Sociology- Reserch Methods Flashcards
Quantitive data
focuses on numeric and unchanging data and detailed
Qualitative data
Descriptions of peoples feelings about a particular subject or observation made
Primary data
Information that is collected first hand
Secondary data
Information that already exists and have been done by someone else
Validity
Produces a true picture of what something is really like
Reliability
When repeated by another researcher, gets the same results
Representativeness
Refers to weather the people they study are typical of the group they are interested in
Positivists
Prefer quantitative data, sociology is a science
Interpretivists
Prefer qualitative data and don’t see sociology as a science
Snowball sampling
Involves contacting a number of key individuals
Quasi random sampling
Where every nth person in the sampling frame is selected
Advantages of questionaires
Practical
-quick and cheap means of gathering large amounts of data
-returned themselves
-easy to quantify
Advantages of questionnaires
Ethical
-few ethical problems
-interviewed could ask intrusive questions
-still should gain consent
Advantages of questionnaires
Theoretical
-detachment and unbiased
Disadvantages of questionnaires
Practical
-the data can be limited
-won’t return long survey
-might have to offer incentive like prize draw
-might not receive survey
Disadvantages of questionnaires
Low response rate
-major problem
-study sent out 100,000 but only 4.5% were returned
-too complex can only be done by well educated
-different people might not be able to return therefore unrepresentative e.g full time work
Disadvantages of questionaires
Snapshots
-only accurate at one moment
-fail to produce a valid picture
-do not capture attitude and behaviour changes
Disadvantages of questionnaires
Right answerism
-invalid as they might not understand, lie or forget
Advantages Official statistics
Practical
-huge amounts of data
-free
-state conducted surveys
-conducted often so can recognise patterns and trends shows cause and effect
Disadvantages official statistics
Practical
-for governments purpose not sociologists
-not always on what you want to study
-definitions may differ from those collecting data and sociologists
Advantages official statistics
Theoretical
-generally seen as reliable
-as they have to follow procedure
Disadvantages official statistics
Theoretical
-not totally reliable
-can be errors and members of public may fill data in wrong
Types of documents?
-public docs
-personal docs
-historical doc
Disadvantages of documents
Theoretical
-could be false
-no proof of whose it is
-e.g hitler diaries were later proven to be fakes
Disadvantages of documents
Theoretical
-may need special skills to understand e.g language barrier
-can be interpreted differently
Advantages of documents
-rich qualitative data
-extra check on other data
-cheap as someone else collected information
Advantages of Lab experiments
Theoretical
-very reliable as you can specify steps and manipulate variables
-very detached method
Disadvantages of lab experiments
Practical
-can’t be used to study past
-usually only small samples,reducing representativeness
Disadvantages of lab experiments
Ethical
-lack of informed consent
-deception (milgrim electric shocks)
-Harm (in milgrims study some had seizures)
-however milgrims study had 74% of participants said they’d learnt somthing of value
Disadvantages of lab experiments
Hawthorne effect
Mayo
-if people know that they’re in an experiment they may behave differently
-act how they think they want the researcher wants them to act
Field experiments
Rosenhan
-12 patents into mental hospital each hearing voices
-each was admitted with schizophrenic
-then once in acted normal
-hospital staff kept treating them as they were ill
-it was the label not the behavior
-less control but more valid
-can be seen as unethical
Types of interviews
-structured
-unstructured
-semi structured
-group interviews
Advantages Group interview
-might feel more comfortable in front of others
-can stimulate each others thinking
Disadvantages
group interviews
-one or two may dominate interview
-peer pressure could lead to participants not saying the truth
Advantages structured interviews
Practical
-quantifiable
-easy to gather stright forward data
- fairly cheap
Advantages structured interviews
-reliable as it’s easy to control and done in set way
-similar results
-easy to compare similarities and differences
Disadvantage structured interviews
Valid
-closed ended questions
-therefore answers might not be what interviewee wants to say therefore invalid
-little freedom to explain question
Disadvantages of all interviews
Social desirability
-people often seek to win approval
Disadvantages of all interviews
Interviewer bias
-can be asked leading questions
-less likley in structured interview
-facial expressions or tone
-difficulty to detach e.g Oakley and her mother
Types of observation:
-Overt (known)
-covert (undercover)
-participation (takes part)
-non participation (observe not involved s.g two way mirror)
Disadvantages of participant observation
Getting in
-depended on personal skills
-connections or chance
-getting accepted my be difficult due to features
Disadvantages of participant observation
Getting out
Patrick
-had to halt and leave due to violence
-re-entering norms afterward can be difficult
-loyalty could prevent details being shared
Disadvantages with overt observation
-a group may refuse the researcher permission
-Hawthorne effect
Disadvantages with covert observation
-require researcher to keep up act
-cannot openly take notes
-immoral to decive people
-could stay loyal to group (bias)
Advantages participant observation
Theoretical
-valid as it what they naturally do
-rich qualitative data
-‘verstehan’
Advantages participant observation
Practical
-can be only viable method especially deviant
-this is mainly where they wouldn’t accept outsider
Disadvantages participant observation
Practical
-time consuming
-has to be trained
-can be stressful and demanding
-personal characteristics could be required
Disadvantages participant observation
Representativeness
-ussually small sample size
-not useful for making generalisations
