Sociology Paper 2 Research Methods Flashcards
What is Validity?
How accurate your research is to social reality including the population, time period and other situations. Preferred by interpretivists
What is reliability?
Research findings are consistant and can be repeated, important to positivists as it generates quantitative data
What is representativeness?
Is the research a fair reflection of the target population
What is generalisability?
Can research be applied to the wider target population
What is positivism and interpretivism?
Positivism is the belief that humans exist outside of social structures and therefore thoughts and beliefs are made by these structures, humans beings are controlled like puppets.
Interpretivism is the belief that humans are not treated like objects, they are aware of their choices and their behaviour is not determined by social structures
What is value freedom or objectivity?
Research should be free of opinions, political views and personal prejudices.
What is quantitative data and qualitative data?
Quantitative data is data that is usually in numerical form, it is put into charts and graphs where it is used to establish links of human behaviour.
What is qualitative data?
Data that is put into words, preferred by interpretivists and it is usually collected through unstructured interviews
What is qualitative data?
Data that is put into words, preferred by interpretivists and it is usually collected through unstructured interviews
What is verstehen?
Empathising with the participant by viewing them from their own POV
What is reflexivity
How the researcher reflects on their actions and how it would affect their research.
What is researcher imposition?
When the researcher imposes their ideas, opinions and values onto the participant
What is operationalisation?
Breaking down terms so they can easily be understood and consistantly measured
What is a gatekeeper?
Someone who controls access of information being studied
What is secondary data statistics?
Official statistics collected by the government e.g. ONS statistics and CENSUS
What is a longitudinal survey?
Survey that studies people over a long period of time
What is an ethnography?
Writing about the way of living in a certain culture or social group
What is a focus group interview?
Getting a group to discuss an issue rather than a question
What is mixed methods and pluralism?
Using multiple methods to collect data
What is triangulation?
Using multiple research methods to check validity of findings.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of questionairres?
+ Easy to use, collect data easily, less time consuming, confidentiality friendly, good for representiveness
- Leading questions, vocab may not be understood, poor return rate, low in validity therefore not preferred by interpretivists
What are the advantages and disadvantages of Structured Interviews?
+ Generates quantitative data, easy to explain and use, better response rate
- Investigator effects, demand characteristics, social desirability, participants give false answers, no elaboration, researcher imposition problems
What are the advantages and disadvantages of an ethnography?
+ Preferred by interpretivists, Promotes verstehen
- Investigator effects, poor reliability and hard to generalise to other things
What are the advantages and disadvantages of unstructured interviews?
+Preferred by interpretivists, generates trust, less interview bias, rich in validity
- May leave out certain information, can not put into graphs and tables, less representiveness therefore difficult to generalise to a bigger group, expensive and time consuming
What are the advantages and disadvantages of observations?
+ can promote objectivity, good for validity if done naturally, preferred by interpretivists as it promotes verstehen,
- Behaviour may be imitated if they know the observer is there, problems with objectivity, observation may be dangerous, expensive and time consuming, lacks reliability and representativeness
