Topic 3 Research- Experiment Flashcards
What is the logic of the experimental method
That the scientific manipulates (alters) the variables in which they are interested in, in order to discover what effect they have
By following the experimental method, what can scientists establish
A cause and effect relationship
Lab experiments
What does the cause and effect relationship allow them to predict
Accurately what will happen in the future under specified conditions
Lab experiments
What happens with the experimental group
The quantity of the variables could be varied, carefully measuring and recording any changes
Lab experiments
What happens with the control group
The quantity of the variables are consistent
Lab experiments
What is the independent variable (cause or effect)?
Causal factor
Lab experiments
What is the dependent variable, the cause or effect?
The effect, since it depends on the first variable
Lab experiments
Once a lab experiment has been done …
Key words: replicate, reliable, same steps
Other researchers can replicate it following exactly the same steps, therefore the method is reliable producing the same results each time
Lab experiments
As this is a very detached method …
The researcher merely manipulates the variables and records the results. The scientist’s personal feelings and opinions have no effect on the conduct of the outcome of the experiment
Lab experiments
Which sociologists use this method
Positivists, who see sociology as science ad it is an objective way to conduct research modelled on scientific methodology
Lab experiments
What is the practical reason for why even positivists rarely use lab experiments
-society is very complex and it would be impossible to identify, let alone control all the variables that might impact on behaviour (if people know that they are being researched they might change their behaviour)
Lab experiments- practical reason
What does the small scale nature reduce
The representativeness as they can only ever be based on small samples
Lab experiments- theoretically
What doubts do sociologists have
Doubts about using experiments in human social research as they see them as artificial environments producing artificial results. A lab is not a normal or natural environment and therefore it is unlikely that behaviour in these conditions is true to life and valid
Lab experiments
What is the Hawthorn Effect
If people know they are being studied, this knowledge is likely to impact on their behaviour by changing it
Field experiments
Where do they take place
In the subject’s natural surroundings such as school, rather than an artificial environment to make the research more valid and realistic
Field experiments
What is done to avoid the Hawthorn Effect
Those involved are generally not aware that they are taking part in an experiment
Field experiments
What do some sociologists argue about people not knowing that they are being studied
If is unethical
Field experiments
As these are more realistic …
There is less scope for control over the variables that might be operating
Comparative method
Where is this method carried out
In the mind of the sociologist.
Comparative method
What type of experiment is it
A ‘thought experiment’ and does not involve the researcher actually experimenting on real people at all
Comparative method
What is this method used to discover
Cause and effect relationships
Comparative method
How does the Comparative method work (2)
(A) Identify two groups of people that are alike in all major respects except for one variable we are interested in
(B) Then compare the two groups to see if this one difference between them has any effect
Comparative method
What is good about this experiment
It is ethical- it avoids artificiality and can be used to study past things
Comparative method
What is good about this method
It gives the researcher even less control over variables than do field experiments, so we can be even less certain whether this method has really discovered the cause of something
2 criticisms of field experiments
- difficult to control variables
- many people do not know they are being researched which may be seen as unethical
Lab experiments in education
What did Harvey and Slatin examine
-teacher’s preconceived ideas about pupils of different social classes
Lab experiments in education
What was the experiment that Harvey and Slatin carried out
-a sample of 96 teachers were shown 18 pictures of children from different social classes and were asked to rate them on their performance, aspirations etc
Lab experiments in education
What did Harvey and Slatin find out from their research (about what the teachers did)
-they found that teachers, particularly more experienced ones rated WC children less favourably and based their ratings on the similarities they perceived between the children in the photos and the pupils they taught
Lab experiments in education
What did the research by Harvey and Slatin illustrate about teachers
That leachers label pupils from different social classes and use these labels to pre-judge pupil’s potential
Lab experiments in education
What did research by Mason study
Research by Mason studied the impact of positive and negative expectations
Lab experiments in education
Explain Mason’s research
-teachers were given positive, negative or neutral reports on a pupil, they then observed video footage of the pupil taking a test and were asked to predict the pupil’s end of year atfainment
Lab experiments in education
What did Mason find out from his research on teachers
That negative reports had a much greater impact than the positive ones on teacher’s expectations
Lab experiments in education
What is the ethical concern
researchers play a limited role in educational research due to the ethical concerns raised with working with young pupils. Most do not involve real pupils so have fewer ethical implications
Lab experiments in education
What is the narrow focus
Researchers usually only examine one specific aspect of behaviour, such as teacher expectations. This can be useful as it allows the researcher to isolate and examine the variable more throughly but it often results in too narrow a focus
Lab experiments in education
What are the practical problems (3)
- there are problems in conducting experiments on issues such as teacher’s expectations
- in practise it is impossible to identify, let alone control all the variables that might exert an influence on teacher’s expectations
- some educational issues cannot be studied in small scale lab settings
Lab experiments in education
What is wrong with it artificially
The artificiality means that they tell us little about the real world
Field experiments
Where did Rosenthal and Jacobson do their research
They carried out their research in a California primary school and it was designed to test labelling and the self fulfilling prophecy
Field experiments
- What are the ethical problems
- Rosenthal and Jacobson’s experiment
- when do field experiments work best
- what does this require
- The potential impact of an experiment such as Rosenthal and Jacobson’s on the pupils involved can be of great concern.
- Such experiment would be unlikely to be given permission to be conducted today.
- Field experiments work best when those involved are unaware that they are in an experiment. However, this requires deception
Field experiments
Reliability (explain)
Rosenthal and Jacobson’s study was easy to repeat within 5 years it had been repeated 242 times, however it cannot be replicated due to the differences in teachers and pupils involved
Field experiments
Broader focus (explain)
However, Rosenthal and Jacobson were able to study a number of factors such as teachers’ expectations, labelling and the self-fulfilling prophecy rather than just examining single elements in isolation
What are questionnaires
Pre-determined questions
How can questionnaires be administered
By hand, post or online
What are the 2 types of questions that can asked in questionnaires
- closed questions (yes or no qs)
- open questions (which ask the respondent to answer in their own words without any predetermined options. Space is left to allow freedom and detail
Questionnaires
Open questions allow what type of data …
Qualitative data
Questionnaires
What level of analysis can this be used for
For a macro level of analysis and for generating quantitative data
Questionnaires
Which sociologists would this be mostly be used by
Positivists
Questionnaires
When may interpretivists use this method
Only if they are compelled to do so by practical factors such as a funding body makes them use this method
Advantages of questionnaires Practical advantages -quick and cheap -respondents -quantifying data
- quick and cheap way of gathering large amounts of data from a large sample
- respondents complete and return the questionnaires themselves, therefore there is no need to recruit and train interviewees or observers
- the data is easy to quantify, particularly where pre-coded, closed questions are used can be processed quickly by computer to identify relationships between variables
Advantages of questionnaires
Reliability
-standardised for researcher
-questionnaires are a standardised and fixed yardstick that can be used by any researcher; all respondents are given identical instructions, asked exactly the same questions, in the same order, with the same options for answers. Therefore, the research can be easily repeated
Advantages of questionnaires
Reliability
-differences in answers
Differences in answers can be assumed to be a reflection of real differences between respondents and not simply the result of different questions, or how they have been asked. With postal and online questionnaires, unlike interviews, there is no researcher present, to influence the respondents answers
Advantages of questionnaires
Reliability
-researcher’s study
-one researcher’s study can be easily repeated and checked and comparisons can be made
Advantages of questionnaires
Hypothesis testing
-what are they useful for
-useful for testing hypotheses about cause and effect relationships
Advantages of questionnaires
Hypothesis testing- who are these particularly attractive to
They are attractive to positivists, because they enable possible causes to be identified as they take a scientific approach, seeking to discover laws of cause and effect
Advantages of questionnaires
Detachment and objectivity
-positivists also favour questionnaires as they are a detached and objective method, where the sociologist’s personal involvement with their respondents is kept to a minimum
Advantages of questionnaires
Detachment and objectivity- what type of questionnaires is this common in
Online and postal questionnaires
Advantages of questionnaires
Representativeness
-the results of questionnaires stand a better chance of being truly representative as they collect information from a large sample of people. Furthermore, researchers who use questionnaires are more likely to try to obtain a representative sample, allowing the findings to be generalised to the wider target population
Advantages of questionnaires
Ethical issues
Although questionnaires may ask intrusive or personal questions, respondents are under no obligation to answer and their anonymity is guaranteed; therefore they pose fewer ethical issues than most other methods
Disadvantages of questionnaires
Practical problems
-limited data
-the data from questionnaires tends to be limited and superficial- this is because they tend to be brief to ensure that respondents to complete and return them. This limits the amount of information that can be gathered
Disadvantages of questionnaires
Practical problems
- incentives
- no guarantee
- it may sometimes be necessary to offer incentives to persuade respondents to participate
- with postal or online questionnaires, the research cannot guarantee that the potential respondent actually received the questionnaire or whether a returned questionnaire was actually completed by the person it was addressed to
Disadvantages of questionnaires
Low response rate
- what is this v common with
- those who return their questionnaires …
- common with postal questionnaires
- those who do return their questionnaires may be different from those who do not- if the respondents are different from non-respondents then the results will be distorted and unrepresentative from which no valid generalisations can be made
Disadvantages of questionnaires
Inflexibility
-they are inflexible as new areas of interest come up in the research cannot be explored- this can be contrasted to unstructured interviews, where the researcher can ask new questions if they seem relevant
Disadvantages of questionnaires
Snapshot picture
They provide a picture of social reality at one point in time; the moment when questions are completed. Therefor me they do not provide a fully valid picture, because they do not capture the way people’s attitudes and behaviour change. This snapshot contrasts with the moving picture of social life that can be gained from participant observation
Disadvantages of questionnaires
Detachment
-what do interpretivists argue
That data from questionnaires lacks validity and does not give a true picture of what has been studied as they do not allow the sociologist to get close to the subjects that they study and share their meanings
Disadvantages of questionnaires
Detachment
-what do interpretivists believe
That research should enable the sociologist to put themselves in the subject’s place and see the world through their eyes
Disadvantages of questionnaires
What does detachment mean
The researcher and respondent have no contact- if the respondent does not understand a question then they cannot get help
Disadvantages of questionnaires
Imposing the researcher’s meanings
-what do interpretivists argue
That questionnaires are more likely to impose the researcher’s own meanings than reveal those of the respondent; by choosing which questions to ask, how to ask them, predetermined options for answering, they have decided what is important
(They can determine whether the respondent should only say yes or no etc)
