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sociology > Qualitative Research Methods > Flashcards

Qualitative Research Methods Flashcards

1
Q

What is the definition of qualitative data?

A

Gives a ‘feel’ for what something is like

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2
Q

What type of sociologists favour qualitative data and why?

A

Interpretivists
They reject the idea of any objective social reality and they seek to gain a subjective understanding of actors’ meanings and ‘life worlds’

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3
Q

What are some examples of qualitative research methods?

A
  1. Interviews
  2. Participant observation
  3. Documents
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4
Q

What are the issues of interviews?

A
  1. Practical issues
  2. Reliability and validity
  3. Access and response rate
  4. The interviewer as ‘teacher in disguise’
  5. Improving the validity of interviews with pupils
  6. Group interviews with pupils
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5
Q

What are some of the practical issues when using interviews?

A
  1. Young people’s linguistic skills are less developed than those of adults and this may lead to them not understanding the questions asked
  2. This leads to misunderstandings and incorrect answers and this undermines the validity of the data
  3. Powney and Watts–> young children tend to be more literal minded and often pay attention to unexpected details in questions
  4. The response given by the interviewees may be influenced, reducing the validity of the data
  5. Time consumption
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6
Q

What are the issues surrounding reliability and validity?

A
  1. Structured interviews produce reliable data because they are standardised
  2. Structured interviews don’t produce valid data because young people are likely to respond favourably to a formal style
  3. Bentley–> began each interview by showing students a ‘jokey’ image of her and her daughter and she maintained a relaxed atmosphere during the interview (hard to replicate)
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7
Q

What are the issues surrounding access and response rate?

A
  1. Powney and Watts–> the lower down the hierarchy the interviewee is, the more approvals that have to be obtained
  2. Schools may be reluctant to allow sociologists to conduct interviews during lesson time because of the disruption it causes
  3. Parental permission (Field’s study of pupils’ experience of sex and health education in schools had a refusal rate of 29%)
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8
Q

What are the issues surrounding the interviewer as ‘teacher in disguise’?

A
  1. If interviewees have less power than the interviewer they may see it as being in their own interest to lie, exaggerate or conceal information when answering questions, which reduces the validity of the data
  2. Children are more likely to change their original answer when the question is repeated because they think it must have been wrong
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9
Q

How can interviewer’s improve the validity of their interviews?

A

Greene and Hogan–> use open-ended questions, not interrupt pupils, tolerate long pauses, recognise that children are more suggestible and avoid repeating questions

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10
Q

Why are unstructured interviews seen as more suitable?

A

Their informality can establish rapport more easily and this produces more valid data

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11
Q

What are the issues surrounding group interviews with pupils?

A
  1. Pupils may be strongly influenced by peer pressure and this reduces the validity of the data
  2. The free-flowing nature makes it difficult to standardise the questions and this reduces the reliability of the study
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12
Q

What are the issues of observations?

A
  1. Practical issues
  2. Ethical issues
  3. Validity
  4. The Hawthorne Effect
  5. Representativeness
  6. Reliability
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13
Q

What are the practical issues when using observations?

A
  1. Time consumption (Eggleston–> took 3 months to set up cover)
  2. Easier to gain permission to observe lessons conduct interviews (Fuller–> headteacher decided that parental permission was non required)
  3. Personal characteristics affect the observation (Wright–> white teachers were antagonising towards her)
  4. The observer may find it difficult to find the privacy to record observation (Hemmersley)
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14
Q

What are the ethical issues when using observations?

A
  1. The pupils’ vulnerability and limited ability to consent means that observation normally has to be overt
  2. Delamont–> ‘guilty knowledge’
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15
Q

What are issues surrounding validity when using observations?

A
  1. It gives an authentic understanding when researching issues e.g. classroom interaction or labelling in schools
  2. Pupils may present a false image when being observed by an adult researcher, thus undermining the validity of the study
  3. Observation gives the researcher the opportunity to gain acceptance by pupils
  4. Teachers may be skilled at disguising their feelings and altering their behaviour when being observed
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16
Q

What are the issues surrounding the Hawthorne Effect when using observations?

A
  1. The presence of the researcher influences the behaviour of those being observed
  2. King–> observed at an infant school
17
Q

What are the issues surrounding representativeness when using observations?

A
  1. The education system is vast while observational studies focus on a small number of pupils (Willis–> studied 12 boys)
  2. Observing school interaction is unlikely to produce representative data (Hemmersley–> tended to associate largely with one group of teachers with whom he had more in common, leading to less representative data)
18
Q

What are the issues surrounding reliability when using observations?

A
  1. Participant observation studies tend to lack reliability

2. The personal characteristics of different observers may evoke different responses

19
Q

What are the issues of documents?

A
  1. Practical issues
  2. Ethical issues
  3. Representativeness
  4. Reliability
  5. Validity
20
Q

What are the practical issues of documents?

A
  1. Public documents are often easily accessible (Gillborn–> study of racism and schooling, was able to access a wide range of school documents)
  2. Personal documents can be more difficult to access (Hey–> notes that girls passed to each other in class to understand their friendship patterns)
  3. Some educational documents are confidential e.g. pupils’ disciplinary files
21
Q

What are the ethical issues of documents?

A

Hey–> some of the notes were given to her by the girls themselves, some others she obtained without their consent

22
Q

What are the issues surrounding reliability when using documents?

A
  1. Deliberate falsification or accidental mistakes reduce reliability
  2. Some educational documents can be used in ways that other researchers can replicate
23
Q

What are the issues surrounding validity when using documents?

A
  1. Documents can provide important insights into the meanings held by teachers and pupils, thus they are valid
  2. Documents are open to different interpretations, altering validity

sociology (5 decks)

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