theory and methods Flashcards
what does quantitative mean?
Data that is largely numerical in form
Useful to identify for measuring relationship between factors
examples of quantitative data?
Social surveys
Structured interviews
Official statistics
what is qualitative data?
Data consisting of words,meanings and interpretations
Conveys information about values and attitudes
examples of qualitative data?
Observations
Unstructured interviews
what is primary research?
Research that is carried out by the researcher themselves
what is secondary research?
Information that has not been generated personally,but gathered by someone else
what does practical mean?
is it possible to carry out
what does theoretical mean?
what do sociologist think about research found
what does ethical mean?
is it morally to to complete
examples of practical issues?
Time and money Access Requirement of funding bodies Personal skills and characteristic of the researcher Subject matter Research opportunities Is it safe
examples of ethical issues?
Informed consent- the right to refuse with full awareness of what’s involves
Confidentiality and privacy- keep the participants identity confidential
Effects on research participants- should prevent harmful effect on participants
Vulnerable groups- children,disabled
Deception
Right to withdrawn
Convert research- identify and purpose hidden
examples of theoretical issues?
Validity- method that produces a true or genie pitture arguably qualitative methods achieve this to a greater extent
Reliability- similar to replicability, a method in which when repeated by another research will give the same result
what is positivism?
Reliable Is a science Objective Quantitative Macro Official stats,experiments, surveys
what is interpretivism?
Valid Is not a science Subjective Qualitative Micro Unstructured,interview,observation
what is Representativeness ?
Weather the sample used are typical cross section of the group we are interested in
Ensure is representative or typical of the wider population
Find without studying every sample
what is a Methodological perspective?
Also influenced by the view of what society is like and how we should study it
Two contrasting perspectives- positivism and interpretivism
give 2 types of experiments?
lab
field
what are lab experiments?
Provide an environment when variables can be isolated and correlation between things can be measured (bandura/milgram)
what are field experiments?
Conducted in normal everyday situations unlike lab experiments variables cannot be controlled (rosenthal, jacobson,sissons)
what are Comparative method?
Sometimes used to analyse 2 or more different groups (durkheim)
what is a hypothesis?
testable statement
what is a independent variable ?
what is a dependent variable ?
what is a control variable ?
Independent variables- deliberately manipulated by the researcher in an attempt to change participants performance
Dependant variable- variable the researcher assumes will be affected by independent variables
Control variable- keep the same
what did Rosenthal and jacobson do?
Random sample 20%
Old teachers have a api intellectual growth
Tested IQ before and after
Teacher communicated their beliefs
give advantages of Rosenthal and jacobson experiment?
Positivists Test hypothesis in controlled conditions Objective Field experiments are more valid Easy to isolate and manipulate Repeatable Comparisons with similar research
give disadvantages of Rosenthal and jacobson experiment?
Interpretivist would dislike Difficult to isolate a single cause Ethical issues Small scale settings Artificiality Lacks validity
what are official stats?
Quantitative data gathered by the government of other official bodies.
The social construction official statistics?
Socially constructed rather than being based on facts
Interpretivists make this criticism because official statistics create by social processes
advantages of the social construction?
Important for planning and evaluating social policies ] Cheap Easy accessible Representative Cover a long life span
disadvantages of the social construction?
Might not tell the whole story
May change over time
Statistics are socially constructed
Produced by the state
what is Operationalisation?
Decide how you are going to measure your concepts
what are social surveys?
Are large scale about people’s lives mainly using questionnaires but sometimes interviews
before making a social survey they have to?
Choose a topic
Formulate and aim or hypothesis
Operationalisation concepts
Pilot study
what are sample frames?
List of the people forming a population from which a sample is taken
what are questionnaires?
A list of pre-set questions to which the respondents are asked to answer
Cheap
Fast
Efficient method for obtaining large amount of quantifiable data on relatively large sample of people
what are the 2 types of questionnaires
Structured- reliable, highly, pre-set questions with limited choice
Open-ended questions- less structured, no pre-set choice and open questions
what are interviews?
Structured or formal- based on structured, pre-coded questionnaire, administered by an interview
Unstructured or informal- like a guided conversation aims to obtain further depth and drawn out feeling and opinions
Group interviews- are unstructured
advantages and disadvantages of interviews
time , money Venue Verstehen Bias Ethical issues- feel pressured to continue Social desirability effect Interviews are artificial situation Problems of validity Do people give honest answers Unstructured they are unreliable Not easily repeated Take long time to conduct
what experiment did wills do?
group interviews with wc lads
what experiment did Laund humphreys do?
structured health surveys
what experiment did Dobash & dobash do?
unstructured domestic violence
what are the 4 types of observation ?
Participant observation
Convert
Overt
Non-participant observation
what is Participant observation?
involves a researcher joining the group they are studying and participating in its activities
what is Convert observation?
researcher conceals their own identity
what is Overt observation?
researcher declares their own identity
what is Non-participant observation?
observation without the researcher participating
what did Venkatesh do?
Gang leader for the day- led a double life for 7 years
what are the issues with observation?
Making contact Observer role- how involved they are? How do you leave the group? Gaining verstehen Physical, theoretical and ethical issues
Are documents quantitative or qualitative?
documents can be both
what are the two types of documents?
public documents
private documents
what are public documents?
produced by organisation such as government and schools
what are private documents?
first person accounts, e:g letters, photo albums
what 4 things does Scott argue you have to look at for historical documents?
Authenticity (is it fake)
Credibility (is it believable)
Representativeness (is it typical)
Meaning (have we interpret it correctly)
who used context analysis to analyse gender roles?
Sharp and mcrobbie
what is context analysis?
Is a method for dealing systematically with the contents of documents ones in the media
what is Minority methods ?
Likely to be high in validity due to the close examination of an individual’s world. Learning through putting yourself in someone else’s shoes and therefore provides verstehen
Extremely small samples and their for under representation meaning we cannot generalize
what does case study mean ?
a detailed examination of a single case of example
what is Longitudinal research?
A study that follows the same sample or group over an extended period of time
what is life histories?
A case study of an individual using qualitative methods
Aims - try and understand how individuals interpret their ‘life worlds’
High in validity, qualitative date
Training of interviewer to empathise with subject
Good listening skills
Extremely time consuming
what is triangulation?
Using both quantitative and qualitative methods in your research
explain Durkheim study
Functionalist Macro Structuralism Positivism Social fact/objective Suidice is not individually determined but is the result of social force Rates may vary between diffrent social groups and trends to remain constant Determined by too much/too little Social integration Moral regulation
give the 4 types caused by too much/ too little integration or regulation
Egoistic- under integration
Altruistic- excess integration
Anomic- under regulation
Fatalistic- excess regulation
give 3 examples of things correlated with suicide?
Protestant and Catholics
Married and single
Parents and childless
give some criticisms of durkheim study?
Official stats- suicide rates not reliably collected in past
Some people may not want death to be categonside as suicide
what was douglas theory of suicide?
Rather than causes of suicide, douglas looks at the meaning of suicide not social fact but a social construction
give some criticisms of douglas study?
Sociologists better at determining suicide than highly trained coroners
How can we truly discover the meaning behind suicide if cannot ask them
explain Atkinson - ethnomethodology study?
Social reality is just a construct of its members
Agrees that suicide statistics are the result of croners ecisions but disagree that we can never uncover the decreased meanings
We need to study how coroners come to the decisions
Based on qualitative research, he found coroners made common sense assumptions
explain Empirical
Empirical- information can be controlled or measured
explain Theoretical
Theoretical- seeks to uncover causal relationship
explain Objective
Objective- blocks out personal prejudices and political views
explain Testable
Testable- can be tested and revisited
explain Cumulative
Cumulative- builds on previous knowledge so their is an ever growing body of knowledge
explain popper view on sociology as a science?
Criticisms positivist methods
No such thing as ‘objective’ truth
Advocates the conjecture and refutation model
Instead of typing to prove their hypothesis right they should try and prove them wrong
They should subject their hypothesis to the principle of falsification
Scientific knowledge is provisional or temporary
explain what is meant by conjecture
Conjecture- a guess about something based on how it seems and not a proof
explain what is meant by Refutation
Refutation- to say/ prove that a person, statement opinions is wrong or false
give the criticisms of popper
Marxism cannot be scientific because it is impossible to prove social change will not occur in the future:
It is a hypothesis not a falsification
Can’t measure or prove ‘ideology or hegemony’
explain kuhn view on sociology as a science?
Scientific enquiry is characterised by conservation and tradition which is the result of socialisation or scientist
Scientists are taught to operate within a set of assumptions which are assumed to be correct taken for granted
Assumptions ‘paradigms’
Only when anomalies frequently occur that a new paradigm is established
He challenged the notion that science is purely a method but scientific methods depends on the dominant paradigm of the time
explain the criticisms of Kuhn?
Science is a social construction
Not objective but constructed within a framework of dominant assumptions
Doubtful its scientific as its not characterised by a single paradigm
explain Keat and urry view on sociology as a science?
Discuss how much control does the researcher have over variables:
closed (controlled)
Open (can’t control)
Realists argue they study open system
Both natural science and social science attempt to explain the causes of events in terms of the underlying structure and process
Realists argue that science not only deals with observable phenomena but underlying observable structures
overall view of keat and urry?
Argue it is scientific, little differences except some are able to study closed systems under lab conditions
what did positivism say about values in sociology?
Positivism- argue that the sociologists job is to uncover ‘Truth’ and ‘laws’ of society
what did Comte and durkheim say about values in sociology?
Comte and durkheim- argue that sociologist is free form values and bias, thus in a perfect position to suggest what is best for society
what did marxism say about values in sociology?
Marxism- favours a scientific approach to study sociology
BUT
Values the strengths of communism taken for granted that it is ‘ideal’ not an objective approach but values laden
what did weber say about values in sociology?
Weber- values are important to sociological research ‘ social action’
Positivism can tell us that there are more divorces happening but doesn’t mean people do not value marriage
what did Goulder say about values in sociology?
Value freedom is impossible so sociologists should be open/ honest about these
Research is ‘historically’ bound
Research is influenced by the researchers personal agenda, career goals.
All researchers have their own opinions
give Values in the research process that affect staying objective?
Choosing which topic to research Interpreting findings Selecting which findings to include in the report Choosing a research method Recording responses Selecting appropriate questions Deciding what report will be used for Deciding where report will be published
what did Philo and miller say about funding?
Philo and miller- argue that research is ultimately dictated by whoever is funding it
Research is rarely carried out for it own sake. Funding agencies might also only want particular findings
who support value laden?
Committed sociologists
Marxism- value communism
Feminsim- values gender inequality
Interactionism- values individuals meanings and motivations
Gouldner- argues that functionalism is actually value-committed as it has an ‘ideal type’ of society at its centre
what did becker say relating to values in sociology?
Value freedom is never possible
Positivism always examines the viewpoint of the powerful- the groups who get to define deviance,crime
We should look at the ‘underdogs’ rather than the ‘overdogs’
what is Relativism (postmodern view) view of values in sociology?
Different groups, cultures and individuals have different views as to what is true
There is no way of judging whether any view is truer than another
There is no single, over-riding,just ‘pluralism of truth’ every truth is true for individuals- every truth is valid
what is a social problem ?
Social problem- a social problems is some piece of social behaviour that cause public friction and or private misery and calls for collective action to solve it
what is a sociological problem?
any pattern of relationship that calls for explanation
what are the 7 factors that influence sociology on policy
electoral popularity ideological and policy preferences of government interest groups globalisation critical sociology cost funding sources
explain electoral popularity
they may be unpopular with the voting public then the government in power are going to be reluctant to implement the policy because they want to stay in power
explain ideological and policy preferences of government
if the researchers value- stance in similar to the government, they may sand more chance in influencing its policies
explain interest groups
pressure groups seek to influence government for their own interests
explain globalisation
international organisations who have lots of power can outweigh the evidence produced by sociologists
explain critical sociology
the sociological perspective that are seen to be critical of the state and other powerful groups may be regarded as extreme, hostile or impractical and therefore unlikely to influence policy
explain cost
research findings may offer a solution that the government may consider a good idea and workable, but if there is not sufficient funds they would be unable to implement the measures
explain funding sources
results may be influenced by the funders so they may be tone down their recommendations to fit in with their wishes
explain functionalist perspective on social policy
The government act for the good of it citizens
Role of the sociologist is to pass objective data to the policy maker
criticisms - policies are not aimed to equalizing for all
explain marxism perspective on social policy
See social policies as serving the interests of the capitalist system
When conflict arises policies are offered to appease the working class- part of the false consciousness process
explain feminist perspective on social policy
Argue their research has had a big impact on social policies since the 1960’s
Education- childrens books, learning materials
Family- policies reflect domestic and workplace changes for women
explain the new right perspective on social policy
Believe that the state should have only minor involvement in social policy
Sociologists should aim at restoring individuals responsibility for their own and families welfare
Against welfare dependency
They support strong law and order policies
explain the social democratic perspective on social policy
Support distribution of wealth from rich to poor
Townsend- recommendations on higher benefits
Black report- 37 far reaching recommendation to overcome inequalities including FSM’s
explain the postmodernism on social policy
See no role for sociology in the realm of social policy making as sociology should merely exist to give individuals an understanding of their own personal lives within a social context
