Research Methods Flashcards
(22 cards)
Positivists prefer
Scientific and quantifiable data that is quick to obtain and is rich in reliabilty and validity
Interpretivists prefer
Qualitative data and provides in depth meaning of a small scale research group and is therefore rich in validity
What factors do you consider when conducting research and the methods
Ethical, practical and theoretical issues
What are some practical issues you may face when conducting research
Time, money, access
Ethical issues to consider
Informed consent
Confidentiality
Psycholgical harm
Theoretical issues to consider
Reliability, representativeness, validity
What does reliabilty refer to
If a research is reliable, it must be able to be repeated and obtain similair results
What does validity refer to
How true the data is
What are the advantages and disadvantages of lab experiments
A - Highly reliable and can identify cause and effect
D - Artifical, Hawthorne effect, Unrepresenative, ethical issues
Disadvantages and advantages of field experiments
A - Less artifical, no Hawthorne effect, validty increases
D - Ethical issues
Limited application
What are the advantages of questionnaires
Cheap and quick
Quantifiable data
Representative
Reliable
Limited ethical issues
What are the disadvantages of questionnaires
Response rates
Unrepresentative
No follow ups
What are the advantages and disadvantages of structured interviews
A - Training is cheap
Easy to do
Representative
Reliable
D- Lack of validity, people may lie
Answers may not fit what interviewers want to ask
Advantages and disadvantages of unstructured interviews
A - Informal, develop better relationships
Flexible
Conversation is not fixed, more likely to be truthful
D - Time consuming, unrepresenative, not reliable
A and D of Participant Observations
A - Valid, groups are observed naturally, data is rich and detailed
D - Unreliable and actions are open ended
Unrepresenative
Not valid - Hawthrone
Practical issues with the group
Non participant observation A and D
A - Valid, researcher not involved with group
D - Not reliable, observations are subjective and can’t be repeated
Not representative
Overt Observations A and D
A - Less ethical issues as aware
More reliable than covert
Notes can openly be taken
Can interview too
D- Time consuming
Hawthorne effect
Difficult to repeat
Not represenative
Covert observations A and D
A - More valid as lack of the Hawthorne effect
Research is obtained more valid, first hand
Find out more detail
D- Ethical issues, decietful
Researcher hast to gains trust
Advantages of offical statistics
Cheap and easy to obtain
Collected regularly
Representative
Disadavantages of official statistics
Goverment collected, may not cover want sociologists want
Definitions may be different, what is classed as poverty
A and D of personal documents
Valid - Insight into peoples ideas
Cheap and saves time
Illuminates many areas of life
Can be used to confirm or question accounts
D - Unlikely to produce, more groups more likely
Personal docs may have an aduience in mind, so personal bias
Historical documents A and D
A - Allow comparisons over time
Assessing outcomes of social polcies
D - Unrepresentive, destoryed docs
Validity are open to question
Authenticity
