Midterm Flashcards
(65 cards)
1
Q
Why is research a dirty word?
A
- Linked with imperialism and colonialism
- Often at the expense of Indigenous Peoples
- Creation of the “other”
2
Q
What is a theory?
A
An explanation of observed regularities or patterns
3
Q
What is the purpose of research?
A
- Assess the adequacy of a social theory
- Gather info to create a social theory
- Understand social problems
- Explore the personal experience
4
Q
Middle range theory
A
- Limited scope
- Directly testable
e. g. Durkheim’s theory of suicide, theory of relative deprivation
5
Q
Grand theories
A
- General and abstract
- Not directly testable
- Structural functionalism
6
Q
What is the deductive approach?
A
- Used in social theory
- Theory is established then tested
7
Q
What is the inductive approach?
A
- Less often used in social theory
- Gather data then establish a theory
- Sometimes iterative
- Leads to empirical generalization
- “Grounded theory”
8
Q
What are the epistemological considerations?
A
1) Positivism
2) Interpretivism
3) Critical approaches
9
Q
What is positivism?
A
- Epistemological consideration
- Facts must be able to be seen or heard
- Science should proceed through the development of hypotheses and hypothesis testing
10
Q
What is interpretivism?
A
- Epistemological consideration
- Focus on subjective meanings of people’s actions
- Understand the social world from an actor’s point of view
- Tries to create “empathetic understandings of human behaviour”
11
Q
What are critical approaches?
A
- Epistemological consideration
- Argues that the purpose of research is to rid the world of suffering and is not value free
- Should be action oriented
- Marx: knowledge should be used to understand and change social reality
12
Q
What are the ontological considerations?
A
- Ontology is the study of how we exist
- Objectivist perspective
- Constructivist perspective
13
Q
What is the objectivist perspective?
A
Do social phenomena have an objective reality independent of our perceptions?
14
Q
What is the constructivist perspective?
A
Is what passes for reality merely a set of mental constructions?
15
Q
What is reflexivity?
A
The awareness of values and decisions having an impact on research
16
Q
What are the 3 positions of values in research?
A
1) Should be value-free
2) Cannot be value-free but researchers should be open about them
3) Researchers should use their values to direct and interpret their research
17
Q
What is the Milgram Experiment?
A
- Obedience to authority figures
- To understand Nazis during the Holocaust
- Unethical due to extreme emotional distress
18
Q
What is nomothetic research?
A
- Explanations involve attributions of cause and effect, in general laws and principles
- Might be developed through particular research subjects and extrapolated to a larger population
19
Q
What is idiographic research?
A
- A rich description of a person or group & seeks to explain the particular
- Not meant to apply to people outside the study
20
Q
What are the criteria for evaluating social research?
A
1) Reliability
2) Replicability
3) Validity
21
Q
What is reliability?
A
- A criterium for evaluating social research
- Results remain the same each time a particular measurement technique is used on the same subject
- Results do not have external influence
22
Q
What is replicability?
A
- A criterium for evaluating social research
- Results remain the same if others repeat all/part of the study
- Procedures used are sound and spelt out
23
Q
What is validity?
A
- A criterium for evaluating social research
- The integrity of the results
- Measurement validity: are you measuring what you want to measure?
- Internal validity: whether causation has been established
- External validity: Are findings applicable to situations outside the research environment?
24
Q
According to Lincoln & Guba (1985), what should qualitative work be measured by?
A
- Credibility (internal validity)
- Transferability (external validity)
- Dependability (reliability)
- Conformity (replicability)
25
What are the 5 research designs?
1) Experiments
2) Quasi-experiments
3) Cross-sectional
4) Longitudal
5) Case study
26
Experiments
- Rare in sociology & political science
- Comparison between groups
e. g. Rosenthal & Jacobson (1968) from the text
27
Quasi-experiments
- Internal validity is harder to establish
| - "Natural experiments"
28
Cross-sectional
- Taking observations at a point in time
- No manipulation
- To detect patterns of association
- Issues of internal validity: what is the cause in a relationship
29
Longitudal
- Examined at a particular time, then again later
- Time-order changes, to establish directions of causation
- Panel study: same people are studied at different times
- Cohort study: people sharing the same experiences are studied at different times
30
What are the 3 types of case studies?
- Critical (illustrates the conditions under which a certain hypothesis holds or does not)
- Extreme/unique (unusual cases that help understand common ones)
- Revelatory (a case/context that has never been studied before)
31
What is the nature of qualitative research?
- usually inductive
- usually interpretist
- usually constructivist
- takes a natural perspective
32
What are the kinds of qualitative research?
- Ethnography/participant observation
- Interviewing
- Focus groups
- Discourse and conversation analysis
- Analysis of texts and documents
- Participatory action research
33
What are the steps of qualitative research?
1) Establish a general research question
2) Select a relevant site and subjects
3) Collect the data
4) Interpret the data
5) Conceptual and theoretical work
6) Findings and conclusions
34
What are the main goals of qualitative research?
- Seeing through the eyes of the people studied (empathy and naturalism)
- Emphasis on process
- Flexibility and limited structure
35
What are the critiques of qualitative research?
- Too subjective
- Difficult to replicate
- Problems of generalization
36
Probability sampling
Random sampling, intended to keep sample error to a minimum
37
Non-probability sampling
Some units of the population are more likely to be selected than others
38
Sampling error
Error of estimation when there is a difference in characteristics between the population and sample
39
Types of probability sampling
- Simple random sample
- Systematic sample
- Stratified random sample
- Multi-stage cluster sample
40
Types of non-probability sampling
- Convenience sample
- Snowball sample
- Quota sample
- Structured observation and sample
41
"Black Like Me" John Howard Griffin (1959)
- What is it like to be discriminated against over something you have no control of (skin colour)
- "became" black and went through an identity crisis
42
"The Tearoom Trade" Laud Humphreys (1970)
- Impersonal sex in public spaces
- Gained trust of participants by acting as lookout
- Is this a violation of privacy?
43
What are the policies in Canada for ethical research?
- Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
| - Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans (TCP2, 2010, 2014)
44
TCP2
- Provides for variation in research methods
- Respect for persons
- Concern for welfare
- Justice
45
Respect for persons
- subjects are not "objects"
- participants are given an info sheet/consent form
- deception should only be used as a last resort
46
Concern for welfare
- avoid harm, embarrassment, inadvertent identification
- covert research: benefits must outweigh harm, permission may be sought after the fact
- secondary participants
- researchers may have to report behaviours
47
Justice
- no one should be exploited for research
- no one should be systematically excluded from the benefits
- inclusivity
- intersubjectivity
- paid participation: may induce risks of abnormal behaviour
48
Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment
- Secret study by the US PHS to study the progression of syphilis without treatment
- Consent was never obtained, participants were deceived
- 1974: National Research Act was passed
49
Advantages of structured interview
- reduced risk of variation due to error
| - enhances accuracy and ease of processing data
50
Disadvantages of structured interview
- interviewer effects
51
True/real variation
Attributed to the concept being measured
52
Variation due to error
Attributed to the interviewing process
- Intra-interviewer: interviewer is inconsistent
- Inter-interviewer: inconsistency amongst different interviewers
53
Advantages of questionnaires
- Cheap, quick, easy to administer
- No interviewer effects
- Social desirability reduced
54
Disadvantages of questionnaires
- greater risk of missing data
| - order effects may occur
55
Response set
- Respondent problem
- A series of items responded to in the same way, suggesting alternative motivations (acquiescence, social desirably, laziness/boredom)
56
Advantages of open questions
- respondents can answer on their own terms
- allow for unusual responses
- more genuine (no suggestion)
- good for exploring new areas of research
57
Disadvantages of open questions
- Time-consuming (recording and coding)
| - recording inaccuracies
58
Advantages of closed questions
- easy to process answers
- standardization allows comparison of answers
- no interpretation required by the researcher
59
Disadvantages of closed questions
- loss of spontaneity
- categories cannot overlap
- difficult to make exhaustive
- respondents may differ in their interpretation of wording
- respondents may not have an answer that they identify with
60
Pre-coding closed questions
- themes/categories are decided upon before data collection
| - data is collected first then sorted into pre-set categories for open questions
61
Types of questions
- personal factual questions
- factual questions about others
- factual questions about entity/event
- questions about attitudes
- questions about beliefs
- questions about knowledge
62
Specific rules for designing questions
- avoid long questions
- avoid double-barrelled questions
- avoid double negatives
- ensure symmetry
- ensure answers are balanced
- avoid "don't know", use filter
63
Question order
- all respondents should receive questions in the same order unless testing for order effects
- opinion and attitude questions should perceive behaviour and knowledge questions
64
Designing the questionnaire
- provide a clear presentation
- choose vertical or horizontal answers as appropriate
- provide clear instructions
- keep questions and answers on the same page
65
Vignette questions
- scenarios
| - creates distance between question and respondent
