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Sociology > Research Methods > Flashcards

Research Methods Flashcards

1
Q

What types of interviews are there?

A
  • Structured
  • Unstructured
  • Semi-structured
  • Group interviews
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2
Q

What types of experiments are there?

A
  • Field
  • Laboratory
  • Comparative
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3
Q

What types of documents are there?

A
  • Content analysis
  • Thematic analysis
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4
Q

What types of official statistics are there?

A
  • Content analysis
  • Thematic analysis
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5
Q

What types of observations are there?

A
  • Covert
  • Overt
  • Participant
  • Non-participant
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6
Q

What does P.E.T stand for?

A
  • Practical
  • Ethical
  • Theoretical
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7
Q

What is a practical issue?

A

A barrier that exists physically whrn carrying out the research

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8
Q

What is an ethical issue?

A

What moral barries challenge researchers to conduct in a certain manner

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9
Q

What is a theoretical issue?

A

What affects how useful the research is to be used in society?

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10
Q

What are some practical issues?

A
  • Time and Money
  • Requirements of funding bodies
  • Personal skills and characteristics
  • Research opportunities
  • Access and characteristics of researcher
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11
Q

What are some ethical issues?

A
  • Informed consent
  • Confidentiality and privacy
  • Harm to participants
  • Vulnerable groups
  • Deception
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12
Q

What are some theoretical issues?

A
  • Reliability
  • Validity
  • Representativeness
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13
Q

What is reliability?

A

How well the research can be copied with the same results produced

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14
Q

What is validity?

A

How true the findings of the study are to real life

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15
Q

What is representativeness?

A

How well the sample represents the target population

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16
Q

What are the two main research approaches?

A
  • Positivism
  • Interpretivism
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17
Q

What does Positivism prefer?

A
  • Scientific testing
  • Objectivity
  • Quantative data
  • Macro sociology
  • Focus on patterns in society
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18
Q

What does Interpretivism prefer?

A
  • Non-scientfic testing
  • Qualitative data
  • Micro sociology
  • Focus on meanings within society
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19
Q

What are the different types of sampling?

A
  • Random
  • Systematic
  • Stratified
  • Quota
  • Snowball
  • Opportunity
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20
Q

What is systematic sampling?

A

Selecting people from the sample by choosing every 5th, 10th, ect person

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21
Q

What is stratified sampling?

A

The population is divded based on characteristics

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22
Q

What is quota sampling?

A

Researcher has a quote for different characteristics
(20 men, 20 women)

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23
Q

What is snowball sampling?

A

Asking participants to introduce the researcher to other people willing to particiapte
(Useful for people who are hard to get hold of, such as gangs)

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24
Q

What is opportunity sampling?

A

Choosing people who are the easiest to access

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25
Q

What is a laboratory experiment?

A
  • Highly controlled
  • Researchers manipulate variables to tests the cause and effect relationship between them
  • Dependent + Independent varibales
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26
Q

What is an experimental group?

A

The group that exposed to the independent variable in a laboratory experiment to see the effect on the dependent variable

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27
Q

What is the control group?

A

The group of participants in a lab experiment that are not exposed to the independent variable

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28
Q

What happened in Zimbardo’s prison experiment?

A
  • Random allocation of guards and prisoners
  • Degregation ritual + solitary confinement
  • Got more abusive daily
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29
Q

What was Zimbardo’s sample?

A

24 male students who were volunteers

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30
Q

What was the environment in Zimbardo’s study?

A

Unversity basement
(Lab experiment = fake environment, impacts validity)

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31
Q

What were the results of Zimbardo’s prison experiment?

A
  • People broke down and became mindlessly obident
  • Roles were adopted quicklu and intensely
  • The environement influenced their behaviour
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32
Q

What are some ethical considerations of Zimbardo’s experiment?

A
  • Mental and physical harm to participants
  • Negatively impacted social status
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33
Q

What are some theoretical considerations of Zimbardo’s experiment?

A
  • Not very representative due to small sample, age range, and gender representation
  • Zimbardo was involved in the experiment
  • Some people admitted to playing characters, impacting validity
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34
Q

What is the Hawthorne effect?

A

A situation where an indivial or group is aware they are being observed so their behaviour changes accordingly

35
Q
A
36
Q

What was Elton Mayo’s (1927) study on the Hawthorne effect?

A
  • Researched productivity in a facory
  • The 5 participants knew they were taking part in an experiment
  • Despite negative conditions, their productivity increased because they knew they were being watched
37
Q

What was Paul Piff’s field experiment?

A
  • Seeing if rich people were less giving than the poor
  • Observed how many expensive vs cheap cars stopped for padestrians
38
Q

What P.E.T considerations are there aroudn Paul Piff’s study?

A

Ethical - They weren’t aware they were being studied
Theoretical - Only done at one crosswalk, not every rich person has an expensive car

39
Q

Differences bewteen lab and field experiments

A

Lab - More reliable, Hawthorne effect
Field - Larger sample size, Real life setting, More valid

40
Q

What is the comparative method?

A

The researcher collects data about different social groups and compares them

41
Q

What was Durkheim’s comparative study of suicide (1887)?

A
  • Examined suicide rates between Catholics and Protestants
  • Found higher rates among Protestants
  • Argued this was due to less intergration but had no real evidence for this reasoning
42
Q

What are the strengths of the Comparative Method?

A
  • Can be used to study the past
  • Little/no ethical considerations
43
Q

What are some limitations of the Comparative Method?

A
  • May be other factors that explain the cause and effect
  • Lacks validity
  • Heavily reliant on secondary data
44
Q

What are the 4 types of interviews?

A
  • Structured interviews
  • Unstructured interviews
  • Semi-structured interviews
  • Focus group/group interview
45
Q

Pros of structured interviews

A
  • Reliable
  • Can cover large numbers of people
  • Inexpensive
  • Straightforward
  • Results are suitable for hypothesis testing
46
Q

Cons of structured interviews

A
  • Closed-ended questions
  • Little freedom to clarify misunderstandings
  • People may lie or exaggerate
  • Monotonus, makes people bored
  • Feminist Hilary Graham argues they are patriarchal and create an invalid picture of women’s experiences
47
Q

Pros of unstructured interviews

A
  • Easier to explore unfamiliar topics
  • Highly flexible
  • Easier to check misunderstandings
  • Informality means people are more likely to open up
  • The interviewee has more chance to talk about what they feel is important
  • Produces fresh insights
48
Q

Cons of unstrucutured interviews

A
  • Smaller sample sizes
  • Less reliable
  • Lack of quantative data
  • Training is more thorough
  • Requires good people skills
49
Q

Pros of group interviews

A
  • Produces richer data
  • Participants may be more comfortable
  • The researcher is less involved
50
Q

Cons of group interviews

A
  • Data may be difficult to analyse
  • Some individuals may dominate the discussion
  • Peer pressure may stop some people from expressing their views
51
Q

What type of interviews do feminists prefer?

A

Unstructured interviews as it removes male researchers from dictating the questions and patriarchal oppression

52
Q

What are open-ended questons?

A

No restrictions on the answer given, qualitative

53
Q

What are closed-ended questions?

A

Restricitve, quantitative

54
Q

What are likert scales?

A

Use words to gauge opinions
(Agree, Strongly Agree)

55
Q

What are rating scales?

A

Judge opinions using numbers
(1-10)

56
Q

What are the pratical advantages of questionnaires?

A
  • Quick and cheap
  • Widespread
  • No need to train interviewers
  • Data is easy to quantify
57
Q

Why are questionnaires reliable?

A
  • Can be made identical
  • Allow for comparisons
58
Q

Who favours questionnaires?

A

Positivists

59
Q

Why do positivists favour questionnaires?

A
  • They are detached and objective
  • Limited involvement of sociologist with the respondants
60
Q

How are questionnaires representative?

A

They can collect info from a large number of people, therefore it has a better chance of being representative of the target population

61
Q

What should a questionnaire do to be ethical?

A

Get informed consent from the respondant and guarantee anonymity

62
Q

What is a practical problem of questionnaires?

A

Most people need an incentive to complete it, which can be costly

63
Q

Who is more likely to fill out a questionnaire?

A

Retired or unemployed people as they have more time on their hands, which can effect results

64
Q

Why are questionnaires inflexible?

A

Once its finished it cannot be changed

65
Q

Why do interpretivists argue questionnaires lack validity?

A

Because they are detatched and inflexible

66
Q

What is a Participant observation?

A

Where the researcher interacts with the participant

67
Q

What is a Non-participant observation?

A

The researcher does not interact with the participant

68
Q

What is a Covert observation?

A

Where the researcher is undercover

69
Q

What is an Overt observation?

A

Where the participant know the researcher’s purpose

70
Q

What is a pro of Participant observations?

A

Can ask for clarification about things

71
Q

What is a pro and con of Non-participant observations?

A

Pro: Doesn’t require people skills
Con: May cause misinterpretations

72
Q

What are the cons of Covert observations?

A
  • Lack of informed consent
  • An act must be kept up
  • Deception
  • Hard to take notes
73
Q

What are the pros and cons of Overt observations?

A

Pros: Take notes freely
Cons: May be denied access, participants may change their behaviour (Hawthorne Effect)

74
Q

Why is it hard to get into a group for an observation?

A
  • Need the right connections
  • Good personal skills
  • Win trust and acceptance
  • May face suspicion and hostility
75
Q

Why is it hard to stay in a group during an observation?

A
  • Need to fight ‘going native’
  • Must remain detatched
  • The longer in the group, the less strange things may appear
76
Q

Why is it hard to get out of a group after an observation?

A
  • Hard to return to normal life
  • May have loyalities to the group
  • Could be dangerous
77
Q

What are Official Statistics?

A

Quantitative data that gathers info on a variety of issues

78
Q

What are Hard Statistics?

A

Hard to dispute and widely regarded as valid

79
Q

What are Soft Statistics?

A

More open to interpretation than hard statistics

80
Q

How do Positivists see Official Statistics?

A

They uncover facts about society that are objectively true

81
Q

How do Interpretivists see Official Statistics?

A

Stats are not factual, they instead just represent the labels that we put on individuals and actions

82
Q

How do Marxists see Official Statistics?

A

They are made by the bourgeoisie and therefore have their interests at heart

83
Q

What is a Document?

A

Anything in society that is written down or presented as some form of media, such as paintings, drawings, maps, photos

84
Q

What are some issues around Documents?

A
  • May not be authentic
  • May be untrue
  • It may not be typical of other documents of its time
  • Certain groups may be underepresented
  • Words change meanings overtime
  • Interpreted differently by other people

Sociology (12 decks)

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