Research Methods

Question 1

What are key aspects of positivism ?

Answer 1

• Scientific
• Favour quantitative data
• Beliefs in things that can be observed and measured
• Value objectivity, standardisation and replicable

Question 2

What are key aspects of interpretivism ?

Answer 2

• Favour qualitative data
• Value high validity
• Belief in versthen

Question 3

How can you evaluate research methods ?

Answer 3

Using PET
P - practical
E - ethical
T - theoretical

Question 4

What are practical issues ?

Answer 4

Time, cost , access and skills of the researcher

Question 5

What are ethical issues ?

Answer 5

Informed consent, deception, harm to participant and is it legal

Question 6

What are theoretical issues ?

Answer 6

Validity, reliability , generalisable, objective or subjective and positivism vs positivism

Question 7

What issues could be faced to conduct a study in a particu.ar area ?

Answer 7

A.L.O.E
• Accessibility
• Ethical issues
• Language barrier 
• Opportunities or difficulties recording data

Question 8

What to consider when writing an investigation ?

Answer 8

• Methods used
• The setting
• Types of people involved
• Issues raised

Question 9

What are different settings for research in education ?

Answer 9

Schools - But this has accessibility issues

Classroom - Controlled by the teacher and pupils can be influenced by their peers.

Staffroom’s - May not be welcomed by researcher’s

Question 10

Who are different types of participants that can be studied in education ?

Answer 10

i - Pupils (have little power and easily influenced)
ii - Parents (aren’t often in school)
iii - Teachers (used to being inspected)

Question 11

What is primary data ?

Answer 11

Data collected first hand by the researcher for research purposes.

+ Precise
- Costly and time consuming

Question 12

What is secondary data ?

Answer 12

Data that is already available to the sociologist as opposed to primary data which they produce themselves.

+ Cheap and maybe the only data available in that field

• May not fit the hypothesis
• Credibility can be questioned

Question 13

What are questionnaires ?

Answer 13

A list of pre-set questions to which the participants are asked to answer.

Question 14

What are practical aspects of questionnaires ?

Answer 14

+ Cheap, easy and not time consuming
+ Can collect a large sample covering a wide geographical coverage

• Low response rate
• Can’t investigate closed groups

Question 15

What are ethical aspects of questionnaires ?

Answer 15

+ Can gain consent

• Social desirability
• Insensitive
• Biased wording of the question

Question 16

What are theoretical aspects of questionnaires ?

Answer 16

Positivists favour questionnaires because they can test hypothesis and can be quantified.

However, interpretivists believe they lack validity, objectivity and can’t be representative.

Question 17

What are interviews ?

Answer 17

Interviews can be structured, semi-structured or unstructured and can be conducted in groups or with individuals.

Question 18

What are structured interviews ?

Answer 18

Questionnaires that are based on pre-set, closed-ended questions.

+ Easy to replicate
- Inflexible

Question 19

What are semi - structured interviews ?

Answer 19

Where interviewer can ask pre-set questions but also detract from set questions.

Question 20

What are unstructured interviews ?

Answer 20

“Informal interviews” - Questions are not prearranged.

+ Increased validity
- Hard to quantify

Question 21

What are practical aspects of unstructured interviews ?

Answer 21

Can be time - consuming and requires skills of the researcher

Question 22

What are ethical aspects of unstructured interviews ?

Answer 22

+ Lack of deception

+ Rarely harmful unless sensitive topics are discussed

Question 23

What are theoretical aspects of unstructured interviews ?

Answer 23

Interpretivists favour interviews for being subjective and allowing a rapport to be built.

However, positivists argue interviews are unreliable and hard to generalise.

Question 24

What are observations ?

Answer 24

There are a number of different kinds of observation, for example they can be overt or covert (the people may or may not know that they are being observed) and they can be participant or non-participant (the researcher may or may not play an active part in what is being observed).

Question 25

What are practical aspects of participant observations ?

Answer 25

+ Access to more suspicious groups

• Time consuming
• Requires a trained researcher

Question 26

What are ethical aspects of participant observations ?

Answer 26

+ If overt can allow for consent and legality

- If covert can allow for deception and lacks consent

Question 27

What are theoretical aspects of participant observations ?

Answer 27

Interpretivists favour observations for being high in validity and providing versthen

But positivists argue they can’t be replicated and produce subjective data.

Question 28

Describe lab experiments ?

Answer 28

An experiment conducted under highly controlled conditions where accurate measurements are possible.

+ Control of variables
- Low ecological validity

Question 29

Describe field experiments ?

Answer 29

Conducted within everyday (i.e. real life) environment. The experimenter can’t manipulates the independent variable.

+ higher ecological validity
- less control over extraneous variables

Question 30

Describe natural experiments ?

Answer 30

Conducted in the everyday (i.e. real life) environment of the participants, but here the experimenter has no control over the IV as it occurs naturally in real life.

+ Lack demand characteristics
- No control over extraneous variables that might bias the results

Question 31

What are practical aspects of experiments ?

Answer 31

+ Easy to attract funding
+ Can be large scale

• Time consuming

Question 32

What are ethical aspects of experiments ?

Answer 32

+ Findings outweighs harm

• Can be harmful
• Could lack consent

Question 33

What are theoretical aspects of experiments ?

Answer 33

+ Establishes cause and effect
+ Objective

• Hawthorne effect
• Reliability is weak