research methods :( Flashcards

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1
Q

what are positivists

A

see society as shaping the individual and social facts shape individual action. social sciences should therefore use “scientific” techniques to uncover the laws that govern societies just as scientists have discovered the laws that govern the physical world

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2
Q

what methods do positivists use

A

prefer quantative methods such as structured questionnaires and official statistics as they have good reliability and representativeness. gets an overview of society as a whole uncovers social trends, such as the relationship between educational achievement and social class

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3
Q

whats an example of positivist research

A

Durkehims’ study of suicide used official statistics and other quantitative data to analyse why the suicide rate varied from country to country

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4
Q

what are interpretivists

A

individuals are intricate and complex and arent puppets who react to external forces. people experience and understand objective reality in different ways, therefore scientific methods arent appropriate as they rely on stats that are socially constructed (scientific sociology)

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5
Q

what methods do interpretivists use

A

qualitative methods such as unstructured interviews or participant observation. in order to understand human action we need to achieve ‘Verstehen‘, or empathetic understanding – we need to see the world through the eyes of the actors doing the acting

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6
Q

whats an example of interpretivist research

A

Paul Wills’ Learning to Labour aimed to understand the world from the point of view of the participants with participant observation

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7
Q

whats primary data

A

first-hand information collected by sociologists themselves for their own purposes.

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8
Q

what are examples of primary data

A

social surveys, participant observation, experiments

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9
Q

whats secondary data

A

information gathered by by someone else for their purposes which sociologists can then use.

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10
Q

what are examples of secondary data

A

official statistics prod by government or documents

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11
Q

whats quantitative data

A

any data that can be represented as numbers and statistics. often collected through structured interviews and questionnares

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12
Q

whats one positive and one negative of quantitative data

A

more reliable however doesnt provide meaning behind behaviour

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13
Q

whats qualitative data

A

non-numerical data that gives a feel to what something is like and give rich descriptions of people’s feelings and experiences. often collected through structured interviews or documents

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14
Q

whats one positive and one negative of qualitative data

A

good when researching sensitive topics however its open for interpretation

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15
Q

practical issues - time and money

A

qualitative data takes more time than quantitative, secondary is often quick and free to access unlike primary. e.g lone researcher doing a small scale project may be cheaper to carry out but take years to complete

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16
Q

practical issues - requirements of funding bodies

A

research institutes, businesses organisations that provide funding may require results in a particular form e.g government department funding research into educational achievement may want pass rates and require quantitative data meaning researcher will have to use methods like questionnaires

17
Q

practical issues - personal skills and characteristics

A

sociologists may possess personal skills that can affect their ability of using certain methods e.g participant information requiring ability to mix with others as well as good observation skills

18
Q

practical issues - subject matter

A

may be harder to study a specific group or subject by one method than another e.g may be hard for male sociologist to study all-female group with participant observation, or questionnare for those who cant read/write

19
Q

practical issues - research oppurtunity

A

sometimes oppurtunity to carry out research occurs unexpectedly and so may be impossible to use certain methods e.g glasgow gang leader gave a sociologist oppurtunity to spend time with the gang unexpectedly, giving him no choice but to use participant observation

20
Q

ethical issues - informed consent

A

research participants should be offered the right to refuse to be invovled and made aware of all aspects of the research

21
Q

ethical issues - confidentiality and privacy

A

researchers should keep identity of the participants secret to avoid possible negative effects. their privacy should also be respected and information kept confidential

22
Q

ethical issues - harm to research participants

A

protection from harm - physical or psychological harm e.g sensitive topics such as domestic violence

23
Q

theoretial issues - reliability

A

ability to replicate research to get similar results is important to positivists as it’s a feature of scientific inquiry

24
Q

theoretial issues - validity

A

how closely a research study mirrors the natural settings of people’s real experiences - interpretivists prefer validity and insight they gain from methods that find out about people’s first-hand experiences

25
Q

theoretial issues - representativeness

A

is the research meant to represent society as a whole so it can be applied to other areas of the population - positivists have large scale findings whereas interpretivists concerned with interpreting the viewpoints of individuals in society

26
Q

what are two advantages of self completed questionnares

A

t - higher chance of being representative
p - able to survey a large amount of areas

27
Q

wat are two disadvantages of self completed questionnares

A

t - validity? people may lie or give desired answers
t - low response rate which may distort data

28
Q

whats an example of a self completed questionnare study

A

callender and jackson - researched w/c attituedes about debt and how this influenced decisions abt going to uni
positivists - able to study large group and collect numerical data but low response rate

29
Q
A