Week Twelve Flashcards
What are the four social research philosophies
Positivism
Post positivism
Interpretivism
Constructivism
What is the positive philosophy
An objective reality exists apart from perceptions (empirical reality)
Goal of research is to study things in a way that helps discover or understand reality
What is post-positivism?
Empirical reality exists, but because of complexity of human behaviour and associations, we may not be able to understand it completely
Goal of research is to achieve intersubjective agreement because limitations in research techniques often prevent ability to perceive objective reality
What is interpretivism
No single empirical reality
People have different understandings of the situations
Research should study how people perceive reality
Participatory action research
Researcher collaborates with some of the persons studied
Develop valid definitions, bring unique insights and desire change in the organisation
What is constructivism
Extends interpretivism to emphasise the importance of how different stakeholders construct their beliefs
What is the principal orientation of quantitative and qualitative research
QUAN: deductive
Qual: inductive
What is the epistemological orientation of QUAN and qual?
QUAN: natural science model: in particular positivism
Qual: interpretivism
What is the ontological orientation of qual and QUAN
QUAN: objectivism
Qual: constructivism
What is operation and operationalisation
Operation: the procedure for measuring concepts - the identification of a value of a variable
Operationalisation: the process of specifying the operations (measures) that will indicate the value of a variable
What are the four categories of variables
Interval/ratio: regular distances between all categories in range
Ordinal: categories can be ranked but unequal distances between them
Nominal: qualitatively different categories: cannot be ranked
Dicotomous: only two categories
What is probability sampling?
Allows researchers to select study subjects to be statistically representative of population they want to learn about
The larger the same and the more homogenous the population, the more confidence we can have about sample representation
What are the four types of probability sampling
Simple random sampling
Systematic random sampling
Cluster sampling
Stratified random sampling
What is non probability sampling
Each member of population has an unknown probability of being selected
What are the four types of non-probability sampling?
Availability
Quota
Purposive:judgement
Snowball
What are the requirements for a true experiment?
At least one treatment group and one control group
Random assignment to the groups
Assessment of change in dependent variable in both groups after the experimental group receives the treatment
What are the characteristics of non experimental designs
Design lacks a seperate comparison group; all cases are exposed to the experimental treatment
The basis for comparison is provided by the pretreatment measure in the experimental group
What is a fixed sample panel design
Non experimental design
Involved only one pre test and one post test
Does not qualify as a quasi-experimental design because comparing subjects to themselves at only one earlier point in time failed to provide an adequate comparison group
What are the common features of qualitative research
Collection of primary qualitative narratives rather than QUAN data
Exploratory, committed to inductive reasoning. It does not begin by seeking to test pre-formulated hypotheses
Focus on human subjectivity and the meaning that subjects attach to events and people in their lives
Researchers pay attention to social context and interconnections between social phenomena
A focus on the events leading up to a particular outcome instead of general causal explanations
It focuses on dynamic social processes. Looks at causes as a series of events embedded within an unfolding, interconnected action sequence
Sensitivity to the subjective role of the researcher
Use of reflexive design/data collection
Data collection is adjusted as study progresses, based on what researcher learns
Major approaches include 1. Intensive interviewing, 2. Participant observation and 3. Focus group.
What is content analysis
The systematic, objective, quantitative analysis of message characteristics
A content analysis is a survey designed with fixed choice responses so that it produces quantitative data that can be analysed statistically
Content analysis studies often quantify the content in news reports, magazine and journal articles and television programs
What is mixed methods
The use of qualitative and quantitative methods to investigate a phenomenon
Commonly used by members of the early Chicago school to study crime and juvenile delinquency in the early 1920s
Not frequently used
What is meta analysis
A quantitative method for identifying patterns in findings across multiple studies
Previous studies are treated as cases whose features are measured as variables and then analysed statistically
Shows how evidence about the interventions varies across research studies
Enhances the generalisability of the findings from any single study or research project
What is univariate, bivariate and multivariate analysis?
Conditions // strategies for establishing causality
Simultaneous analysis of two or more variables
Independent variable and dependent variable analysis
Spurious relationship - effect disappears
Intervening (mediating variable) variable - - indirect effect
Moderated relationship - value of one IV changes the effect that another IV has on DV
Statistical significance - test statistics for making inferences to the larger population
