Research methods Flashcards
theoretical strengths of qualitative data:
High validity
Can gain verstehen
Interpretivists like, can understand why social actors behave in the way that they do.
Theoretical strengths of quantitative data:
Objective (trends and patterns can be analysed)
high reliability
representative
positivists like, can establish trends
Practical factors:
Accessibility
Resources (money, equipment space)
time
requirements of funding bodies
personal characteristics
subject matter
Ethical factors:
deception
informed consent
psychological harm/ sensitive topics
confidentiality
vulnerable groups
right to withdraw
rapport
Theoretical factors:
validity
reliability
representativeness
objectivity
subjectivity
verstehen
Hawthorne effect
positivism
interpretivism
Content analysis key study:
Cohen (1972)
uncover how media represented mods and rockers in the 60’s. Found tat the media exaggerated and distorted events and conflicts.
Cohen found that newspapers exaggerated and created deviant behaviour of the mods and rockers because there was an absence of other news stories.
public documents:
produced by organisations eg: government departments, charities, businesses
available for sociologists to use
eg: ofsted reports and records of parliamentary debates.
Personal documents key study- Hey
Study on the formation of schoolgirl friendships.
Took girl’s notes out of bin after the lesson ended.
Looked in girl’s diaries, in order to collect this data, Hey gained trust and friendship from the girls by swapping her own personal diaries with theirs.
Historical documents key study: Anne Frank
historical and personal.
Secondary data to investigate the holocaust.
Started writing the diary at 13, died at 15.
It is a deep insight into how Jews were treated during the Nazi Holocaust due to the diary being written in her personal perspective and account.
Official statistics Key study- Durkheim
Compared suicide rates and spotted patterns/ trends in European countries.
factors included marital status, childlessness and divorce.
Religion was also a big factor, catholic countries eg Italy had lower suicide rates as suicide is seen as a grave sin.
he took the stats at face value and assumed that they were correct.
NPO key study: Willis
Group of 12 WC lads.
Want to find out how capitalism shaped their education.
NPO of the 12 WC lads.
could see the activities of the boys first hand.
Participant observations key studies:
Barker (1984) ‘making of a Moonie’ OPO
Venkatesh (2009) Gang leader for a day OPO
Humphreys (1970) CPO
Griffin- racism in 60’s America (1962) CPO
Patrick (1973) CPO
Unstructured Interview key study- Dobash and Dobash
Unstructured interviews on the triggers for domestic violence.
Some unstructured interviews took 8 hours.
Found: the trigger for DV was when a woman challenged male authority.
Marriage legitimates violence against women by giving men power and authority over their lives.
Structured interview key study- British crime survey for England and Wales.
Measured crime since 1981.
Asking members of the public about their experiences of crime over the last 12 months.
Structured interviews over the phone or in the home.
75% of 40,000 households on average take part.
Field experiments key study: Rosenthal and Jacobson
IQ tested a class of pupils in the 60’s.
randomly tested IQ on students and covertly told teachers they will be ‘spurters’.
Returned a year later, found the ‘spurters’ had made the most progress.
found: SFP had occurred when the students were positively labeled and interacted with as spurters.
