Research methods Flashcards
Identify two types of observation used by sociologists in their research. [2]
covert
overt
participant
non-participant
Describe two strengths of using open questions in sociological research. [4]
- open questions allow respondents to go into depth and detail and
therefore accuracy is enhanced; - open questions are less likely to lead to biased data as the respondent is
free to use their own words; - open questions allow the respondent to speak in their own words and this
increases the validity of the data; - open questions allow for qualitative data to be gained which
interpretivists favour; - open questions allow for an unlimited range of answers and hence give
access to a bigger picture; - as well as giving access to what people think open questions also allow
for feelings to be explored;
Describe two strengths and two limitations of using secondary data in
sociological research.
Strengths:
it is economical because it costs little or nothing – secondary data is
often freely available on the internet;
it is easy to access – researchers only have to search on the internet
and a wealth of secondary data will be found;
it is time–saving – secondary research has already been done by other
researchers which means that time and effort is saved;
secondary data is often used at the beginning of a research project to
survey any published research on the topic and this can help to shape
the primary research by finding gaps;
sometimes secondary data is the only source of information that
sociologists can use – for example when studying the past, historical
documents may be the only possible data source;
secondary data sources often allow comparisons to be made over time
e.g. statistics;
Limitations:
secondary data from the past may be outdated and hence of little value
when studying contemporary society e.g. old statistics or historical
documents;
secondary data may not exactly fit the researcher’s needs as it was
done by others for a different purpose;
as the data has been collected by others there are no guarantees that
the information was collected ethically or that the information is valid;
secondary data such as official statistics may reflect the biases of those
in power and hence present invalid data;
with secondary data such as official statistics – the way things are
defined and measured may change over time, making historical
comparisons difficult or the data unreliable;
secondary data such as documents may lack authenticity – parts of the
document might be missing because of age, and we might not even be
able to verify who wrote the document, meaning we cannot check
whether it is biased or not;
many older documents do not survive because they are not stored, and
others deteriorate with age and become unusable;
some secondary data such as documents are deliberately withheld from
researchers and the public gaze, and therefore do not become available;
Explain why interpretivists criticise quantitative data. [10]
interpretivists aim to uncover respondents’ thoughts and reasons and
quantitative methods such as questionnaires cannot uncover these
because they use closed questions;
quantitative methods only give numbers and statistics which fail to
understand the reasons and motivations behind the figures and this is
inadequate;
interpretivists believe that social behaviour is not predictable or
measurable and hence quantitative methods miss the mark in terms of
understanding social reality;
interpretivists argue that quantitative methods are just as liable to bias
as qualitative methods, e.g. official statistics can often be biased;
quantitative data methods often use large sample sizes and a macro
approach but interpretivists believe that the data gained fails to
understand how respondents make sense of their reality and for this a
micro approach is needed;
quantitative methods often dismiss the importance of rapport and
therefore run the risk of under–reporting of sensitive issues such as
domestic violence;
according to interpretivists individuals are complex and different people
experience and understand the same reality in quite different ways and
quantitative scientific methods are not appropriate;
To what extent may the presence of a researcher negatively affect
sociological research?
Possible arguments for:
the interviewer effect – the social characteristics of the interviewer may
affect the responses given e.g. a male interviewer talking to a woman
about domestic violence;
interviewer bias – where an interviewer’s own views or prejudices affect
the questions asked;
researcher bias may occur when interpreting results e.g. when writing up
a summary of an interview the researcher may misinterpret what has
been said in the light of his/her own subjectivity and beliefs;
the presence of a researcher may lead to social desirability and hence
lower the validity of any data gained;
the Hawthorne Effect – in overt observation the presence of an observer
affects the way that people behave and hence lowers the validity of the
data;
in non–participant observation there is a real possibility that the
researcher may miss or misunderstand the meanings and motivations
behind social action as he/she is not talking part;
researchers who are not prepared or who are unskilled can make the
interviewee feel ill at ease and the data will be negatively affected in
terms of quantity and quality;
in ethnographic studies the researcher may ‘go native’ and lose
objectivity due to developing empathy with the group or culture under
study;
Possible arguments against:
interpretivists believe that if a researcher is present rapport and trust can
be established and answers are more likely to be in depth and valid;
a researcher who is present during research can ensure a better
response rate – if a researcher is not present when questionnaires are
filled in it may result in a lower response rate;
a researcher can clarify misunderstandings – if a researcher is not
present when questionnaires are filled in it may result in less valid or
missed questions due to the respondent not fully understanding the
question or what is required;
a researcher who is present within a group during participant
observation can observe the social reality from an insider’s point of
view, thus opening the possibility for verstehen to be gained;
a researcher who is present for a qualitative interview can prompt and
probe the respondent thus gaining more valid information;
if a researcher is present whilst a questionnaire is being completed, they
can ensure that the right people are doing the questionnaire;
in an interview situation the interviewer can follow issues up and
enhance the quality of the data gathered which would be impossible
otherwise;
a researcher can assess the honesty and validity of responses during an
interview, something which is impossible with methods where no
researcher is present;
Identify two types of questions used by sociologists when conducting research. [2]
- closed questions;
- open questions;
- pre-coded questions;
- scaled or Likert questions;
- multiple choice questions;
Describe two limitations of using non-official statistics in sociological research. [4]
- non-official statistics may be biased to reflect the interests of the company
/organisations that gather them – they may thus lack validity; - they are quantitative data and interpretivists argue that they cannot
answer the ‘why’ of social behaviour; - any statistical account will represent a “snapshot” of social interaction as it
was only when the statistics were compiled; - non-official statistics may not be done on a large scale due to cost and
hence they may lack representativesness; - non-official statistics as secondary data may not always cohere with the
aims of the researcher and thus their usefulness is limited; - non-official statistics conducted on behalf of businesses, charities or
political organisations may be biased to advance their cause negatively
affecting accuracy; - non-official statistics are secondary data – the researcher was not present
when the initial research was done and so can never be sure it was done
correctly;
Describe two strengths and two limitations of a positivist approach to sociological research.[8]
Possible strengths:
* positivism relies on quantitative data that is more reliable than qualitative
research and hence other researchers can check results;
* positivists adopt a ‘scientific’ approach and aim to provide value-free
objective information that is unbiased;
* positivists prefer quantitative data which can be turned into statistics and
compared in terms of patterns and trends;
* positivists use quantitative data which can be turned into charts and
graphs and easily analysed;
* positivists can test a hypothesis using evidence gathered;
* positivism is a macro approach which studies the big social forces in
society, such as social class or socialisation, and how they fit into the
bigger picture;
* positivists use large samples which are more likely to be representative
and generalisable;
Possible limitations:
* the quantitative data positivists like lacks depth and detail and hence lacks
validity;
* although positivism encourages researchers to disregard human emotion
and values, this is an impossible ideal and all research is to some extent
biased;
* positivists are not able to achieve verstehen as they do not believe in
allowing subjectivity and empathy into the research process;
* positivists use quantitative data they cannot understand the reasons
behind their data – the why or the meanings and motivations attached to
social behaviour;
* positivists do not seek to achieve rapport with respondents and thus their
data may lack validity;
* a positivist approach may be more likely to bring ethical issues e.g. some
lab experiments and other experiments such as Zimbardo’s in Source A;
* sociology is not a science in which human behaviour is to be studied in a
detached, objective manner – instead human motivations need to be
uncovered to get an accurate picture;
Explain why feminists believe that society is based on conflict. [10]
feminists argue that we live in a patriarchal society which is dominated by
males e.g. males hold most of the important posts in society and make the
key decisions and this is unfair;
* in the family males dominate women and children e.g. through the reality
or threat of domestic violence and so conflict can be physical as well as
emotional;
* in the workplace women face a glass ceiling created and maintained by
men so women cannot access the top jobs and this creates conflict;
* a system of vertical segregation is in place in which women are expected
to work in low paid, low status jobs often linked to stereotypical female role
such as nursery workers or cleaners whereas male jobs are often higher
paid and higher status – this inequality breeds social conflict;
* schools still allow boys to dominate in class and, in some cases, females
are denied a proper education or channelled into ‘feminine subjects’ such
as cooking and arts whilst boys are expected to do the ‘harder’ subjects
such as physics and maths;
* at every stage women have had to fight for more rights – men have rarely
given women equality proactively e.g. the legal conflict that resulted in
women being given the vote;
* Marxist feminists believe that both class and gender work together to
effectively oppress women and keep men in their power a conflict of
interest runs through the social structure;
To what extent is secondary data useful for sociological researchers? [15]
Possible arguments for:
* secondary data like diaries, historical documents etc. can offer great
insight and may be a valid snapshot of social interactions;
* documents never intended for publication may be valid because the
individual has no reason to be biased/lie;
* there is a lot of it – it is the richest vein of information available to
researchers in many topic areas;
* some large data sets might not exist if not for the government collecting
statistics;
* sometimes documents and official statistics might be the only means of
researching the past;
* official statistics may be especially useful for making comparisons over
time e.g. the U.K. Census for example goes back to 1851;
* on a practical level, many public documents and official statistics are freely
available to the researcher saving both time and cost;
Possible arguments against:
* primary research is more valid as it allows the researcher to obtain original
data that are current and highly specific to his or her needs;
* primary methods such as questionnaires or structured interviews may be
better as they allow the researcher themselves to collect quantitative data
from which patterns and trends may be seen;
* primary methods such as observations or unstructured interviews are
better because they allow researchers to gather detailed qualitative data
which is likely to be highly valid;
* a major disadvantage of secondary research is that the researcher may
have difficulty obtaining information specific to his or her needs and hence
it may not always be wholly relevant thus negatively affecting validity;
* some sources of secondary data such as diaries may be unrepresentative;
* secondary data sources such as personal documents may be biased and
hence lack validity;
* official statistics may reflect the way things have been categorised rather
than reality e.g. crime figures;
* official statistics may reflect the biases of those in power – limiting what
you can find out;
* official statistics – the way things are measured may change over time,
making historical comparisons difficult e.g. crime statistics, the definition of
crime keeps changing;
* documents may lack authenticity– parts of the document might be missing
because of age, and we might not even be able to verify who wrote the
document, meaning we cannot check whether its biased or not;
* many documents do not survive because they are not stored, and others
deteriorate with age and become unusable;
* some documents are deliberately withheld from researchers and the
public gaze, and therefore do not become available e.g. secret
documents;
Identify two examples of qualitative sources of secondary data. [2]
Identify two examples of qualitative sources of secondary data.
Possible answers:
diaries;
journals;
letters;
photographs;
emails;
blogs/vlogs;
newspaper reports;
autobiographies;
sociological study
Describe two strengths of using personal documents in sociological research. [4]
documents such as diaries are rich in detail and thus offer valid
accounts of events;
documents such as diaries and autobiographies provide insight that
may be missing from statistical evidence;
personal documents frequently offer first−hand accounts of events e.g.
autobiography;
personal documents are secondary data and can be readily available
e.g. from public records office and national archives so researchers do
not have to do the research themselves;
many personal documents are historical documents and offer a window
into the past e.g. photos;
Describe two strengths and two limitations of using primary data in sociological research. [8]
Possible strengths:
primary data is gathered for the specific purpose of the researcher
meaning that it will be more relevant to the researcher’s aims than
secondary data;
primary data is likely to be more reliable than secondary data as the
researcher can replicate the procedure to check the results, as they
know the procedure and how the data was collected and analysed;
primary data is more up to date − data gathered from years previous is
less likely to reliably answer the questions your data needs to address;
researchers can ensure that the right target population and groups are
being covered in their primary research which may not be the case with
secondary data sources;
any other reasonable answer.
Possible limitations:
researchers may show subjectivity and bias in their data collection, they
may be looking for data that ‘fits’ in with the hypothesis they are trying
to test;
primary data needs a large enough and sufficiently diverse sample to
make it credible and be able to be representative and to generalise;
primary research can be quite costly, particularly if a team of
researchers needs to be trained and paid, whereas secondary data is
often available free of charge;
collecting primary data can be time−consuming, particularly if there is a
large sample and/or several methods are used, whereas secondary
data is often freely available on the internet;
primary data may be invalid if the research has not been conducted in a
professional manner e.g. if questions aren’t focused OR ethics have
been breached etc.;
primary data may be the result of breaching ethical guidelines e.g. in
covert observation;
Explain why some sociologists use experiments in their research. [10]
positivists like laboratory experiments because they allow the
researcher to control variables and establish causal links between
variables;
field experiments can often gain real insight into a case e.g. Rosenthal
and Jacobson’s longitudinal experiment Pygmalion in the Classroom;
experiments often yield quantitative data which can be used to measure
social phenomena;
lab experiments have a high degree of reliability, due to the
standardised procedures, and can be repeated to check or test the
original findings;
experiments allow researchers to test a hypothesis with the results
determining whether the hypothesis is accepted or rejected;
field experiments are often used because they are conducted in a
naturalistic environment which can improve the validity of findings e.g.
the Stanford prison experiment;
laboratory experiments enable the use of complex equipment which
may add to the validity of the data e.g. equipment to film/record
people’s reactions, measure physiological changes etc.;
To what extent is a quantitative approach to research the most effective? [15]
Possible arguments for:
a quantitative approach allows for comparisons to be made and
patterns and trends to be identified e.g. a survey with closed questions;
quantitative methods are usually associated with objectivity and are less
likely to suffer from researcher bias e.g. lab experiments or
self−completion questionnaires;
a positivist approach that uses quantitative methods that are high in
reliability allows research to be checked because the methods are
standardised and hence repeatable e.g. structured interviews where
questions are closed and standardised;
quantitative methods usually use larger samples and hence results are
often representative and generalisable to the wider research population
e.g. online surveys;
quantitative data is numerical data and thus is easier to analyse and
interpret in charts and graphs;
a quantitative approach allows researchers to see a macro or bigger
picture of society as it is easier to do on a large scale e.g. online
questionnaires/survey;
Possible arguments against:
a qualitative approach is favoured by interpretivists who argue we need
to understand the individual and therefore an in−depth approach is
needed to understand how those individuals make sense of their
interactions and behaviour e.g. via unstructured interviews;
humans are not puppets but possess choice and agency and they use
methods which try to uncover these via qualitative methods such as
interviews in which respondents can articulate their behaviour in their
own words;
interpretivist sociologists argue that methods which gain a valid or
accurate picture of social behaviour are the most effective, they thus
use qualitative methods high in validity such as unstructured interviews
and participant observations;
interpretivists argue that it is crucial to understand the ‘why’ behind
statistical patterns and trends in social behaviour, they thus use
qualitative methods which will yield this kind of data;
individuals are complex and different people will experience and
understand the same ‘objective reality’ in quite different ways and have
their own, often quite different reasons for acting in the world, thus
quantitative methods are not appropriate;
qualitative methods are the best for understanding the behaviour of
research subjects in their naturalistic environment, via ethnographic
approaches, case studies or field experiments;
quantitative methods alone are not the most effective − some argue
both reliability and validity are equally important in researching social
behaviour and thus advocate a triangulation of data from both;
Identify two reasons for the interviewer effect. [2]
where a respondent’s answers are affected by the gender of the
interviewer;
where a respondent’s answers are affected by the ethnicity of the
interviewer;
where a respondent’s answers are affected by the age of the
interviewer;
where a respondent’s answers are affected by the social class/status of
the interviewer;
where a respondent’s answers are affected by the body language of the
interviewer;
Describe two strengths of using comparative studies in research. [4]
researchers can compare the social behaviour of different groups
across societies e.g. Durkheim’s Suicide study compared suicide in
different cultures;
researchers can compare the social behaviour of groups across time to
establish the extent to which change has occurred e.g. in life
expectancy;
by comparing variables sociologists can establish patterns and trends in
social behaviour e.g. whether there have been increases or decreases
in educational performance in key population groups;
comparative studies allow sociologists to establish correlations and even
causal relationships between variables e.g. Weber’s ‘Protestant Ethic
and the Spirit of Capitalism’;
comparative studies can be entirely based on secondary data and
hence can be relatively cheap for researchers;
Describe two strengths and two limitations of using social surveys in sociological research.[8]
Possible strengths:
due to the quantitative nature of the data sociologists can use survey
data to make comparisons e.g. between the responses of different
cohorts;
the closed question format of surveys is useful for generating patterns and
trends in data;
surveys are generally high in reliability due to the structured nature of
the format, hence they can be repeated and similar responses will be
gained;
they can be done on a large scale via questionnaire and so sample size
may be more representative of target population;
it is possible to access geographically distant populations via post,
telephone or online surveys, enhancing representativeness;
if the survey is done via self-completion questionnaire a researcher is
not present so cannot influence answers given, raising validity;
if done via questionnaire they are convenient for the respondent who can
complete it in their own time;
due to fact that surveys are often quantitative they can be easily
analysed by putting the data into tables, charts, graphs etc.;
Possible limitations:
survey responses are low if done via self-completion questionnaire
which may affect the representativeness of the sample;
surveys are not always valid; their findings may not always be accurate or
reflect reality – this may be because closed or structured questions are
mainly used with no room for respondents to elaborate and give detail;
if done via questionnaire the researcher cannot always be sure who
answered the questions and this may invalidate the responses as the
person may not be in the targeted sample;
in questionnaires respondents often leave some questions unanswered,
as there is no researcher present, and this means that data will be
incomplete;
if a survey is done via structured interview the interviewer effect may
take place thus lowering the validity of the data;
Explain why sociologists use pilot studies as part of their research. [10]
to see whether the questions used in the research are effective in
gaining appropriate responses;
to check for ethical issues with the methods used e.g. that no harm will
come to the researcher or the subjects of research;
to check that an appropriate sample can be accessed;
to check whether the methods used are likely to yield the kind of data that
will enable the researchers to answer their question;
to check whether the answers given cover the kinds of responses that
researchers want;
to check for any problems in the way the research is due to be carried
out and this may save time and cost;
To what extent is the Marxist view of society correct? [15]
Arguments for:
Marxism is an example of the conflict perspective in sociology and it is
clear that there is disagreement and conflict in modern industrial
societies over levels of inequality in wealth, status and power;
the function of key social institutions such as education is to socialise and
brainwash people into conformity with capitalist ideology and its values
of competition, greed and privatised family life;
the key function of the media is to distract people’s attention from the
realities of oppression and inequality towards a preoccupation with
superficiality and trivia e.g. celebrity role models and commodity
fetishism;
the formal agents of social control are used against the masses during
protests against inequality such as riots and demonstrations;
figures on white collar crime show that whilst the middle and upper
classes commit the highest value crimes it is the lower classes who are
criminalised and punished most severely for crime;
Arguments against:
functionalists argue that society is built on value consensus, not the
social conflict espoused by Marxists and this is shown by the low levels
of social unrest, revolution etc.;
schools function to provide key skills, norms and values that young
people need to take their place in the economy of a society. This is
crucial to all members of society rather than just the elite;
the function of families is not simply to shore up capitalism but to
socialise young people into the norms and values of wider society so that
social order is maintained from one generation to the next;
the function of prisons is to punish all wrongdoers from whatever class
they come from – white collar criminals are increasingly being caught and
punished in a globalised, internet-driven world;
functionalists use the organic analogy to describe society and this can
be easily evidenced, e.g. if there is an increase in crime then
governments might target policies aimed at alleviating poverty in the
family or getting schools to deliver more effective socialisation into
conformity with norms, values and the law;
feminists disagree that class is the main social division, arguing instead
that gender is the fundamental division that creates the most
fundamental inequalities in society as patriarchy cuts across all social
classes;
some sociologists argue that class alone cannot explain social division and
inequality but that gender, age and ethnicity must be taken into account,
along with class, to fully understand how society works;
Identify two primary research methods useful for studying people’s health, apart from
questionnaires. [2]
- interviews (any type);
- observations (any type);
- experiments;
- case studies;
- surveys;
- longitudinal studies;
- triangulation;
Describe two limitations of using telephone questionnaires in research. [4]
- telephone questionnaires take up more of a researcher’s time (e.g. than
postal questionnaires) because the researcher has to spend time
reading the questions out and researcher time may add to the cost; - on the telephone participants may give socially desirable answers or
answers that they think are the ‘right’ ones or the ones that the
researcher wants to hear, lowering validity; - in some countries or regions not everyone may have access to a
telephone which may lower the representativeness of the sample,
inhibiting generalisability; - it is more difficult for the interviewer to read non-verbal cues or body
language on the telephone which may inhibit accuracy; - it is more difficult to establish rapport over the phone which may
negatively affect respondent answers e.g. they won’t open up; - the researcher may influence the answers given through their own
social characteristics (such as age, gender etc.) or through their
interaction with the participant; - many people today may not answer a phone number they do not
recognise and this could impact negatively on the sample size;
Describe two strengths and two limitations of stratified sampling in research. [8]
Possible strengths:
* stratified sampling overcomes the problem that random samples are not
always representative in that the researcher is able to divide the
sampling frame into relevant categories such as age, gender etc.;
* stratified sampling may allow for more generalisability of findings given
the sample is likely to represent the target population in terms of its
subdivisions;
* a stratified approach allows correlations and comparisons to be made
between sub-sets of the population;
* it is still possible to maintain a randomised approach as random
samples can be taken once the sampling frame is divided, thus
reducing researcher bias in the sample selection;
Possible limitations:
* a sampling frame may not be available for certain research populations
who are hard to reach (e.g. drug users) and so another form of
sampling, such as snowball, may be needed;
* it can be hard to stratify as accurate up-to-date population data may not
be available and it may be hard to identify people’s age or social
background effectively;
* it can be complex to do if several social characteristics are needed e.g.
age, gender, ethnicity, social class etc. and therefore requires some
skill;
* it is more complex to do than simple random sampling and hence takes
up more researcher time and money;
* stratified samples are prone to become skewed in cases of participant
drop out e.g. if many women dropped out of a study stratified by gender
this would make the sample uneven;
To what extent are ethical issues the most important factor when planning sociological research?
[15]
Arguments for:
* in qualitative research ethical issues are more prominent as there is
more face-to-face contact and probing of participants, so in this type of
interpretivist research ethics are far more important in planning than
with a purely quantitative positivist approach;
* it is often crucial to anticipate ethical issues to ensure funding from
outside bodies who may not wish to support an unethical study;
* it is wrong to harm participants either psychologically or physically and
this moral consideration must override all other considerations when
planning research;
* information must be kept private and confidential – this ethical issue is
core to the research process, as without it not only would researchers
be acting unethically but participants are less likely to take part or give
valid answers;
* deceiving people in the name of research is never justifiable on moral
grounds and may result in danger for the researcher should the
deception be uncovered, it is thus crucial to find a way to avoid this at
the planning stage;
* getting informed consent is a crucial right – people are more likely to
join a research project if they are clear about why it is important, how
data will be used etc.;
* ethical guidelines are particularly important when dealing with
vulnerable adults or young children as they may be more susceptible to
researcher effect and they may have special legal rights;
* any other reasonable response.
Arguments against:
* funding is a more important factor than ethical issues as without funding
the research project may not be able to take place at all;
* practical issues such as time, access to participants, researcher training
etc. are all more important than ethical issues as they are more
fundamental to the viability of the research project;
* sampling decisions are just as or more important than ethical issues as
without appropriate sampling techniques and proper access to samples
any results would be untenable because of a lack of representativeness
and thus generalisability;
* the choice of method is just as or more fundamental than ethical issues
as this will largely determine the quality of the data gathered and a
considered choice of methodology will avoid or minimise ethical issues
anyway;
* getting informed consent is not always possible or desirable – not
always possible if a researcher is observing a large number of people
and not always desirable as some important research may have to be
done covertly in order to maximise validity;
* deception may need to be employed in order to get people to act more
naturally e.g. in researching pupil behaviour a researcher may take on
the role of a teacher’s assistant in order to minimise the Hawthorne
Effect;
Identify two research methods which are useful for gaining statistics. [2]
questionnaire;
structured/semi-structured interview;
surveys;
content analysis;
laboratory experiment;
