Theoretical Implications Of Research

Question 1

What do positivists believe?

Answer 1

• see human or social behaviour as product of social forces over which people have little or no influence
• social or human behaviours are predictable
• sociological research should be scientific (standardised, reliable and objective)
• quantitative data
• social surveys most scientific primary method of data collection

Question 2

What do interpretivists believe?

Answer 2

• humans as self aware individuals who are able to exercise free will and choice
• see society as the product of people choosing to come together in social groups
• when people socially interact they use set of interpretation or social meaning to make sense of what is happening around them and to choose how to react
• qualitative data
• collected from natural or ethnographic setting high in validity

Question 3

Define objective/value freedom

Answer 3

• not allow their personal or political values or prejudices to bias ant aspects of their research method

Question 4

Define reflexivity

Answer 4

• form of self evaluation is why involves researchers reflecting critically on how they organised the research process, everyday experience of it, how range of influences affect validity positively or negatively

Question 5

Define interpretation

Answer 5

• concentrates on meaning people associate to their social life

Question 6

Define subjectivity

Answer 6

• experience of social life, how they interact with others and how they interpret the social reality they find themselves in

Question 7

Define Verstehen

Answer 7

• sociologists need to understand detests f the, same as participants, learn to see the world from their standpoint and develop empathetic understanding

Question 8

Define researcher imposition

Answer 8

• only focus on what the sociologist thinks is important and consequently may neglect what research subject really thinks

Question 9

What are the 3 participant issues?

Answer 9

• hawthorn effect
• demand characteristics
• social desirability

Question 10

What are the 5 researcher issues?

Answer 10

• going native
• researcher bias
• confirmation bias
• interpretation bias
• rapport

Question 11

What is the hawthorn effect?

Answer 11

• participants will behave differently if they know they’re being observed

Question 12

How does the hawthorn effect, demand characteristics and social desirability affect the research?

Answer 12

• decrease accuracy, decrease validity, descrease generalisability due to false data

Question 13

What is demand characteristics?

Answer 13

• participants change their behaviour based on their interpretations of the aims of the study

Question 14

What is social desirability?

Answer 14

• participants want to present themselves in a socially acceptable way

Question 15

What is going native?

Answer 15

• when researcher begins to participate like the participant rather than balancing the roles of participant and observer

Question 16

How does going native affect the research?

Answer 16

• loses objectivity and becomes biased
• decreases accuracy and validity

Question 17

How does researcher bias, confirmation bias and interpretation bias affect the research?

Answer 17

• lowers accuracy, validity and generalisability

Question 18

What is researcher bias?

Answer 18

• when researchers beliefs or expectations influence the research design or data collection process

Question 19

What is confirmation bias?

Answer 19

• tendency to search for or interpret information in a way that confirms one’s prior beliefs

Question 20

What is interpretation bias?

Answer 20

• where a researcher may interpret the data in a way that the participant did not intend

Question 21

What does rapport mean?

Answer 21

• ease of the relationship between the researcher and their subjects

Question 22

How does rapport affect the research?

Answer 22

• increases accuracy and validity
• if too far, decreases accuracy and validity