Social Science Reasearch Methods Flashcards
Why do we need social reasearch?
So we can be more confident asking questions about social life
Policies and prtories are based on reasearch
Describe the proccess of quantitative reasearch?
Collection of numerical data, starting with a hyptoehsis and by deduction allows conclusions to be drawn
What are the two features that should be assoicated with questionaires?
Valid- measuring what they intended to measure
Reliable- measure things consistently, any differences should come from the differences between the respondents
What are some of the designs of quantative reasearch?
Experimental study designs- cohort studies, case control studies, cross secontional studies
Secondary anyalsis of data from other sources eg the census
What are some of the features of questions which you should use in a questionaire?
Mainly closed questions such as yes or no, and can have free text questions at the end but more difficult to anaylse
What are quantative measures good at?
Describing, measuring, forming relationships, allowing comparision,
What are some of the issues regarding quanative measures?
May force people into inapporiate categories, dont allow people to express things in the way they want, and may not access all of the important information and can be ineffective in determining causality
What is the aim of qulative measures?
Aims to make sense of phenomean in terms of meanings that people bring to them
What is enthography?
Studying human behaviour in its natural context
What is the value of observation in qualative studies?
Can provide valuable insight into what actually happens and expolre methods of health and care that other studies cannot get at
What should the features of a semi structured interview be?
Strucutred by a prompt guide, clear agenda of topics although the order does not have to be followed rigidgly, may seem converstaional in style, and emphasis should be on the participants giving their perspective
What are some of the issues regarding focus groups?
Can be difficult to arrange, need to consider the membership of the grop, need farily homogenous groups, and a good facilitator is needed to manage the groups
What are some of the apporaches for anaylsing qualative data?
Ongoing iterative proccess that is labour intensive, often an inductive apporach with close inspection of the data, try to identify theme and produce specifciation for themes, and assign data to the themes, and constanlly compare data anyalsis against the themes
What is qualative data good for?
Understanding the perspective of those in a situation, accessing infomraiton not revealed by a quantitative apporach, and explaining relationships between the variables
What is qualtative data less good for?
Finding consistent relationships between the variables, and there is poor generalisability of the information produced
