research methods 2 Flashcards
What are the 2 observation types in sociology?
Participant vs non-participant
Covert vs overt
Strength and weakness of participant vs non-participant observations? vv
Participant:
S=researcher gains greater insight as they are experiencing the same experiences the ppts do, increasing the validity
W=researcher may become too involved aka ‘going native’, findings are less objective
Non-participant:
vv
Strength and weakness of covert vs overt observations? vv
Covert:
S=demand characteristics are reduced
W=unethical, ppts privacy is being invaded
Overt:
vv
What is official statistics?
Examples? (2)
Data collected by the government
E.g. official crime statistics, unemployment figures
Practical, ethical and theoretical strength of official statistics
P: free and mostly easy to access
E: data is annonymous and easily available to the public>confidentiality is protected
T: objective>free from bias
Practical and theoretical weakness of official statistics
P: some statistics aren’t available e.g. private schools
E: X
T: Doesn’t explain why or how>lacks validity
What are the 2 types of experiments in sociology? Explain
Give examples
What do positivists and interpretivists prefer?
Field- IV manipulated in a natural setting, e.g. classroom :) interpretivists
Lab- IV manipulated in a controlled setting e.g. laboratory :) positivists - scientific
What is a DV?
Variable researcher measures
What is an IV?
Variable researcher manipulates
What is an EV?
Variables, other than the IV, which may have an effect on the DV, if not controlled for
What is cause and effect?
The relationship between 2 variables, where one of the 2 is the direct and only cause of the other
What is ecological validity?
Whether the findings of a study is true in real-world settings
Give examples of the difference between personal and public documents
Personal- diary, passport, text messages, social media
Public- birth certificate, criminal record
Strengths and weakness of public documents?
S: Easily accessed by researchers
W: Not all historical documents will survive e.g. lost or damages (personal + public)
Strengths and weakness of personal documents?
S: Give deep insights into the authors perspective>high validity
W: Access may be an issue as they might not want to share.
What is the sampling frame? E.g.
List of everyone in the target population, from which a sample is drawn
E.g. electoral roll
What are the 5 sampling methods in sociology?
Random
Opportunity
Stratisfied
Systematic
Snowball
What is snowball sampling?
Sample starting with 1 or a few individuals, then they suggest more people to be in the study
Give a strength and weakness of snowball sampling
S= Good for studying difficult groups in society e.g. deviant criminal groups, because it gains trust
W=Likely to be unrepresentative
What is the dark side of statistics? (5)
Open to manipulation
Political abuse
Socially constructed
Missing statistics
Misleading statistics
How are official statistics open to manipulation?
Not everything is reported, and what is has been tidied
E.g. not accurately recording absences and or lateness, excluding poor performing students in exams
This is to secure funding, have success in league tables, positive inspection report
How are official statistics political abuse?
Headteachers, politics, media may deliberately distort some statistics
Can trick the observer into believing something other than what the data shows
How are official statistics socially constructed?
What we define as a crime changes
Not all crimes are reported
E.g. SA victims may have the fear of being blamed or may not know it was a crime
How do official statistics have missing features?
Some statistics do not exist e.g. private schools
How are official statistics misleading?
Does not show us the whole picture e.g. sample size
