achieve this type of data.

Question 9

theoretical issues

Answer 9

talk about whether positivists/interpretivists would favour this method.

Question 10

ethical issues- vlunerable groups

Answer 10

extra care must be taken with vlunerable groups- can be vlunerable in terms of age, disability, physical/mental health
where children are involved, informed consent must be gained from both parents and children
research must be put into terms understandable by children.

Question 11

gatekeepeers

Answer 11

point of contact who can put you into contact with the people you want to research.
gatekeepes are essential for: children/students, care home residents, prisoners to ensure the safeguarding of both the participants and the researcher

gatekeepers are useful for gang members as they are a difficult to access group.

Question 12

research/target population

Answer 12

smaller group part of the larger population that the researcher wants to research e.g. 16-19 year old students.

Question 13

random sampling

Answer 13

using a computer generator to pick names at random
-representative and sometimes generalisable

Question 14

systematic sampling

Question 15

sampling frame

Answer 15

list of people from which research subjects/target population is chosen from.
must have characteristics of general population

Question 16

what is non random sampling?

Answer 16

all people within target population do not have equal chance of being chosen
people are chosen rapidly
unstructured process
often how participants are chosen in qualitative research. 

Question 17

sampling frame

Answer 17

must be recent
most common is electoral register

other sampling frames
organisations e.g. BMA keep a list of all UK doctors
school register- shows all children attending school
company’s payroll- shows all employees in a company.

Question 18

stratified sampling

Answer 18

a list of the target population is made using a data source e.g. the census
strata created based on factors e.g. age, gender, class
work out proportions of population in each strata.
randomly select participants from each strata in the sampling frame

Question 19

quota sampling

Answer 19

researcher knows exactly who they want to research and where to find them e.g. from experience of FE students, they would hand out questionnaires at a mainline station.

a list of the target population is created using a data source e.g. census
create strata e.g. based on age, gender, class
work out propoprtions of target population in each strata

first located participants are added until each strata is full.

Question 20

non random sampling- snowball sampling

Answer 20

often used to reach deviant/odd groups
one point of contact is used to recruit another point of contact to get involved in the research.

Question 21

non random sampling- purposive/opprtunity sampling

Answer 21

researcher wants to test particular hypothesis/at a particular site e.g. researcher will target individuals linked to hypothesis/at particular site.

Question 22

volunteer sampling

Answer 22

used when representativeness is not an issue
volunteers respond to ad in the media.

Question 23

operationalising concepts

Answer 23

defining concepts so that they can be accurately measured/researched
there does not have to be a set definition of concepts but researchers and respondents should be aware of these definitions so they have the same understanding. njui

if researcher mistunderstands concepts, the research will not measure what it is supposed to.