Strat 5: Peter Townsend

Question 1

D: What type of poverty did PT say gave the most accurate number of people in poverty?

E: What were the 3 different definitions of poverty?

C: Why did PT think that only his measure was the most accurate?

Answer 1

D: Relative deprivation

E: The State (the amount that the Government decides is eligible to claim benefits)
Relative income (takes an average of the country's income)
Relative deprivation (the inability to afford things that are widely accepted as being 'normal' for a society)

C: Not everyone who is entitled claims benefits- people who are poor do not always fit into this category.
Relative income is skewed by high earners.
Relative deprivation allows the measure of poverty to be accurate for a country/ society at that particular time.

Question 2

D: What percentage of households did PT find were in poverty?

E: How does this compare to the State definition?

C: Why is it important to have an accurate measure of poverty?

Answer 2

D: 22%

E: 6%

C: As a society, we should be aware of all those facing poverty. Material deprivation harms everyone, but in particular children- who may not do as well in education and therefore their future is harmed.

Question 3

D: What research method did PT use?

E: Give 1 advantage and 1 disadvantage of using this method.

C: Explain WHY the advantage you’ve chosen is positive for research

Answer 3

D: Structured interviews

E: Advantage- reliable and representative. Cheaper and quicker than other methods.
Disadvantage- may lack validity.

C: Reliable research means that the findings can be checked by other researchers and any differences found across the country would be a genuine difference, not just a difference in the research method.

Reliable research can also be representative- trends and patterns can be found.

Question 4

D: How many households did PT study?

E: How long did the research take?

C: How many pages of questions were there? Is this an advantage or disadvantage?

Answer 4

D: Over 2000.

E: One year

C: 39- advantage, more data to analyse. Disadvantage, respondents may have dropped out, or wanted to rsush the questions as this would have taken a lot of their time.

Question 5

D: Is the research more representative or valid?

E: How many researchers did around 80% of all the interviews?

C: Name one criticism of PT’s study.

Answer 5

D: Representative (reflective of the target population).

E: 25- this would have made the study more reliable.

C: People were asked about items they didn’t buy, rather than clarifying the reason. Eg, were items not purchased because they couldn’t afford them? Or, because they didn’t like them (meat is the example given).