Research methods and methods in context

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What is Random sampling?
Selected purely by chance eg. names out of a hat
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Give an example of random sampling
Rosenthal and Jacobson (1968)
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Pros and cons of Random sampling
Pro-equal chance of getting selected so there is no researcher bias
Con-not always representative
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What is opportunity sampling?
Selecting those who are available at the time
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Give an example of opportunity sampling
Milgram (1965)- put ad in newspaper
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Pros and cons of opportunity sampling
pro-quick and easy
con-unrepresentative and may have researcher bias
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Practical advantages of lab experiments
time(smaller sample), controlled
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Practical disadvantages of lab experiments
Finance, source of funding, time
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Ethical advantages of lab experiments
Informed consent is usually given, may be safer for vulnerable groups as its a controlled enviroment
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Ethical disadvantages of lab experiments
always ethical issues with conducting experiments on humans eg. deceived, harm, informed consent
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Theoretical advantages of lab experiments
Positivists
reliability-control can be replicated
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Theoretical disadvantages of lab experiments
Lack of validity(artificial Hawthorne effect), smaller sample - representativeness
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Example of lab experiment
Milgram(1965)- study of obediance
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Practical advantages of field experiments
Cost(natural environment don't have to pay for a place for it to be), time (usually no informed consent do will have to check thoroughly for ethical problem)
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Practical disadvantages of field experiments
Research opportunity, personal factors
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Ethical advantages of field experiments
confidentiality
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Ethical disadvantages of field experiments
usually, no informed consent, deception, may cause harm, be covert
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Theoretical advantages of field experiments
Prefered by positivists
High in validity (less artificial, reduced Hawthorne effect)
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Theoretical disadvantages of field experiments
low in reliability (hard to replicate)- can't find social facts
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Give an example of a field experiment
Rosenthal and Jacobson (1968)
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What is the comparative method?
done in the mind of the sociologist, when they identify 2 groups the same part form one characteristic and compare them to see if the one difference has any major effects.
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Give an example of the Comparative method
Durkheim - used official stats to compare official stats between catholic and protestant suicide rates
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Advantages of the comparative method
- Avoids artificiality as it avoids people
- There are no ethical problems
-Saves money and time etc
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Disadvantages of the comparative method
- no control over variables so cannot discuss the true cause of something
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Practical advantages of structured interviews
Cheap, quick, can gather large amounts of factual info
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Practical disadvantages of structured interviews
Train the interviewer, personal characteristics, inflexibility of the questions so cannot build rapport
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ethical advantages of structured interviews
Should have informed consent - aware of it
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ethical disadvantages of structured interviews
Deadpan delivery may put some people off and unsuitable for topics where empathy is needed.
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Theoretical advantages of structured interviews
Representativeness-quick to conduct so there is a larger sample and higher response rate so can generalise
Reliability- easy to standardise and control as ask the same questions-replicable
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Theoretical disadvantages of structured interviews
low in validity as close-ended questions may limit what the interviewee can say and, have to carry out questions the same way and may not understand it and give the wrong answer so making it invalid or may lie/exaggerate
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Example of structured interviews
Young and Willmott(1962) - interview 933 people each taking 10-30 mins in their research into an extended family in east London
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practical advantages of unstructured interviews
Can check the understanding of the question, flexilbity
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practical disadvantages of unstructured interviews
time, finance, better for sensitive issues, personal characteristics
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Ethical advantages of unstructured interviews
Rapport and sensitivity, no deadpan delivery will encourage people to open up and better for sensitive issues
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Ethical disadvantages of unstructured interviews
unsuitability for sensitive issues as some may find it difficult to open up face to face with a stranger
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Theoretical advantages of unstructured interviews
Validity - produce more open and honest data, can probe build rapport and is more flexible
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Theoretical disadvantages of unstructured interviews
reliability-not standardised or controlled
representativeness-smaller sample size
validity-the interaction may distort the info given
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Example of unstructured interviews
Dobash and Dobash (1980)- violence against Wives.
Conducted 109 interviews all lasting between 2-12 hours
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What is Overt Participant observation
the researcher's true identity and purpose are known and open
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Practical advantages of overt PO
Can ask open questions, make notes openly and use other methods alongside
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Practical disadvantages of overt PO
Personal characteristics, timely, costly, research opportunity, may deny access, stressful,
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Ethical advantages of overt PO
Informed consent is given, the group are not deceived,
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Ethical disadvantages of overt PO
May deal with vulnerable groups, may witness immoral behaviour
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Example of Overt PO
Paul Willis (1972)- the 'lads' at school
Venkatesh (2011) - observed the crack gang the 'black kings'
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What is covert Participant observation?
The study is undercover may have a false idenity
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Practical issues with Covert PO
run risk of cover being blown, cannot make notes openly have to rely on memory cannot ask questions openly
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Ethical issues with Covert PO
may have participated in illegal activities, immoral to deceive people may have to lie to leave the group, may have a legal or moral duty to intervene
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Example of Covert PO
Humphreys (1975) - pretend to be a 'watch queen' for homosexual relationships in bathrooms and tracked the men down through licence plates
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Theoretical advantages of PO
Validity - Verstehen
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Theoretical disadvantages of PO
representativeness - found usually through snowball sampling so cannot generalise
Reliability - can't always replicate due to the personal characteristics of the researcher
Validity- positivists claim findings are subjective and bias to impressions of the
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What is non-participant observation?
Researcher observes the group without taking part
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Practical advantages of non-participant observation
Openly ask questions, resercher more freedom as in in the group
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Practical disadvantages of non-participant observation
research opportunity, source of funding
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Ethical advantages of non-participant observation
Ethically sound approach as the researcher gains informed consent
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Ethical disadvantages of non-participant observation
May deal with vulnerable groups and may deny access thus
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Theoretical advantages of non-participant observation
Verstehen - validity
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Theoretical advantages of non-participant observation
Hawthrone effect may be difficult to attach meanings to the events and researchers are more likely to impose their own interpretations on the events
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Example of non-participant observation
Francis(2001)-claimed the method was unsuccessful as the classroom was noisy so was unable to record all the interactions - her research into interactions in classrooms
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What type of data do close-ended questions produce?
Quantitive
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What type of data do open-ended questions produce?
qualitative
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Practical advantages with questionnaires
Geographically widespread, cheap and quick, easily quantifiable data, large amount of data can be generated
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Practical disadvantages with questionnaires
Potential postal problems eg. the wrong person may have received it, cost as payment may have been an incentive to answer, may generate superficial data
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Ethical advantages of questionnaires
few ethical issues as detachment and objectivity
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Ethical disadvantages of questionnaires
identity of the participants must be kept secret
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Theoretical advantages of questionnaires
Reliability - can be replicated if close ended
representativeness
Representativeness - cheap quick so can produce a large sample
Little influence of the researcher
hypothesis testing to find cause and effect because they are quantifiable
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Theoretical disadvantages of questionnaires
Validity - caused by detachment, lying or forgetting the right answer, imposing researchers meaning, response rat and inflexibility
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Give an example of Questionnaires
Connor and Dewson
posted nearly 4000 questionnaires to students at nearly 14 higher education places.
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Practical advantages of Official statistics
A huge free source of data saves money and time, allows for comparisons, can be used to determine cause and effect relationships because can see trends and patterns over time.
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Practical disadvantages of Official statistics
Did not themselves collect the data so may not be relevant to their topic they are interested in, definitions of the state and sociologist may be different, definitions may change over time so making comparisons may be difficult.
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Theoretical advantages of Official statistics
Representative - can access a much larger sample size eg. crime survey 50,000 people
Reliability- usually standardised and controlled
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Theoretical disadvantages of Official statistics
Validity - not true or genuine as can not offer attitudes and feelings
Reliability - researcher cannot see if it was controlled as they didn't collect it themselves
Representativeness - groups may be more likely to complete them eg. MC, may be based on a
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Give examples of official statistic
Registration eg. births and official surveys eg. census
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What are the 3 types of documents?
Public documents eg.Ofsted reports
Personal documents eg letter, diaries
Historical documents- created in the past be either public or personal
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Practical advantages of documents
Cheap and may be only source of data to study the past
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Practical disadvantages of documents
credibility and authenticity, meaning as the researcher may have to be trained to understand it eg. foreign language
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Theoretical advantages of documents
Validity-individuals reality and insight on personal documents
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Theoretical disadvantages of documents
Representativeness - not all documents survive, may not be generalisable, may ignore some groups eg in the past mainly high-class men could write
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Practical issues with staff
Teachers usually have a lack of time to commit with research, also school are hierarchal institutions so may need permission with their boss, may not be willing to take part as themselves may be subject to scrutiny
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Ethical issues with staff
Not all member of staff may have informed consent, unguarded comments by staff may affect careers so confidentiality is important
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Theoretical issues with staff
Validity - may associate the researcher with Osfed so try to impress them and act differently, teaching staff put forward by senior staff to give positive impression so be unrepresentative, interviewer bias (caution to not say the wrong thing)
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Practical issues with pupils
will have to get approval from parents, school and department of education may take time, Will have to get checks eg.crb, Some peoples may not fully understanding questions if complex so ensuring they do may be expensive
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Ethical issues with pupils
They are a vulnerable group, the research could be seen as harmful if it distracts them from their education, The BSA state consent is needed by parents, children may not understand the purpose of the research so which gives risk of deception
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Theoretical issues with pupils
Usually, depend on students age, pupils may not be able to openly express their views as may get disciplined -affects validity, Hawthorne effect, may misunderstand questions
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Practical issues with the parents
Difficult to gain access as no usually present in the school(parents evening may be good), researchers unlikely to see parents interacting with children over education eg. helping with HW, may be hard to find ways to approach them
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Ethical issues with the parents
Much less ethically problematic as informed consent is given, issues with confidently and getting access to parents
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Theoretical issues with the parents
Unrepresentativeness - MC and English speaking parents more likely to take part, may test validity as may feel like they have to appear interested in child's education
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Practical issues with Schools
It May be difficult to access may 'gatekeepers', schools have limited time scales, difficult to anaylse as they are large and complex,
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Ethical issues with Schools
Researchers will need a CRB check, researcher may want to use data but maybe confidentail
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Theorical issues with Schools
reliability-now many different schools and different issues in different areas so can't replicate
May have issue with representativeness as some schools may deny access
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Other cards in this set

Card 2

Front

Give an example of random sampling

Back

Rosenthal and Jacobson (1968)

Card 3

Front

Pros and cons of Random sampling

Back

Preview of the front of card 3

Card 4

Front

What is opportunity sampling?

Back

Preview of the front of card 4

Card 5

Front

Give an example of opportunity sampling

Back

Preview of the front of card 5
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