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Sociology - Education > Research Methods > Flashcards

Research Methods Flashcards

1
Q

Why would a sociologist research?

A

To provide answers to interesting questions based upon evidence so they can understand society.

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2
Q

What perspective is positivism?

A

Functionalism/Marxism

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3
Q

What method of study do positivists prefer?

A

Scientific

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4
Q

What is positivism’s method of analysis?

A

Quantitative: official statistics, emphasis on reliability.

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5
Q

What perspective is Interpretivism?

A

Interactionism

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6
Q

Are positivists Macro or Micro?

A

Macro

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7
Q

Are interpretivists Macro or Micro?

A

Micro

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8
Q

What is an interpretivist’s method of study?

A

Interpretation and verstehen

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9
Q

What is an interpretivist’s method of analysis?

A

Qualitative: participant, observation, unstructured interviews, emphasis of validity.

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10
Q

What is an advantage to primary research?

A

.First hand
.Up to date
.Relevant to the research question.

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11
Q

What is a disadvantage of primary research?

A

.Costly
.Time consuming
.Researcher bias.

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12
Q

What is a advantage of secondary research?

A

.Already collected

.Post events

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13
Q

What is a disadvantage of secondary research?

A

.Not always available

.Bias of original collector

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14
Q

What are advantages to quantitative data?

A

.Realiable
.Easy to analyse
.Objective
.Make comparisons

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15
Q

What are disadvantages of quantitative data?

A

.Numbers may mask the reality

.No focus on the individual

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16
Q

What are advantages of qualitative data?

A

.Subjective
.In depth feelings and meanings
.Close to reality

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17
Q

What are disadvantages of qualitative data?

A

.Cannot generalise
.Not scientific
.Unrealiable

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18
Q

What 6 practical reasons to make a decision on a topic?

A 
.Time
.Cost
.Funding
.Access
.Skills
.Characteristics of researcher (e.g. Gender)
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19
Q

What are 4 ethical reasons to help choose a topic?

A

.Moral
.Illegality
.After effects
.Danger

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20
Q

What are the 3 theoretical choices of the topic?

A

.Positivist
.Interpretivist
.Feminist

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21
Q

Sample: How do you pick?

A

.Unable to ask all in the population
.Aim to be representative
.May or may bit have a sampling frame (which means a list of names)

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22
Q

What are the two types of sampling?

A

.Random sampling

.Non-random sampling

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23
Q

What are features of random sampling?

A 
.Equal chance of being selected
.Select names from a list
.Cluster sampling 
.Stratified sampling
.Systematic sampling
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24
Q

What are features of non-random sampling?

A 
.No sampling frame
.Quota 
.Snowball
.Volunteer
.Opportunity
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25
Q

What is the first primary research method?

A

Pilot study

26
Q

What is a pilot study?

A

.Small piece of research before the main research
.Checks validity and reliability
.Operationalises key concepts
.Test questions and procedures
.Gain insight into timings
.Train staff
.Get earlier data set so further funding can be obtained

27
Q

What is the second primary research method?

A

Social survey

28
Q

What is a social survey?

A

.Social surveys involve the systematic collection of information about a population. This usually a large population.
.They tend to be used by positivists as a primary source of quantitative data.
.Used by government agencies

29
Q

What is an example of a social survey?

A

Peter Townsend used a 39 page questionnaire in his research on poverty. His sample included 2052 households and he found that 23% of households suffer relative deprivation.

30
Q

What are benefits to social surveys?

A

.Use large samples
.Up to date data
.Make comparisons
.Reliable (as they can be verified)

31
Q

What are drawbacks of social surveys?

A 
.Cost
.Rely on accuracy of question wording 
.No meaning for an interpretivists
.Issue of operationalisation
.Honest?
32
Q

What is a longitudinal survey?

A

.These take place at intervals over a long period of time.
.Data is regularly collected and they are often large scale quantitative surveys.
.Used by positivists

33
Q

What is an example of longitudes survey?

A

Douglas used a large sample of pupils and followed their progress through school. This allowed him to study parental interest and level of achievement.

34
Q

What are some benefits of longitudinal survey?

A

.They allow you to analyse changes and make comparisons over time
.It is useful to study how the attribute of the source of the same sample change over time

35
Q

What are drawbacks of longitudes surveys?

A

.Hard to recruit a committed sample
.Hard to keep contact with your sample. This may undermine validity
.Hard to obtain long-term funding and keep research team together
.They may rely on interviews and questionnaires. There may lack validity and reliability

36
Q

What is a questionnaire?

A

Social surveys usually involve a questionnaire. This is a list of questions that the respondent answers. They are used to quickly gain info about a larger number of people.

37
Q

What do questionnaires do?

A

Questionnaires mainly produce quantitative data and are preferred by positivists. Standardised questions make them reliable. When a question uses open-ended questions they can provide you with some insight into meanings and motives, they give you qualitative data.
The reliability and validity of q questionnaire depends on the design of the questionnaire (how it’s constructed - open, closed, scaled).

38
Q

What should you do in a questionnaire?

A

.Use clear and simple questions that are easily understood
.Give clear instructions and make it easy for the respondent
.Have a clear layout that doesn’t intimidate
.Give the respondents a range of options on pre-coded questions
.Ask questions that measure what you want to measure

39
Q

What shouldn’t you do in questionnaires?

A

.Ask embarrassing, threatening or over complex questions
.Ask two questions instead of one
.Shouldn’t be too long
.Don’t use sociological terms that they won’t understand
.Don’t lead the respondent to answer the question in a particular way

40
Q

What are benefits to questionnaires?

A

.Quick and cheap
.Large samples
.High reliability because of standardised questions
.Easy to analyse
.No problem interviewed effect
.You can identify patterns and make comparisons

41
Q

What are drawbacks to questionnaires?

A

.Respondent may not be honest
.Questions may be misleading
.Questionnaires have a low response rate
.Questions may not measure what you actually want to measure
.Open questions make it difficult for the researcher to quantify data
.Questions cannot be explained to respondents if they misunderstand

42
Q

What is an interview?

A

An interview is a conversation between a respondent and a an interviewer. The researcher asks a set of questions.
An interview is a social process of interaction between two or more people.
An interviewer should create a friendly, relaxed atmosphere, carefully ask questions and record answers
An interview effect is when there is deviation from the true response. This can be caused by the characteristics of the interviewer (sex, age, class, personality), opinions of the researcher and the interviewer influencing the interviewee.

43
Q

What are the two types of interviews?

A

.Structured

.Unstructured

44
Q

What is a structured interview?

A 
Ask questions without variation
High reliability 
Use closed questions
Quantitative data
Used in large social surveys
45
Q

What is a unstructured interview?

A 
Informal
No rigid structure
Open questions
Qualitative data
Higher validity
Requires skill
Used with smaller samples
Feminists like unstructured interviews because they create trust
46
Q

What are some benefits of structured interviews?

A

Standardised questions which means the research can be repeated
Produce quantitative data
Not as time consuming as unstructured interviews
High response rate compared to questionnaires as it is more difficult to refuse a researcher
Less interviewer effect because you don’t probe

47
Q

What are some drawbacks to structured interviews?

A

More expensive than questionnaires (the interviewer has to be paid and trained)
The interviewer has to follow the interviewer schedule (questions) so they cannot probe
It relies on careful and clear question wording. Questions may be interpreted differently

48
Q

What are some benefits of unstructured interviews?

A

Provides in-depth qualitative data
Skilled interviewer can probe the beliefs of interviewee
The interviewee can express their beliefs without constraint of categories
Useful for researching sensitive issues where rapport (trust) is needed with the interviewee
May discover interesting ideas that lead to new theories

49
Q

What are some drawbacks to unstructured interviews?

A

They take a long time and can be expensive
Samples ares usually small so there is a problem with being representative
Low reliability as you cannot repeat the interview/interviewer and get the same answers
It takes a long time to transcribe the findings

50
Q

What is ethnography?

A

The direct observation of the activity of members of a social group and the description and evaluation of such activity.
Study the way of life a group of people (their culture and structure of society)

51
Q

What are 6 ways you can study ethnography?

A 
.Unstructured interviews 
.Participant observation 
.Case studies 
.Life histories 
.Community studies 
.Time budgeting
52
Q

What are the key elements of ethnography?

A

Is a ‘field work’ or ‘field study’. The research tries to tell it like it is
Study a small number of cases over a long period of time
Unstructured
No clear hypothesis/focus to begin with
Qualitative

53
Q

What types of ethnography is there?

A

Case studies: in-depth study of a whole community
Community study: in-depth study of a whole community
Life-history: in-depth history of an individual
Time-budgeting: detailed diary of activities

54
Q

What is Internet ethnography?

A

In order to gain an intimate understanding of the culture and the symbolic system of the conference, the author has been a participant observer for 18 month. All the messages have been recorded and archived every month in a separate file, for a total of nearly 10,000 messages and 400 users involved.

55
Q

What is an example of Internet ethnography?

A

Parragnella 1997
‘Cyberspace constitutes a wonderful example of how people can build personal relationships and social norms that are obviously real and meaningful even in the absence of physical touchable matter’.
She used participant observation and became a member of a particular cyber community

56
Q

What are some disadvantages of ethnography?

A 
Hawthorne effect?
Ethical issues?
Can you make a generalisation?
Can you test a hypothesis
Can you get behind the surface of actions to the structure of society? 
Is it objective?
What right do researchers have to speak of the people they study?
'Going native'
57
Q

What are some features of an observation?

A

Covert
Overt
Participant
Non-participant
Interpretivists perfect this methodology because it gets close to the action
Produces qualitative data that reveals meaning and motives
BSA say covert observations should be used when there is no other way of obtaining the information

58
Q

What are some benefits to participant observation?

A 
Observe in real life
First hand
Cover can be used to study deviant groups
Rich qualitative data
True verstehen
59
Q

What are some drawbacks to participant observation?

A 
Going native
Problems 'getting in, staying in and getting out'
Participation in illegal acts
If overt, Hawthorne effect
Lack reliability 
Time
Difficult to record data if covert
60
Q

What are some benefits of non-participant observation?

A

Ethical as have informed consent

Stand back group, so can be more objective

61
Q

What are some drawbacks to non-participant observation?

A

Do they fully understand the group?

Hawthorne effect

Sociology - Education (1 decks)

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