Research Methods Flashcards
What types of interviews are there?
- Structured
- Unstructured
- Semi-structured
- Group interviews
What types of experiments are there?
- Field
- Laboratory
- Comparative
What types of documents are there?
- Content analysis
- Thematic analysis
What types of official statistics are there?
- Content analysis
- Thematic analysis
What types of observations are there?
- Covert
- Overt
- Participant
- Non-participant
What does P.E.T stand for?
- Practical
- Ethical
- Theoretical
What is a practical issue?
A barrier that exists physically whrn carrying out the research
What is an ethical issue?
What moral barries challenge researchers to conduct in a certain manner
What is a theoretical issue?
What affects how useful the research is to be used in society?
What are some practical issues?
- Time and Money
- Requirements of funding bodies
- Personal skills and characteristics
- Research opportunities
- Access and characteristics of researcher
What are some ethical issues?
- Informed consent
- Confidentiality and privacy
- Harm to participants
- Vulnerable groups
- Deception
What are some theoretical issues?
- Reliability
- Validity
- Representativeness
What is reliability?
How well the research can be copied with the same results produced
What is validity?
How true the findings of the study are to real life
What is representativeness?
How well the sample represents the target population
What are the two main research approaches?
- Positivism
- Interpretivism
What does Positivism prefer?
- Scientific testing
- Objectivity
- Quantative data
- Macro sociology
- Focus on patterns in society
What does Interpretivism prefer?
- Non-scientfic testing
- Qualitative data
- Micro sociology
- Focus on meanings within society
What are the different types of sampling?
- Random
- Systematic
- Stratified
- Quota
- Snowball
- Opportunity
What is systematic sampling?
Selecting people from the sample by choosing every 5th, 10th, ect person
What is stratified sampling?
The population is divded based on characteristics
What is quota sampling?
Researcher has a quote for different characteristics
(20 men, 20 women)
What is snowball sampling?
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)
What is opportunity sampling?
Choosing people who are the easiest to access
What is a laboratory experiment?
- Highly controlled
- Researchers manipulate variables to tests the cause and effect relationship between them
- Dependent + Independent varibales
What is an experimental group?
The group that exposed to the independent variable in a laboratory experiment to see the effect on the dependent variable
What is the control group?
The group of participants in a lab experiment that are not exposed to the independent variable
What happened in Zimbardo’s prison experiment?
- Random allocation of guards and prisoners
- Degregation ritual + solitary confinement
- Got more abusive daily
What was Zimbardo’s sample?
24 male students who were volunteers
What was the environment in Zimbardo’s study?
Unversity basement
(Lab experiment = fake environment, impacts validity)
What were the results of Zimbardo’s prison experiment?
- People broke down and became mindlessly obident
- Roles were adopted quicklu and intensely
- The environement influenced their behaviour
What are some ethical considerations of Zimbardo’s experiment?
- Mental and physical harm to participants
- Negatively impacted social status
What are some theoretical considerations of Zimbardo’s experiment?
- 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
What is the Hawthorne effect?
A situation where an indivial or group is aware they are being observed so their behaviour changes accordingly
What was Elton Mayo’s (1927) study on the Hawthorne effect?
- 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
What was Paul Piff’s field experiment?
- Seeing if rich people were less giving than the poor
- Observed how many expensive vs cheap cars stopped for padestrians
What P.E.T considerations are there aroudn Paul Piff’s study?
Ethical - They weren’t aware they were being studied
Theoretical - Only done at one crosswalk, not every rich person has an expensive car
Differences bewteen lab and field experiments
Lab - More reliable, Hawthorne effect
Field - Larger sample size, Real life setting, More valid
What is the comparative method?
The researcher collects data about different social groups and compares them
What was Durkheim’s comparative study of suicide (1887)?
- 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
What are the strengths of the Comparative Method?
- Can be used to study the past
- Little/no ethical considerations
What are some limitations of the Comparative Method?
- May be other factors that explain the cause and effect
- Lacks validity
- Heavily reliant on secondary data
What are the 4 types of interviews?
- Structured interviews
- Unstructured interviews
- Semi-structured interviews
- Focus group/group interview
Pros of structured interviews
- Reliable
- Can cover large numbers of people
- Inexpensive
- Straightforward
- Results are suitable for hypothesis testing
Cons of structured interviews
- 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
Pros of unstructured interviews
- 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
Cons of unstrucutured interviews
- Smaller sample sizes
- Less reliable
- Lack of quantative data
- Training is more thorough
- Requires good people skills
Pros of group interviews
- Produces richer data
- Participants may be more comfortable
- The researcher is less involved
Cons of group interviews
- Data may be difficult to analyse
- Some individuals may dominate the discussion
- Peer pressure may stop some people from expressing their views
What type of interviews do feminists prefer?
Unstructured interviews as it removes male researchers from dictating the questions and patriarchal oppression
What are open-ended questons?
No restrictions on the answer given, qualitative
What are closed-ended questions?
Restricitve, quantitative
What are likert scales?
Use words to gauge opinions
(Agree, Strongly Agree)
What are rating scales?
Judge opinions using numbers
(1-10)
What are the pratical advantages of questionnaires?
- Quick and cheap
- Widespread
- No need to train interviewers
- Data is easy to quantify
Why are questionnaires reliable?
- Can be made identical
- Allow for comparisons
Who favours questionnaires?
Positivists
Why do positivists favour questionnaires?
- They are detached and objective
- Limited involvement of sociologist with the respondants
How are questionnaires representative?
They can collect info from a large number of people, therefore it has a better chance of being representative of the target population
What should a questionnaire do to be ethical?
Get informed consent from the respondant and guarantee anonymity
What is a practical problem of questionnaires?
Most people need an incentive to complete it, which can be costly
Who is more likely to fill out a questionnaire?
Retired or unemployed people as they have more time on their hands, which can effect results
Why are questionnaires inflexible?
Once its finished it cannot be changed
Why do interpretivists argue questionnaires lack validity?
Because they are detatched and inflexible
What is a Participant observation?
Where the researcher interacts with the participant
What is a Non-participant observation?
The researcher does not interact with the participant
What is a Covert observation?
Where the researcher is undercover
What is an Overt observation?
Where the participant know the researcher’s purpose
What is a pro of Participant observations?
Can ask for clarification about things
What is a pro and con of Non-participant observations?
Pro: Doesn’t require people skills
Con: May cause misinterpretations
What are the cons of Covert observations?
- Lack of informed consent
- An act must be kept up
- Deception
- Hard to take notes
What are the pros and cons of Overt observations?
Pros: Take notes freely
Cons: May be denied access, participants may change their behaviour (Hawthorne Effect)
Why is it hard to get into a group for an observation?
- Need the right connections
- Good personal skills
- Win trust and acceptance
- May face suspicion and hostility
Why is it hard to stay in a group during an observation?
- Need to fight ‘going native’
- Must remain detatched
- The longer in the group, the less strange things may appear
Why is it hard to get out of a group after an observation?
- Hard to return to normal life
- May have loyalities to the group
- Could be dangerous
What are Official Statistics?
Quantitative data that gathers info on a variety of issues
What are Hard Statistics?
Hard to dispute and widely regarded as valid
What are Soft Statistics?
More open to interpretation than hard statistics
How do Positivists see Official Statistics?
They uncover facts about society that are objectively true
How do Interpretivists see Official Statistics?
Stats are not factual, they instead just represent the labels that we put on individuals and actions
How do Marxists see Official Statistics?
They are made by the bourgeoisie and therefore have their interests at heart
What is a Document?
Anything in society that is written down or presented as some form of media, such as paintings, drawings, maps, photos
What are some issues around Documents?
- 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
