Methods Flashcards
(15 cards)
Questionairres
favoured by positivists
+produces large amounts of data, cheaply
+high in reliability
+quick to complete
+often anonymous so people are less worried about revealing their identity
+produce representative data, which can be used to make generalisations.
-low response rate.
-low in validity as people may not take them seriously. They may lie.
-only useful for people who are literate, cannot be used with children or illiterate groups.
-lack deeper meaning, as people are not able to explain their answers.
-no-one is there to explain the questions if the respondent doesn’t understand them.
-the researcher needs permission to hand out questionairres
-boring / people can lie / sabotage
documents
favoured by interpretivists,
public documents = secondary data, personal data
+A good source of qualitative data, which can help sociologists understand individual meanings.
+Allows researcher to gain access to the past.
+It can enable the researcher to see changes over time.
+It might be the only information available on the topic.
+It can be easy to access.
-Documents may be difficult to understand if they are old.
-They might be fake.
-They might contain lies – especially personal documents.
-There may be ethical issues. For example, individuals don’t intend for their personal diary to be read by others.
theoretical issues
-school websites can be trusted valid, but their credibility is undermined as they are advertising the school in a positive light
-OFSTED can also give you a view on the school, but cant be trusted as they are only in schools for a few days - performance
ethical issues
-lack of consent
*high in validity if documents are in depth and personal, but not many people do about school experiences
*if you have access to school social media accounts, representativeness should be good, however hardly anyone uses diaries anymore so representativeness could be an issue - also schools in a positive light, favour students
content analysis documents
*content analysis is a method of systemically analysing a communication to understand its meanings
*Scott suggests that documents should be criticised on four criteria a credibiility, representativeness authenticity and meaning- CRAM
*The Glasgow Media Group analysed various sources of news media to investigate the nature of news reporting.
lab experiments
+The researcher has control over the experiment.
+You get quantitative data.
+You can replicate the research ( Brown and the Milgram experiment).
-It’s hard to reproduce social situations in a lab – lab experiments are artificial.
-It is difficult to isolate single variables. Social behaviour is influenced by many factors.
-There are often moral and ethical issues in lab experiments.
-People may feel intimidated or act differently in the lab.
*the researcher approaches research in a similar way to a natural scientist
*Positivists say that its possible to create a similar situation to a scientific laboratory, which is a controlled environment in which all variables can be monitored.
*two groups in an experiment, experimental group (independent variable) and control group (control variable) results are compared and lead to a cause and effect relationship established to prevent or predict future events
*Bandura bobo doll experiment
field experiments
used by interpretivists
created to criticise lab experiments
Rosenthal and Jacobson 1968 powerful process of labelling
+They are done in natural social settings and are more like real life.
+They can show the hidden meanings of everyday social interactions.
-You can’t control the variables like you can in lab experiments.
-If people know they are being studied they may change their behaviour (Hawthorne Effect).
-Unethical if they don’t now they are taking part
ethnography
*ethnography studies the way of life of a group.
*based on small scale fieldwork that tends to produce qualitative data.
*It’s valid because you can study behaviour in natural settings.
*ethnography can be used to see one individual or a whole community
*use primary data - case studies, focus groups, longitudinal studies and observation.
*researchers may also analyse documents such as diaries and letters, which are secondary data.
+in-depth research which gives inside knowledge about a community.
+you get a valid picture from ethnography, but it relies on the researcher’s interpretation of what people do and say.
-it’s difficult to make generalisations from small-scale research
-it may not be reliable (it’s difficult to reproduce).
longitudinal studies
*research that takes place at regular intervals over a long period of time
*large scale quantiative surveys used by positivists
*however, some studies like the T.V programme ‘Seven Up’ are qualitative
+You can analyse changes and make comparisons over time.
+You can study how the attitudes of the sample change over time.
-It’s hard to recruit a committed sample who will want to stay with the study.
-You need long-term funding and you need to keep the research team together.
-Longitudinal studies rely on interviews and questionnaires which might not be reliable or valid.
structured interviews
*like questionairres, but with an interviewer
*same questions every time, closed + multiple choice
+quantitative data
+reliable
+used in large scale social surveys
+most higher response rate than questionairres
+dont need to read or write
-more expensive than questionairres - pay the interviewer
-set questions, cant ask for more detail
Wilmott and Young researched extended families in east london - short interview + large sample
unstructured interviews
*informal with no rigid structure
*open ended questions
+qualitative data
+valid
+dont need to read or write
+interviewer can go into depth and ask questions
-train interviewer, skilled
-need to build trust
-small samples so not representative
-time consuming takes long time to write up
-access - hard to find people to talk about sensitive topics
-expensive
-hard to compare and interpet answers without being biased
-hard to anonymise respondents as so personal
Dobash and Dobash researched domestic violence, gained a strong rapport with the respondents, willing to open up about experiences, produced rich data
semi structured interviews
*combination of open and closed questions
*both qualitative and quantitative data
Wright et al used group interviews in their research into the reasons why African-Caribbean are 5x more likely to be excluded from school.
With friends so could open up and give fuller, more detailed answers
- give interviewer what they want to hear or give the opposite
-interviewer may give subtle direction towards certain responses
-interviewer effects make the data less valid
-group interviews can be problematic, change response due to peer pressure, and exaggerate answers
official statistics
*eg the uk census
*quanitative data
*seconday data
*positivists
*collected by the government
*births, deaths, crime, marriage, migration
+Cheap, easy to access large amounts of data.
+Can explore changes over time
+High in reliability
+Can isolate variables and establish cause- and –effect relationships.
+Available on a wide variety of topics.
+representative
+reliable
-Do not explain why things happen, they lack meaning.
-May not provide answers to the specific needs of the researcher, making them less useful.
-Definitions and the way data is collected may vary over time and this means its impossible to compare data. E.G. The definition of unemployment changed
-Might not be valid - statistics can be manipulated
covert and overt observation
*observation involves researchers watching people in a natural setting and recording these findings and interpreting them
*favoured by interpretivists as natural setting
*qualitative and sometimes quantitative data
*overt = with consent
*covert = without consent
+high in validity - people behave naturally
+verstehan
+observing body language and interaction with others
+detailed rich
+less chance of interviewer bias
+covert observation can reduce the hawethorn affect
-flexible - uncover unexpected findings
-time consuming
-lots to write up, bias
-In overt observation the observer needs to gain access to the group and a strong rapport, which may be difficult.
-researcher needs to be skillful
-unethical - lack of consent
-researcher has ethical problems if in a dangerous situation
-findings hard to write up without exposing identity
participant and non participant observation
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sampling
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