Research methods Flashcards
What is Primary data ?
Collected first hand by sociologists.
Examples:
-Participant observation
-Surveys
-Experiments
What is Secondary data ?
Collected by other people / institutions / companies and used by sociologists for their own purpose.
Examples:
-Official statistics
-School league tables
-Personal documents
Qualitative data:
Interpretivists & interactionists are more interested in
understanding behaviour so they prefer Qualitative data.
Examples of Qualitative data:
-Descriptions
-Observed not measured
-Open questions
-Unstructured
-Smaller samples
-Relies on language
Quantitative data:
Positivists (a more scientific approach) – more focussed on
trends and correlations and statistics so they prefer Quantitative data.
Examples of Quantitative data:
-Numbers
-Measured
-Closed questions
-Structured
-Large samples
Practical issues:
Time & Money -Some primary research may take time and cost money.
Funding Bodies -Governments, Businesses, Universities etc may require different types of data & therefore the researcher has limited choices.
Subject Matter - If the topic requires opinions, feelings, thoughts on just plain facts and figures will impact on choice of method.
Research Opportunity - In some cases research opportunities may occur unexpectedly & therefore affects the researchers time & planning.
Ethical issues:
Consent - Participants should be able to refuse being researched.
Confidentiality & Privacy - All participant identities should be kept confidential to prevent any negative effects.
Danger & Harm - No psychological or physical harm should come to the participants.
Vulnerable groups - Extra care & attention should be give to any group/ participants that are deemed as vulnerable in terms if age, gender, disability, ethnicity, physical or mental health.
Covert Research - This is when the researcher goes ‘Under Cover’ & keeps their identity as a researcher hidden from the participants.
Theoretical issues:
Reliability - A reliable method is one that, when repeated by another researcher, the same results will be obtained.
Validity - A valid method is one that produces a true, full picture of what is being studied.
Representativeness - Whether or not the participants are a good cross-section of the group the researcher is interested in. If the participant ‘Sample’ is a good cross-section then the information obtained from them can be ‘Generalised’ to the bigger group.
Positivists view:
Positivists prefer quantitative methods.
-structured questionnaires and official statistics because these have good reliability and representativeness.
-They see society as shaping the individual and believe that ‘social facts’ shape individual action.
-They argue that by using quantitative methods and getting large samples we can uncover social trends and patterns.
-They look for relationships, or ‘correlations’ between two or more variables. This is known as the comparative method.
Interpretivist view:
Interpretivist approach to social research would be much more qualitative, using methods such as unstructured interviews or participant observation.
-Interpretivists argue that individuals are not just puppets who react to external social forces.
-individuals are intricate and complex and different people experience and understand the same ‘objective reality’ in very different ways and have their own, often very different, reasons for acting in the world.
-In order to understand human action we need to achieve ‘Verstehen‘
Examples of Overt participant observation : Venkatesh
He observed Black Kings, a crack-dealing gang in Chicago. His research, detailed in Gang Leader for a Day, began when gang leader J.T. invited him to observe operations first-hand. Over nearly a decade, Venkatesh uncovered the gang’s corporate-like structure, where profits were unevenly distributed. The book, praised for its insights into urban poverty and gang culture.
Example : Humphrey’s Tearoom Trade Study
He studied men who have sex with other men in public restrooms of city parks. He obtained his information by acting as a watch queen, playing the role of lookout and warning the men if anyone was coming. The men involved did not know he was a researcher.
Participant Observation Example: Griffin’s Black Like Me.
Griffin, a white journalist, darkened his skin using medication and UV treatments to pass as a Black man in the segregated South. He travelled through Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia, documenting the racial discrimination and prejudice he experienced first hand.
Advantages of unstructured interviews:
-One advantage of using unstructured interviews is that each question is tailored to the person being interviewed meaning that the the researcher can gain deeper answers which allows the researcher to gain verstehen.
-Effective when researching sensitive topics.
Disadvantages of unstructured interviews:
-Hard to compare responses as different questions are being answered meaning that finding trends and patterns are nearly impossible.
-Time consuming
-Interviewer bias distorts the data making it less valid.
-poor reliability, as they cannot be repeated accurately.
Advantages of structured interviews:
-Structured interviews can cover large samples with limited resource as they are cheap & quick to administer.
-High response rates.
-Reliable as it is easy for the researcher to standardize and control them.
