PET Flashcards
(23 cards)
practical issues
logistics of conducting research
ethical issues
moral and ethical conduct of researcher and potential participants
theoretical issues
refer to methodological and theoretical preferences of researcher to topic and method
P - funding bodies (e.g. government, businesses, charities, universities)
who is going to pay for the research and what criteria institutions will apply, influencing choice of method and topic
P - access to participants (e.g. children versus adults)
some groups may be more difficult to research, limiting the scale of research
P - impact of research (e.g. new or replicate)
will the research provide a new insight into how we view society or will it replicate existing research, advancing understanding
P - opportunity to conduct research
will it be feasible for researcher to conduct research on that topic
P - time (e.g time to plan and train)
how long will it take to conduct research and interpret data
P - cost (e.g. training, accommodation)
what costs will the research incur overall
P - participants (e.g. gatekeepers)
what sampling methods will be used to select participants
E - guidelines (e.g. British Sociological Association)
research proposals must be approved by ethics committees for certain institutions
E - data security (e.g. GDPR guidelines)
all data must be kept in accordance to legal guidelines
E - confidentiality (e.g. anonymity)
allow participants to disclose confidential information about themselves and ensure no details about the person are easily identifiable
E - deception
ethics committee required to approve deceptive techniques otherwise people may incriminate themselves or be misrepresented
E - informed consent (e.g. field experiments or covert observation)
whether participants are aware of the aims of the study and aware they are part of research at all
E - harm to participants (e.g. discussing sensitive topics)
are participants likely to be victim to physical or psychological harm
T - sociologist values
theoretical perspectives influences topic and method
T - purpose of reserach
is the aim of research to be used for further personal knowledge or inform social policy
T - methodological preferences (e.g. positivists versus interpretivists)
which methods are preferred by the researcher conducting the research
T - type of data being collected
does the research require qualitative or quantitative data
T - reliability
is replicability important for the research to be repeated again
T - validity
will the research require gaining accurate understanding of human behaviour in a specific context
T - representativeness
is the research meant to represent society as a whole or be a window into the lives of individuals
