Research Methods Chapter 3 - Topic 1
- Created by: EllC004
- Created on: 29-09-21 11:58
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- TOPIC 1
- Types of data
- Primary- info collected by sociologists themselves
- social surveys
- participant observation
- experiments
- Secondary- info collected/ created by someone else
- official statistics
- documents
- Quantitative- numerical form
- positivist
- Qualitative- gives a 'feel'
- interpretivist
- Primary- info collected by sociologists themselves
- Factors influencing choice of methods
- Practical Issues
- time & money
- requirements of funding bodies
- personal skills & characteristics
- subject matter
- research opportunity
- Ethical Issues
- informed consent
- confidentiality & privacy
- harm to research participants
- vulnerable groups
- covert research
- Theoretical Issues
- validity
- reliability
- representativeness
- methodological perspective
- Practical Issues
- Factors influencing choice of topic
- the sociologist's perspective
- society's values
- practical factors
- funding bodies
- The process of research
- formulating aim /hypothesis
- Durkhiem said aim of sociology = study of social facts (should be considered as things)
- aim= identifies what we intend to study and hope to achieve through research
- hypothesis gives direction to research
- positivist favour
- aim is more open-ended
- operationalising concepts
- process of turning a sociological concept or theory into something measurable
- the pilot study
- involves trying out a draft version
- basic aim of pilot study is to iron out any problems, refine or clarify questions
- involves trying out a draft version
- samples & sampling
- non-representative sampling
- theoretical reasons
- interpretivists believe more important to obtain valid data & an authentic understanding of social actors' meanings
- practical reasons
- social characteristics of research population ma not be known (impossible to create cross-section)
- may be impossible to find/create sampling frame for particular research population
- potential respondents may refuse to participate
- not all studies use representative sampling techniques
- theoretical reasons
- non-representative sampling
- formulating aim /hypothesis
- Types of data
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