Research methods and theories Flashcards
positivism?
That they can reach a full understanding based on experiment and observation. They like quantitative data
Interpretivist?
An approach emphasising that people have consciousness involving personal beliefs, values and interpretations and these influence the way they act.
They like qualitative data.
Quantitative data
Anything that can be expressed in a statistical way, such as age.
Qualitative data
Describes qualities or characteristics.
It is collected using questionnaires, interviews, or observation, and frequently appears in narrative form.
Verstehen?
Idea of understanding human behaviour by putting yourself in the position of those being studied and trying to see things from that perspective.
Ethics?
Concerns principles or ideas about what is morally right or wrong.
Reliability?
If another researcher repeats the same method again, they would get similar data.
Validity?
If the research gathered is the truth and provides a genuine or authentic picture of what is being studied.
Advantages of using qualitative secondary sources?
Historically documents are usually the only way of investigating the past and without them it would be hard to find out about history.
What data do interpretivists like?
Qualitative data as it provides deep, meaningful insights into behaviour.
What is included in qualitative data?
Unstructured interviews
Participant observation
Documents
What do positivists like?
Quantitative data as it objective and numerical meaning data can be cross examined to generalise data.
What do quantitative data include?
Laboratory experiments Field experiments Questionnaires Structured interviews Official stats
Advantages of structured interviews
Gathers data that is easy to analyse
Quick to do
Disadvantages of structured interviews?
People can easily lie- low rapport
Have to think of questions in advance and prepare.
