L8-L10 Flashcards
(24 cards)
social policy
action (+inaction) of govt. and its agencies (in relation to the population’s lives)
- laws & decisions - eg housing, taxation, employment etc
direct & indirect social policy
direct : laws on …
- child benefits
- marriage
- behaviour within the family (eg hitting kids)
indirect : laws on …
- housing
- health
- education
(laws aimed at other areas but influences the family)
gatekeeper - sampling
someone who controls the access that a sociologist has to a sample
- knows the sample directly
- eg school gatekeeper = headteacher
population definition (sampling)
everybody in the group that you wish to study
- eg all teens aged 16-19 in the UK
sample definition
a selection of people from the population
- eg 100 people aged 16-19
- necessary bcs researchers don’t have the time or money to study everyone in the population
representative
the sample should have the same characteristics as the population as a whole
- should represent the pop.
- sample should be representative of the population it was drawn from
— so, generalisations can be made (applied to whole pop.)
sampling unit
members of the pop. that you wish to study
- in terms of number and characteristics
- eg 40 male dentists
sampling frame
consists of a list of members from the population that you wish to study
- source for this could be the electoral roll, telephone directories etc
problems of using electoral roll or phone directories to obtain sample (3)
electoral roll has some people left off - eg ppl from diff. countries
time consuming
people can be contacted but unwilling to take part
random sampling
gives every member of the sampling frame an equal chance of being selected
- every name given a number, then lists of random numbers are used to select the sample
- or pull names out of a hat
systematic sampling
systematically selects people from the sampling frame by choosing every 2nd, 5th, 10th person of the list
- these people become the sampling unit
stratified sampling
can ensure the sample = representative
- population divided into strata in terms of characteristics
- eg age, gender etc
- sample is then selected that reflects these characteristics
- eg 51% female and 49% male
snowball sampling
researcher finds someone who is willing to take part in their research
- participant is then asked if they could find another person to also take part
- network is built up and the sample grows
volunteer sampling
researchers can try to attract volunteers who want to take part
- advertise using leaflets, posters, radio or TV broadcasts
- ppl read the info and decide if they want to take part
opportunity sampling
involves selecting pps simply bcs it’s convenient to do so
- researcher may have easy access to a group of people they know well / have regular contact with
- (sometimes known as convenience sampling)
purposive sampling
used by researchers who know what type of sample they’re looking for
- can go and find that specific sample
- eg wanting to study doctors aged 25-50, go to hospitals directly to obtain sample
quota sampling
researcher may conduct research in the street and look for people who could take part
- eg they need to find 20 females aged 30-45 who work full time
- researcher fills quota by asking the first 20 ppl who fit the criteria (and willing to answer the questions)
evaluation of random sample
ADV.
- limits bias from researcher - pps selected by chance
- relatively quick compared to stratified sampling, which takes a long time to conduct
DISAV.
- sample may end up being non representative of the population
- sample that are randomly chosen might not wish to take part - means sampling process might need to be conducted again to gain more pps
ethical issues
matters of moral principles
- can effect the research process
- Bulmer = sociologist - overall view of ethics
pilot studies
small scale preliminary study
- sociologists might conduct before they do their main research
- like a test run
- small sample
- to see if research will actually work
positives of pilot studies (2)
identify weaknesses of method
ensures validity
negatives of pilot studies (2)
inaccurate - small scale
time consuming (&resources)
- takes away from main study
principles of ethical research by Bulmer (7)
informed consent
respect for privacy
protection from harm
safeguarding & confidentiality of data
avoid deception
awareness of the consequences of publication
right to withdraw
before research begins, the pps need to be informed about the …
nature and purpose of the study
how their data will be used
how anonymity will be respected
confidentiality of their answers
