theory and methods Flashcards

Question

give disadvantages of Rosenthal and jacobson experiment?

Answer 1

``` Interpretivist would dislike Difficult to isolate a single cause Ethical issues Small scale settings Artificiality Lacks validity ```

Answer 2

Quantitative data gathered by the government of other official bodies.

Answer 3

Socially constructed rather than being based on facts | Interpretivists make this criticism because official statistics create by social processes

Answer 4

``` Important for planning and evaluating social policies ] Cheap Easy accessible Representative Cover a long life span ```

Answer 5

Might not tell the whole story May change over time Statistics are socially constructed Produced by the state

Answer 6

Decide how you are going to measure your concepts

Answer 7

Are large scale about people's lives mainly using questionnaires but sometimes interviews

Answer 8

Choose a topic Formulate and aim or hypothesis Operationalisation concepts Pilot study

Answer 9

List of the people forming a population from which a sample is taken

Answer 10

A list of pre-set questions to which the respondents are asked to answer Cheap Fast Efficient method for obtaining large amount of quantifiable data on relatively large sample of people

Answer 11

Structured- reliable, highly, pre-set questions with limited choice Open-ended questions- less structured, no pre-set choice and open questions

Answer 12

Structured or formal- based on structured, pre-coded questionnaire, administered by an interview Unstructured or informal- like a guided conversation aims to obtain further depth and drawn out feeling and opinions Group interviews- are unstructured

Answer 13

``` time , money Venue Verstehen Bias Ethical issues- feel pressured to continue Social desirability effect Interviews are artificial situation Problems of validity Do people give honest answers Unstructured they are unreliable Not easily repeated Take long time to conduct ```

Answer 14

group interviews with wc lads

Answer 15

structured health surveys

Answer 16

unstructured domestic violence

Answer 17

Participant observation Convert Overt Non-participant observation

Answer 18

involves a researcher joining the group they are studying and participating in its activities

Answer 19

researcher conceals their own identity

Answer 20

researcher declares their own identity

Answer 21

observation without the researcher participating

Answer 22

Gang leader for the day- led a double life for 7 years

Answer 23

``` Making contact Observer role- how involved they are? How do you leave the group? Gaining verstehen Physical, theoretical and ethical issues ```

Answer 24

documents can be both

Answer 25

public documents | private documents

Answer 26

produced by organisation such as government and schools

Answer 27

first person accounts, e:g letters, photo albums

Answer 28

Authenticity (is it fake) Credibility (is it believable) Representativeness (is it typical) Meaning (have we interpret it correctly)

Answer 29

Sharp and mcrobbie

Answer 30

Is a method for dealing systematically with the contents of documents ones in the media

Answer 31

Likely to be high in validity due to the close examination of an individual's world. Learning through putting yourself in someone else's shoes and therefore provides verstehen Extremely small samples and their for under representation meaning we cannot generalize

Answer 32

a detailed examination of a single case of example

Answer 33

A study that follows the same sample or group over an extended period of time

Answer 34

A case study of an individual using qualitative methods Aims - try and understand how individuals interpret their ‘life worlds’ High in validity, qualitative date Training of interviewer to empathise with subject Good listening skills Extremely time consuming

Answer 35

Using both quantitative and qualitative methods in your research

Answer 36

``` Functionalist Macro Structuralism Positivism Social fact/objective Suidice is not individually determined but is the result of social force Rates may vary between diffrent social groups and trends to remain constant Determined by too much/too little Social integration Moral regulation ```

Answer 37

Egoistic- under integration Altruistic- excess integration Anomic- under regulation Fatalistic- excess regulation

Answer 38

Protestant and Catholics Married and single Parents and childless

Answer 39

Official stats- suicide rates not reliably collected in past Some people may not want death to be categonside as suicide

Answer 40

Rather than causes of suicide, douglas looks at the meaning of suicide not social fact but a social construction

Answer 41

Sociologists better at determining suicide than highly trained coroners How can we truly discover the meaning behind suicide if cannot ask them

Answer 42

Social reality is just a construct of its members Agrees that suicide statistics are the result of croners ecisions but disagree that we can never uncover the decreased meanings We need to study how coroners come to the decisions Based on qualitative research, he found coroners made common sense assumptions

Answer 43

Empirical- information can be controlled or measured

Answer 44

Theoretical- seeks to uncover causal relationship

Answer 45

Objective- blocks out personal prejudices and political views

Answer 46

Testable- can be tested and revisited

Answer 47

Cumulative- builds on previous knowledge so their is an ever growing body of knowledge

Answer 48

Criticisms positivist methods No such thing as ‘objective’ truth Advocates the conjecture and refutation model Instead of typing to prove their hypothesis right they should try and prove them wrong They should subject their hypothesis to the principle of falsification Scientific knowledge is provisional or temporary

Answer 49

Conjecture- a guess about something based on how it seems and not a proof

Answer 50

Refutation- to say/ prove that a person, statement opinions is wrong or false

Answer 51

Marxism cannot be scientific because it is impossible to prove social change will not occur in the future: It is a hypothesis not a falsification Can't measure or prove ‘ideology or hegemony’

Answer 52

Scientific enquiry is characterised by conservation and tradition which is the result of socialisation or scientist Scientists are taught to operate within a set of assumptions which are assumed to be correct taken for granted Assumptions ‘paradigms’ Only when anomalies frequently occur that a new paradigm is established He challenged the notion that science is purely a method but scientific methods depends on the dominant paradigm of the time

Answer 53

Science is a social construction Not objective but constructed within a framework of dominant assumptions Doubtful its scientific as its not characterised by a single paradigm

Answer 54

Discuss how much control does the researcher have over variables: closed (controlled) Open (can’t control) Realists argue they study open system Both natural science and social science attempt to explain the causes of events in terms of the underlying structure and process Realists argue that science not only deals with observable phenomena but underlying observable structures

Answer 55

Argue it is scientific, little differences except some are able to study closed systems under lab conditions

Answer 56

Positivism- argue that the sociologists job is to uncover ‘Truth’ and ‘laws’ of society

Answer 57

Comte and durkheim- argue that sociologist is free form values and bias, thus in a perfect position to suggest what is best for society

Answer 58

Marxism- favours a scientific approach to study sociology BUT Values the strengths of communism taken for granted that it is ‘ideal’ not an objective approach but values laden

Answer 59

Weber- values are important to sociological research ‘ social action’ Positivism can tell us that there are more divorces happening but doesn’t mean people do not value marriage

Answer 60

Value freedom is impossible so sociologists should be open/ honest about these Research is ‘historically’ bound Research is influenced by the researchers personal agenda, career goals. All researchers have their own opinions

Answer 61

``` Choosing which topic to research Interpreting findings Selecting which findings to include in the report Choosing a research method Recording responses Selecting appropriate questions Deciding what report will be used for Deciding where report will be published ```

Answer 62

Philo and miller- argue that research is ultimately dictated by whoever is funding it Research is rarely carried out for it own sake. Funding agencies might also only want particular findings

Answer 63

Committed sociologists Marxism- value communism Feminsim- values gender inequality Interactionism- values individuals meanings and motivations Gouldner- argues that functionalism is actually value-committed as it has an ‘ideal type’ of society at its centre

Answer 64

Value freedom is never possible Positivism always examines the viewpoint of the powerful- the groups who get to define deviance,crime We should look at the ‘underdogs’ rather than the ‘overdogs’

Answer 65

Different groups, cultures and individuals have different views as to what is true There is no way of judging whether any view is truer than another There is no single, over-riding,just ‘pluralism of truth’ every truth is true for individuals- every truth is valid

Answer 66

Social problem- a social problems is some piece of social behaviour that cause public friction and or private misery and calls for collective action to solve it

Answer 67

any pattern of relationship that calls for explanation

Answer 68

``` electoral popularity ideological and policy preferences of government interest groups globalisation critical sociology cost funding sources ```

Answer 69

they may be unpopular with the voting public then the government in power are going to be reluctant to implement the policy because they want to stay in power

Answer 70

if the researchers value- stance in similar to the government, they may sand more chance in influencing its policies

Answer 71

pressure groups seek to influence government for their own interests

Answer 72

international organisations who have lots of power can outweigh the evidence produced by sociologists

Answer 73

the sociological perspective that are seen to be critical of the state and other powerful groups may be regarded as extreme, hostile or impractical and therefore unlikely to influence policy

Answer 74

research findings may offer a solution that the government may consider a good idea and workable, but if there is not sufficient funds they would be unable to implement the measures

Answer 75

results may be influenced by the funders so they may be tone down their recommendations to fit in with their wishes

Answer 76

The government act for the good of it citizens Role of the sociologist is to pass objective data to the policy maker criticisms - policies are not aimed to equalizing for all

Answer 77

See social policies as serving the interests of the capitalist system When conflict arises policies are offered to appease the working class- part of the false consciousness process

Answer 78

Argue their research has had a big impact on social policies since the 1960’s Education- childrens books, learning materials Family- policies reflect domestic and workplace changes for women

Answer 79

Believe that the state should have only minor involvement in social policy Sociologists should aim at restoring individuals responsibility for their own and families welfare Against welfare dependency They support strong law and order policies

Answer 80

Support distribution of wealth from rich to poor Townsend- recommendations on higher benefits Black report- 37 far reaching recommendation to overcome inequalities including FSM’s

Answer 81

See no role for sociology in the realm of social policy making as sociology should merely exist to give individuals an understanding of their own personal lives within a social context