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Sociology > Research Methods > Flashcards

Research Methods Flashcards

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Sociology 101 flashcards
1
Q

What are key aspects of positivism ?

A
  • Scientific
  • Favour quantitative data
  • Beliefs in things that can be observed and measured
  • Value objectivity, standardisation and replicable
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2
Q

What are key aspects of interpretivism ?

A
  • Favour qualitative data
  • Value high validity
  • Belief in versthen
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3
Q

How can you evaluate research methods ?

A

Using PET
P - practical
E - ethical
T - theoretical

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4
Q

What are practical issues ?

A

Time, cost , access and skills of the researcher

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5
Q

What are ethical issues ?

A

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

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6
Q

What are theoretical issues ?

A

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

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7
Q

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

A 
A.L.O.E
• Accessibility
• Ethical issues
• Language barrier 
• Opportunities or difficulties recording data
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8
Q

What to consider when writing an investigation ?

A
  • Methods used
  • The setting
  • Types of people involved
  • Issues raised
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9
Q

What are different settings for research in education ?

A

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

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10
Q

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

A

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

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11
Q

What is primary data ?

A

Data collected first hand by the researcher for research purposes.

+ Precise
- Costly and time consuming

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12
Q

What is secondary data ?

A

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
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13
Q

What are questionnaires ?

A

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

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14
Q

What are practical aspects of questionnaires ?

A

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

  • Low response rate
  • Can’t investigate closed groups
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15
Q

What are ethical aspects of questionnaires ?

A

+ Can gain consent

  • Social desirability
  • Insensitive
  • Biased wording of the question
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16
Q

What are theoretical aspects of questionnaires ?

A

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

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

17
Q

What are interviews ?

A

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

18
Q

What are structured interviews ?

A

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

+ Easy to replicate
- Inflexible

19
Q

What are semi - structured interviews ?

A

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

20
Q

What are unstructured interviews ?

A

“Informal interviews” - Questions are not prearranged.

+ Increased validity
- Hard to quantify

21
Q

What are practical aspects of unstructured interviews ?

A

Can be time - consuming and requires skills of the researcher

22
Q

What are ethical aspects of unstructured interviews ?

A

+ Lack of deception

+ Rarely harmful unless sensitive topics are discussed

23
Q

What are theoretical aspects of unstructured interviews ?

A

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

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

24
Q

What are observations ?

A

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).

25
Q

What are practical aspects of participant observations ?

A

+ Access to more suspicious groups

  • Time consuming
  • Requires a trained researcher
26
Q

What are ethical aspects of participant observations ?

A

+ If overt can allow for consent and legality

- If covert can allow for deception and lacks consent

27
Q

What are theoretical aspects of participant observations ?

A

Interpretivists favour observations for being high in validity and providing versthen

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

28
Q

Describe lab experiments ?

A

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

+ Control of variables
- Low ecological validity

29
Q

Describe field experiments ?

A

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

+ higher ecological validity
- less control over extraneous variables

30
Q

Describe natural experiments ?

A

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

31
Q

What are practical aspects of experiments ?

A

+ Easy to attract funding
+ Can be large scale

  • Time consuming
32
Q

What are ethical aspects of experiments ?

A

+ Findings outweighs harm

  • Can be harmful
  • Could lack consent
33
Q

What are theoretical aspects of experiments ?

A

+ Establishes cause and effect
+ Objective

  • Hawthorne effect
  • Reliability is weak

Sociology (7 decks)

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