Social Surveys and Sampling Flashcards
What is a hypothesis?
A possible explanation that can be tested by collecting evidence to prove it true or false
Why do positivists favour a hypothesis?
Favour a hypothesis as the starting point for research
Can seek to discover cause and effect relationships
What is an advantage of a hypothesis?
Gives direction to the research
What is an aim?
Aim identifies what we intend to study and hope to achieve through the research
What is the advantage of an aim?
It is more open-ended
- Not tied to trying to prove a particular hypothesis
- Gather data on anything that appears interesting about a situation
Why do interpretivists favour aims?
Often favour a broad aim rather than a hypothesis as they are interested in understanding meanings
What is operationalising concepts?
The process of converting a sociological concept into something we can measure is called operationalised
Why are positivists concerned to operationalise concepts?
Concerned because of the importance they place on creating and testing hypotheses
What is the aim of a pilot study?
Iron out any problems, refine or clarify questions and their wording and give the interviewer practice
What is the basic purpose of sampling?
Usually to ensure that those people chose to include in the study are representative of the research population
When is a sample representative?
Should be able to generalise findings to the whole research population
What is a sampling frame?
List of all the members of the population we are interested in studying
Why is important to ensure that the list used as a sampling frame is complete, accurate, up to date and not a duplicate?
Sample chosen from it may not be representative of the population
What is random sampling?
Sampling selected purely by chance
Everyone has an equal chance of being selected
What is quasi-random/systematic sampling?
Every n+h person in the sampling frame is chosen
What is stratified random sampling?
Researcher first stratifies the population in the sampling frame by age, class, gender etc.
Sample is then created in the same proportions
What is quota sampling?
Population is stratified and then each interviewer is given a quota of say 20 females and 20 makes which they have to fill with respondents who fit these characteristics
What is a survey?
Large scale collection of data from a research population
What is a sample?
Small group from the research population who complete the survey
What is a representative sample?
The sample reflects the overall research population
What is a snowball sample?
The researcher asks participants if they know anyone who may also complete the survey
What is a response rate?
Refers to the proportion of people who complete and return the survey
What is a questionnaire?
A list of questions that sets out to measure something and create quantitative data
What is a closed question?
Respondents have a fixed set of responses to chose from
Reponses counted for quantitative data
What is an open ended question?
No fixed reponses
Invite detailed, qualitiative responses
