Research Methods

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/What is a sect
A religion that doesn't have the mainstream views of society- they have their own religion
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What does operationalise mean?
Identifying variables and stating how they can be measured
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What is a practical issue?
Practical problems that affect what method is chosen for research
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What is an ethical issue?
We have to consider ethical guidelines before carrying out research
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What is a theoretical issue?
Sociologists views on what they think society is like will affect the methods they favour using
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What are factors affecting practical methods?
Time and money, requirements of the funding bodies, subject matter, personal skills and characteristics and research opportunity
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What are factors affecting ethical methods?
Informed consent, covert research, vulnerable groups, harm to participants, confidentiality and privacy
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What are factors affecting theoretical methods?
Validity, representativeness, reliability, methodological perspective
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What is the research process?
Choose topic, determine aim/hypothesis, operationalise concepts, conduct plot study, select sample, conduct research and analyse data
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What is primary data?
Sociologists collect this data by themselves, e.g. surveys, observation, experiments
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What is an advantage of primary data?
Sociologists get the exact information that they want
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What is secondary data?
Pre-existing data, e.g. official statistics, documents
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What is a disadvantage of secondary data?
Sociologists don't always get the information they need
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What is quantitative data?
Numerical data
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What is qualitative data?
Worded data
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What is positivism?
The belief that society is made up of 'social facts' that can be studied scientifically to discover laws of cause and effect
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What is interpretivism?
Focus on how we construct our social worlds through the meanings we create and attach to events, actions and situations. They reject the view of sociology as a science
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What research method do positivists use?
Quantitative data to uncover and measure patterns of behaviour
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What research method do interpretivists use?
Qualitative data to uncover and describe the social actors' 'universe of meaning'
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Key factors within official statistics?
Collected by the government, sometimes collected with the use of a questionnaire, large scale so can collect lots of data over long periods of time, can show patterns and trends over time
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Key factors within lab experiments?
Collects quantitative data, control of variable, sociologists tend to favour this method due to its limited application in sociological research
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What is the experimental group?
The group that will be tested
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What is the control group?
The group who will be used to compare the results of the experimental group
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Key factors within field experiments?
Takes in place the subjects natural surroundings rather than in an artificial laboratory environment, those involved are generally unaware that they are subjects of an experiment, the researcher manipulates one or more of the variables in the
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Key factors within field experiments 2?
situation to see what effect it has, however the more realistic the situation- the less control you have over the variables
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Key factors within interviews?
Similar to conducting a questionnaire but face to face, you are there to answer any of the participants queries about the questions- stops any misinterpretation
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Key factors within semi-structured interviews?
Similar to interviews but may use more open questions, split of open/closed questions will decide whether this is considered to be quantitative or qualitative
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Key factors within questionnaires?
Open&closed questions, cheap&easy to conduct, usually analysed in a quantitative way depending on the questions asked, questions are pre-coded so its easier to count up similar answers, enter results into data software which produces results for you
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What is an open question?
Respondents can answer however they like, usually in detail
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What is a closed question?
A limited number of possible answers are given and the respondents have to choose from the options given to them
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What is a graded question?
Respondents are asked how much they agree with questions and can record their answers on a scale, e.g. 1-6
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Advantages of lab experiments?
Highly controlled, data is accurate, cost effective
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Disadvantages of lab experiments?
Sociologists don't like to use it, highly controlled, participants guess the aim, lack of application to external settings
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Advantages of field experiments?
Representative, application to external settings, natural behaviour
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Disadvantages of field experiments?
Low control, subjects are unaware, more expensive than lab, time consuming
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Advantages of structured interviews?
Stops misinterpretation, prep before hand, sampling is potentially easier, quick, cheap, easy to analyse
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Disadvantages of structured interviews?
No flexibility in the question, only produces quantitative data, lacks explanation
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Advantages of semi-structured interviews?
More flexibility in questions, more explanation- open and closed questions
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Disadvantages of semi-structured interviews?
longer analysis, different interpretations about open questions
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Advantages of questionnaires?
Researcher doesn't have to be present, large sample
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Disadvantages of questionnaires?
Confusion about questions, low response rate, lack of serious answers, tick all one answer, lack of honesty
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What approach do positivists use?
macro approach- society shapes individual
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What approach do interpretivists use?
micro approach- individual shapes society
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Key factors within group interviews (focus group)?
when used in education ca be problematic because pupils are heavily influenced by peer pressure,they can create a safe environment where pupils feel able to express their true opinions, discussions can lead to more in depth answers
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Key factors within observations?
Qualitative, used to gain in depth understanding, take a long time, costly
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What does covert mean?
participants are unaware they are being observed
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What does overt mean?
Participants are aware that they are being observed
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What does participant observation mean?
Observer is actively involved
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What does non-participant mean?
Observer is not involved
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What is the first step when conducting a participant observation?
Making contact- initial contact with the group may depend on personal skills, having the right connections or even pure chance
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What is the second step when conducting a participant observation?
Acceptance- you have to win the groups trust
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What is the third step when conducting a participant observation?
Observer's role- do not disrupt the groups normal patterns, offer a good vantage point from which to make observations
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What is the fourth step when conducting a participant observation?
Going native, this is when you become part of the group and you lose sight of why you are there, get fully involved- e.g. getting the group tattoo, stay loyal
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What is the fifth step when conducting a participant observation?
The researcher can just leave- cut all ties, the researcher might feel loyalities towards the group so may find it hard to leave, re-entering your normal life can be hard, make sure you haven't given away personal information
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What are key strengths of observations- verstehen?
Putting yourself in someone else's shoes, gaining a full understanding of how someone else views a situation, gaining empathy
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What are longitudinal studies?
Studying a group of people over a long period of time, you can understand what has happened over a set length of time and those changes can be measured
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Factors within case studies?
Detailed examinations of a single case, cannot claim to be representative, usually used to study exceptional cases, might be used to suggest hypotheses before the research has started
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Factors within content analysis?
Method that deals systematically with the content of documents, these documents could include magazines and diaries etc, enables the researcher to produce qualitative data about these documents
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What is the Hawthorne effect?
When participants know they are being observed, so they change their behaviour
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What is simple random sampling?
Computer generated, names out of a hat
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What is stratified random sampling?
Split population by stratus e.g. men and women, random selection
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What is quasi sampling?
Every nth person
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What is quota sampling?
Exact number that you need to reach e.g. 500 males and 500 females
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What is snowball sampling?
Collect participants as you go along, usually referred by previous participants
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What is opportunity sampling?
People who are willing and available
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What is the purpose of sampling?
To draw conclusions about populations from samples
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What is representativeness?
It's a small quantity of something that accurately reflects the larger entity
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What is the sampling frame?
The source material or device from which a sample is drawn
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Why is it important to have a complete and accurate sampling frame?
You need an accurate sampling frame so that it represents the whole group of people that they are trying to find out
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What is the order of sampling techniques and how representative they are (most to least)
Quota, stratified, quasi and random sampling
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What are the reasons for using a non-representative sample?
Social characteristics may be unknown, may be impossible to find/create a sampling frame, potential respondents may refuse to participate in the survey
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Why don't interpretivists see representativeness as important?
They're more interested in the micro approach
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What is registration?
The law requires parents to register birth
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What are official surveys?
The Census or the General Household Survey
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What are the advantages of official statistics?
Allow comparisons between groups, they are collected regularly so show trends and patterns over time
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What are the disadvantages of official statistics?
The government collects statistics for it's own purposes so the data might not be applicable for sociologists, definitions that the state use may be different to the ones sociologists use
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Why are official statistics often highly representative?
They cover the entire population and care is taken with sampling procedures
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Why are official statistics likely to be reliable?
They are compiled in a standardised way by trained staff, following set procedures
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Positivists and official statistics?
Objective social facts that achieve the main positivist goals of reliability, generalisability and representativeness
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Interpretivists and official statistics?
Reject official statistics as they fail to achieve the goal of validity
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What are hard statistics?
Can be described with some specificity, usually quantified
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What are soft statistics?
Gathered in informal communications and lack the rigor that is implied in statistical data, presented in the form of quotes and anecdotes
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Other cards in this set

Card 2

Front

What does operationalise mean?

Back

Identifying variables and stating how they can be measured

Card 3

Front

What is a practical issue?

Back

Preview of the front of card 3

Card 4

Front

What is an ethical issue?

Back

Preview of the front of card 4

Card 5

Front

What is a theoretical issue?

Back

Preview of the front of card 5
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