Key terms - Research methods

·         Bias: Prejudice that distorts the truth when research is influenced by the values or the decisions of the researcher

·         Case study: A detailed in-depth study of one group or event

·         Causation: Where a strict link can be proven between variables in a time sequence

·         Comparative study: Looking at two or more different groups or events in terms of their similarities and differences.

·         Conflict: disagreement between groups with different interests

·         Consensus: basic argument on a set of shared values.

·         Content analysis: a method of studying communication and the media. Involves classifying the content and counting frequencies.

·         Correlation: When two variables are related to each other but causation cannot be proved.

·         Covert participant observation: The individual/group being studied is not aware of the research

·         Ethical issues: issues that have a moral dimension

·         Field experiment: experiments that take place in the real world, not laboratories.

·         Focus group: a group brought together to be interviewed on a particular topic.

·         Generalisability: The amount that information from a specific example can be generalized to apply to the overall population

·         Group interview: any interview involving a group interviewed together.

·         Hawthorne/Observer Effect: The unintended effects of the researcher’s presence on the behaviour or responses of participants.

·         Hypothesis: a theory or explanation that is made at the start of research and is what the research is designed to test.

·         Identity: how a person sees themselves, and how others see them.

·         Interpretivism: approaches that start at the level of the individual, focus on the mirco-scale and favour qualitative methods

·         Interviewer bias: intentional or unintentional effect of the way that the interviewer asks questions or interprets answers.

·         Interviewer effect: ways in which an interviewer may…