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Chapter 3 Sociology > Topic 1- Choosing a research method > Flashcards

Topic 1- Choosing a research method Flashcards

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Sociology 101 flashcards
1
Q

what are the 4 types of data?

A
  • primary
  • secondary
  • qualitative
  • quantitative
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2
Q

what is primary data?

A

information collected by sociologists themselves

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3
Q

1 advantage of using primary data

A

precisely gather iformation to test their hypothesis

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4
Q

2 disadvantages of collecting primary data

A
  • costly
  • time consuming
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5
Q

3 methods of gathering primary data

A
  • social surveys
  • participant observation
  • experiments
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6
Q

what are social surveys?

A

involves asking people questions in an interview or questionnaire

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7
Q

what is participant observation?

A

the sociologist joins in with the activities they are studying

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8
Q

what are experiments?

A

rarely lab experiments in sociology but field experiments and comparative method is used

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9
Q

what is secondary data?

A

information that has been collected by someone else for purposes but freely available to use

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10
Q

1 advantage of secondary data

A
  • quick
  • cheap
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11
Q

1 disadvantage of secondary research

A

one might not be interested in the same question so the results are not fully what you’re looking for

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12
Q

2 sources of secondary data

A
  • official statistics
  • documents
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13
Q

what are official statistcs?

A

produced by the government on multiple issues

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14
Q

give examples of documents

A

letters, diaries, photos, newspapers and internet

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15
Q

what is quantitative data?

A

numerical form of data

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16
Q

3 examples of quantitative data

A
  • scales
  • percentages
  • proportions
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17
Q

what is qualitative data?

A

gives a feel for what something is like

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18
Q

examples of qualitative data

A
  • how a situation affects someone
  • what something is like
  • personal opinions
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19
Q

name the 5 practical issues influencing choice of method

A
  • requirements of funding bodies
  • time and money
  • research opportunities
  • subject matter
  • personal skills
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20
Q

explain time and money

2 points

A
  • it costs money to hire interviewers and data handlers on large scale research
  • is time consuming to do smaller scale research own your own with participant observation
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21
Q

explain requirements of funding bodies

2 points

A
  • companies providing you money might want to research a specific thing
  • if you were researching % of people passing school you would have to choose an appropriate research method
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22
Q

explain subject matter

2 points

A
  • some research methods are impossible to use for researching specific subjects
  • it would be useless to give illiterate people a questionnaire
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23
Q

explain personal skills

3 points

A
  • every sociologist has a different set of skills and weaknesses so will benefit from different research strategies
  • an interview would require forming a rapport
  • participant observation would require understanding social cues and observation skills
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24
Q

explain research opportunity

2 points

A
  • you might not be given much notice for your research so cannot do what you intended
  • James Patrick got an opportunity to research a gang in Glasgow but had short notice so could not prepare a questionnaire so had to do participant observation
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25
Q

what issue is time and money

A

practical issue

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26
Q

what type of issue is subject matter

A

practical issue

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27
Q

what issue is requirement of funding bodies

A

practical issue

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28
Q

what type of issue is personal skill and characteristics

A

practical issue

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29
Q

what type of issue is research opportunity

A

practical issue

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30
Q

give the 5 ethical issues influencing choice of method

A
  • informed consent
  • vulnerable groups
  • covert research
  • harm to research participants
  • confidentiality and privacy
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31
Q

explain vulnerable groups

2 points

A
  • care must be taken when researching elderly/children, mentally/physically unwell people and disabled
  • when researching children, data must be protected and parents and child must consent
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31
Q

explain informed consent

A

participants should be offered the right to refuse being researched and should be allowed to drop out any time in the process

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32
Q

explain covert research

2 points

A
  • covert research requires the researcher’s identity to be hidden. this leads to lies as you cannot gain informed consent.
  • however you can gain an accurate understanding of something
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33
Q

explain confidentiality and privacy

A

all information collected should remain private throughout research

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34
Q

explain harm to research participant

2 points

A
  • sociologists have to be aware about the effects their research can have on someone
  • police might get involved or mental illnesses might come back after sharing
35
Q

what issue is covert research

A

ethical issue

36
Q

what type of issue is privacy and confidentiality

A

ethical issue

37
Q

what type of issue is informed consent

A

ethical issue

38
Q

what issue is vulnerable groups

A

ethical issue

39
Q

what type of issue is harm to research participants

A

ethical issue

40
Q

name the 4 theoretical issues

A
  • validity
  • representativeness
  • methodological perspective
  • reliability
41
Q

explain validity

2 points

A
  • research that shows a real and truthful picture of what the research is about
  • qualitative methods are better to do this as it holds opinions
42
Q

explain reliability

2 points

A
  • if another researcher was to repeat this research would they get the same results?
  • quantitative data is more likely to have the same data when repeating the research
43
Q

explain representiveness

2 points

A
  • it is impossible to research everyone so having a cross section of people to research is important
  • this makes the data representative of the group and helps people make generalised statements about them
44
Q

explain methodological perspective

A
  • there are two types of this that will influence their choice of interview strategy
  • positivists
  • interpretivists
45
Q

explain positivists

3 points

A
  • prefer quantitative data
  • see sociology as a natural science
  • see society as a factual reality
46
Q

explain interpretivists

3 points

A
  • prefer qualitative data
  • reject the idea sociology can model itself on the natural sciences
  • sees society as something formed based on interactions with people
47
Q

what methods would positivists use

3 points

A
  • questionnaires
  • structured interviews
  • official stats
48
Q

what methods would interpretivists use

3 points

A
  • participant observation
  • unstructured interviews
  • personal documents
49
Q

explain why society’s values influence choice of topic

3 points

A
  • as society’s values change, the focus to research changes
  • in 1960s feminism rose so research on gender inequality did too
  • today, environment is a big thing so those research ‘green crimes’
50
Q

how do practical factors influence choice of topic

2 points

A
  • alot of things are inaccessible so make it impossible to research.
  • some might want to study the way global corporations make their decisions but can’t due to it being secret
51
Q

explain how funding bodies affect the choice of topic

A

as they are paying for the research, they can say what they want to be researched

52
Q

what is triangulation

A

using two or more sources or methods of research to get a more rounded picture of what you’re studying

53
Q

what is the first step you need to do after choosing a topic to research?

A

choosing an aim or hypothesis

54
Q

define hypothesis

A

a possible explanation that can be tested by collecting information to prove it true or false

55
Q

what do you do if a hypothesis is false?

A

discard it

56
Q

why is discarding a hypothesis NOT a bad thing?

A

it means you’ve made progress and you can turn your attention on another cause instead so is a development in your study.

57
Q

what is an advantage of a hypothesis?

A

gives direction to research

58
Q

what type of people prefer a hypothesis?

A

positivists

59
Q

why do positivists prefer a hypothesis?

A

they seek to discover cause and effect relationships

60
Q

what is an advantage of using an aim

A

it is more open ended so you arent trying to prove something particular but gather data then display whatever you researched. useful when you know a little on the topic

61
Q

what type of people prefer aims?

A

interpretivists

62
Q

why do interpretivists prefer aims?

A

they are more interested in understanding meanings so ask people what they think is important rather than try to prove their own explanation right/wrong

63
Q

give the process of research

(4 points)

A
  • formulating an aim/hypothesis
  • operationalising concepts
  • the pilot study
  • samples and sampling
64
Q

define operationalisation

A

process of turning a concept or theory to something measurable

65
Q

why is operationalising important?

A

to ensure that the words in the hypothesis/aim has the same meaning to everyone

66
Q

what is a challenge in operationalising?

A

sociologists might have different meanings for the same words so find it hard to compare their research

67
Q

what type of person finds operationalising more important?

A

positivists

68
Q

why do positivists find it important to operationalise?

A

they find the creating and testing of a hypothesis very important

69
Q

what type of person puts less importance on operationalising?

A

interpretivists

70
Q

why do interpretivists not find operationalizing as important?

A

they are more interested in others’ definitions and understanding

71
Q

what is a pilot study

A

carrying out a ‘trial/draft’ version of the questionnaire/interview on a small sample

72
Q

what is the basic aim of a pilot study?

(2 points)

A
  • iron out problems
  • clarify questions
73
Q

what is the purpose of sampling?

A

to ensure that the people chosen to be in the study are representative of the whole population you are studying

74
Q

what is a sampling frame?

A

list of all the members of the population you are interested in studying

75
Q

what are the 4 levels of sampling?

A
  • research population
  • sampling frame
  • sample
  • respondent
76
Q

what are the 4 types of sampling techniques?

A
  • random
  • quasi-random/systematic
  • stratified random
  • quota
77
Q

explain random sampling

A

sample is selected purely by chance

78
Q

explain quasi-random/systematic sampling

A
  • where every nth person is used
  • eg. every 30th person selected from a list
79
Q

explain stratified sampling

3 points

A
  • the researcher breaks down the population into something eg. age/gender/class
  • then uses the same proportions in the sample
  • eg. if 20% of the population is 18 then 20% of the sample will be 18
80
Q

explain quota sampling

A

population is stratified then you get a ‘quota’ eg 20 males and 20 females and select them based on whether they fit the characteristics until the ‘quota’ is filled

81
Q

for what reasons may sampling be non-representative?

A

theoretical and practical reasons

82
Q

what are 3 practical reasons why it may be impossible to create a representative sample?

A
  • social characteristics (age, gender, class) may not be known
  • impossible to create a sampling frame
  • potential respondents may refuse to participate
83
Q

what 2 things might sociologists do when it isn’t possible to get a representative sample/

A
  • snowball sampling
  • opportunity sampling
84
Q

what is snowball sampling?

A

collecting a number of individuals who will then put you in contact with others etc. until enough people have been researched

85
Q

what is opportunity sampling?

A

choosing individuals who are easy to access eg. passer bys on the street

Chapter 3 Sociology (7 decks)

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