Theory & Methods In Context Flashcards
With which research method does a sociologist need to consider the Hawthorne Effect?
Observations
What are the three stages of a participant observation?
Getting in, Staying in, Getting out.
What term is used to describe the functionalist idea that the structures of society work together in the same way as the human body?
Organic Analogy
Which sociologist is associated with the idea of Falsfication?
Karl Popper
What term is used to describe when a participant changes behaviour to appear more socially acceptable?
Social Desirability
What type of sampling method relies on the participant to introduce more participants to the study?
Snowball
What is the difference between between official and unofficial statistics?
Official statistics come from the government, unofficial come from companies, charities etc.
What is meant by the term reliability in sociological research?
A study is replicable exactly and will get similar results.
Name the 3 main practical considerations to choosing a research method
Time, Cost, Accessibility, Funding, Personal characteristics
Which theoretical perspective prefers scientific methods?
Positivists
What are the 5 ethical considerations in sociological research?
Informed consent, Right to withdraw, Deception, Harm, Confidentiality
What are the 4 types of sampling methods?
Random, Stratified, Systematic, Qouta
What are 4 types of interview?
Structured, Unstructured, Group, Semi-structured
What is the term used when a participant changes their behaviour to what they think the researcher wants?
Hawthorne effect/ Demand characteristics
What are the structural theories of sociology?
Functionalism, Marxism, Feminism
Who is considered the father of modern sociology?
Comte
What is meant by the term verification?
That a hypothesis should be proven correct even when the study is repeated
Who argues that sociology cannot be a science as it doesn’t have a single paradigm?
Khun
What are the 6 types of observations?
Overt, Covert, Participant, Non-participant, Structured, Unstructured
What type of data is Qualitative data?
Descriptive data, words.
What are the social action theories?
Interpretivism, Ethnomethodology, Phenomenology
What are the three theoretical considerations?
Reliability, Validity, Representativeness
Who argued that sociologists could not be value free when choosing a topic or interpreting data, but could be when carrying out their research?
Weber
Which sociological perspective believes that social policies have led to a dependency culture?
New Right
What type of data is Qualitative data?
Numerical data, easier to analyse.
What is systematic sampling?
Listing all possible participants and taking every nth participant.
What are the three main feminist perspectives?
Radical, Marxist and Liberal
What is a structured observation?
Where the observer is looking for specific behaviours, or records behaviours are specific time intervals
Give one strength of using official statistics in sociological research
Easy to access, cheap, can show trends over time etc.
What is meant by the term social construction?
Created by society, not a naturally occurring phenomena
Which sociologist is generally associated with functionalism as an approach?
Durkheim
What are the 2 non-representative sampling methods?
Opportunity and Snowball
What are the two types of question used in questionnaires?
Open and Closed
What term is used to describe the research method which requires a hypothesis to be formulated prior to research being carried out?
Hypothetico-deductive method
What is an interview schedule?
The list of questions that will be asked in the interview and in what order.
What does it mean when it is suggested that a research topic is ‘in vogue’?
It is a popular research topic at the time.
What is a hypothesis?
A statement which offers an explanation which will be tested
Name 2 sociologists associated with the postmodernist approach
Lyotard, Buadrillard, Giddens, Beck
What is meant by the term ‘looking glass self’?
Seeing ourselves as others see us.
What is the GAIL schema?
Goal Attainment, Adaption, Integration, Latency
What is meant by primary sources of data?
Data that is collected by the researcher specifically for this study.
What does Goffman mean by ‘Dramaturgical’?
Life is like a play in which the roles of the actors are loosely scripted by society.
In which situation might informed consent not be necessary?
Non-participant observation in public areas where’s there is no exception of privacy.
Research population separated into groups (strata) and the sample reflects the proportions of these strata.
Which approaches are considered to be conflict approaches?
Feminism and Marxism
What do radical feminists mean by political lesbianism?
Lesbianism is the only way to combat oppression which is caused by sexual politics
Name two of the ways of distributing a questionnaire?
Post, Internet, in person.
What does the term socialisation mean?
The process of learning the norms and values of a society
What is meant by the term validity?
The degree to which a measurement instrument, such as a survey question, measures what we in fact think it measures.
Who are gatekeepers
The people who need to give permission for you to be able to access your research population
What did Durkheim mean by social facts?
Things that exist externally to the individual that they cannot control
What is meant by Verstehen?
The understanding that comes from placing oneself in someone else’s position
What is the sociological cage?
Social groups studied by sociologists: Class, Age, Gender and Ethnicity
What is triangulation?
Using more than one method to improve the validity of your research
What did Baudrillard mean by hyper-reality?
The inability to distinguish reality from fiction in the media
Who argued that sociologists had a ‘moral responsibility’ when conducting research?
Weber and Gouldner
What is a metanarrative?
A big picture view of society
What are the four main views on sociology as a science
Positivist, Popper, Kuhn, Realist
Which sociologists is associated with the idea of the looking glass self?
Cooley
What did Garfinkle mean by ‘reflexivity’?
The use of common sense knowledge to make sense of social reality
What is an open question in a questionnaire?
One where the respondent can answer in detail and explain their point
Which sociologist is associated with Symbolic Interactionism?
Mead
What do feminist sociologists mean when they describe sociology as being Malestream?
Ignoring the impact and experience of women
What type of research methods are preferred by Interpretivists?
Qualitative methods
Who described a social problem as a social behaviour which causes public and private misery and requires a collective response?
Worsley
What is meant by research population?
The group which you are intending to study
What is representativeness?
Can the research be generalised to the rest of the research population
What is the difference between a methodological perspective and a theoretical perspective?
Methodological perspective is the view on HOW the world should be studied. Theoretical perspectives is the general view of the world
What are the 2 main types of closed questions in questionnaires?
Multiple choice and Likert scale
What 5 elements make up a culture of society?
Norms, values, language, customs and traditions, beliefs
What is a subculture?
A smaller group within a larger culture, often having beliefs or interests at variance with those of the larger culture.
What are the two types of socialisation?
Primary and Secondary
What is an ascribed status?
The status is given to you based on birth and is usually unchangeable
What is an achieved status?
The status you earn through merit
According to the National Statistics Socio-Economic Classification (NS-SEC) what are the 7 social classes in Britain today?
Elite, Established middle class, Technical middle class, New affluent workers, Traditional working class, Emergent service class, Precariat
What term did Giddens use to describe the equal importance of social stress and interaction in shaping human behaviour
Structuration theory
What is intersectional feminism?
A form of feminism which takes into account the varying experiences of different social groups such as class and ethnicity
Who are the Proletariat?
Another name for the working class
What is Ethnomethodology?
A perspective which focuses on the way people make sense of their everyday world. People are seen as rational actors, but employ practical reasoning rather than formal logic to make sense of and function in society.
Which sociologist is associated with Phenomenology?
Schultz
According to Bulmer what are the three principles of interaction?
Our actions are based on the meanings we give to situations. The meanings we have arise from interactions and to some extent we can negotiate them. The meanings we fuse to things are mainly to result taking the role of the other.
What is meant by secondary data?
Information that has been collected by others such as official statistics
What is the difference between representativeness and generalisability?
Generalisability refers to being able to extrapolate data to the rest of your research population. Representativeness refers to the same sample reflecting the wider research population
What three factors can influence the validity of a study?
Demand characteristics, Social Desirability, Hawthorne Effect.
What is a correlation?
The relationship between two social events or phenomena
Name two factors which influence topic choice
Access to research group, Academic debate, Funding, Personal interest
Name two advantages of using Lab experiments
High reliability, causality, objectivity, quantitative data
What is a social experiment?
Where the researcher manipulates the variables but the test takes place in the natural environment of the subject
Which study into education used the social experiment?
Rosenthal and Jacobson- Pygmalion in the classroom
What is a longitudinal study?
One which takes place over a long period of time
What three types of questions should a researcher avoid when creating a questionnaire?
Loaded questions, Leading questions, Technical or Complex questions
What is a semi-structured interview?
An interview which contains both open and closed questions which may not have an interview schedule
What is a focus group?
A panel of adults who are introduced to an issue or debate via a stimulus and then asked to discuss as a group. This discussion is then recorded.
Name on practical issue with using interviews as a research method
Time consuming, Expensive, Small sample, Group dynamics
What 4 questions does Scott suggest researchers need to ask before using personal documents?
Authenticity, Credibility, Representativeness, Meaning
Give one example of hard official statistics
Birth records, death records, marriages, divorces, examination results
What are soft statistics
They are products of subjective decisions and choices made by powerful individuals
Name three types of public documents
Government reports, Media reports, Internet content
What is the difference between a manifest and latent function?
Manifest functions are the intended functions and latent functions are the unintended functions of a social institution
What are the three types of Neo-Marxism
Humanistic, Frankfurt School, Structuralist
Which sociologist is associated with the triple systems theory?
Sylvia Walby
What according to Beck are the 5 unique features of late modernity?
Risk, Global Influence, Lack of class differences, Reflexivity, Individualisation
What do postmodernists see as the 4 causes of globalisation?
Technological change, Political change, Economic change, Global movement of people
What is a quota sample?
When the researcher takes a certain number of people who exhibit particular characteristics
Crime statistics are an example of what form of official statistics?
Soft
What is the triple systems theory?
The bringing together of the three broad ideas of feminism to show how capitalism and racism produce a triple form of gender inequality
What are hard statistics
Data that once certified cannot be changed. They are the product of accurate and objective counting
What is a Pilot study?
A small scale version of the research to test out the validity and reliability of the research
Name three research methods that would be preferred by interpretivists
Unstructured interviews, personal documents, participant observations
Giddens identifies two features which define periods of late modernity. What are they?
Disembedding and Reflexivity
What does Giddens mean by disembedding?
Impersonal forms of communication replacing face to face interactions which have led to an increase in individualism and the abandonment of civil and ethical guidelines when dealing with others.
What are three reasons do interpretivists give to suggest sociology should not be a science?
People have consciousness, people are actively engaged in society and make choices, people are not passive puppets of society
What are the five scientific characteristics of positivist sociology?
Quantifiable data, Controlled conditions, Reliable methods, Objectivity, High Validity
Who suggests that the collection of data can be objective but the interpretation of the data is always subjective?
Weber
What is the difference between confidentiality and privacy in research ethics?
Confidentiality means you do not make participants names public, privacy means that you do not involve yourself in areas of the participants personal lives not relevant to the study
